Signs of Renewal
by Donjusticia
Summary: Tragedy strikes when Ruri and Rin both lose their lives in a desperate escape attempt. Lost to the underworld, Ruri is about to give up when a mysterious force makes her a tantalizing offer. Witness the thrilling tale of revenge, sacrifice, friendship, and redemption as the Dark Signers rise once again to rule over a universe crumbling into war and chaos.
1. Part 1: Chapter 1

**Forward**

 **Since episode 77 of Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V aired, a number of fans took note of the apparent callbacks to the Dark Signer arc of Yu-Gi-Oh 5 D's, in particular the scene in which Yuzu suffers a deadly fall all too similar to the fall of Carly. Several fans began creating beautiful works of art depicting various members of the bracelet girls as dark signers and some fans even speculated that Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V would see an actual return of these iconic villains. With the Synchro arc of Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V concluded, it is unlikely that fans will receive an actual revival of real Dark Signers in Arc V, (beyond what was given by Sergey Volkov), but this will never prevent fans from enjoying the mystical power that is non-cannon fan-fiction. To all fans of Yu-Gi-Oh, and especially those who continue to inspire other creative works with their fan-artistry, I dedicate this alternate multiverse arc. Special thanks to Corrinnetheanime for editing.**

Signs of Renewal

Part 1: Chapter 1 - A Second Chance

Ruri awoke feeling cold. Normally, she was the type of girl that would leap out of bed, pop a few sore muscles, and greet the new day with a smile.

But nothing felt right. Her body felt drained and empty, as if all the vitality had been sucked from her and emptied into a bottomless void.

Ruri craned her neck to take in her surroundings, if one could even call them that. Swirling before her vision was an endless sea of pitch black mist that covered her on all sides. Despite managing to stagger upright, Ruri could see that there was no floor beneath her feet, no walls surrounding her, and no ceiling up above. Only a thick emptiness so dark, that when she put her hand in front of her face, she could not even see her own fingers. Silence permeated the gathering shadows so thickly that she felt deafened by it.

Ruri strained to remember what had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours, but only vague images, mostly names and faces, managed to flicker briefly in her mind. Ruri started to list as many as she could.

"Sayaka…" she whispered, recalling the image of a short girl with glasses.

"Yusho…" a gentleman wreathed in colorful lights appeared.

"Shun…" she saw him, her brother, stroking her hair, promising he would stay with her. Where was he? Where was she!?

She continued to try and list names.

"Yuto!" Ruri gasped as sharp pain stabbed through her chest. She could clearly see his face in her mind, warm, tender eyes staring back at her. A true friend, almost a brother, someone she could confide in even when Shun didn't understand her.

Ruri remembered feeling safe and happy when he was around. Some had jokingly called him her knight in black armor. She had called him family. And now he was gone…completely gone!

Ruri frantically flailed around in the mist, groping in every empty direction as if trying to tear her friends and family from the darkness. But she found no-one. No one came. No one was going to come. They were gone forever. As the reality of her loneliness sunk in, Ruri felt her sorrow press upon her so heavily, that she knelt and wept in the black emptiness.

Ruri wanted to stop remembering, to just go to sleep and evaporate into non-existence. But her mind rebelled against her, and more names and faces bubbled up from her memory like burning hot lava.

"Dennis…" Ruri murmured recoiling in horror. Someone who had acted like her friend before betraying her and her entire world with a cold, nonchalant smile.

From the image of his sadistic smile, Ruri saw legions of brutal soldiers heartlessly hunting down the inhabitants of Heartland while burning their city to the ground. Witnessing the horror of this destruction filled Ruri with a new emotion…fury.

What had she or any of the people in Heartland done to deserve annihilation!? Since befriending Sayaka, all she had wanted to do was bring people from across the world together with the smiles her duel entertaining could produce. And what had her wish brought her? Suffering at the hands of people whose only entertainment was causing pain to others?

A new face and name surfaced. "Yuri…" she hissed through clenched teeth. She had mistaken him for Yuto when they had first met in the refugee camp, but he could not have been more different.

He was a cruel and sadistic hunter. He had relished every second of chasing her down like a scared mouse and pummeling her unconscious in their duel. He was the one that had taken away her home and family, the one who had locked her in a cell like a laboratory animal… and he was the one who had done the exact same thing to Rin.

Rin?

"RIN!" Ruri cried into the darkness remembering her companion in captivity. Ruri had not known what to think when she had met the girl that was practically her clone. It had been even more disorienting to learn from the Academia scientists that there were two more who looked just like her.

But Rin had turned out to be far more than just a weird doppelganger. Whenever Ruri would want to give in, Rin had always shown defiance, regardless of the threats from the Obelisk guards. They had covered each other's backs throughout their imprisonment. On some occasions, they even managed to find hope after some small victories of sneaking food, passing letters, and exchanging information.

Ruri had learned from Rin that she, like her, had hoped to one day become a professional duelist…she had called it a "D-Wheeler"… and inspire others to pursue happiness through her duels. Even in prison, she continued to pursue her dream, saying that if she could even find a way to just make Ruri happy, then she would be happy as well. Rin could be as fierce as a tiger towards the Obelisk guards, and as loving as a mother towards Ruri when nothing but despair seemed to be in their future. Ruri couldn't believe she had gotten to know someone so heroic.

But where was she now?

Ruri strained to remember where she and Rin had been, but nothing coherent came to her mind.

There was a note saying Rin had a plan to escape when the guards changed. There was a security pass. Then there were short, disjointed clips of running down hallways, crawling into pipes, and climbing air vents. It was night. They reached a balcony, and then there were guards. Mechanical dogs snarled and bit at them, Rin had braced herself ready to hold them off and let Ruri escape. There was an explosion, then falling…thirty meters… fifty meters… a loud thud… and then…

Ruri's head ached. She felt a medley of pain, despair, and fury erupt within her and crash against each other like a raging tempest. Rin had not deserved what she got! She had not deserved what she got! Neither of them had done anything to anyone to deserve such cruelty!

Feeling the growing injustice of her circumstance, Ruri cried out into the darkness.

"Do you hear me!? This is not right!" she screamed in agony.

Thinking of Academia's continuing conquest, she continued crying, "None of this is right! Why are the innocent suffering while the guilty go free!? If I can do anything to fix this universe I'll do it! I'll give anything to set things right again!"

There was silence. Then…

"You will give anything?" a calm, mellow voice questioned.

Ruri recoiled in shock. She had not expected anyone but herself to even hear her, much less give her an answer.

"Who's there?" she called struggling in vain to make out some shape hiding within the black veil. "What do you want with me?"

"Are you willing to do anything, give anything, to make things right?" the voice questioned in response.

"What do you mean?" asked Ruri, still confused.

"Would you, for instance," it continued, "give your soul to make things right?"

Ruri stared back at the darkness, not knowing how to respond.

"Would you become a god?" questioned the voice. "Would you do all these things if you could truly redeem the universe and bring joy to its inhabitants?"

Ruri could not believe what was going on. Plucking up courage, she addressed the voice.

"What are you offering?" she asked.

"I offer the fulfillment of your dreams." The voice said. "The power of a god in exchange for your soul."

"How… how?" stammered Ruri wondering if this was all just a strange dream.

"You possess great potential," explained the voice, "my powers can unlock that potential and set you free from this place to use your powers as you wish."

Ruri was dumbstruck by the strangeness of the situation. Collecting her wits, she called into the darkness, "Who are you?"

Multi-colored light suddenly enveloped Ruri. As the thick shadows evaporated, Ruri could suddenly make out the blurred form of a hooded man walking towards her on empty space like it was level ground. Beneath a black cloak, trimmed with multi-colored lines, primitive-looking drawings of birds, insects, humans, flowers, trees, fish, animals, and geometric shapes glowed in radiant colors as diverse as the rainbow. As the man drew closer, Ruri could see the drawings lay directly on the man's skin like strange, luminescent tattoos. He had an average build, a pale face, short, white hair, and piercing eyes with sclera blacker than the shadows Ruri had been trapped in. Wearing a calm expression, he bowed slightly to Ruri before introducing himself.

"I am what you are, Ruri." He began folding his arms across his chest. "A soul that has suffered death and now belongs to the underworld."

He let the sentence linger in the air while Ruri attempted to take a step back in the empty air.

"Underworld?" she said looking around, "So this is… so I'm?"

The man nodded in answer.

Ruri felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Do you remember what happened?" asked the man taking Ruri in his arms and gently wiping tears from her cheek. Pressed against his cold skin, Ruri could feel that there was no heartbeat within the man.

She shook her head "no."

The man nodded sympathetically. "It happens sometimes." He said. "It's the shock of death I suppose. People rarely enter the underworld with their minds completely intact."

"What happened?" asked Ruri pulling away from the man. "How did I get here? Where's Rin!?"

The man held out his hand to stop her. "Rin stands between the doors of the living and the dead just like you." He explained. "You were both killed by the reckless actions of an Obelisk guard in your desperate escape attempt. Whether you wish for either you or your friend to survive your deaths is up to you."

"What are you saying?" asked Ruri looking at the man with skepticism. "That you can raise us from the dead?"

In answer, the man spread out his arms, displaying the myriad marks that covered his body. The images glowed even brighter while the man's dark eyes lit up like lamps before he lowered his arms and extinguished the light.

"The gods I serve," he replied, "have long possessed such power. I offer this power, and more, to you. Accept my offer and you shall possess the spirit of a god within your body. You will have the power to raise the dead, to punish the wicked, and build the world anew."

Ruri considered the man. "You said my soul was the price. Why should I give it to you?"

"What you do with yourself is up to you." the man replied. "If you decline my offer, you will stay here, and soon, Rin will join us in the underworld."

He leaned in closer to Ruri, "But do you really want this?" he asked, whispering in her ear, "Is this how your story ends? Ruri, the girl who rotted away in a foreign land while her friends and family were hunted down one by one? The girl who lived as a pawn in the plans of an egomaniacal idiot?" he smiled at Ruri, "I think we could do a little better. I think, if you were given a second chance, you could write a new story, one in which the wicked receive justice and the world is restored. Don't you?"

Ruri was deep in thought. She thought of Academia, waging war against countless cities while millions of people got carded and collected. She thought of her friends and family among the victims. She thought of Rin, fading into nothingness, never to realize her dreams.

A new thought came into her head. What if she could change things? What if she could make things right?

She thought of her friend, Sayaka, safe and happy.

She thought of Shun, enjoying school and becoming a professional duelist.

She thought of Rin, reunited with her friends from her own world.

She then thought of Yuto. What if she could see his face at least one more time? What if she could be the one to save him and everyone else in the universe?

She was suddenly caught up in a vision. Laid before her gaze were the four dimensions, Xyz, Synchro, Fusion, and Standard. She saw wars and flames engulfing the worlds as hoards of Academia soldiers carded men, women, and children.

Her vision shifted, and she suddenly saw herself standing before the oncoming hoards. Clothed with might and power, she saw herself sweeping the forces of Academia away like dust in the wind. Everywhere she went, she breathed new life into the universe, until a paradise stood where there was once rubble.

"I said I would do anything to set the world right." Ruri thought to herself. "If I have to sacrifice myself for the sake of my friends, so be it."

Ruri looked back at the man who was patiently standing in front of her with his arms folded.

"I'll take your offer," she said holding out her hand, "In return for the power to save my friends and the universe, I offer my soul."

The man smiled gently, "Thank you, Ruri." He said. "This… is going to hurt a little."

Ruri braced herself, as the man suddenly vanished before instantly reappearing behind her. Giving her no time to react, he thrust out his arm and clamped his hand onto her back.

A sudden burning ripped across Ruri's back and ran up her neck. Screaming in agony, she felt energy course through her veins as thick, black shadows swirled around her and congealed into a thick, black ooze. Stretching and writhing, the ooze slowly shaped itself into elegant black clothing with white trimming, a large cape, and a dark hood. She felt something carve itself over her eyes and cheeks while her eyes darkened and lost vision.

Ripping his arm from her back, the man stepped away and watched as Ruri recovered. Steadying herself, Ruri rose up and stood at her full height.

Shining through her clothing with brilliant white light, a massive heron-shaped mark with its body and legs on her lower back and a long, zig-zagging neck stretching all the way up to her neck, pulsated with energy. Turning to face the man, Ruri looked more powerful and intimidating than she had moments before. The whites of her eyes had blackened and her stare had become harder and more intense. Over her left eye, a white, wing-shaped mark blazed with light like a neon sign.

"How do you feel?" asked the man with a smile.

Ruri flexed her muscles. She felt strong and tough, like her body was made of stone or iron. She felt confident. Suddenly, all of her problems seemed insignificant as she felt absolute power coursing through her being. She felt driven, hopeful, vengeful… it was impossible to find words adequate to describe her emotions. All she knew was that for the first time in many months, her destiny was in her hands. The forces that had oppressed her for so long would be crushed, while the ones that she loved would be saved.

She regarded the strange man that had offered her this gift. "You never gave me your name." she said, surprised at how authoritative her voice sounded.

The man shrugged his shoulders with indifference. "I suppose it really doesn't matter. You never would have known me before, and I doubt you'd know me if I gave my name to you now."

"It is Hashimoto Yuu." He said, introducing himself with a small bow, "You can call me Yuu Sama, Yuu San, Yuu Kun, just plain Yuu… the honorifics don't really matter to me. All that you need to know," he continued, "is that you and I are now allies who share the same vision of a peaceful world. You are free to use the powers I have given you in whatever way you desire." He leaned in closer, "But know that wherever you are, I will be watching you with exceedingly great interest."

Ruri smirked with confidence as she began to instinctively grasp her ever-growing powers. "He intends to control me." She thought to herself, smiling slightly. "How about I set the record straight."

Closing her eyes, she thought as if speaking to Yuu, _"You placed mental links between us. That way you can watch me and give me instruction like a little puppet."_

Yuu looked astonished. Raising an eyebrow he thought back, _"That was quick. Yes, I did indeed place mental links between us. You will find that we can communicate regardless of the space and universes between us."_ He smiled. _"I'm glad you're mastering your powers so quickly. You will be a great Dark Signer."_ He finished in an all-too-obvious attempt to flatter her.

Ruri smiled to herself. "So that's what I am." She said. "A Dark Signer." She felt the white mark on her back.

"And this mark," she said facing Yuu, "is this the spirit of the god you spoke of?"

Yuu nodded, "You seem to be in sync with one another. I imagine that's why you're learning so fast. Which is good for you." He continued, "You'll need as much power as you can get if you wish to escape from Academia. Shall I show you the way out?"

Ruri shook her head "no," feeling that she could leave whenever she wished.

"Remember this Yuu." She said stepping towards him. Before her, Yuu suddenly looked small and insignificant. "You may have given me my powers, but you are not my master. I can watch you as easily as you watch me. Feel free to offer advice, but don't think for one moment that you can command me." She leaned in like he had done earlier and whispered in his ear, "I have my own vision for the future, and I am going to pursue it! If you stay out of my way, you can share in this vision. Otherwise, I will stamp you out!"

Yuu bowed deeply to Ruri, "Never fear… Dark Signer. I of myself have no true power over you. But let me offer my first small bit of advice." He finished looking up at her.

"Speak." Ruri commanded, eager to leave.

"You will need allies to accomplish your vision," Yuu offered. "You have the ability to share this power with others just as I did with you. My advice… gather together others with your same potential and desire."

"I already know what to do." Replied Ruri turning away. Feeling her feet navigate the empty void as easily as solid ground, Ruri slipped away from Yuu's vision before vanishing into the black mist.


	2. Part 1: Chapter 2

Part 1: Chapter 2 - Ensign

Ruri felt like she was floating. Like a person waking from a dream, she steadily rose through the empty air before suddenly becoming conscious of her immobile body. She felt dust, pipes, and heavy rocks pressing down on her like a truck. Opening her eyes, she started pushing herself up.

Amazed by her sudden strength, she felt herself flip massive slabs of stone and pipes from her body with ease. Looking down at herself, she noticed that while her clothing had been torn to shreds, except for a few cuts and bruises, her body was completely unscathed. Noticing shards of broken glass, she picked up some pieces and examined her face.

It had not been a dream. She could see, plainly reflected in the glass, the black sclera of her eyes, and the white wing mark over her left eye and cheek. She craned her neck to examine her back. Glowing with bright, white light, she could make out the wings and zigzagging neck of the heron mark.

Wasting no more time, she quickly scanned her surroundings.

"Rin! Rin!" she called, tossing aside slabs of stone and metal pipes like they were pieces of straw. Noticing a large pile in the middle of the shaft she was in, she knelt down and shoved her fingers underneath the bottommost stone slab.

With a small grunt, she lifted the entire pile and tossed it aside.

Underneath the rubble lay the crushed remains of Rin.

Ruri had thought she'd be mentally prepared for whatever had happened to Rin. But she was mistaken. Letting out an involuntary gasp, she collapsed on her knees, weeping at Rin's side. Cradling Rin in her arms, she started brushing rubble and blood from Rin's face and hair.

"You never deserved this." Ruri whispered into her ear. "You deserve so much more than this." Weeping quietly, Ruri gently laid Rin onto her back, closed Rin's eyes, and folded Rin's arms over her chest.

Ruri knelt over Rin. "I'm giving you what you deserve." She said, grasping Rin's right arm. "A second chance."

Darkness gathered around her as her eyes and marks glowed with white light. Sweeping away her tattered, prison-clothing in a swirl of dark mist, Ruri clothed herself in her black and white hood, cape, and dress. Grasping Rin's right arm more firmly, she raised her other hand to the sky.

"The gods know of your pain and your unjust suffering, Rin!" she chanted as a black circle of fire enclosed them. Feeling words pour into her mind from an unknown source she continued, "You have been chosen as an ensign to the new gospel! You shall proclaim the rise of a new world and sound the trumpet for the battle five-thousand years in the making! Even now, your spirit hears my call from the depths of the underworld! Heed my call and accept this divine task! Drown out the voices of our enemies with your eternal song. Shake the foundation of this world with the resonance of your symphony! Rise Rin! Rise as a new Dark Signer!"

Rin suddenly gasped as her body mended itself and a bright green, whale-shaped mark burned itself into her right arm. Choking for breath, she staggered from the ground as the black flames slowly dissipated. Still covered in blood and rubble, Rin looked frantically around the deep shaft before noticing Ruri standing in front of her, dressed in strange clothing and wearing glowing tattoos on her face.

"Ruri?" she gasped almost falling over as her knees buckled beneath her. Rushing forward, Ruri quickly caught Rin in an embrace.

"It's me Rin." Ruri replied, gently stroking Rin's hair, "I'm here for you. You don't have to worry. You're safe now."

"What happened!" gasped Rin, "How are you…what happened to…?" she stammered looking up and down at Ruri.

"I saved you Rin." Ruri replied, trying to calm Rin down. "I came back and saved you."

Rin ripped herself from Ruri's arms, continuing to hyperventilate, "This doesn't feel right…" she stammered, "…I don't feel…I don't feel… It's not normal!"

Ruri tried to approach Rin, but Rin jumped back.

"AM I DEAD!?" she screamed clutching her face.

"Your alive Rin," replied Ruri gently. "You were dead, but I brought you back. Just like I was brought back."

What do you mean!?" asked Rin eyes widening in horror, "What's going on!?"

Ruri began explaining to Rin what had happened to her after their escape attempt. She told her of the attack from the Obelisk guards, their fall, of her awakening in the black mist, and of the voice offering her the power of a Dark Signer. She decided to leave out the details of Yuu, and instead only explained that she had spoken with the source of their power and had come up with a plan to use her power to stop Academia and save the dimensions.

Rin only seemed to be hearing half of what Ruri was saying. Pacing back and forth, she started muttering to herself.

"I remember Ruri's voice…she called to me… there was another voice… it said I had a mission… that I'm an ensign…" she started pacing in circles, "It promised me power… I wanted out… I had to get out… I had to come back… I had no choice… it gave me power… now I'm here… why? What does it want from me? It said I'd receive new power… I can feel new power! I feel strong! I feel…GREAT! I feel great? Yes… No…"

She was practically jogging in circles now, voice slowly becoming more hysterical. Horrified by the shock Rin was experiencing, Ruri rushed forward and tried to hold Rin until she calmed down.

Rin shoved her away.

"Who did this to me?" she asked, wearing an enraged expression.

Ruri shook her head. "I don't know Rin. We were being chased by Obelisk Guards before we ended up here. It could have been any of them. They probably thought we were just some random rebellious students and decided to wipe us out wholesale."

"I'll kill them…" whispered Rin grinding her teeth. "I'LL KILL THEM! ALL OF THEM!" she screamed tearing at her hair.

Ruri rushed forward and forced Rin's arms down to her sides. "LISTEN TO ME RIN!" She shouted, trying to get Rin's attention. "We are not staying here! I promise you, you will have justice, but we have to leave this dimension first! We have to…"

"LET ME GO!" shouted Rin, struggling against Ruri's grip.

Ruri lost patience, "NO!" she screamed back, slugging Rin in the gut.

Rin let out a loud gasp and slumped to the ground. Shocked that she had lost her temper so easily, Ruri frantically knelt by Rin's side and started apologizing for what she had done.

"I'm sorry Rin! I'm so sorry! I never wanted this for you. I only ever wanted to make you happy, like you tried to make me happy." She explained, tears welling up in her eyes. "I know this is weird and scary for you, but you have to trust me if we're going to make it! I'm your friend Rin! I can get you out of here! I promise we'll make it!"

"I don't want…" Rin gasped, clutching her gut, "to just make it! I spent my whole life… in the slums… just making it!"

Ruri bowed her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. Folding her hood over her head she turned to leave. "Goodbye Rin," she said looking back at her friend for the last time, "I've cherished every moment we've spent together, but I must leave. I truly hope you find happiness."

"Wait!" Rin called, grabbing Ruri's arm. Looking into Ruri's eyes Rin frantically spoke, "Look… I'm sorry! Really I am! I'm glad we're together again!" she grabbed Ruri's other arm," "You're right! I'm just scared! But I don't want to be! I'm sick of being weak and helpless! I'm sick of being used by others! I want to find the people who have been using me and stop them! I don't want to be their pawn anymore! I promise I'll come with you. But please! PLEASE! Let me just take care of this one thing first!"

"We don't have time!" replied Ruri, "Come with me or stay and take your revenge! I won't stop you either way!" She turned to walk away, but Rin pulled back on Ruri's arm with super-human strength.

"I heard you!" said Rin, pulling Ruri around to face her, "You said I was an ensign. That I was chosen to proclaim the coming of the new world." She started rubbing her mark. "I don't know what happened to me, but I can feel my power growing! I feel like it's starting to become clear. I feel like I am meant to take my revenge, but not just for the sake of revenge." she added hastily, seeing Ruri open her mouth to retort, "I feel like I will be doing more than just getting satisfaction. I'll be sending them a message. No… I'll be sending the whole world a message. I'll be showing them our power! I can feel it growing inside me even now! It's starting to feel more…natural. Please… stay by my side and let me show you my power!"

Ruri looked back at Rin who stood rooted to the ground, defiance gleaming in her expression. Ruri had wanted to leave Academia as quietly as possible after rescuing Rin. She had been fine to put her vengeance against Academia on hold until she put her plans in motion. But she had never considered Rin's feelings. Here was Rin, shell-shocked from her sudden resurrection, and yet, despite her shock, still not wanting to leave Ruri's side. All Rin was asking from Ruri now was support. Thinking of the utter rage she felt toward Academia for the countless, heinous acts they had committed against her, Ruri found herself empathizing with Rin's desire for vengeance. Who was she to leave her friend's side when all Rin wanted was justice?

"All right Rin." She said, curious to see Rin's abilities in action. "Show them the power of the Dark Signers."

…

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE!?" Commander Gordon screamed at the other Obelisk guards. Earlier today, he had received word that two highly-important inmates had escaped custody from the Academia prisons. He had been given explicit orders to capture the escapees, and was, under no circumstances whatsoever, to use any level of lethal force.

He and his elite squad had almost reached the balcony where the two prisoners had been spotted by another squadron before an explosive blast shook the floor above their heads. Arriving at the balcony, he and his squad had found a massive blast mark along the edge of the balcony leading to a pitch-black, bottomless shaft below.

As Gordon approached the area, a squad of three Obelisk guards quivering like Jell-O.

"What happened here?" Gordon snarled, facing them with his own squadron of two Elite Guards.

The three guards continued shaking like dry leaves.

"I ORDER YOU TO EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED HERE!" Gordon roared, grabbing the nearest guard by the throat.

"WE… WE DON'T KNOW SIR!" replied the guard frantically. "We were on our regular patrol when these two girls in prison clothing started running past us. We pursued them here and were just about to capture them…"

"AND!?" yelled Gordon shaking the cowering guard.

"We don't know who did it!" the guard tried to explain as his windpipe slowly got crushed. Another guard stepped in to explain.

"We saw someone summon an Antique Gear Golem from the adjacent balcony." The guard explained, "We don't know who, if anyone, gave the order, but suddenly the golem fired a round at the edge of the balcony where the prisoners were standing. And then… well…" he finished indicating the shaft.

"WHO WERE THE PRISONERS? WHAT DID THEY LOOK LIKE!?" Gordon screamed gripping the guard's neck even tighter.

"Young, about fourteen sir!" replied the guard to his left. "Just two teenage girls… they…they looked like identical twins and they had…bracelets…on their arms… sir!"

Gordon threw the guard he was holding onto the ground. Feeling spittle foam from his lips, he raged with anxiety and fury.

Turning towards the guards, he whispered to them in a deathly silent voice.

"And did any of them… survive?" he questioned.

The guards gulped, sweat gleaming on their foreheads. Mustering what little courage he had, one of the guards stepped forward and stammered, "It… it's unlikely any of them survived the fall…sir!"

"They were doomed!" Gordon thought to himself. "Of all the high priority prisoners to lose! It had to be them!"

"Someone…" began Gordon, sweat pouring down his face, "is going to wish he could be carded when the Professor hears about this!" he advanced on the three guards.

"DO YOU HEAR ME!?" he screamed, "YOU PATHETIC, USELESS, INCOMPETENT, QUIVERING, WASTES OF A UNIFORM! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!? SOMEBODY'S HEAD'S GOING TO ROLL, AND IT'S NOT GOING TO BE MINE!"

The guards started backing away.

"WELL!?" Gordon screamed activating his duel disk, "WHO'SE HEAD'S THE FIRST TO ROLL!?"

"How about yours!" shouted a cheerful voice from below.

Leaping over the edge of the balcony, a young girl in tattered, prison clothing flipped over the guard's heads before gracefully landing in front of the exit. Following her, another young girl, dressed in a dark, black cloak with white trimmings, climbed onto the balcony and stared down at the guards with a disdainful expression.

Gordon quickly checked the girls' arms. Each one was wearing a large, circular bracelet with a brightly colored gem-stone.

Failing to notice Ruri's black sclera and glowing heron mark and Rin's glowing whale mark, Gordon sighed in relief at the thought that two of the professor's most important prisoners had not actually died.

"RURI AND RIN!" he shouted in an authoritative voice, "YOU'VE GIVEN US ONE HECK OF A NIGHT! BUT YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO RUN! COME QUIETLY WITH US AND I PROMISE NO FURTHER HARM WILL COME TO YOU TWO!"

From the exit, Rin started to chuckle.

Gordon scowled.

"This is no time to be making jokes!" he barked. "You two have a lot to answer for when you're brought back to the professor! Do not make our jobs any more difficult!"

Rin keeled over onto her stomach, laughing hysterically. "Did you hear that Ruri!?" she laughed, "They're so cute! They actually think they're a threat!"

"It actually is kind of funny come to think of it." Said Ruri strolling over with the grace of a queen to where Rin was laughing. "I doubt any of these pathetic bullies have fought anyone with dueling skills above a three-year-old's abilities."

Gordon felt his temples throbbing. He motioned to the other guards, who formed ranks beside him and activated their duel disks.

"There are six of us!" he warned, "And every one of us has combat training! I have fought in five engagements in the Xyz Dimension and carded a total of sixty-five duelists in one-on-one combat, one-hundred and fourteen in battle-royal engagements, and nineteen duelists in tag-duel combat! That is NOT counting the more than one-thousand civilians I have carded in my combat runs! There are only two of you and you have no Duel Disks! Do not test me!"

"Shall I join you?" Ruri asked with a bored expression on her face as she leaned against the wall. "Or would you rather do this yourself?"

Rin smirked, "Please Ruri, I've been waiting months for this! I'm going to enjoy wiping the floor with them!"

"Just make it quick." Sighed Ruri, folding her arms. "I don't know about you, but I've really grown tired of this dimension."

Now it was Gordon's turn to laugh.

"Take care of us!?" he snorted. "How do you plan to do that when you can't even duel?"

"Oh that's right!" said Rin snapping her fingers. "Hold on just a sec." she said spreading out her arms.

Gordon and his men gasped in surprise as the entire spacious balcony was suddenly surrounded in a circle of dark-purple flames, trapping them inside. Darkness gathered around Rin who clutched at the sides of her head in agony. Wind howled around the balcony as the darkness gathered around Rin in a thicker and thicker column of blackness. Desperately trying to make sense of what was going on, Gordon attempted to spot Rin's face in the thick black column of shadow.

Suddenly, the wind stopped, the shadows dissipated, and Rin stepped towards them.

In place of the tattered prison clothes, Rin sported high-kneed boots, a short skirt, and a small, short-sleeved top that exposed most of her midriff. Elegant green patterns, similar to Ruri's white trimmings, decorated Rin's new outfit while her left-arm sported a massive, black, demonic-looking duel disk with fangs over the deck slot and an elegant, wing-shaped extension on the side. Her face had changed as well. Now, instead of being smeared with blood-stains and dirt, her smooth, clean face was covered with vivid green lightning-bolt shaped markings on the side of her eyes. The whites of her eyes had turned a deep black, while her golden irises glowed with an eerie yellow light. The green whale-mark on her right arm shone like a lamp as Rin began laughing more and more hysterically.

"It will be a six on one match!" she said, clapping her hands together with a maniacal grin on her face. "Each player will play with their own field and 4000 Life Points. The player who goes first doesn't get to draw or attack. Everyone got it!?"

The Obelisk guards stared back at Rin with confused and frightened faces.

"Great! I'll go first!" she said, drawing her opening hand. "Oh and one more thing!" she said, putting her hand on her hip, "You idiots might want to do your best in this duel. Otherwise…" she continued narrowing her eyes, "…you might not leave with your lives."

"MY TURN!" she began, leaving the Obelisk guards no time to respond. She smiled, "Let's start with a little redecoration," she said pulling a card from her hand. "I activate the field spell, Synthphonist Orchestra!"

As she slotted the card into the field spell zone, a large, mechanized orchestra pit glowing with lines of brightly-lit circuitry materialized around the edges of the balcony. Styled like a chamber-ball from the baroque period, the field blended the futuristic and classical together in an anachronistic medley of stone and metal wiring.

"Next!" continued Rin, "I normal summon the Gemini Monster, Synthphonist Clarinetist!"

A blue-haired girl wearing a black tuxedo materialized in front of Rin. Similar to the Field Spell, the monster Rin had summoned blended elements of the old and futuristic into one. While its clothing was old-fashioned, its body looked like a cyborg. Part of its left face was mechanical, with a large metal plate and a glowing, red robotic eye. Its left arm looked prosthetic, with sleek, silvery, clockwork metal parts sinuously flexing like muscles. Standing with its head held high, it smiled confidently at the Obelisk guards while a holographic indicator showed its attack power at 1600.

Rin continued, "Once per turn, Synthphonist Orchestra allows me to Normal Summon one Synthphonist monster in addition to my Normal Summon or Set. Come forth! Synthphonist Flutist!"

A shorter girl with longer, white hair materialized in front of Rin. On either side of her forehead, large metal plug-ins blinked with green and red lights. Similar to the first monster, the new monster sported an old-fashioned dress and an elegantly designed mechanical right arm. Posing next to Clarinetist, she gave off the demeanor of a happy little-sister while the holographic indicator showed an attack of 800.

Gordon frowned, wondering what Rin was planning to do with her two, weak monsters. His duel disk indicated that both of her monsters were Geminis and Tuners. The fact that they were Tuners would not be a threat so long as she didn't summon a non-Tuner and attempt a Synchro Summon. As for their being Gemini Monsters, that made them even less of a threat.

He had learned from using Antique Gear Knight, that Gemini Monsters had to be Normal Summoned after they had been placed face-up on the field in order to gain their effects. Without that additional Normal Summon, Rin's monsters were essentially weak normal monsters she couldn't even use for a Synchro Summon.

"If you're trying to intimidate us with your magic show and fashion change," He sneered, "It's not going to work. Your dueling skills are still trash! You haven't even managed to put up a good defensive wall with those pathetic monsters!"

"Mock the weak while you can." Rin whispered, hair covering her eyes as she bowed her head. "By my next turn, you will die by your own strength!"

Gordon flinched at Rin's ominous words. Grunting angrily he retorted, "Your field has nothing but a bunch of weak, cripple-monsters! Believe me! I will look forward to hunting them down! Now end your turn already!"

"Ahhhh…" Rin whined, "but I was enjoying myself. You look so funny when you try to act tough."

"ARE YOU DONE!?" Gordon shouted losing his patience.

Rin sighed, "All right, all right. I won't prolong your end." She pulled out another card, "I activate the spell card, Synthphonist Tuning, and use its effect to add 1 Synthphonist Monster from my deck to my hand." Rin pulled a card from her deck and added it to her hand, "Next I activate the second effect of Synthphonist Tuning from my graveyard. I shuffle this card from my graveyard into the deck, and Normal Summon 1 Synthphonist monster. I choose to Normal Summon the Synthphonist Oboist I added to my hand.

A brown-haired girl materialized to the left of Synthphonist Clarinetist. Wearing a black dress, her skin and clothing sported various circuitry patterns and blinking lights. Three pairs of mechanical oboes rested on her back like a set of small, folded wings. She graciously curtsied to the Obelisk guards before posing next to Rin's other monsters. Holograms indicated the new monster had 1200 Attack points.

"Synthphonist Orchestra gains one Synth counter each time one or more cards is shuffled into the deck." The center of the stage whirred to life as a low humming filled the air. Rin continued, "I then place one card face down and end my turn."

Rin looked excited, "Now!" she said holding out her arms, "Why don't you all entertain me!?"

Commander Gordon snorted, "This will be entertaining! BUT NOT FOR YOU!" he added, laughing his head off.

He turned to the Obelisk Guard he had been choking earlier, "You! Green!" he said indicating the color of the guard's helmet gem, "Here's your chance to redeem yourself. Take her out and apprehend her!"

"I'll show you redemption!" snarled the Obelisk Guard, drawing his first card.

"From my hand," he began pulling out a card, "I activate the magic card, Fusion, and fuse my three Antique Gear Hound Dogs!"

A fusion portal materialized behind him as three Ancient Gear Hound Dog cards rose from the ground before glowing red, blue, and yellow and swirling into the vortex. The guard began his fusion chant.

"Mechanized hound dogs who inherit the ancient soul, merge together and become one with a new power! YUUGO SHOKAN!" he chanted, clamping his hands together. "Come forth! Level seven, Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

A massive, green, mechanized hound with three roaring heads like Cerberus, leaped from the portal and bared its fangs at Rin's monsters while a hologram displayed its attack at 1800.

Rin didn't seem to be paying attention. "Hey Ruri?" she asked looking down at her slender hips, "I've gotta ask you to be honest with me… does this skirt make my middle look fat?"

The guard nearly choked with rage. "HEY… pay attention you…"

Ruri interrupted him, "Yeah…not gonna lie. I think you gained a little weight in prison, so…yeah… probably should have gone with something less revealing."

"Oh… you're so mean Ruri!" Rin pouted.

"I'm lovin those boots though!" said Ruri smiling as the guard sputtered with rage and disbelief. "Can I borrow them?"

"In your dreams." replied Rin, clicking her heels together.

"ARE YOU MOCKING ME!" screamed the guard.

Rin turned towards him.

"Gee! I don't know!" replied Rin in a thick, choking voice that made her sound like an idiot. "Uhhhhh… let's think about dis!" she continued putting her finger on her forehead and crossing her eyes like she was thinking very hard. "Uhhhh… A.) It's not like I aint seen Triple Bite before, B.) I'm really not scared of it, and C.) I think you're a really stupid duelist who doesn't know what he's doing! OH I KNOW!" she said jumping up and down like she had found the answer, "I think I really am mocking you!"

The guard sneered at Rin. "Laugh all you want!" he said examining his hand, "Even if you managed to summon three monsters, all you did was help me achieve an OTK! Watch!" he said slapping down another card, "I equip my level seven Triple Bite Hound Dog with the Equip Spell, Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon! While equipped, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle and I take no damage from battles involving it. But there's more." he continued grinning, "The equipped monster gains attack equal to its current level times 200!"

A large, clockwork cannon descended and mounted itself to Triple Bite Hound's back before rotating like the turret of a tank. As its attack rose from 1800 to 3200, Triple Bite Hound Dog's three heads roared in unison.

"You are aware of Triple Bite Hound Dog's effect, right?" he continued, "My monster is capable of attacking up to three monsters my opponent controls once per Battle Phase. So basically," he grinned, "you lose."

"I think he's getting serious." Said Ruri nonchalantly.

"I've got this." Said Rin snickering. Smiling triumphantly, she extended her hand towards her face-down card. "In response to the activation of your Equip Magic Card, I activate the Quick-Play magic, Synthphonist Resonance! Upon activation, it Normal Summons all face-up Synthphonist monsters on my side of the field!"

"What!?" exclaimed the guard as Rin's monsters each glowed with light.

Rising from the floor, Rin's three monsters began to transform.

Crackling with electricity, "Synthphonist Clarinetist started to look wilder as her blue hair grew spikier and stood up on end. Her tuxedo opened up and expanded, till it started to look more like spikey, black, robotic battle-armor. Her prosthetic arm reshaped itself, expanding and growing clarinet keys, until it morphed into a mechanized hybrid of an arm, clarinet, and robotic cannon.

Synthphonist Flutist's dress billowed out from beneath her, as metal spikes burst from her back and crackled with electricity. Wearing a crazy expression on her face, her long hair stood on end and floated in the air like it had been struck by lightning. Her prosthetic arm lengthened into an instrument resembling a flute with advanced computer equipment and screens attached to the side. Two plugs, launched from the flute arm and inserted themselves into the plugs on either side of her head, while she laughed with glee.

Not about to be outdone by the others, Synthphonist Oboist's circuitry glowed like neon lights as the instruments on her back unfolded and expanded till they pointed in six different directions like the spokes in a bicycle wheel. Radiating with light and electrical energy, robotic parts detached themselves from her skin and hovered in place like magnets suspended from the ground.

The guard was momentarily shocked by the sudden transformation. However, recovering quickly, he extended his arm and shouted, "This changes nothing! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, attack and destroy her monsters!"

"Clarinetist effect!" countered Rin holding out her hand. "Once per turn, I can flip an opponent's monster into face-down defense position!"

Synthphonist Clarinetist's robotic eye glowed red as she stretched out her robotic arm. In a blast of music, sound waves blew Triple Bite Hound Dog onto its back before it morphed into the image of a large, face-down card.

"Of course," continued Rin twirling her hair, "With no target, your Equip Spell goes to the Graveyard."

The guard gasped as his Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon exploded into dust.

"Continuing with my monster effect," Rin proceeded, feeling no sympathy for the guard, "If it successfully activates its effect, I can reduce the level of one monster I control by one. And the one I choose is Synthphonist Flutist." She said pointing to her monster.

A hologram showed, Flutist's level drop from three to two.

"Flutist's effect activates!" said Rin grinning even wider, "Once per turn, when the level of one of my monsters changes, I get to draw one card!" she finished jerking away a card from the top of her deck.

She sneered at the guard, "Thanks for the free draw, and by the way," she said, putting her hands on her hips while assuming a more serious expression, "you might have tried Normal Summoning Antique Gear Hound Dog before using Fusion. That way, you could have at least used its effect to hit me with 600 damage."

The guard turned red.

"I…" he stuttered as Commander Gordon stared back at him with an enraged expression, "I set one card face-down and end my turn."

"Pathetic!" spat Commander Gordon. "You, Red!" he said addressing the guard next to the one that had completed his turn, "Show the prisoner Academia's true power!"

"Yes Sir!" he replied, drawing a card. Standing with his head and shoulders held high, he looked like the leader of his squadron.

"I summon Antique Gear Search Hound!" he began throwing down a monster card.

A small, black, mechanized dog with an elongated snout and a spot-light on its back leaped onto the field and gave a robotic roar.

The guard continued, "When Antique Gear Search Hound is summoned, I can Special Summon 1 Antique Gear Hound Dog from my Deck! Come forth!" he said stretching out his hand, "Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

A second, larger, mechanized hound dog with a broad, tusked mouth leaped onto the field and roared.

"Oh look at you!" said Rin clapping her hands sarcastically, "You're learning! That play was certainly a lot more interesting than the last turn!"

The guard gritted his teeth, "Once per turn, if my opponent controls a monster, Antique Gear Hound Dog can inflict 600 damage to my opponent's Life Points! Hound flame!" he shouted as the mechanized hound shot a blast of concentrated flame directly at Rin.

Rin clutched at her shoulders, giggling with delight as flames enveloped her body before dissipating and dropping her life points to 3400. "Yes!" she screamed, "More! I want to feel something from this. I want to taste your power. Give me more entertainment!" she commanded clenching her fists.

The guard stared back at her in disbelief. "She's insane," he whispered to the other guards.

"I don't care if her brain is as cracked as a teapot; finish her off!" Gordon ordered.

"Yes Sir!" the guard hastily replied. "I next activate my Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect and fuse the two Antique Gear Hound Dogs in my hand with the Antique Gear Search Hound that can be treated as an Antique Gear Hound Dog with its effect! Yuugo Shokan!" he chanted as a fusion portal materialized behind him and a second, massive mechanized dog with three robotic heads emerged. "Come forth! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

"Clarinetist effect." Rin said, not even looking at the guard. Synthphonist Clarinetist smiled as sonic waves blasted from her arm cannon and blew the Fusion Monster face-down.

"Now let's see…" Rin thought to herself. "I think I won't change the levels of my monsters this time, just to mess with you."

"You're the one who's been messed with!" said the guard smiling, "You've fallen into my trap! Synthphonist Clarinetist can only activate its effect once per turn." He explained, "So even if you managed to flip my Fusion Monster face-down, I can still attack your 800 attack flutist with my 1000 attack Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

"Did you figure that all out on your own?" asked Rin sounding bored. "Because if you did, I'm pretty impressed."

The guard growled, "Antique Gear Hound Dog!" he commanded, "Attack her Synthphonist Flutist!"

Rin grinned, "Synthphonist Oboist effect activates! If a monster declares an attack, I negate the attack with her effect, and if I do, I can reduce the level of one monster I control by one!"

Synthphonist Oboist grinned as electricity crackled between the mechanized Oboes on her back. Surging with raw energy, six bolts of lightning blasted from her back, striking Antique Gear Hound Dog, and blasting the robotic dog onto its back where it helplessly flailed its mechanical limbs in the air.

"Flutist's level is reduced by one yet again!" she exclaimed, jumping for joy as holographic indicators showed Flutist's level being reduced to 1. "And of course," she continued, eyes widening, "When the level of one of my monster's changes, I get to draw a free card!"

The second guard snarled as Rin pulled another card from her deck. "Enjoy it while you can!" he shouted, "You'll never get to use those cards! I set three cards face-down and end my turn!"

"Will you finish this already!?" Gordon snarled at the next Obelisk guard wearing a gold gem.

"My turn!" the guard replied advancing forward, "Draw!" he seemed to visibly frown at his hand, which earned him another angry snarl from Commander Gordon.

The guard gulped, "I activate the magic card, Fusion, from my hand, and fuse three Antique Gear Hound Dogs to summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" he said in a hurry as yet another massive robotic hound emerged from a Fusion Portal.

"And let's see that's… 14 points." Rin said counting on her fingers.

The guard ignored her.

"Next," he continued, "I activate the magic card, Antique Gear Workshop, and add 1 Antique Gear Hound Dog from my Graveyard to my hand." He pulled a card from his Graveyard, "I next summon the Antique Gear Hound Dog I added to my hand!"

Another Antique Gear Hound Dog leaped onto the field.

"15 points…" Rin counted, "Oh! And now I activate Clarinetist effect!" She grinned as Synthphonist Clarinetist blew yet another copy of Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog face down. "You know it's so easy playing against you guys." She said grinning widely, "Academia should probably just make some automated duel bots with a few pre-programmed moves."

She chopped her arms in the air like a robot, "Beep Boop! I activate Fusion! Beep Boop! I summon Triple Bite! Beep Boop! I act like I'm a big deal!"

"Hound Flame!" the guard snarled activating Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect. Rin cackled like a mad woman as flames enveloped her body yet again and reduced her life points to 2800.

"Attack her flutist!" screamed the guard, enraged by Rin's provocation.

"Oboist, would you please?" giggled Rin, wiping a tear from her eye.

Synthphonist Oboist nodded to Rin before blasting the charging Hound Dog with another six bolts of lightning.

"I reduce Clarinetist's level by one with Oboist's effect," Rin continued as holographic indicators showed Synthphonist Clarinetist's level dropping from four to three, "and use Flutist's effect to draw once again!"

The guard clenched his fist. "I set one card face-down and end my turn!" he finished.

Gordon started to feel a little uneasy. Their attacks thus far had done nothing but give her free hand advantage. If they didn't finish her off soon, she might eventually draw something that would allow her to turn the game around. Not wanting to show any fear, he decided to vent his frustration on the three useless Obelisk Guards.

"You will be court marshalled for this incompetence!" he yelled. He turned towards a member of his own squadron.

"Mina!" he commanded, "show these scrubs how it's done!"

"Yes commander!" replied a female Obelisk guard wearing a green gem on her helmet.

"My turn!" she began, "Draw!" without hesitating, she calmly pulled a card from her hand.

"I activate the magic card, Fusion, and fuse two Antique Gear Hound Dogs and one Antique Gear Search Hound from my hand to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" she explained, as the fusion portal materialized behind her and Triple Bite Hound Dog emerged.

"20 points." Said Rin nodding her head.

Mina ignored her.

"Next, from my hand, I Normal Summon Antique Gear Rescue Hound!"

A bulky, white, mechanical hound with ambulance lights and a repair kit strapped around its neck like a St. Bernard dog, strolled onto the field.

"I activate Rescue Hound's effect!" she continued, "When it is summoned, I can Special Summon one Antique Gear monster from my Graveyard!" a black portal appeared on the ground as Antique Gear Rescue Hound shot a pair of grappling hooks into the bottomless abyss beneath the portal's opening.

"I summon Antique Gear Search Hound!" she said as the white, mechanized St. Bernard pulled its smaller, black, robotic dog companion from the portal.

"Antique Gear Search Hound's effect activates!" she continued, "I summon Antique Gear Hound Dog from my Deck!"

Antique Gear Hound Dog leaped onto the field, joining the trio of other mechanized dogs.

"21 points." Rin cheered clapping her hands.

Mina's left eye twitched a little, "Hound flame!" she ordered stretching her hand forward.

Rin's Life Points dropped to 2200 as another column of flame struck her body.

Mina smiled, finding a lot of satisfaction from watching Rin burn. "How does it feel," she asked, "seeing your life points slowly whittled away, and knowing you can do nothing about it?"

"Oh don't worry about me!" Rin replied, "I'm enjoying this! You are doing MUCH better than those other idiots."

"It's about to get better." Mina replied dryly. "I activate Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect! I fuse it with the Antique Gear Rescue Hound and the Antique Gear Search Hound I control which both can be treated as Antique Gear Hound Dogs to Fusion Summon a second Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

"And 24 points!" Rin cheered as Mina's second copy of Triple Bite Hound Dog strolled onto the field.

Mina lost her composure.

"Ok! What the heck are you doing!" she asked Rin.

"Oh sorry!" replied Rin turning to face her, "It's just a little game I've been doing in my head since we started. I wanted to see how many points you guys could get."

"Points!?" asked Mina clenching her fist.

"Oh it's very simple," replied Rin spreading out her arms, "You see…" she explained, "your moves are so repetitive, I thought I'd give you 1 point for every time you summoned Antique Gear Hound Dog, 2 points for every time you used the magic card, Fusion, and 3 points for every time you summoned Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! We're up to double digits now and still going strong!" she giggled.

"Oh and FYI," Rin continued, "I'm using Clarinetist's effect again. I should probably award some points to myself each time I do that."

Synthphonist Clarinetist blasted another Triple Bite Hound Dog face down.

"I'll activate its other effect this time," She said nonchalantly. "So let's see… I'll reduce Clarinetist's level down to two, and draw yet another card with Flutist's effect."

"That's the last free card you draw!" Mina shouted triumphantly. "My other Triple Bite Hound Dog can attack three times. Even if you stop one attack with your Oboist, you still won't be able to save two of your monsters!"

She held out her hand, "Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, attack her Synthphonist Oboist!"

Triple Bite Hound Dog shot three concentrated blasts of flame at Synthphonist Oboist. In response, Synthphonist Oboist formed a protective electric shield around herself and her monster companions, dissipating the flames.

Rin snorted. "I dare you to try that again."

"Oh I will!" Mina replied. "Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, attack her Synthphonist Clarinetist and her Synthphonist Flutist!"

"I activate Oboist's effect twice more," Rin lazily replied, "I negate both of those attacks and activate its effect to reduce the levels of my monsters twice more." She finished as Oboist dispersed two more barrages of flame with an electric force field. Holographic indicators appeared next to Clarinetist and Oboist, showing Clarinetist's level drop to one, and Oboist's level drop to three.

"What!?" exclaimed Mina dumbfounded. "It's not once per turn!?"

"Pretty sure I didn't say once per turn when I explained its effect." Rin yawned.

"But then that means…" said Mina thinking, "if you could have just negated all of our attacks, why did you waste Clarinetist's effect on our Triple Bite Hound Dogs when you could have used its effect on our Antique Gear Hound Dogs!? Why did you let yourself take that damage!?"

Rin hugged herself, twisting her body from side to side. Looking down till her hair covered her eyes, she grinned before whispering, "Pity."

Mina was speechless.

"I…" she stuttered, "I set one card…face-down… and end my turn."

"Alexis?" Gordon gulped, turning to the next Obelisk guard wearing a red gem.

The guard named Alexis strolled forward confidently. "There's still a weakness in your strategy." Alexis replied, a rascally grin on his face. "And I'm about to exploit it!"

"Ooooh!" Rin exclaimed, eyes widening, "What ever shall I do?"

"My turn!" began Alexis, "Draw!" he smiled at his hand.

"Brace yourself Rin!" he began, "I call this move the Alexis Triple Guns!"

"If it involves another Triple Bite Hound Dog I think I'm going to puke." Rin replied clutching her stomach.

Alexis frowned. "I summon Antique Gear Hound Dog."

"25," Rin counted, rolling her eyes, "and Clarinetist effect." Rin continued, watching as Synthphonist Clarinetist blew the robotic hound face-down, stopping it from activating its effect. "I next use Clarinetist's effect to reduce Oboist's level down to two, so I can activate Flutist's effect and draw one more card."

She plucked another card from her deck and added it to the growing pile of cards in her hand. "There." She continued, "I've spared you the drama. Proceed with your turn. But please!" she said clasping her hands together in a begging position, "try to surprise me this time!"

Alexis continued his turn unperturbed. "I next activate the magic card, Fusion, merging the two Antique Gear Hound Dogs in my hand and the Antique Gear Hound Dog on my field together to summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

"I feel like we've been here before." Said Rin with a confused expression on her face, "Have we been here before Ruri?" she asked turning to Ruri.

"No," said Ruri joining in, "Last turn they summoned Triple Bite Hound Dog, but THIS time, he actually summoned Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

"Oh that's right!" giggled Rin, "I forgot he summoned Triple Bite Hound Dog SO much more differently than those other guys did!"

Ruri and Rin cackled with laughter as Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog emerged from the portal and took up position in front of Alexis.

Alexis grinned slightly. "If you thought that was funny," he said, "You're going to enjoy this!" He pulled another card from his hand. "I activate De-fusion, targeting my Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

Triple Bite Hound Dog roared as it swirled in a multi-colored vortex and split into three smaller Antique Gear Hound Dogs.

Alexis smiled. "Remember that move I told you about!?" he asked Rin, "Go my Hound Dogs!" He said stretching his hand towards Rin, "Triple Hound Flame!"

Three blasts of flame burst from the three Hound Dogs' mouths and violently collided against Rin, knocking her to the ground and reducing her Life Points to 400.

Smoking slightly, Rin staggered upright, body shaking with laughter.

"Yes…yes!" she muttered as Alexis looked back at her with horror. Far from being intimidated in the slightest, Rin seemed, if anything, to be having even more fun.

"I've been waiting for something like this!" Rin said, wringing her hands together. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die!"

Rin stared back at Alexis with a maniacal grin and glowing eyes that made her face look more like a jack-o-lantern than the face of an actual person.

Alexis felt like he was staring at a vengeful ghost. "Who are you?" he asked, trembling with growing fear.

Rin smiled back at him.

"33 points." She replied.

Alexis shook a little, "There's no point in me attacking." He said. "I set 1 card face-down and end my turn."

He turned toward Gordon. "She's all yours commander," he said wiping some sweat from his face, "I've softened her up for you. Just… please take her down!"

Gordon reviewed the game stats on his duel disk. Between him and the five other Obelisk Guards, his team shared a total of 24,000 Life Points against Rin's paltry 400. On Rin's field, she had the Field Spell, Synthphonist Orchestra, and three Gemini Tuner Monsters with their effects activated. "With three Tuners on her field," Gordon mused, "She will probably summon one or more non-tuners next turn and go for some Synchro Summons." He scratched his chin. "Attacking her is useless right now, so I'll set up some countermeasures against possible Synchro Monsters before attempting to destroy her with my ace monster."

"My Turn!" Gordon began, "Draw!" he smiled at his hand.

"Don't think you've done anything fantastic." He said pulling a card from his hand. "Thus far, your strategy has been nothing but a series of pathetic stall tactics!"

"You should be grateful I've been going easy on you." Said Rin staring back at him. "Once my next turn comes, that will change."

"There will be no next turn!" Gordon spat. "I activate the magic card, Fusion, from my hand, and fuse Antique Gear Search Hound and Antique Gear Hound Dog from my hand together to summon Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

A twin headed, robotic dog leaped from the fusion portal and roared at Rin.

"Next," he continued, "I summon Antique Gear Rescue Hound and use its effect to summon Antique Gear Search Hound from my Graveyard."

A robotic St. Bernard reeled a small, black robotic dog from the Graveyard.

"Antique Gear Search Hound's effect activates! I summon Antique Gear Hound Dog from my deck!"

Antique Gear Hound Dog leaped forward and growled at Rin.

"Clarinetist Effect!" Rin replied as Synthphonist Clarinetist blasted Antique Gear Hound Dog face-down. "I reduce Oboist's level to one and draw 1 card with Flutist's effect!"

Wasting no time, Gordon continued with his turn.

"I next activate a second Fusion from my hand!" he said slapping down another card. "I fuse Antique Gear Rescue Hound with Antique Gear Search Hound and Fusion Summon a second Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

A second twin-headed robotic dog leaped from the portal and straddled up next to its companion.

"Double Bite Hound Dog is used to counter an opponent's Special Summoned monsters with its Gear Shift counters," Rin mused stroking her chin, "I wonder…if you really think I'm not getting another turn, why would you bother to summon both of those monsters?"

"I got sick of your point game." replied Gordon pulling out another card.

"Glad I've managed to diversify your strategies a little bit." said Rin sorting through the cards in her hand, "You're up to 34, by the way. Do something really interesting and I might decide to give you bonus points."

"How about this?" said Gordon activating his last card. "I activate the continuous magic, Antique Gear Chaos Factory!"

A large, clockwork factory with tall smokestacks billowing large, black clouds of smog rose from the ground. Antique Gear Golems, Soldiers, Knights, and Hound Dogs in various stages of production lined the hallways of the ancient looking, mechanized structure.

"Once per turn," Gordon explained, "Antique Gear Chaos Factory allows me to Fusion Summon an Antique Gear monster by banishing cards from my side of the field, hand, or Graveyard! I banish the Antique Gear Hound Dog, Rescue Hound, and Search Hound from my Graveyard!"

His three mechanized Dogs rose from the Graveyard before getting dumped into a large melting pot inside of the factory. Commander Gordon began his Fusion Chant.

"Mechanized war-hounds who inherit the ancient souls of valiant soldiers, bare your fangs together now and strike down my enemies in the flames of conquest! Yuugo Shokan!" he exclaimed, clamping his hands together with a mad expression on his face. "Come Forth! Level 10, Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught!"

Bursting from the melting pot in an explosion of flame, a massive cross between a robotic wolf and a 12 meter tall, clockwork tank rolled onto the duel field on a set of massive treads. Two enormous artillery cannons capped with the gaping jaws of robotic dog heads swiveled on a single, massive gear-turret decorated with the robotic head of a wolf in the center. On the top of the tank, a large Missile Turret scanned the duel field with multiple laser targeting systems.

Commander Gordon grinned with delight.

"Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught's attack and defense are each equal to the combined levels of the monsters used in its Fusion Summon times 300!"

The massive tank's engine roared as holographic indicators displayed its attack at 2700.

"Next!" he continued rubbing his hands together, "Once per turn, Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught can destroy all Spell and Trap cards my opponent controls and inflict 600 damage for each card destroyed with this effect! Go!" he shouted stretching his hand forward, "Chaos Barrage!"

Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught pointed its twin artillery guns and missile turret at Rin's Synthphonist Orchestra while its central wolf mouth roared with fury. Unleashing a hailstorm of artillery shells and missiles, it lit up the entire duel field with bright red light.

"Rin?" Ruri asked stepping forward with concern.

Rin held out her hand to stop Ruri from approaching.

"Synthphonist Orchestra's effect activates!" she said, smiling confidently, "If it would be destroyed, I can remove 1 Synth counter to negate its destruction!"

An electric force field formed around the stage as artillery shells and missiles exploded violently around the duel field.

"And that's 500 bonus points!" Rin cackled, clapping her hands with glee as the smoke cleared, revealing a completely unharmed Orchestra Pit. "Now…" she said, turning towards Commander Gordon, "Why don't you end your turn?"

Commander Gordon was stunned. Unable to believe she had prepared a defense like that, he clenched his fist with fury.

"Are you scared?" Rin asked, goading the commander.

"Turn end!" Gordon spat.

Rin quivered with excitement, "My turn!" she began, "DRAW!"

Panting heavily, she placed a card on her duel disk, "I activate the magic card, Synthphonist Tuning, and use its effect to add Synthphonist Cymbalist from my deck to my hand!"

She pulled a card from her deck and shuffled it into her hand before continuing.

"Next I shuffle Synthphonist Tuning into the deck with its own effect, and Normal Summon Synthphonist Cymbalist!"

A girl with long-blonde hair and an elegant white dress with two mechanical cymbals surgically attached to the back descended onto the duel field before twirling in front of the Obelisk guards and giving a little curtsy.

"Synthphonist Orchestra gains one Synth counter via its own effect!" Rin continued as the stage lit up and hummed to life once again.

"Next I shuffle the Synthphonist Resonance Spell Card from my Graveyard into the deck to activate its effect. I Special Summon Synthphonist Violinist from my hand!"

A girl with short, curly, jet black hair descended onto the duel field. She wore a plain dress, black boots, and a three cornered hat like a travelling street performer. The right side of her face was mechanical, with a blue robotic eye, while her left arm, and left leg were likewise robotic, with violin strings and pulleys bending her joints like a puppet. A holographic indicator appeared and displayed her attack at 1700.

"Synthphonist Orchestra gains another Synth Counter, via its own effect." Rin said, watching the orchestra pit come to life as more lights clicked on and the sound of engines hummed in the background.

Gordon checked his duel disk, the screen indicated that all of her monsters were Gemini Tuner monsters, except for the level 3 Synthphonist Cymbalist, which was a level 3 Gemini monster.

"It's coming," Gordon thought to himself, "She's going to Synchro Summon."

"Next I activate the magic card, Synthphonist Inspiration!" Rin continued, pulling another card from her abundant hand.

Rin smiled, "Here's how it works," she explained, "I reveal three Synthphonist Spell or Trap cards from my deck and my opponent chooses one of them to add to my hand while the rest are returned to the bottom of my deck in any order my opponent desires. The cards I reveal are three copies of Synthphonist Resonance!" She chuckled. "Choose commander! Which one should I add to my hand!?"

"What kind of choice is that!?" asked Gordon, flabbergasted, "It doesn't matter what I pick!"

"That's exactly right," said Rin staring back at the commander with a cold expression on her face. "It never matters what the weak masses choose. Strong people like the Tops and Academia will always choose the outcome." She grinned, "At least they did until today!"

Gordon stared back at her, mouth gaping like a fish.

"CHOOSE!" Rin screamed getting angry. "I have endured your presence for too long now! All I want now is to be rid of you!"

"I choose Synthphonist Resonance!" Gordon snarled.

"Good boy!" Rin sneered adding a copy to her hand before returning the rest to the bottom of her deck.

"Thanks to you," Rin said, proceeding with her turn, "I activate the magic card, Synthphonist Resonance to Normal Summon all my face-up Synthphonist Normal Monsters!"

Synthphonist Cymbalist's hair stood up as the cymbals on her back, rose, expanded, and crackled with energy till they started whirring like two computer disks. Synthphonist Violinist laughed as her left arm expanded into a cross between a violin and a broadsword, wildly sparking with electricity. A slot on her robotic left leg opened up and launched a mechanical violin bow into the air, which the cyborg girl caught with her right arm.

Gordon braced himself for what was coming next.

"Next!" continued Rin, "I activate Cymbalist's effect!"

The blonde-haired girl rose into the air and crashed her cymbals together till the air rang with a dull resonance.

"Once per turn Synthphonist Cymbalist can target one monster I control and treat that monster as a Synchro Tuner. I target Synthphonist Cymbalist with her own effect!"

Cymbalist glowed with energy as her body and clothing seemed to upgrade itself by becoming more compact, sleek, and shiny.

"The players have been gathered!" Rin exclaimed, jumping with glee, "Now…let me show you a little Synchro Summon!"

Gordon checked his Duel Disk. Thanks to Cymbalist's effect, Rin controlled five tuners.

Unable to help himself, he nearly busted a gut laughing.

"Synchro Summoning 101 Rin!" he snickered, "You need a Tuner AND at least one non-Tuner to pull off a Synchro Summon! You can't use Synchro monsters if ALL of your monsters are Tuners! I'm from the Fusion Dimension and even I know that!"

"OH NO!" Rin screamed with an exaggerated expression of horror on her face. Gordon frowned while she continued, "I had no clue whatsoever!" Rin hollered, running around in little circles. "How did I ever manage to make it in the Synchro Dimension where literally EVERYONE knows the rules of Synchro Summoning!?" she laughed to herself before stretching out her hand, "I guess I can't do this then!"

Rin assumed a serious expression, "I tune the level 3 Synthphonist Cymbalist with my level 1 Synthphonist Clarinetist, level 1 Synthphonist Oboist, and level 1 Synthphonist flutist." Raising her hand to the air she began chanting, "Clarion call of the cymbals, noble resonance of the clarinet, piercing tone of the oboe, gentle song of the flute, blend your rich music together, tune to each other's pitches, and unleash a new melody!"

Cymbalist morphed into a trio of three green rings before being joined by Clarinetist, Oboist, and Flutist who likewise morphed into three single rings. Stacking themselves next to the original three rings, all six rings began wildly twirling in different directions till they looked like a sphere of spinning, green rings.

"SYNCHRO SHOKAN!" she proclaimed as the spinning rings burst into an explosion of harmonized sound and a new monster flew onto the field. "Level six, Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!"

Wearing an elegant white dress that billowed in the wind, Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy surveyed the duel field with glowing, green robotic eyes. Her well-groomed hair was short and green while her skin was pale white and crisscrossed with golden circuitry. Multiple instruments sprouted from her back and arms with the bells of different instruments pointed towards the Obelisk Guards like cannons. A holographic indicator showed it had 2400 attack.

Gordon snarled, "I was prepared for something like this you fool!" he stretched his hand out, "Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog's effect activates! Once per turn, if my opponent Special Summons a monster, it can place a Gear Shift counter on that monster!"

Double Bite Hound Dog roared as a spinning gear launched from its back and attached itself to Rin's Synchro Monster.

"A monster with a Gear Shift counter is destroyed at the start of the Damage Step if it battles an Antique Gear monster." He sneered, "So basically, your fancy Synchro Monster is completely useless to you now."

Rin continued as if she hadn't heard him.

"I next discard 1 card from my hand to activate the Magic Card, Dark Synchro Mirror!"

A massive, full-body, black mirror rose up behind Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy.

"With this spell," Rin continued, "I can target 1 Synchro Monster I control in order to Special Summon 1 Dark Tuner and 1 non-Dark Tuner from my deck whose total levels equal the level of the targeted Synchro Monster. Come forth!" She commanded, "From my deck I summon the level 4 Synthphonist Bassoonist and the level 2 Dark Tuner Monster, Dark Tuner Shadow Depths!"

The image on the mirror darkened into a black shadow before the new image split into two monsters that emerged from the glass like it was made of water.

The first, Synthphonist Bassoonist, was a girl with bright orange hair wearing a two-colored brown and black outfit. Her silvery hands were both mechanical and looked like gloves against her tanned skin, while two large Bassoons protruded from her back like massive, slender wings.

The second monster, Dark Tuner Shadow Depths, looked like the product of an artist on a drug trip. It had the appearance of a black, abstract Anglerfish, with glowing red spheres resembling eyes floating above its head, a body broken into disjointed segments, and a long, thin dorsal fin that held a glowing sphere of white light. It's exaggerated, skeletal jaws were filled to the brim with long, thin, uneven teeth. Swimming through the air like a phantom, it rapidly bit at invisible prey while roaring with hunger.

"Dark Tuner?" Gordon asked looking down at his duel disk trying to find some information. Finding none, he turned to the other guards and asked, "Have any of you heard of this kind of monster?"

"Does she mean its attribute is DARK?" asked one of the guards.

"My Duel Disk is saying its attribute is WATER." Gordon replied looking confused.

"If you're done gawking like idiots," Rin continued, "I'd like to continue my turn."

Gordon shut his mouth and readied himself for Rin's next move.

"Once per turn," Rin continued, "Shadow Depths can increase its level by the level of one Synchro Monster I control. I target Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy, to increase the level of Shadow Depths from two to eight!"

"Is she ever gonna end her turn?" whispered one of the Obelisk guards.

Rin smiled, "Next, I subtract the level of my level eight Dark Tuner Shadow Depths from the level of my level four Synthphonist Bassoonist and Dark Synchro!"

"What!" Gordon and the other Obelisk Guards exclaimed in unison.

Rin raised her hands above her head, smiling malevolently as Shadow Depths vanished and exploded into eight, white, glowing spheres that embedded themselves into Synthphonist Bassoonist. The orange-haired girl writhed and screamed in agony before vanishing and bursting into four black spheres of energy that orbited a region of empty space, black lightning crackling in the space between them.

"When shadows are eclipsed by darker shadows," Rin chanted stretching her hands forward as if to grasp the spheres of black energy, "the veil is lifted to reveal a world with no light! Dark Synchro Shokan!" She screamed as the spheres of energy exploded into a tall, black column of shadow. "Come forth, level negative four, Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid!"

A beautiful, phantasmal woman with green hair and the lower body of a fish rose from the ground. Opening its mouth to reveal pointed shark teeth, it bared its fangs at the Obelisk Guards before posing next to Rin's Synchro Monster. A holographic indicator appeared next to it and showed its attack power to be 1600.

While the other Obelisk Guards shrunk at the sight of Rin's new monster, Gordon stretched out his hand.

"Whatever that thing is, it was still Special Summoned!" he said. "I activate the effect of my second, Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog! Once per turn, when my opponent Special Summons a monster, I can place a Gear Shift Counter on that monster!"

Gordon's second Double Bite Hound launched a gear at Geo Mermaid.

"Geo Mermaid effect!" Rin countered holding out her arm. "Once per turn, if my opponent activates a monster effect, I can negate that effect and inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to the attack of that monster!"

"What!?" Gordon screamed as Geo Mermaid swiped away the gear and swam towards him.

Grinning malevolently Geo Mermaid screamed like a banshee until Gordon clapped his hands over his ears in pain and his Life Points dropped to 2600.

"I'm only just beginning!" Rin exclaimed pulling out another card while Gordon groaned with pain.

"I activate the magic card, Dark Tuning! By tributing the Synthphonist Violinist on my side of the field, I can add 1 Dark Tuner from my deck to my hand and Special Summon 1 monster from my graveyard with its attack and defense changed to 0. I add Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom from my deck to my hand and Special Summon the Synthphonist Trombonist I discarded to my Graveyard!"

As Synthphonist Violinist sunk into the ground, a girl with short, blonde hair rose from the Graveyard. Her legs were both missing and replaced with a set of small prosthetic limbs. Leaning a little, she balanced herself with two large trombones that were surgically attached to her arms like crutches.

"Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy effect!" Rin continued, pointing at Synthphonist Trombonist. "I can Normal Summon 1 Synthphonist Monster in addition to my Normal Summon or Set! I choose Synthphonist Trombonist!"

Synthphonist Trombonist's prosthetic legs crackled with electricity before unfolding and splitting into four segments. Rising into the air, the Trombones on her arms merged with her skin and transformed into a hybrid set of arms, trombones, wings, and cannons.

"Trombonist's effect activates!" Rin exclaimed, excitement growing, "Once per turn, I can Special Summon one Synthphonist monster from my Graveyard. Come forth to the field once again! Synthphonist Flutist!"

The small, white haired girl rose from the Graveyard and curtsied to the Obelisk Guards.

"I next activate another effect of Synthphonist Orchestra," said Rin as the stage crackled with electricity. "Once per turn, I can remove any number of Synth counters from Synthphonist Orchestra, in order to Special Summon 1 Synthphonist monster from my Deck with a level equal to the number of counters removed!"

"You're kidding me!" Gordon shouted. "There's no way you get to summon this many monsters!"

Rin cackled manically. "I remove two Synth counters from Synthphonist Orchestra to Special Summon the level two, Synthphonist Snare Drummer!"

A hatch opened from the center stage of Synthphonist Orchestra and a petit girl with short, purple hair rose from the bottom on a small elevator. A black, metal visor covered her eyes while a small, mechanized snare drum attached itself to her midriff with metallic chords plugging into her shoulders.

"The first effect of Synthphonist Orchestra allows me to Normal Summon 1 Synthphonist monster in addition to my Normal Summon or Set." Rin continued, eyes glowing even brighter, "I Normal Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer!"

Red Lights glowed behind Synthphonist Snare Drummer's black visor. The snare drum on her chest, separated itself into several circular segments, until the girl was wearing a larger set of four drums that pulsated with luminescent light. The tips of her fingers each split in two, revealing small, metallic drum sticks, which extended outwards from within her fingers.

"Synthphonist Snare Drummer can change the levels of all Synthphonist monsters I control to a level from one to three. I choose to change my monsters level to one!"

The little girl began tapping out a rapid rhythm on her snare drums as holographic indicators appeared over all four of Rin's Synthphonist monsters, showing their levels change to one.

Rin's smile grew even wider and crazier. "It's time!" she exclaimed, "It's finally time!"

She extended her arms toward her monsters, "I tribute my Synthphonist Snare Drummer and my Synthphonist Flutist to advance Summon the level seven Dark Tuner Monster, Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom!"

A ghostly, electric eel composed of multiple floating body segments descended onto the duel field. Roaring with fury, the air swirled around its body like a storm while lightning crackled from its body.

"Yes!" Rin panted rubbing her hands together, "I've never felt this alive before!" clenching her fists tighter she began chanting, "I want more… more… MORE!"

She lifted her hands above her head. "I Dark Tune my level seven Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom with my now level one Synthphonist Trombonist and Dark Synchro!"

Ruri smiled with pride as Rin's Dark Synchro monster exploded into seven white lights that embedded themselves inside the hovering Synthphonist Trombonist. Synthphonist Trombonist gave a quick scream of agony, before her body vanished and six black spheres of energy orbited an area of empty space.

Rin chanted once again, "Mighty gods of the underworld who rule a world with no light, endow me with thine own power that I may send a message to all four worlds of the living! Dark Synchro!" she shouted as another column of black shadow exploded onto the duel field. "Come forth! Level negative six, Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie!"

From the column of shadow, the ghostly form of a large beautiful woman with white hair and the lower body of a large, white seal descended to the ground. Grey lines covered its body and emitted a faint light as it swam through the air. Clothed in white furs and wielding a pair of large, whale-bone spears, it let out a fierce battle-cry before gracefully landing next to Rin's other monsters. A holographic indicator appeared next to it and displayed its attack at 2000.

"Geo Selkie's monster effect is now applied," said Rin as her green whale tattoo glowed ever brighter. "While it is face-up on the field, you cannot activate any of your set Spell or Trap cards!"

The Obelisk Guards gasped in shock as Geo Selkie blew cold wind at them, covering the cards they had set in the Spell and Trap Card Zones in a layer of thick ice.

As Rin's three monsters stared down at the Obelisk Guards, Gordon tried to muster what remained of his courage.

"You can't beat us!" he shouted, "Even if you manage to destroy a few of our monsters, we all have plenty of Life Points to spare. Once our next turn comes, all we have to do is inflict 400 points of damage to your Life Points and we'll win!"

"But it's like you said," Rin replied, "You guys aren't getting another turn!"

"You can't even defeat my Chaos Dreadnaught!" Gordon retorted.

Rin stretched out her hand, "When Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom is used as a Dark Synchro Material for a Dark Synchro Summon, its effect activates! Until the end of this turn, if a Dark Synchro monster I control battles an opponent's monster, I can negate the effects of that monster at the start of the damage step and change its attack and defense to 0!"

Gordon started to sweat. With his Life Points at 2600 and Rin able to reduce his monsters attack to 0, she would be able to deplete his life points with ease.

He hung his head down, determined not to give up. "Even if you defeat me," he began, "you'll never defeat the rest of Academia! Just one good blast from any of these guards here," he continued pointing at the other soldiers, "and you're finished!"

"You guys really don't get it." Said Ruri chiming in, "Rin's not giving ANY of you another turn." She nodded at Rin who giggled in agreement.

"Oh Ruri stop it!" she said, "You almost spoiled the big surprise!"

"What surprise!?" Gordon asked, scanning the duel field.

Rin let out another short cackle before continuing.

"I banish Dark Tuner Shadow Depths from my Graveyard and activate its second effect!"

The bizarre anglerfish rose from the Graveyard and phased into Geo Selkie's body like a ghost.

Pulling six cards from her Graveyard, Rin continued, "By banishing all Tuner monsters in my Graveyard, I can target 1 Dark Synchro monster I control to enable it to attack once for each Tuner Monster banished for this effect."

She displayed the cards she had removed from her Graveyard one by one. "I banish Synthphonist Clarinetist, Flutist, Oboist, Violinist, Bassoonist, and Trombonist to enable my Geo Selkie to attack six times this turn!"

Geo Selkie let out another ear-splitting war cry as the ghostly spirits of Rin's Synthphonist monsters flew towards Geo Selkie and phased into its massive body.

Rin brushed some dust from her arms, "Geo Selkie inflicts piercing damage when it attacks, just as a side note to all you soldiers hiding behind your defense monsters."

The other guards backed away.

"Commander!" Rin shouted, "I said you would die by your own strength! Now I'll prove it! Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie, attack his Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught!"

Geo Selkie quickly pounced on Gordon's Chaos Dreadnaught and embedded a whalebone spear deep into its metal hull. With a violent explosion, Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught blew into bits of scrap metal while Gordon was thrown back as his Life Points dropped to 600.

"Geo Mermaid's second monster effect activates!" Shouted Rin, eyes widening with glee. "If a monster I control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, I can banish that monster from the Graveyard and inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to its level times 200!"

Gordon barely heard her last sentence as he struggled to lift his head from the ground. Even if it was real solid vision, he was astonished by how hard the attack had hit him. His ribs felt shattered and he was conscious of blood trickling down his forehead.

"Please…" he began as Geo Mermaid activated its effect. The last thing Gordon remembered was a phantasmal image of Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught rising from the ground before bursting into flames and slamming into his broken body for 2000 points of damage.

"Commander!" Alexis and Mina screamed in unison as Gordon's body exploded into flames. Rushing over to where he had lain, they stomped out the flames and examined the ground but found only specks of black dust.

Alexis faced Rin, seething with rage and grief, "Did you… card him!?" he growled.

"Card him!?" Rin asked, shaking with laughter. "Hardly! Didn't you idiots hear what I said at the beginning of this duel!? I said you'd be dueling for your actual lives!"

Alexis and Mina stared back at her in disbelief.

"Let's move on, shall we?" Rin continued, brushing her hands off. "Geo Selkie! Continue your attack, wipe out those three Obelisk Guard's face-down Triple Bite Hound Dogs!"

Geo Selkie swam towards the first three Obelisk guards. Stabbing in quick succession, it impaled three Antique Gear Hound Dogs in the back and reduced each guard's Life Points to 2000.

"Geo Mermaid!" Rin commanded, banished each of the Triple Bite Hound Dogs from each guard's Graveyard. The three guards screamed in agony as each of them was hit with 1400 points of damage and their Life Points were reduced to 600.

"Next Mina's Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" Rin commanded pointing towards Mina's field.

Geo Selkie made a quick swim around the room, before throwing another whalebone spear into the center of one of Mina's Triple Bite Hound Dog's three robotic necks.

Mina screamed as the combined damage from Geo Selkie's attack and Geo Mermaids effect reduced her Life Points to 600.

"And now for my favorite duelist, Alexis!" Rin giggled pointing in the direction of Alexis.

Alexis tried to run, but was stopped when he ran into the wall of searing purple flame. Geo Selkie pounced on one of his Antique Gear Hound Dogs, ripping it in half with a violent thrust of her spear. Alexis gasped as his Life Points dropped to 2000 before Geo Mermaid's effect slammed his already injured body with another 600 damage, dropping his Life Points to 1400.

"Geo Mermaid!" Rin commanded, "Finish Alexis off!"

Alexis barely managed to get back on his feet, before Geo Mermaid zipped in front of him and bit down on his neck with her razor-sharp shark teeth.

As Alexis's last Life Points dwindled away, his body slowly turned coal-black before dissolving into thick, black dust and dissipating into the air.

Barely able to breathe from their injuries, Mina and the other three guards struggled to crawl away.

Rin glared down at them without an ounce of pity.

"I'd spare one of you if I needed a messenger." She said scanning the room. "But unfortunately for all of you, the security cameras should have recorded all of this, so there's no need for that."

"What…are you?" Mina managed to gasp.

Rin stared back at her, eyes glowing. "I am Rin." She said, "And I am fresh out of mercy!"

She turned to her Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy. "Without your precious commander's Double Bite Hound Dog's effect, my monster's Gear Shift Counter is nothing more than a cheap accessory.

"We surrender…" Mina moaned, trying to lift her arms above her head. "Please…just let us go!"

"Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy can attack once per Tuner monster used in its Synchro Summon." Rin replied, ignoring her pleas. "In case you weren't paying attention, that's four total attacks." She grinned. "One for each of you!"

"Don't!" Mina screamed as the other guards shielded their faces.

"Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!" Rin commanded, veins throbbing on her face, "Destroy them!"

Prodigy's myriad instruments glowed with energy. Music from multiple different instruments blended together in a single harmonic tone before four consecutive blasts of sound waves roared through the air and blew the remaining Obelisk Guards into piles of black dust.

Rin sighed as she watched the last guard's Life Points plummet to 0. Kneeling to the ground, she bowed her head low as the holograms and purple flames vanished into the air.

Ruri approached her from behind and knelt down next to her.

"You did well." she said, wrapping her arms around Rin's back. "You've already begun to master your powers."

"What was the point?" Rin asked, small tears glistening in her eyes. "I didn't really accomplish much here." She clenched her fist. "He was right. Academia will always have more soldiers to fight for them."

Ruri wiped tears from Rin's eyes. "You did more than wipe out a few of their soldiers." She explained. "You single-handedly fought a fierce battle against six well-trained and well-equipped soldiers, and still managed to beat all of them! I don't think even their most decorated war veterans could have done what you did!" She smiled at Rin, beaming with admiration. "You have sent a message to Academia. You have shown them not only what happens to our enemies, but just how strong we are!"

Rin dried out her eyes. "I didn't really show them how strong we are," she said, smiling gently. "I still had one card left in my hand, see?" she asked Ruri holding out the last card in her hand.

Ruri raised an eyebrow. "So you actually drew that card… I'm impressed."

She smiled at Rin. "If you had of played that card, I think you could have destroyed most of Academia right here!"

Rin smiled before getting up from the ground. "The other guards will be here soon." she said brushing herself off. "What do we do now?"

Ruri took Rin by the hand.

"The Professor believed he could achieve ultimate power by gathering our counterparts together. So that's exactly what we're going to do." She replied, holding her head high.

"How are we going to find them?" asked Rin following close behind Ruri as Ruri stretched her hand out and opened a dark, black portal in the air.

"I have an informant," Ruri replied vaguely, "that's told me where we can find the others. You'll actually be happy to hear this Rin." she said taking a step into the portal. "We're going back to your home."

Rin's face brightened at the thought. Stepping into the portal she smiled as she thought of the people she had left behind when she was kidnapped.

"Yugo," she thought to herself, feeling overjoyed at the thought of seeing him once again, "I'm coming for you!"

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Rin's Monster Cards

Synthphonist Clarinetist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1400/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, During either player's turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Change it to face-down defense position, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Flutist/ WIND/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, During either player's turn, if the level of 1 or more of your monsters changes due to a card effect, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Synthphonist Oboist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1800/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be destroyed by battle. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster declares an attack, negate the attack, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Bassoonist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster(s) you control is targeted by a card or effect, you can negate that effect, and if you do, you can reduce this card's level by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Trombonist/ WIND/ Level 6/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 2400/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: If that target attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Graveyard.

Synthphonist Snare Drummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 300/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-3: The levels of all monsters you control become the declared level until the end of this turn.

Synthphonist Cymbalist/ WIND/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Effect/ ATK 1100/ DEF 1700/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can target 1 "Synthphonist" monster you control that has a Level: That target is treated as a Synchro Tuner Monster, also, you can reduce that target's level by up to 3 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Violinist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate the activation of that Spell/Trap Card, and if you do, shuffle that card into the Deck. Then, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Dark Tuner Shadow Depths/ WATER/ Level 2/ Fish/ Dark Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can target 1 Synchro Monster you control: Increase the Level of this card by the Level of that Synchro monster (Max. 12). You can banish this card and all Tuner Monsters from your Graveyard to target 1 Dark Synchro Monster you control: This turn, that target can attack once per Tuner banished for this effect.

Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom/ WIND/ Level 7/ Thunder/ Dark Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If this card is used as a Dark Synchro Material for a Dark Synchro Summon, you can activate this effect: Until the end of this turn, if a Dark Synchro Monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can negate the effects of that monster at the start of the Damage Step, and if you do, change its ATK and DEF to 0.

Rin's Extra Deck

Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy/ WIND/ Level 6/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

This card can attack once per Battle-Phase for each Tuner used as a Synchro Material for its Synchro Summon. Once per turn, you can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can target 1 Gemini Monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon it.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid/ WATER/ Level -4/ Fish/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ 1 monster with a Level – 1 Dark Tuner

Once per turn, if your opponent activates a monster effect, you can negate the activation of that effect, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the ATK of that monster. If a face-up monster you control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can banish that opponent's monster from the Graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of that monster X 200.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie/ WATER/ Level -6/ Aqua/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2500/ 1 monster with a Level – 1 Dark Tuner

Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Synchro Summon or Dark Synchro Summon of your monsters. If a monster you control attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing Battle Damage to your opponent's LP. Your opponent cannot activate his/her set Spell/Trap Cards.

Rin's Spell Cards

Synthphonist Orchestra/ Spell/ Field/ You can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Each time a card(s) is returned to the Deck, place 1 "Synth" counter on this card. Once per turn, you can remove any number of "Synth" counters from this card: Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck whose Level is equal to the number of counters removed. If this card would be destroyed, you can remove 1 "Synth" counter from this card instead.

Synthphonist Tuning/ Spell/ Normal/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Synthphonist" Tuner monster: Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck to your Hand. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Immediately after this effect resolves, Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Tuning" once per turn).

Synthphonist Resonance/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Normal Summon all face-up "Synthphonist" Gemini Monsters you control. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your Hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Resonance" once per turn).

Synthphonist Inspiration/ Spell/ Normal/ Reveal 3 "Synthphonist" Spell/Trap Cards from your Deck: Your opponent selects 1 to add to your Hand and the rest are returned to the bottom of the Deck in any order your opponent desires. You can shuffle this card from your Graveyard into the Deck: Shuffle 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Graveyard into the Deck. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Inspiration" once per turn).

Dark Synchro Mirror/ Spell/ Normal/ Discard 1 card to target 1 face-up Synchro Monster you control: Special Summon 2 monsters from your Deck (1 Dark Tuner and 1 non-Dark Tuner) whose combined Levels are equal to the Level of the targeted Synchro Monster. (You can only activate 1 "Dark Synchro Mirror" per turn).

Dark Tuning/ Spell/ Normal/ Tribute 1 monster you control: Add 1 Dark Tuner Monster from your Deck to your Hand, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard, but that monster's ATK and DEF become 0. (You can only activate 1 "Dark Tuning" per turn).

Obelisk Force Monster Cards

Antique Gear Search Hound/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 200/ If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear Hound Dog" from your Deck. (You can only use this effect of "Antique Gear Search Hound" once per turn). If this card is used as a Fusion Material for the Fusion Summon of an "Antique Gear" monster, you can treat this card as "Antique Gear Hound Dog".

Antique Gear Rescue Hound/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 2000/ If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Antique Gear Rescue Hound" once per turn). If this card is used as a Fusion Material for the Fusion Summon of an "Antique Gear" monster, you can treat this card as "Antique Gear Hound Dog".

Obelisk Force Extra Deck

Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught/ DARK/ Level 10/ Machine/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK ?/ DEF ?/ 3 "Antique Gear" monsters

Must be Fusion Summoned with the effect of an "Antique Gear Chaos" Spell/Trap Card and cannot be summoned other ways. This card's ATK and DEF are each equal to the combined Levels of the Fusion Materials used in this card's Fusion Summon X 300. Once per turn, you can destroy all Spell/Trap cards you opponent controls, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the number of cards destroyed with this effect X 600.

Obelisk Force Spell Cards

Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Antique Gear" Monster you control. While equipped with this card, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle and you take no battle damage from battles involving the equipped monster. Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by the equipped monster's level X 200.

Antique Gear Chaos Factory/ Spell/ Continuous/ During each of your Standby Phases, discard 1 "Polymerization" or "Fusion" Spell/Trap Card (except "Diffusion Wave Motion") or destroy this card. Once per turn, you can Fusion Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing Fusion Materials from your side of the field, hand, or Graveyard.


	3. Part 1: Chapter 3

Part 1: Chapter 3 - We Are Gods

It was night when Ruri and Rin entered the Synchro Dimension, but the brightly-lit city was far from peaceful: massed convoys of Security in armored prison transports and packs of Duel Chasers riding on specialized D-wheelers flooded the streets and highways, rounding up entire apartment blocks of delinquent and innocent commons alike. Panicked screams filled the air, as one by one, any resistors were quickly dispatched by waves of Goyo monsters.

In other words, it hadn't been a convenient time for the two Dark Signers.

"Is it always this bad!?" Ruri asked Rin, as they quickly leaped onto another dark rooftop to avoid detection. Rin ducked her head as a swarm of Stygian Security monsters flew past them, sweeping the area with small Solid Vision flashlights.

"I've honestly never seen the city this crazy!" Rin replied, surveying the area as a large helicopter roared by. "Even when the commons rioted after Chojiro's arrest back when I was four, I don't remember things getting this out of hand! It's like Security's become a full-fledged army!"

She looked back at Ruri with a worried expression on her face. "Could Academia have already started its invasion? Is that why things are so… so…?"

Ruri looked around at the surrounding chaos and shook her head. "No," she replied kneeling back down, "I don't know what happened here, but believe me, if Academia was invading… not even half of this city would be standing."

Ruri made a brief sweep of the area to see if the coast was clear.

"We should get going." She commanded, taking Rin by the hand.

"Wait!" her friend replied, pulling back from her grip.

"What is it?" Ruri asked, making another quick sweep to make sure they hadn't been spotted.

"We look just like criminals with all… this." Rin explained, indicating their black clothing and facial markings. "If Security sees us, they'll probably arrest us on sight. Then we'll pull out our Duel Disks, they'll pull out theirs, and then…"

She pulled a card from her deck and examined it with a worried look on her face. "…I just… I'm just worried about them, that's all."

Ruri nodded her head, understanding. "You don't want to hurt them like you did with the Obelisk Force."

Rin nodded back, putting her card away. "I don't know if it will really change whether or not Security chases us down the moment they see us, but let's at least change back to our regular clothing, just in case."

"It sounds wise to me," Ruri replied, stroking her chin, "at the very least, we won't be sticking out like an eye-sore with these glowing marks." She looked back at Rin, "Has your god shown you how to disguise yourself?" She asked.

Rin closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and nodded.

"Let's do it then." said Ruri, gathering her powers.

Gradually, each girls markings started to dim and sink into their skin until they were completely out of sight. Their black sclera cleared away until their eyes were as white as they had been in their previous life. Their Duel Disks vanished and their black clothing warped until Rin was clad in her original white riding outfit with pink shoulder pads, a pair of short pink shorts, and white knee-high boots; Ruri was covered in the plain, yellow dress she had worn before the invasion of her homeland.

"What do you think?" Ruri asked her friend, glancing down at her dress, "Too much?"

Rin examined her clothing. "You definitely look foreign." she said, frowning at the fine material, "You should probably make it look a bit more worn and ragged… unless you're trying to look like one of the Tops."

Ruri sighed. Closing her eyes, she began using her powers to make adjustments to her clothing, adding some badly-sown patches to random places and making the bottom of her dress muddy, torn, and ragged like Yuto's cape. Rin gave Ruri the thumbs up, making her smile in return, before the two continued on their way.

"Is there a safe place where we can rest for a bit?" Ruri asked, ducking into another shadowy space as a Security D-Wheeler zoomed by on the street below.

Rin smiled. "Just beyond that Laundromat over there," she showed Ruri, pointing with her finger, "there's an abandoned auto-repair shop where Yugo and I used to make and test our D-Wheeler. I furnished it with some nice decorations and we lived there from time to time… like it was our own club-house.

Who knows," she continued, combing her hair with her fingers, "maybe Yugo's inside there right now."

Ruri smirked knowingly, giving a subtle wink. "Ahhhh…so that's why you wanted to transform."

Rin blushed, but didn't say anything, so Ruri decided to stop teasing her. "I'm sure he'll be overjoyed to see you again," she told her, giving her a gentle side hug.

Rin looked down at her right arm and started rubbing the area where her mark had been. After a moment, she sighed before saying, "Let's go."

Effortlessly leaping across rooftops in single bounds, they quickly made it to the roof of the dilapidated auto-repair shop before hiding in the shadows of a rotten sign. Ruri looked around the parking lot to make sure nobody was hiding from their sight.

"We should probably check to see if somebody's inside before we go in." She told Rin.

Rin stepped out onto the center of the roof with a grin. "Here," she told Ruri, "Watch this. I learned something new while I was figuring out how to transform."

Ruri watched as Rin laid flat until her face was pressed against the grimy roof. Glowing with a faint, green light, her head suddenly sunk into the ground, passing through the roof like she was a ghost while her upper body held her on top.

After some time, Rin withdrew her head from the roof and stopped glowing.

"It's clear." she said, brushing the dust off herself.

Ruri raised an eyebrow in amazement. "I didn't even know we could do that! I'm going to have to start exploring more of my powers."

"Whoever this spirit is…" Rin explained, feeling her right arm, "…he's actually pretty helpful when I try talking with him."

"It's a he?" Ruri asked, not recalling ever feeling that kind of connection with her own god.

"Well… that's how he sounds whenever we speak with each other." Rin replied, looking a little worried. "I guess what I'm saying is pretty weird." She muttered.

Ruri shook her head and patted Rin on the back. "I don't know what's weird or normal for us anymore. But I am glad you're mastering your abilities. I've just never been too aware of the spirit inside of me, let alone spoken with it."

"Haven't you?" Rin asked in surprise. "Ever since I began using my powers, he's been on my mind all the time. I keep getting these flashes of feelings and vague memories, and when I try speaking with him, words come to my head… words that aren't mine." She grimaced, "I… I guess I really have gone nuts."

Hoping to comfort her, Ruri pulled Rin into a hug, which surprised the girl.

"Always with the hugs?" Rin asked sounding a little annoyed, "You're starting to remind me of Yugo when he gets excited."

Ruri smiled, "You should have seen me with Shun and Yuto. I was always just the annoying little ball of sunshine that would pull them into every photo they didn't want to take."

She sighed, thinking of those distant memories. "Rin," she continued, "you're the most reasonable person I know. No matter what happens to us, I'll always be with you, no matter what crazy abilities you develop."

Rin hugged Ruri back as a small tear trickled down her cheek. Breaking away, she smiled before wiping off her eye.

"The door to this place is probably locked," she said, straightening out her hair, "how about I show you that crazy ability again." she offered, holding out her hand.

"Oh!" Ruri exclaimed looking back at Rin with confusion while grabbing her hand, "So… uhm… do I just…?"

"Brace yourself!" Rin cautioned as she and Ruri began glowing with a faint, green light.

Instantly, the two girls phased through the roof in a matter of seconds, Rin quickly letting go of Ruri's hand as they hit the concrete floor with a solid thud. Ruri pulled herself off the floor, brushing thick, grey dust from herself.

"I am never getting used to that." She remarked, shaking out her long hair.

"Let me get you something for that." Rin offered, noticing Ruri trying to wipe off her thick layers of dust.

Poking under several rickety workbenches and a few rusted cars, she eventually stopped at a table where a pair of faded, dirty, green and yellow towels laid. Brushing herself off with the yellow one, she handed the cleaner green one to Ruri.

"Consolation prizes for participating at regionals." Rin explained with a chuckle. "Just some of the many little things Yugo and I would win. I swear, by the time we were done, we'd each gathered enough towels for each kid at the orphanage to use… with a few to spare. We used these two to clean the D-Wheeler, but they should still be good."

"Thank you," Ruri murmured, appreciating the gesture. Avoiding the grease spots, she managed to use the clean parts of the towel to wipe herself relatively clean.

"So…" Rin asked, settling on a work bench, "…what's the plan now?"

Ruri set aside the towel.

"Honestly…I was thinking of finding a place to rest for the night before we made plans in the morning, but now that I'm here, I don't feel the least bit tired…" she rubbed her neck, "…or thirsty… or hungry for that matter."

Rin rubbed her belly. "I know what you mean. I'm not a big eater, but after all that's happened to us today, I'd normally want a little something… just to relax a little. But now…" she flexed her arms, "…now it just feels like everything's… stopped."

She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Ruri as if hoping for an explanation. Ruri looked down on the ground and contemplated things for a moment.

"We changed when we were brought back." she muttered, thinking out loud. "It must have been necessary to resurrect us." she felt her chest, "No heartbeat." She murmured, folding her arms forlornly.

"So… what are you saying?" Rin asked, "Are we pretty much just… zombies?"

Ruri held her hands in her head, tears streaming down her eyes. She understood what Rin was saying… she may have been resurrected, but she wasn't really alive. Her skin was hard and cold like a statue, and she couldn't remember feeling any bodily sensations such as the need to itch, sleepiness, wanting to yawn, sneezing, or even blinking since she had awoken. If what she had done to Rin was anything like what Yuu had done to her, it meant Rin was a reanimated corpse as well… just like herself!

"No!" she gasped, madly shaking her head, "No…no, no…no, no…no, NO!"

She collapsed on the ground, shaking her head with grief. "What have I done to you Rin!?" she cried, regret washing over her. "I've turned you into a monster against your will!"

Rin rushed over to Ruri's side and held her gently in her arms.

"That's enough of that now!" Rin scolded, sounding like a mother while Ruri continued to weep. "You didn't just pull me from the grave after the Obelisk Force killed us. I made the choice to return to you after I died."

She looked at her right arm, gazing at where the mark had been.

"I accept this." She thought to herself as she gently patted Ruri on the back. "So don't go beating yourself up over saving me." she continued, "You said you'd always be by my side no matter how weird I got. Well… the same goes for me. Even if you start craving brains and the blood of virgin maidens, I'll be there to set you strait and give you one of your annoying hugs before you go completely nuts."

Ruri let out an involuntary laugh as she imagined Rin pulling her away on a leash while she snapped at some imaginary people like a cartoon monster.

Ruri dried out her eyes, "But I thought you were nuts." She laughed, hugging Rin back.

"Well…" Rin sighed, patting her friend in the back, "…I guess we'll have to take turns running the asylum."

They let themselves laugh, feeling a heavy weight lift from their shoulders as they purged their negative emotions and took comfort in the knowledge that they were together. Ruri got up from the ground and stood at her full height, looking calm and proud before glanced at her tattered clothing and shaking her head.

"Why should we fear what we've become?" she asked, eyes glowing with a soft, red light. "Why not let the world accept what we are."

She stretched out her arms and closed her eyes as an indoor wind gently swirled around her in a darkening shadow. When the shadow faded and the wind dissipated, Ruri stepped towards Rin, clad in her black robes and cape with white trimmings, a pair of black-and-white moccasins folded over her feet, and an elegant white and black duel disk strapped to her left arm. White markings burned on her back and face while her eyes blazed with a lurid, red light against the backdrop of coal-black sclera. With a smile, she extended her hand toward Rin, offering to pick her up from the ground.

Rin took Ruri's hand and lifted herself from the ground. As she did, she transformed back into her Dark Signer form, bearing the green marks of the lightning bolts on her face, and glowing, green mark of the whale on her right arm. Her eyes blackened and began glowing with a faint, golden light, and her clothing shifted to become the black, green trimmed top, short skirt, hood, and pair of knee-high boots she had worn during her duel.

Smiling at one another, the two embraced once more before parting, Ruri standing tall and erect like a confident god, while Rin gazed back at her in awe.

"Since we have no need of sleep," Ruri began in an authoritative voice. "We will put our plans in motion immediately."

"I am at your side Ruri," Rin replied, taking a step forward, "just tell me how I can help you."

Ruri smiled. "Academia will try to recover us and our other counterparts, but they will fail. My source tells me that both of our counterparts are held in a place called The Duel Palace. Do you know of this place?"

Rin's eyes got wide. "Oh gosh yes!" she replied with amazement, "Yugo and I always dreamed of going there and participating in the Friendship Cup. Actually…" she thought, "…they'd be holding the Friendship Cup right now." She hung her head, "I was planning on applying this year with Yugo."

Ruri nodded sympathetically. "You will have your reunion with Yugo. But I have to ask you not to reveal us now. If we're going to succeed, we're going to need to be swift and silent. Stay out of everyone's sight and gather information on our counterparts in The Duel Palace."

She folded her arms, "I have no doubt that Academia will try and capture our counterpart from Standard. If we can convince her to join us, we should be able to protect her and we will be one step closer to achieving our goals. As for the counterpart from Fusion…" Ruri scowled, "If the professor let her come here, it either means she will be trying to capture the Standard counterpart or she is on other Academia business. Either way doesn't look too good. We may have to eliminate her if she doesn't abandon Academia and choose to become a Dark Signer."

"I can definitely gather information on them," Rin agreed, "but why is it so important they join us? I mean... other than for the fact that we'll be keeping them out of the professor's hands, I don't see why we have to turn them into Dark Signers as well."

"I don't know why…" Ruri explained, "…but it seems like we were designed to be together. Just being with you in Academia, I felt more complete than I was before. The professor knew that he could unlock some great power if he gathered us all together. Just imagine what we could do if we could gather that same power together and use it against Academia? Converting them into Dark Signers will enable us to crush Academia and free the dimensions from their rule."

"Makes sense," Rin agreed, "but how do we convert them?"

"Leave that to me." Ruri advised, "I just need you to gather as much information on them as possible and keep any potential threats away from them."

"Sounds easy enough." said Rin, folding her arms, "What will you be doing?"

"I need to learn what is going on in this dimension." Ruri replied. "Especially, if Academia has already infiltrated this dimension like they did when they sent Dennis to my home."

"Which they probably have, considering our dear Fusion sister is here." Rin sighed.

"Exactly." Ruri agreed. "I need to look into this dimension's power structure, who our potential allies are, and which factions will stand against us."

"I'd suggest going to the Executive Council building and the Public Security HQ." Rin suggested, "I'll point you in their direction once we begin. They're both pretty big, so you shouldn't miss them; plus, you'll be able to get a pretty good idea of what's going on."

"Thank you Rin." Ruri replied.

"So what's our next move once we've gathered our counterparts?" Rin asked, looking eager to begin.

Ruri smiled, eyes and marks glowing a little brighter. "I plan to do far more than just topple Academia to the ground."

"Which, in and of itself, is a pretty noble goal." Rin interrupted.

Ruri bobbed her head in agreement. "Yes," she continued, "but even if we burn the professor's empire to cinders, we will still be leaving the other dimensions to deal with the scars Academia has inflicted upon them." she spread out her arms and started to glow like an angel.

"We will heal this universe." she said, resuming her speech, "With the powers we have been given, I will purify all iniquity from each dimension and build a paradise in its place. There will be no wars, no famines, no Tops or Commons, no divisions or animosities of any kind." She put her hand on Rin's shoulder, "You shall be one of my queens, Rin, a queen that will lead the Synchro dimension on the path to salvation."

Rin was taken aback. "Wow…" she said, eyes widening, "…that's… that's a lot to take in." she looked into the distance, "You make us sound like gods."

Ruri looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Yes…" she murmured, "…yes… I like the sound of that. It is absolutely true. We are gods and saviors, destined to bring peace and happiness to all humanity." She closed her eyes, "We will create a literal heaven… one that will last for all eternity."

She opened her eyes and smiled at Rin.

"But before we begin, I will need your help with one small thing."

"What is it?" Rin asked, snapping to attention.

"You have shown me a great mastery over your powers when you connected with your inner-spirit." She knelt at Rin's feet, "If I am going to truly unlock our full potential, I need you to be my master now and teach me how to access my divine abilities."

Rin smirked, folding her arms. "Well I guess if you're a god now, and I'm your master… what does that make me?"

"A sassy punk." Ruri quipped, glad she could still tease Rin like normal.

"Remember your place zombie girl." Rin snorted, putting her hood over her face before assuming a serious expression. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Show me how it's done." Ruri asked with a respectful bow.

Rin closed her eyes. "Just concentrate on your mark," she explained, "feel the energy flow from your mark and into your body."

Ruri closed her eyes and began focusing on the large, white, heron mark blazing with light on her back. She felt raw power surge from the mark and flow into her veins like life-giving blood. Rather than just feeling like a glowing tattoo, her mark felt woven into her very being, her very soul, as she lost herself in blissful feelings of pleasure, power, and vigor.

"Next," Rin advised, "picture yourself facing your mark and just… speak to it like you would a person, but in your mind."

Still enwrapped in the blissful emotion of feeling at one with her mark, Ruri complied, and respectfully addressed her mark with her thoughts, picturing herself as if she was speaking to a living heron, rather than a primitive drawing.

" _My god,_ " she prayed, " _I wish to know thee as Rin has come to know her god that I may be an instrument of salvation in thine hands. I desire to drive the evil forces back from this universe and build a heavenly realm for the righteous in heart to inherit for all eternity!"_

Ruri felt a response come to her as a mature, female voice called back, " _We already know each other. Thy will is mine as my will is thine. Whatsoever thou desirest shall be my desire. Thine enemies shalt be mine enemies and thy friends shalt be my friends."_

Ruri gasped in amazement as she felt her thoughts align with the speaker. As her eyes and marks glowed with blinding white light, she began speaking out loud.

"Thou art one with me and I am one with thee!" she proclaimed with a god-like reverb, "Our destiny is set forth! Our plans cannot be thwarted! Take the deck we have been given, embrace our powers, spread our wings, and fly!"

At this declaration, Ruri felt the wings of her heron mark expand from her lower back until a pair of white heron-wings made of pure light sprouted from her back as she glowed like a supernova. Jumping back, Rin yelped in amazement, gawking at her friend's transformation.

"Wings!" she cried, "I wasn't expecting that!"

Ruri dimmed her light and smiled back at Rin. "That's not all I can do."

Before Rin could react, Ruri instantly disappeared and then reappeared behind Rin, before flapping her wings, flying above Rin, alternating between turning herself transparent and opaque, and gracefully landing on top of an old car before retracting her wings till they became four pairs of simple white lines on her heron mark.

She smiled at Rin who just shook her head, looking dumbfounded.

"Sheesh…" she said, "…why don't you just shoot lasers from your eyes and walk on water while you're at it?"

Ruri chuckled, "All in good time. Thank you for helping me figure this out… master." she finished with a smile and a bow.

"I'm definitely not the master here." Rin sighed, "But at least you haven't figured out how to pass through objects yet."

Ruri examined her hand and tried to phase it through the roof of a car without success.

"I think our powers are unique from each other." she concluded after a few tries. "Which is good for us. We'll be able to use all kinds of different abilities against Academia once we gain full mastery of our powers. Now then…" she continued, taking Rin's hand, "… If you could use that power again."

Rin complied by gripping Ruri's hand until they both began glowing a faint green. Spreading her wings, Ruri flew through the ceiling before gently letting go of Rin's hand and landing on the roof.

"Shall we go?" Rin asked turning to face the distant Duel Palace.

"Just point me to the Executive Council building and Public Security HQ." Ruri commanded.

Rin pointed out a massive, ornate building and colossal tower in the distance before asking Ruri one last question. "So… should I just report my findings to you here once I'm done?"

Ruri tapped her forehead. "I think we should both share mental links with each other. Hopefully we can just communicate with each other back-to-back without having to leave our missions. See if you can communicate with me now, like you do with your god."

Rin scrunched up her face and closed her eyes. After half a minute, she opened her eyes and looked at Ruri before Ruri heard Rin's thoughts ask, " _Can you hear me?_ "

" _Loud and clear._ " Ruri thought back with a smile.

" _Sorry it took me so long,_ " Rin apologized, " _I didn't like getting one-upped by you so I spent a bit of time figuring out a new power._ " She grinned, "Race you to the other side of the city and back!" she challenged, before zipping away in a flash of green light, running at superhuman speeds.

Ruri shook her head, hoping Rin wouldn't go too crazy with her abilities. Turning herself transparent, Ruri spread her wings and took off.

…

It felt almost like racing on the D-wheeler again as Rin sped through the busy streets of the city and defied the laws of gravity by racing up the sides of buildings. Feeling the wind in her hair, she cleared her mind and let herself become one with speed, just like she did when she dueled.

Coming across a body of water, she leaned in and pumped her legs even harder, racing across the sea as she left a fine spray of mist behind herself.

" _You're going to alert everyone in the Synchro dimension to our presence if you haven't already by now._ " Rin heard Ruri warn her. " _Slow down, think a bit, and try to approach things more stealthily._ "

" _No such thing as slowing down in the Synchro dimension!_ " Rin thought back, pumping her legs even harder, " _Besides… I'm good at staying cool and thinking things through while doing a riding duel. Otherwise Yugo and I probably wouldn't have even qualified for regionals, much less win a consolation prize._ "

" _Just please…_ " Ruri thought back, " _…this is all very important. Be careful._ "

Rin felt a little guilty.

" _All right._ " She thought back before slowing down and grabbing onto one of the support structures beneath the arena. Climbing up the support structure, she quietly made her way to the top of the stadium, only to gasp in shock when she saw the stadium not only completely empty of spectators, but in utter ruins. Crews of construction workers attempted to clear away rubble and spread a massive tarp over the destruction while a lone blimp slowly flew away while showing looped highlights of the previous duel.

" _What happened here!?_ " Rin heard Ruri gasp.

" _One second… let me check._ " Rin replied, looking up at the blimp.

On the screen, the blimp displayed images of a large, robotic, falcon mowing down an army of clown-like monsters in a furious bombing run, while one of the duelists somehow managed to continuously evade damage as he activated various card effects and even picked up and activated strange cards suspended in bubbles from off the track.

" _IS THAT!?"_ Ruri exclaimed.

Rin ran to the other side of the Duel Palace to get a closer look at the blimp. Above the video, a caption read, "Round 1 Final: Shun vs. Dennis."

" _It can't be!_ " Ruri gasped. " _What is Dennis doing here!? WHAT IS MY BROHTER DOING HERE!?"_

Rin was just as stunned as Ruri. Together, they watched as Shun managed to destroy each one of Dennis's monsters before Shun activated a trap card, forcing Dennis to reveal a Fusion card in his hand.

Rin could hear Ruri growling with anger.

"Boku no turn…" she heard Dennis whisper with a malevolent expression on his face, "DRAW!" he yanked a card from his deck and gazed at the card, closing his eyes as if in resignation.

"I activate the magic card," he began, throwing down the card, "Antique Gear Chaos Fusion!"

" _So you're finally showing who you really are._ " Rin heard Ruri hiss. " _If you hurt my brother, there will be no hell deep enough for you!"_

"I send this fusion to the graveyard," Dennis continued, "and banish Xyz monsters in my graveyard equal to the number of Fusion Summon materials I need!"

Pictures of four holographic Xyz monsters briefly appeared before bearing ripped apart in a swirling vortex as they were each banished from the graveyard.

"Next, I negate the effects and summon conditions of the Fusion material monsters in my deck and Extra Deck, and special summon…" his face twisted into a mad expression as he began listing fusion materials, "…Antique Gear Hound Dog, Double Bite Hound Dog, Triple Bite Hound Dog, Ultimate Hound Dog! I special summon all four Antique Gear monsters!" he declared, slapping down four cards as an army of robotic hound monstrosities swarmed his field and let out a deafening chorus of furious roars.

But Dennis was not finished. "I fuse all four Antique Gears." He declared as the four robotic hounds rose into the air and swirled into a Fusion Portal in a swirl of red, yellow, green, and blue while he began his fusion chant.

"Mechanized hound dogs that inherit the ancient soul, merge those ten heads, unleash chaos, and become tremendous strength! YUUGO SHOKAN!" he screamed as he yanked a card from his extra deck and slammed it onto his D-wheeler in pure rage. "Come forth! Level 10! Antique Gear Chaos Giant!"

Rin and Ruri gasped as an enormous machine that looked like it was made of a conglomeration of roaring, robotic hound heads loomed over the Duel Palace, glaring at Shun and his relatively miniscule monster with a single, massive robotic eye. Members of the audience in the video hugged each other with fear as the intimidating machine let out a deep, prolonged growl.

Dennis seemed to enjoy the terror he was causing. After effortlessly countering the effects of two of Shun's face-down traps, Dennis smiled like a sadist before he ordered his monolithic monster to viciously beat Shun's falcon to death, tearing off one of its robotic wings and throwing it directly at Shun's bike while the automaton recklessly tore chunks from the Duel Palace stadium,

" _NO!_ " Ruri gasped as Rin backed away from the horrific sight.

Suddenly, from the smoke, Shun's bike sped on as his life points were reduced to 200.

" _How did he do that?_ " Rin asked, not seeing the math add up.

Ruri sighed in relief. " _My brother's countermeasure, Raidraptor Last Strix._ " She explained as the screen showed a small, robotic owl appear on Shun's field.

Dennis sneered at Shun's comeback before ordering his Chaos Giant to destroy Last Strix with a nonchalant tap of one of its massive robotic arms.

In the face of Dennis's taunting, Shun stayed resolute, proclaiming that he would never be taken down no matter how much he was cornered.

" _You're lucky to have him as a brother._ " Rin told Ruri, admiring Shun's courage.

" _He's the greatest person I know._ " Ruri replied. " _But even I never imagined he would come all the way here to fight Academia._ "

Dennis sneered back at Shun.

"What an admirable spirit." he declared, "You learned that at the pro duelist training school, right?"

"Why do you know about that?" Shun asked, a shocked expression coming over his face.

"I know a lot about you." Dennis smirked. "Should I share a bit of valuable information? This is from my time in Heartland…"

Rin listened as Dennis related his tale of finding Ruri in Heartland City and green-lighting the invasion of Xyz before helping Yuri track Ruri down so she could be captured.

Even though Rin couldn't feel Ruri's emotions, she could sense great pain from her friend.

" _So the invasion of Heartland…_ " Ruri cried, " _… all that pain… all that destruction… because of me?"_

" _It's not your fault._ " Rin soothed, " _How can you be guilty of anything when all you did was exist?_ "

Silence.

" _It's Academia's fault!_ " Rin exclaimed in another effort to calm her down, " _Everything… everything that happened to your home is because of Academia. You are not the one to blame!_ "

" _If Shun does not kill Dennis at the end of this duel…_ " Ruri whispered, " _… I will!_ "

They watched the blimp together as Shun managed to make a miraculous comeback, top-decking a copy of Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force and using it to summon his Raidraptor Revolution Falcon from the graveyard before using it as a material to Xyz Summon Raidraptor Satellite Cannon Falcon.

In a series of cannon blows, Satellite Cannon Falcon used its ability to whittle away at Chaos Giant's massive attack power with a series of cannon blasts while Shun listed Academia's crimes. From her thoughts, Rin heard Ruri join her brother.

" _For our friends who were hunted in cold blood and sealed in graveyards called cards,_ " she chanted, " _for stealing my future away when you betrayed me after I called you my friend,_ _for ending the dreams of my best friend Yuto, feel our pain and burn in the fires of your own war!_ "

Rin watched in awe and fear as Shun's monster ascended to space before obliterating Dennis's mechanized giant with a single, massive laser blast from orbit. As Chaos Giant exploded into tiny shards of scrap metal, Dennis was violently thrown from his bike before landing in a broken heap while humbly acknowledging Shun's victory.

Rin heard Ruri sigh.

" _I've seen enough._ " Ruri muttered, traces of anguish lingering in her voice. " _I'm ending this. One way or another, I'll punish Academia for what it's done!_ "

A tear trickled from Rin's cheek.

" _I wish I could truly understand your pain._ " she whispered to Rin, " _Even with all the oppression Yugo and I received from the Tops… there's just nothing that can compare with what you've faced._ "

" _If I could have one wish fulfilled,_ " Ruri replied, " _it's that you NEVER have to suffer what I have suffered!_ "

Rin sighed and looked up to the top of a massive sky-platform where the penthouse suit for Friendship Cup duelists loomed over the stadium.

" _Your brother's fighting for you._ " Rin whispered to Ruri as she sped toward the penthouse, " _I'm sure he'll be overjoyed to see you again._ "

" _Don't show yourself to him._ " Rin heard Ruri sigh, " _We just can't… I just can't… I can't…_ "

" _I understand._ " Rin replied as she ran straight up the side of the sky platform. Evading small squadrons of Security officers, she raced up the side of the penthouse to the very top, phasing through the glass once she reached a hallway with rows of locked suits. Passing her head through each door to take a glance at the rooms, she skimmed through several rooms before stopping when she came across a room that had a boy that looked just like Yugo inside of it.

The boy was standing at the window overlooking the Duel Palace. Rin quietly held her breath as she gave the boy a quick scan to see if it was really him. Noticing how different his clothes were, and certain that Yugo would not make such a drastic fashion change, she quickly withdrew her head from the door before she was spotted.

" _Someone who looks just like Yugo is here._ " she told Ruri.

" _Yuto?"_ Ruri asked.

" _Hopefully._ " Rin replied, scanning a few more rooms. " _He didn't have Yuri's cape so I'm hoping Yuto made it here with your brother._ "

" _I…_ " Ruri stuttered, " _… I don't know what to think. If they both came here from the Xyz dimension… were they looking for me?_ "

" _It could just be someone from Standard for all we know._ " Rin mused, " _But Yuto makes the most sense for right now. I guess we'll have to see him duel._ "

" _Yes…_ " Ruri thought, " _…I will watch the duelists at the Duel Stadium tomorrow. Keep up with your search. You're doing very well._ "

" _How about you?_ " Rin asked. " _What have you found out?_ "

" _What do you know about Jean Michael Roger?_ " Ruri questioned.

" _Just that he's the chief of Security… why do you ask?_ " Rin replied, phasing into a broom cupboard to avoid a passing night guard.

" _He's more than that._ " Ruri sighed, " _It seems like Academia already planted one of their agents in the Synchro Dimension's elite circle._ "

" _No way!_ " Rin gasped.

" _I'm sorry to say it, but it looks like we might have to fight Security after all._ " Ruri mused as Rin resumed her search. " _We probably should have disabled the security cameras._ " Ruri muttered, as Rin sped through another hallway.

" _It shouldn't really matter so long as I'm not seen by anyone._ " Rin assured her friend, pulling her hood over her head more tightly. " _They'll think it's a glitch in the feed or a hologram when they see a girl with superhuman speed phasing through walls like a ghost._ "

" _It'll definitely make an interesting news story._ " Ruri thought back as her friend came across a room where a girl that looked just like her was sleeping. " _Check her deck._ " Ruri advised. " _Let's see which dimension she's from._ "

Rin picked up her deck from a nightstand and began examining the contents.

" _Let's see…_ " she mumbled to Ruri, " _Melodious… melodious… ah ha!_ "

" _What is it?_ " Ruri asked.

" _A Fusion card._ " Rin replied, placing the deck in its original position. " _We have our Fusion girl._ "

" _We'll have to keep a close eye on her._ " Ruri sighed as Rin noted the color of the girl's clothing. " _After seeing what Dennis did, I really don't want to ally with her but… well… we need them._ "

Rin nodded her head before leaving the room and racing off to the other rooms. Eventually, she came across another sleeping girl with her same face.

" _There's the one from Standard,_ " Ruri noted, looking through Rin's eyes. " _What are you doing Rin?_ " she asked as Rin approached the girl.

" _I'm just curious about something._ " she replied, taking the girl's deck from a nightstand and skimming through the contents. " _Uh oh!_ " she exclaimed.

" _What is it?_ " Ruri asked.

" _She's also got Fusion._ " Rin replied, " _Things might have just got a bit more complicated._ "

Ruri sighed. " _I'll watch both of them._ _Either way, we'll give them both a chance to join us willingly before we take other measures. What are you doing now?_ " she asked Rin, as Rin zoomed down the hallway, checking a few more rooms.

" _I need to see something._ " she replied. Combing through the endless rows of doors, she finally came to a stop when she saw a boy in a white riding outfit noisily snoring on his bed without even covering himself with any sheets.

" _Rin…_ " Ruri cautioned, as she watched Rin enter the room and approach the boy. " _…you can't go to him now. We can't be seen._ "

Rin continued to approach him.

" _Look!_ " Ruri shouted back to her, trying to reason with her, " _I know he's important to you, but our mission is too important! I promise you, you'll be reunited with him, but not yet! It's too risky!_ "

" _You'd do the same thing._ " Rin thought back, ignoring Ruri as she continued her lecture. When it was clear Rin was not going to listen, Ruri eventually gave up and Rin knelt at Yugo's bedside.

"Honestly…" she thought, pulling a soft blanket over Yugo while he continued to snore. "…you are such an idiot sometimes."

She smiled at Yugo before carefully brushing a lock of hair from his eye. "I've missed you so much!" she whispered, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

She wanted to wake Yugo up, to speak to him, to tell him she was alright, just be with him again… and not like a creepy stalker. But she was afraid.

She walked to a full-body mirror in the corner and looked at herself.

There was no denying it. She was a lot different from the orphan girl that had been Yugo's friend, and it was not just her physical appearance. Her expression had hardened under the stress of fear, pain, and anger she had endured in prison. She looked stern and vengeful, adjectives which neither she nor Yugo ever would have used to describe her in the past.

Would Yugo accept what she had become? She asked herself. Or would he be frightened of her? She thought of her duel against the Obelisk guards. "Oh yeah Yugo," she pretended to say to him, "I just killed six people after I came back from the dead… nothing much."

She thought of the guards turning to black ash as she maliciously destroyed every one of them.

"Did I really do that!?" she asked herself, horrified as the reality of her actions sunk in.

She shook her head, trying to make sense of it.

"It was self-defense." she told herself. "They were gonna do who-knows-what to me and Ruri… I had no choice!" she concluded, trying to justify her acts.

She recalled bearing down on the Obelisk guards as she ruthlessly mauled them with her monsters. She had felt thrilled. She had felt good. It was like experiencing a drug rush as she drew on her powers and unleashed them upon her murderers.

Rin felt horrified. She hadn't just been defending herself. She had enjoyed every second of humiliating them, of taunting them, of watching them scream in horror as she tore them to pieces. What kind of person had she become?

Rin almost jumped when she suddenly heard Yugo stir in his bed. Holding deathly still, she waited till he shifted his sleeping his position, holding the blanket she had put over him up to his face.

Rin decided to leave something for Yugo before she left.

Taking a pen and paper from a desk, she wrote a simple note which she placed next to Yugo's deck on his nightstand.

"I'm here. -Rin-" it said.


	4. Part 1: Chapter 4

Part 1: Chapter 4 - Righteous Indignation

Ruri had managed to gather a lot of information last night. Between her infiltration of the Executive Council building and the Chief Security Bureau, and Rin's infiltration of the Duel Palace, Penthouse Suit, and underground forced labor facility, she had learned of the enigmatic, anti-Academia force known as The Lancers, of the corruption behind the Friendship Cup as it forced losers to labor in un underground garbage disposal plant for life, of the chief of security, and of Jean Michael Roger's coup against the Executive Council and his plans to rule the city like a king.

More importantly, she had formed a plan to defeat him; it would take her only one day.

The first duel of the day was important for her. According to the announcement from the news reporter, Melissa Clair, the morning duel would be taking place against the infamous duelist crusher, Sergey Volkov, and Yuzu Hiragi, one of her counterparts. This meant that she would not only get a chance to learn more about one of the bracelet girls by watching her duel, but she would be on hand to stop both Roger and Academia if either of them tried to make a move to capture Yuzu.

Turning transparent, she used her wings to hover over the long track surrounding the Duel Palace as the crowds cheered with delight when the duelists lined up at the starting line. There was a lot of support for the Yuzu girl. Quite a number of fans held up signs and cheered for Yuzu while Melissa Clair kept gushing over Yuzu's cuteness. For her part, Yuzu looked serious and determined, seemingly ignoring the crowd while putting all her attention into the duel.

Pulling up next to her in a massive savage looking D-wheeler with chariot blades on the sides of its outer front three wheels, Sergey Volkov looked extremely docile, bored, and subdued… almost like he didn't even want to be dueling.

Ruri continued watching as a new track was created outside the Duel Palace when a network of large pillars sprang from the water and unfolded to connect with track pieces from adjacent pillars. Once the countdown reached 0 and the two duelists began, Ruri flew adjacent to the two contestants and observed their performance.

Yuzu emerged first from the duel palace and took her first turn, summoning a small, 1400 attack power monster before setting a card face down and ending her turn.

Sergey responded to her move by summoning a twisted, thorn-covered demon with 0 attack power in face-up attack position before ending his turn without even setting a card face-down.

The crowd groaned with boredom at Sergey's pathetic play. Melissa Clair wondered if Sergey's talent had slipped since his time as the duelist crusher and it seemed that everyone was in agreement that Yuzu pretty much had the duel in the bag.

Ruri, however, was not so certain.

She watched as Yuzu quickly responded to Sergey's play by quickly assembling a force of three fairy-type monsters with enough attack power to finish Sergey off with just two attacks. However, when Yuzu began her attacks, Sergey countered each one of them with his monster effects, torturing himself each time he did so by paying 400 Life Points with each battle to negate Battle Damage and stop her attacks.

Watching Sergey as he performed his masochistic stall tactics, Ruri noticed something… off about Sergey. There was a strange energy about him… something that looked familiar.

" _Hello Ruri._ "

Ruri flinched as her thoughts were interrupted by Yuu's intrusion.

" _What is it you want?_ " she snapped, wanting to focus on the duel.

" _Oh… I just wanted to check up on you and see how you were doing._ " Yuu replied. " _Did you find my information helpful?_ "

Ruri smiled. " _They were both here just like you said. If all goes according to my plan, we'll have recruited them both and taken control of this dimension by tonight._ "

" _Ambitious!_ " Yuu exclaimed, sounding impressed, " _I knew you would be a great Dark Signer. How's Rin doing, by the way?_ "

" _Why don't you ask her yourself?_ " Ruri replied, turning her attention back to the duel.

" _That's a little impossible for me at the moment._ " Yuu sighed.

" _And why is that?_ " Ruri asked, feeling just a little irritated.

" _When I formed a contract with you,_ " Yuu explained, " _we became linked together. While we can neither control each other nor read each other's minds, we gained the useful ability to see through each other's eyes, hear through each other's ears, and have this delightful conversation we're having now._ "

" _Get to the point!_ " Ruri commanded, losing her patience.

" _I had no place in your contract with Rin._ " Yuu continued, seemingly unfazed by Ruri's irritation. " _While you established links with each other, I was left out of the bargain. I can no more see nor speak with Rin any more than she can see or speak with me._ "

" _Which I prefer._ " Ruri replied, glad to know there were still some things she could keep private from Yuu.

Ruri could almost feel Yuu smile back at her.

" _So what are you doing now?_ " Yuu cheerfully asked, " _Did you fancy a bit of entertainment before conquering this dimension?_ "

" _I'm on business._ " Ruri retorted, " _I wanted to see if I could figure out which dimension this girl came from based on her duel._ "

" _Oh… Yuzu?_ " Yuu laughed. " _You only needed to ask me. She hails from the Standard dimension. If you're looking for a fusion counterpart to vent your rage on, look no further than Selena._ "

Ruri scowled.

" _And how is it that you know this?_ " Ruri interrogated. " _Is there anything else you've been keeping from me?_ "

" _You have mastered a great many of your powers._ " Yuu replied, " _Out of the two of us, you know best of the unique privileges that come with being a Dark Signer._ "

Yuu sighed. " _I wish I could fly._ " he mused.

Ruri rolled her eyes.

" _What about this Sergey Volkov?_ " she asked.

" _What about him?_ " Yuu replied, sounding uninterested.

" _There's something strange about him._ " Ruri observed, " _And it's not just his crazy dueling. When I look at him, I sense an energy about him… similar to what I feel when I'm with Rin. Do you know him?_ "

Yuu let out a prolonged exhale.

" _I only once ever briefly met the man… but yes… I suppose I did… I did in fact know him._ " he reminisced.

" _And did you form a contract with him?_ " Ruri pressed.

" _You, Rin, and I are the only Dark Signers in existence._ " Yuu explained. " _Sergey is not special like you are. He had great potential, but he squandered it all when he lost his mind and became nothing more than a petty duel criminal._ "

" _I see._ " Ruri replied, losing interest in Sergey. What Yuu said seemed true. She could feel a strange energy coming from Sergey, but it was barely a shadow of the energy she felt from either herself or Rin.

" _Oh! By the way…_ " Yuu suddenly seemed to remember, " _… I almost forgot to let you know!_ "

" _There seem to be a lot of things you've been keeping from me lately._ " Ruri snarled, liking Yuu less the more she was with him.

" _Have you heard of the Horakhty Agents?_ " Yuu questioned, acting like Ruri was a contestant on a quiz show.

" _Never in my life._ " Ruri answered, keeping up with the riders.

" _I didn't think you would have._ " Yuu remarked. " _They are legends. Little more than rumors for everyone in Academia, save for those in the Professor's inner circle. Supposedly, they are a small team of three duelists that are so powerful that it is said they can win a duel merely be being in its presence._ "

" _And why does this concern me?_ " Ruri asked.

" _The Horakhty Agents generally stay in Fusion, performing the ungratifying task of ensuring the absolute survival of the professor's Arc Area Project at all costs. Basically, guard duty._ " Yuu seemed to smile. " _If even one of them leaves Fusion, it means that there is someone the professor wants dead, and wants dead now._ "

He paused for a moment to let his words take effect.

" _Do you recall that one tragic night in Heartland, when four of your greatest resistance leaders, Gauche, Droite, the Kamishiro twins, Ryouga, and Rio, along with every single individual they led, all mysteriously disappeared within the span of a single night?_ "

Ruri grimaced.

" _Yes… I remember._ " Ruri hissed, gritting her teeth and clenching her fist.

" _That was the work of just one Horakhty Agent._ " Yuu related. " _In and out of Xyz, leaving behind no trace but a ghost story for Academia professors to tell their students at night._ _But you and Rin seem to have left a much greater impression on the professor than those resistance leaders._ " Yuu continued, " _If my knowledge is correct, not only is the professor dispatching a Horakhty Agent to deal with you, but the entire squad! Congratulations Ruri. You are now Academia's most wanted._ "

Ruri sighed.

" _It doesn't matter who Academia sends._ " Ruri muttered, " _We will crush them all._ "

" _And that is just the reason I chose you, Ruri!_ " Yuu gushed, " _You're so… confident! You truly believe in your own divinity!_ "

"What!" Ruri suddenly exclaimed, noticing someone following the Duelists as they entered a track-way surrounded by several large skyscrapers.

" _Oh… I was just complimenting you and your determination._ " Yuu hastily replied.

" _Not you!_ " Ruri snarled. " _Go back to whatever you were doing before. I think I just spotted one of the professor's rats._ "

" _As you wish…_ " Yuu replied, fading from her mind.

Ruri swooped down to get a closer look at the duelist that was managing to keep pace with the riders, keeping herself transparent while the boy leaped from rooftops with surprising agility. He was a short kid with blue hair and a lollipop in his mouth, but Ruri instantly recognized the Obelisk Blue school uniform and the shield-shaped duel disk strapped to his arm.

" _I see him too._ " Ruri heard Rin speak through her mind. " _Do you want me to take care of him? I could be over there in a flash._ "

" _Keep doing what you're doing._ " Ruri commanded, " _This one is mine!_ "

…

It had been difficult for Sora to get to where he was now. After hearing that Yuzu had gone missing after the battle-royal in Standard, he had immediately warped back to Academia in order to find her. Failing to find her after breaking numerous Academia laws by searching the prisons without authorization, he had travelled back to Standard to see if she was really okay.

That's when he had seen the recruitment video for the Lancer Defense Soldiers.

Learning about their mission to find allies in Synchro, Sora had travelled to the Synchro Dimension before finding Dennis and sending him back to the professor with word that he would complete his mission to bring back Selena. If he could just bring the Fusion girl back, he might be able to appease the professor so he would stop chasing after Yuzu.

Sora continued monitoring Yuzu's duel against Sergey, keeping a close watch out for anyone from Academia who might try to capture her. He was overjoyed that he had managed to find her in the Synchro Dimension, but he was well aware that the Professor still wanted her at the moment. All he could hope to do for now was protect Yuzu and hope his plan to placate the Professor by capturing Selena eventually panned out.

Seeing them make a turn, Sora leaped across several more buildings, heading in the direction the riding duelists were racing.

As he landed on top of another building, Sora's path was suddenly blocked by a hooded duelist who seemed to appear from nowhere.

Skidding to a stop, Sora instinctively whipped out his Duel Disk and activated it, glaring back at the interloper. She wore a long black dress with white trimmings, a black cape, and a large black and white hood which concealed most of her face.

"You're in my way." Sora growled, not wanting any distractions. "Get out of here now before I make you!"

"Child of Academia…" the figure called out in a youthful, female voice. From beneath the hood, Sora could see a strange, white light emanated from the left side of her face. "…your sins are known to me." she declared, stepping forward and throwing back her cape from her left arm to reveal a large black and white Duel Disk with a wing-shaped extension and a set of jagged teeth over the deck slot, "Submit to your punishment now… or face my judgment."

Sora was taken aback by the stranger, but he did not back down.

"I'm not interested in speaking with you." he snarled, "Get out of my way now! Last warning!"

The stranger smiled.

"You have made your choice." she replied, activating her Duel Disk. Instead of a plain V-shaped mass of energy, the card field for her duel disk was shaped like a massive white angel wing. "Now suffer the consequences!" she commanded, raising her arms above her head.

Instantly, the roof of the building was surrounded by a massive wall of clear white energy that rose to the sky high above the heads of both duelists. Sora kicked at the energy field, but the wall remained completely unharmed.

"What is this!" he grunted as he pushed against it, not enjoying being trapped.

"I'm sparing you from humiliation." the hooded girl called back. "While we are here, the outer world can neither see us nor interfere with our duel. Your confession…" she continued, holding her arms out to Sora, "…will be kept strictly confidential between you and me."

"Confession!?" Sora gawked, wondering what she was talking about.

"I told you before…" the girl explained, plucking five cards from the top of her deck, "…you would be judged for your sins in this duel. Now…" she continued, glowing white, "…let us begin!"

Sora glanced to where Yuzu was dueling, realizing he had no choice but to face the duelist if he wanted to protect his friend.

"DUEL!" Sora and the hooded girl proclaimed, facing each other.

"The first move is mine." the girl began, gently placing a card in the Field Spell Card Zone.

"I activate the Field Magic, Sanctified Realm!" she declared, spreading her arms wide as the ground beneath their feet transformed until it looked like they were standing on smooth white clouds.

"Next," she continued, "I discard the monster, Salvation Seraphim Acolyte, from my hand to set 1 Salvation Seraphim Magic or Trap Card from my deck."

A girl in a plain, white and blue dress like a shrine maiden's outfit briefly appeared on the duelist's field. A white hood covered her black hair while her arms, legs, and feet were completely bare, save for a few golden bracelets and anklets. From her back, a pair of angel wings with feathers as black as a raven gently unfolded before the girl descended into a black portal and the hooded duelist pulled a card from her deck.

"I set this card face down," the hooded duelist stated, "and next activate the card I just set, Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force!"

A pillar of light burst from the center of the duel field and rose into the air in an endless column. To the left and right of the pillar, a pair of S-shaped marks decorated like angel wings faced each other from opposite directions like a broken heart with twin tails, similar to the spiral pattern of a caduceus.

"Now," she continued, "I Normal Summon the level three, Salvation Seraphim Priestess."

Another black-winged angel appeared on the duelist's field. Similar to the previous monster, this one wore a simple, white dress that left her arms and legs bare. However, this new monster sported blue jewelry and an elegant headdress while carrying a large, wooden staff inset with lapis lazuli. A holographic indicator appeared next to the girl's monster and showed it had 1200 ATK.

"Salvation Seraphim Priestess's effect activates," the girl continued, as the angel stretched out its wings and held up its staff, which began glowing with radiant, yellow light. "I excavate the top three cards of my deck," the girl explained, "and add 1 excavated Salvation Seraphim Monster to my hand while the other cards are sent to my graveyard."

She pulled three cards from her deck and smiled.

"I add the monster, Salvation Seraphim Healer, to my hand and send the monster card, Salvation Seraphim Saint, and the Magic Card, Lost Salvation, to my graveyard.

A black-winged angel covered in a long, white cloak and carrying a scroll in her hand, and a Spell Card depicting the fall of a heavenly castle, briefly appeared on the girl's field before sinking into two black portals.

"Since I control a Salvation Seraphim monster on my field," the girl explained, "I can Special Summon the level three, Salvation Seraphim Healer, in defense position from my hand with its own effect."

A black-winged angel with long, curly blonde hair appeared on the girl's field. Herbs, berries, and pouches hung from her neck and hair like a wreath while she used a thick twig to stir a golden poultice in a small round bowl she held in her left hand.

"I activate Salvation Seraphim Healer's effect!" the girl declared, stretching out her hand. "Once per turn, I can send the top card of my deck to my graveyard in order to Special Summon one Salvation Seraphim Monster from my graveyard."

The girl plucked a card from the top of her deck and slotted it into the graveyard zone of her duel disk before a black portal opened up in front of Salvation Seraphim Healer.

"I use Salvation Seraphim Healer to send Salvation Seraphim Angel from the top of my deck to the graveyard and summon the level three, Salvation Seraphim Saint, from my graveyard!" she proclaimed.

An angel with a white halo, black wings, which radiated golden light, white battle-armor, a long spear, and a round white shield appeared on Ruri's field before bowing to Salvation Seraphim Healer and descending into the black portal. Salvation Seraphim Healer poured her golden poultice into the black portal, scattering golden dust as she did. In response, the angel holding the scroll immediately rose from the portal and flew onto the girl's field, singing a hymn as it did.

"Salvation Seraphim Saint's effect activates!" the girl continued. "If it is Normal or Special Summoned, I can add 1 Rank-Up Spell card from my Deck or Graveyard to my hand!"

Salvation Seraphim Saint rose into the air and unrolled her scroll. Chanting in an unknown language, she glowed with light as the girl selected a card from her deck.

"I choose the Quick-Play magic, Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force." she said, adding the card to her hand.

"Rank-Up-Magic." Sora thought, remembering his duel against Shun. "So she must be from the Xyz Dimension!"

"Now it is time!" the girl declared, stretching her hand towards her three monsters.

"Here it comes!" Sora thought, "An Xyz Summon!"

"I overlay my three level three monsters, Salvation Seraphim Priestess, Healer, and Saint, and construct the overlay network!"

A black and gold Xyz Portal swirled to life on the ground in front of the girl's feet as her monsters turned to streams of golden light and drained into the center of the singularity before the girl began a summoning chant.

"Noble heavenly servant clad in the armor of righteousness," she chanted, bowing her head and putting her hands together in a praying position, "take courage now as you raise your holy blade to smite the forces of darkness and bring salvation to this world! XYZ SHOKAN!" she cried, eyes glowing white from beneath her hood, "RANK 3! SALVATION SERAPHIM BRAVE CRUSADER!"

The Xyz Portal exploded in a blast of multi-colored light as an angelic monster with glowing, white wings flew over the duel field. The angel looked youthful and determined, with short blonde hair, hard green eyes, and thin lips compressed into a serious expression. Clad in shiny, white armor, the angel looked like a noble knight from the middle ages. Raising a strait blade with cross-guards shaped like crucifixes, she let out a small, battle cry while three glowing spherical Overlay Units orbited her sword blade in a column of concentric rings. A holographic indicator appeared and showed the monster had 1800 ATK.

"Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader's effect activates!" the girl declared as two black portals appeared on the ground below Brave Crusader's feet. "When it is Xyz Summoned, I attach all Salvation Seraphim monsters in my graveyard to this card as Xyz Material! I use this effect now to attach the Salvation Seraphim Acolyte and Salvation Seraphim Angel that were sent to my graveyard by my monster's effects!"

Two glowing, white spheres rose from the graveyard and stacked themselves above the other three Overlay Units travelling around Brave Crusader's blade in a circular orbit.

"Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force's effect activates," the girl declared, as the pillar of light began glowing even brighter. "When I successfully Xyz Summon a Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster, I can attach one Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck to that card as an Xyz Material! I choose to attach the Rank 3, Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim, to my monster as Xyz Material!"

A girl in a plain, brown hood and shawl rose from the bottom of the pillar of light, using a long walking stick to balance herself while bowing to the hooded duelist with a cheerful smile before spreading a pair of white angel wings and flying up the pillar to where Brave Crusader was hovering in the air. Glowing with light, the angel slowly shrunk into a sphere of white light which zoomed towards Brave Crusader. Instead of orbiting the blade like the other Overlay Units, Wandering Pilgrim circled the body of Brave Crusader in a wider orbit.

"Brave Crusader gains 100 attack points for each of its Overlay Units!" the girl declared as Brave Crusader's ATK rose to 2400, "In addition, my monster gains the effects of each Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster attached to it as an Xyz Material!"

Sora frowned, not liking where the duel seemed to be headed.

"I activate the effect of Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader who has inherited the effect of Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim!" she continued, "Once per turn, I can detach one Overlay Unit to excavate the top three cards of my deck and add all excavated Salvation Seraphim monsters to my hand while returning all other cards excavated by this effect to the top of my deck in any order. I detach Salvation Seraphim Acolyte from Brave Crusader to activate the effect!"

Brave Crusader absorbed an overlay unit into her sword and extended a hand towards the girl, sprinkling gold dust on her. Glowing with golden light, the girl picked up three cards from the top of her deck.

"I add a second copy of Salvation Seraphim Priestess and Saint to my hand," She declared, showing Sora the cards, "and return the trap card, Salvation Seraphim Reconciliation Force, to the top of my deck.

"Next," she continued, pulling a card from her hand, "I activate the effect of Salvation Seraphim Acolyte from my Graveyard. By discarding one card from my hand, I can attach Acolyte from my Graveyard to one Winged Beast Type Xyz Monster I control. I discard the Equip Spell Card, Salvation Seraphim Holy Shield, and attach Acolyte to Brave Crusader as an Xyz Material."

A white sphere of light rose from a black portal in the ground, and rotated around Brave Crusader's Sword as an Overlay Unit.

The girl smiled underneath her hood.

"I now activate Brave Crusader's effect!" she declared, stretching out her hand, "Once per turn, if I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can detach any number of Overlay Units from her to inflict 100 damage to your Life Points for each unit detached! GO!" she commanded as Brave Crusader absorbed all of its Overlay Units into her sword and raised the blade above her head, "DIVINE SLASH!"

Slashing her sword through the air, the hooded duelist's monster created a crescent of yellow light that sped towards Sora, and slashed him in the check, dropping his Life Points to 3400.

Sora recoiled in shock as he felt blood splatter into his left eye and gush down his chin.

"You should be familiar with this tactic." the girl sneered, speaking to Sora in a venomous tone. "It's Academia's standard operating procedure. Damage and discourage opponents with effect damage before they have even begun their first turn."

Sora glared at her, spitting out his blood-covered lollipop and wiping his cheek off with his sleeve before popping another sucker into his mouth. He was not going to let her intimidate him, even if she'd found a way to make the Real Solid Vision even more lethally realistic.

"You did well for a first try," he mumbled, mocking her while sucking on his lollipop, "but it took you so long to do just 600 damage. And now you've only got a small, 1800 attack power monster. Honestly," he continued shaking his head, "I don't think I'll even have to get serious with you."

"That was a small taste of the retribution that lies in store for you." the girl replied with a laugh. "I will give you one last chance… fall down at my knees and beg for forgiveness and I might spare your life."

"End your turn." Sora rebutted, feeling her arrogance annoy him.

"All in good time my child." she purred, pulling another card from her hand.

"I activate the Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force I added to my hand and use my Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader as an Xyz Material to Xyz Summon a Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster two ranks higher!"

"Two ranks higher!" Sora gasped, remembering Shun accomplish something similar against Dennis.

A pair of S-shaped Symbols decorated with wing patterns appeared over Brave Crusader before Brave Crusader was sucked up into a black singularity in the center of the Double "S" mark.

"Honorable protector who shines with the light of truth," she chanted, "spread your glorious wings bathed in the glory of heaven and drive back evil with the fury of your unconquerable spirit! RANK-UP XYZ CHANGE!" she shouted as the Double "S" Symbol exploded in a pillar of light, "DESCEND NOW! SALVATION SERAPHIM HONORED CRUSADER!"

An angel with white wings, decorated with golden spheres of light, flew from the pillar of light, and pointed a massive, golden sword at Sora. Long red hair billowed in the wind as she gazed back at Sora with a determined expression on her face. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2400.

"Honored Crusader's effect activates, and Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force chains to the activation of my monster's effect!" the girl declared, raising her hands above her head. "I begin by attaching the Rank four, Salvation Seraphim Inspired Crusader, from my Extra Deck to Honored Crusader via the effect of Ascension Force!"

A black-haired angel clad in white armor rose from the bottom of the pillar of light, flew towards Honored Crusader, transformed into a ball of light, and began orbiting the body of the girl's new monster, crossing paths with a second Overlay Unit that was Brave Crusader.

"Next," she continued, "Honored Crusader's effect resolves! I attach all Salvation Seraphim monsters in my graveyard to my monster as Overlay Units!"

Six glowing white spheres of light flew from the girl's graveyard and raced towards Honored Crusader, five rotating in a column of rings around the angel's sword blade, with the last one joining the other two Overlay Units orbiting the angel's body.

The girl grinned even wider, dimples showing on her cheeks.

"I next banish Lost Salvation from my graveyard to activate the effect of my Salvation Seraphim Holy Shield!" she proclaimed, "If it is in my graveyard while I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can banish 1 Magic or Trap Card from my graveyard to attach Holy Shield to a face-up Salvation Seraphim monster I control as an Overlay Unit!"

Another sphere of light rose from the ground, and joined the other spheres of light orbiting Honored Crusader's sword.

"Honored Crusader gains the effects of each Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster attached to itself as an Overlay Unit!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together as Honored Crusader's ATK rose from 2400 to 3300.

Sora flinched as he saw the sudden ATK change.

In response, the girl let out a slow exhale, delighting in the situation.

"Sanctified Realm allows me to add 1 Magic or Trap Card from my deck to my hand if I have no monsters in my graveyard, but I cannot activate or set that card this turn. I choose to add the Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Pilgrimage Force, from my deck to my hand."

She added a card from her deck to her hand before setting another card from her hand on her Duel Disk.

"Finally," she added, "I set one card face down, and end my turn."

She gazed back at Sora from beneath her hood.

"This field is now a judgment hall." she declared, "Your actions during your turn will determine whether you walk away innocent or suffer the fate of the guilty. Now…" she commanded, bowing to Sora, "…show me your dueling and let your monsters act as your advocates as you fight for your redemption from the demands of justice!"

Sora looked back to where the two riding duelists were still playing. He had no clue who this crazy duelist was or how she had found him, but it didn't really matter. He just had to beat her as fast as possible so he could get back to his mission.

"I don't have time for this!" he muttered, drawing a card from his deck. Without hesitating, he began his turn.

"I play Toy Pot from my hand and activate its effect!" he declared, slamming down a Spell Card.

A large, colorful vending machine with robotic arms and a smiling mouth with a long tongue materialized onto Sora's field.

"So childish." the hooded duelist remarked. "Are you trying to convince me that you're nothing but an innocent kid?"

"Shut up!" Sora snarled, wanting to end things quickly. It was bad enough that she had interrupted him when he was only trying to protect Yuzu. Now she had to get on his nerves by acting like some self-appointed judge.

"Toy Pot effect!" Sora declared, "I discard the Furnimal mouse in my hand to draw a card from my deck, and if it is a Furnimal Monster, I can Special Summon it!"

A coin slotted into the vending machine which raised one of its robotic arms before dispensing a plastic, toy container from its long cartoony tongue.

"The card I drew," Sora continued, showing the hooded duelist the card he just drew, "is Furnimal Owl! Using Toy Pot's effect, I Special Summon Furnimal Owl from my hand!"

A plastic container rolled down the vending machines tongue before popping open and dispensing a cute, fluffy, plushy owl wearing a pair of glasses.

"When Furnimal Owl is summoned from my hand," Sora explained, "I can add 1 Fusion from my deck to my hand!"

He snagged a card from his deck and added it to his hand.

"I activate the Magic Card, Fusion!" Sora declared, slotting in the Spell Card while a Fusion Portal materialized behind him.

The hooded duelist visibly grimaced and Sora couldn't help smiling in response after managing to irritate her.

"I use the Furnimal Owl on my field and the Edge-Imp Tomahawk in my hand as Fusion Materials and Fusion Summon!" he declared, assuming a more serious expression as the two monsters glowed with red and yellow light before swirling into the center of the vortex in a blend of color.

"Demonic Axe and eyes of the void…" he commanded, "…blend together in the swirling vortex and become a new power! YUUGO SHOKAN!" he declared, clamping his hands together, "Come forth! Cruel night predator that chops all to pieces! Level 5, Death Toy Tomahawk Owl!"

A mangled and torn-up stuffed animal owl flew onto the duel field. Its ragged wings had so many axe heads poking through the seams that it looked like it was covered in steely feathers. Its bird feet were tipped with chipped axe heads, and the swollen eyes of its torn face bulged out like they would roll off the monsters torn frame any second. From within its open beak, a pair of demonic red eyes glared down at the hooded duelist while a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1800.

"Hmmm…" the hooded duelist mused, looking at Sora's Fusion Monster, "… could this be a representation of your soul?"

Sora smiled as he continued his move. Most people thought of his Fusion Monsters as freakish abominations, but he always appreciated how empowered they became after merging together from their Fusion Materials, like teammates in a sport.

"Next, I Normal Summon the level three monster, Edge-Imp Needle, and activate its effect!"

A demonic mesh of sewing needles and thread with a single, glowing red eye in its center appeared on Sora's field, poking the air with its needles like it wanted to stab something.

"Once per turn," Sora explained, "Edge-Imp needle can Special Summon 1 Furnimal monster in my graveyard! Be revived!" he commanded, "Furnimal Mouse!"

Edge-Imp needle shot a pair of needles and thread into the ground which retrieved a mess of fabric and stuffing before mending it together into a cute round blue mouse that held a donut in its paws while bouncing onto Sora's field.

"Furnimal Mouse's effect activates!" Sora declared, stretching out his hand, "I summon two other copies of Furnimal Mouse from my deck!"

"They're so adorable!" the hooded duelist exclaimed as another pair of cute mice bounced onto Sora's field. "I wonder," she remarked, "what horribly twisted monstrosity are you going to fuse these poor monsters into?"

"Fusion makes my monsters stronger." Sora retorted, smiling as he looked through the cards in his hand, "And I'll show you how!"

"From my hand, I activate a second Fusion, and fuse two copies of Furnimal Mouse from my field with the Edge-Imp Scissors in my hand!"

A second fusion portal appeared behind Sora as his three cards swirled into the center in a blend of blue and yellow light. Feeling the light of the Fusion Portal radiate against his body with its gentle glow, Sora reveled in the beauty of seemingly unrelated monsters putting all their differences aside and becoming something even better.

"Steel blades possessed by demons and sharp fangs…" he chanted, "…become one in the mystic whirlpool and reveal to us a new form! YUUGO SHOKAN! Mystical beast of the jungle who tears all to shreds, DEATH TOY SCISSOR TIGER!"

A mangled, stuffed tiger held together with a hideous mesh of scissor blades appeared onto Sora's field, laughing like a maniac while a pair of demon eyes stared back from within its gaping mouth.

"Death Toy Tomahawk Owl's effect activates!" Sora declared, holding out his hand, "If I Fusion Summon a Death Toy monster, I can inflict 800 damage to my opponent's Life Points! GO!" He commanded, "Death Toy Tomahawk Owl!"

Tomahawk Owl screeched in a high-pitched demon voice as it shot a shower of axe heads in the hooded duelist's direction.

The girl didn't even flinch.

"Sanctified Realm's effect…" she calmly declared, "…If I control a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck and I have no monsters in my graveyard, I take no damage."

"What!?" Sora gasped as the axe blades disintegrated into dust before they even touched the duelist.

She gazed back at Sora from behind her hood.

"It is no use, child of Academia." she explained with a smile. "So long as my graveyard is not defiled by the death of my monsters, I shall be invincible."

"I'm not done yet!" Sora countered. No matter what obstacle stood in his way, he would not let her stop him. Especially if all she managed to do was negate a little effect damage.

"Death Toy Scissor Tiger's effect activates!" he declared, stretching out his hand. "When it is summoned, I can destroy one card on the field for each of its Fusion Materials! I choose to destroy your Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader and face-down card and my own Toy Pot with its effect!"

From its belly, Death Toy Scissor Tiger stretched out a pair of Scissor blades that slammed down on Brave Crusader and the face down card.

"Sanctified Realm effect." the hooded duelist sighed, lazily stretching out her hand as if to stop the scissor blades. "While I control a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck and there are no monsters in my graveyard, each card I control cannot be destroyed once per turn."

A golden sphere of light formed around Honored Crusader and the face-down card, causing Scissor Tiger's blades to bounce harmlessly off.

"Did I not already tell you?" the hooded duelist asked with a smirk, "I am invincible so long as my graveyard is not defiled."

"That's why I also targeted my Toy Pot." Sora countered, not letting the girl get in his head. "I thought there might be some trick like that, so I destroyed one of my own cards so I could do this."

He stretched out his hand as Scissor Tiger, smashed Toy Pot to pieces with its fluffy blue tiger paws.

"When Toy Pot is sent to the graveyard," he explained, "I can draw one card from my deck!"

He jerked a card from the top of his deck while the hooded duelist seemed to chuckle with amusement.

Sora looked at his hand, determined to not let her powerful Field Spell Card deter him from his mission to protect Yuzu.

"It's here!" he thought to himself, "Noticing one of the cards he had drawn."

Holding out his hand to Death Toy Tomahawk Owl, he continued his turn.

"Once per turn, Death Toy Tomahawk Owl allows me to add 1 Fusion, Furnimal, or Edge-Imp monster from my deck or graveyard to my hand. I use its effect to add my third copy of Fusion from my deck to my hand!"

Death Toy Tomahawk Owl glowed orange as Sora tore another card from his deck and added it to the other card in his hand.

"I activate the magic card, Fusion!" Sora cried, face darkening as he let himself focus on his mission to protect Yuzu, "I Fuse the last copy of Furnimal Mouse and Edge-Imp Needle on my field!"

He spread out his arms and began a fusion chant.

"Infernal doll maker and sharp fangs," he commanded, "merge your combined ferocity into a new force and overwhelm our enemies with your devouring swarm! YUUGO SHOKAN!" he screamed, looking slightly crazier, "COME FORTH! Rabid beast that pierces all! Death Toy Needle Mouse!"

Shrieking like a rat with rabies, a new fusion monster scurried onto the duel field. It's torn, plushy body vaguely resembled a Furnimal Mouse that had been stretched out, torn apart, and twisted to look more demonic. On its back, head, and through its eyes, thousands of needles poked out in all directions like a pincushion. Within its mouth, which was barely held together with a few ragged pieces of thread, a single, red demonic eye stared back at the hooded duelist. A holographic indicator appeared and showed it had 800 ATK.

"When Death Toy Needle Mouse is Special Summoned Successfully," Sora continued, "I can special summon up to two copies of Death Toy Needle Mouse from my Extra Deck or Graveyard! Come forth!" he commanded as Needle Mouse stood on its hind legs and began shrieking into the air, "Two more Death Toy Needle Mouse!"

Two more mangled mouse dolls scurried up next to the original.

"Death Toy Scissor Tiger increases the attack of all Death Toy monsters by 300 for each Death Toy and Furnimal monster I control." Sora went on, spinning the stick of his lollipop while he stepped back to admire the force he had assembled.

Scissor Tiger glowed with a yellow light as it roared and its ATK increased to 3400, Tomahawk Owl's increased to 3300, and each copy of Needle Mouse's ATK increased to 2300.

The hooded duelist smiled. "So your monster's attack power is now higher than Honored Crusader's. Was this your plan all along?"

"I could try attacking." Sora thought to himself. "Problem is, I don't know what her face-down is. I need to make sure nothing stops me so I can end this duel right now." He looked back to where Yuzu was dueling and decided to go through with his plan.

Sora placed his final card on his Duel Disk.

"I activate the Continuous Magic, Death Toy Factory!" he declared. "Once per turn," he explained, "Death Toy Factory allows me to banish one Fusion Card from my graveyard to Fusion Summon one Death Toy Monster."

He removed a copy of Fusion from his graveyard. Before extending his hand toward his trio of Needle Mice.

"I fuse three copies of Death Toy Needle Mouse and Fusion Summon!" he declared as the three mice swirled into a Fusion Portal, shrieking demonically as they did.

"Unusual plaything possessed by demons," he chanted, "Destroy and root out the plebeians who dare rebel against you! YUUGO SHOKAN!" He screamed, slamming his hands together, "COME FORTH! A CHIMERIC FUSION OF ALL PLAYTHINGS! DEATH TOY MAD CHIMERA!"

The hooded duelist took a step back as the ground shook with each massive step of Sora's new colossal Fusion Monster. Supported by four heavy anvil feet, the monster's lopsided body consisted of a mangled pink teddy bear with crowbars and other tools sticking out of its seams, a decapitated stuffed squirrel head on a long metallic pole, a ragged sock puppet with needle teeth, and a long green toy snake. With the effect of Death Toy Scissor Tiger, its ATK rose from 2800 to 3700.

"When Death Toy Needle Mouse is sent from the field to the graveyard," Sora declared, "I can increase my Life Points by 800. With three copies of Needle Mouse sent to the graveyard, that's 2400 Life points.

Sora glowed with blue light as his Life Points rose from 3400 to 5800.

"Mad Chimera's effect activates!" Sora declared, "When it attacks, my opponent cannot activate Spell or Trap Cards until the end of the Battle Phase! Go! Mad Chimera! Attack her Honored Crusader!"

Mad Chimera's teddy bear eyes glowed red as the pink teddy bear stretched open its enormous mouth and launched a missile at Honored Crusader.

"Once any of your monsters are in your graveyard, you will no longer be protected by your Field Spell." Sora mumbled, crunching on his lollipop, "Then you will be open for some direct attacks. It's game over for you!"

The hooded duelist laughed as white light streamed out from behind her back.

"Honored Crusader gains the effects of the Inspired Crusader attached to it as an Overlay Unit!" she declared, stretching her hand towards Sora. "If it battles a monster, I negate that monster's effects and decrease its attack and defense by 100 for each Overlay Unit attached to my monster!"

Sora gasped in shock as the girl's monster flew strait towards the missile, sliced it to ribbons with her sword, and slashed a gaping hole into Mad Chimera, dropping its attack power to its original 2800.

"Destroy!" the girl commanded, baring her fangs.

Honored Crusader flew straight into the air before swooping down and slamming her massive sword directly onto Mad Chimera's head, cutting all the way down to the bottom until the entire monstrosity was split into two pieces that exploded into bits of stuffing and scrap metal.

Sora was thrown against the energy wall with the force of the explosion. Struggling back onto his feet, he groaned as his Life Points dropped to 5300.

"Your advocate has failed you, child of Academia!" the girl declared, pointing her finger at Sora. "Not that it would have mattered even if I didn't have Inspired Crusader's effect. Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim also has an effect that prevents herself from being destroyed by battle while I have no monsters in my graveyard."

Sora desperately tried to think if there was something more he could do, but with no cards in his hand, he realized that he had really run out of options for his first turn.

"You have no more arguments in your defense. End your turn and face your judgment!" the hooded duelist growled, baring her teeth like a predator.

Sora clenched his fist in frustration. He had tried everything to damage her. There had been no flaw in his strategy. He had even summoned his ace monster! But it didn't seem to matter. Nothing he was doing was damaging her even one bit!

Hanging his head down, he decided the best thing he could do for now was hold out with his 5300 Life Points and wait for an answer next turn.

"Turn end!" Sora snarled, frustrated by the growing distance between himself and Yuzu.

"Yes…" the hooded duelist smiled. "…it is the end for you."

Darkness seemed to gather around her as she reached for her deck slot.

"My turn…" she murmured, "…DRAW!" she screamed, ripping a card from the top of her deck.

She smiled at Sora.

"Your dueling skills are at the apex level, even better than the Obelisk Force's abilities." she complimented. "You truly are a credit to Academia's strength."

Sora scowled back at her, uninterested in her praise.

"You are also…" she whispered, "…a credit to their brutality!"

"Are you gonna do your turn or what!?" Sora whined, "I have way more important things to do than deal with Xyz scum like you and your revenge!"

The girl clutched at her chest, snickering with glee.

"But don't you see my child?" she asked, sounding more and more like a nun. "This is far more than a duel! This game has put your soul on display to be judged of me!"

She stretched out her hands. All around Sora, the white clouds of Sanctified Realm blackened and began rolling with thunder and crackling with lightning.

"You have shown me your true character as you conducted your turn!" she continued, white light blazing from underneath her hood and from behind her back. "You conducted yourself just as Academia does, sacrificing all your monsters to the cold graveyard just so you can achieve greater power! Your graveyard now writhes with the souls of your monsters, even as you stand with the hideous monstrosities your Fusion Summoning has created! Let this stand as a testament against you as we behold your sins!"

She bent the fingers of her right hand till it looked like a claw and slammed her hand onto the cloudy ground. The black clouds swirled about and clashed against each other in a tempest as lightning crackled all around both duelists from within the energy walls.

Screaming with rage, the hooded duelist raised her hands above her head. Suddenly, the black clouds vanished away, and Sora suddenly saw himself a few meters away, laughing with malicious glee as he had his Death Toy Wheel Saw Lion chase down a few frightened duelists before he carded them with his Duel Disk.

"What is this!?" Sora shouted in panic, recognizing his past battles in the Xyz Dimension.

The girl looked on with clenched fists and bared teeth as more scenes of Sora's past hunting games played out. Scores of men, women, and children were quickly carded by Sora as he wore a deranged smile on his face and laughed with other Academia students as they compared the number of cards they had each collected.

"Monster!" the girl growled, pressing her teeth against each other. "FOUL MURDERER!" she screamed.

The scene shifted, and Sora suddenly saw himself hanging out with Yuya, Yuzu, and the other students of You Show Duel School. He acted just like a friend to them, and even bonded with Yuzu as he taught her how to Fusion Summon.

The girl twisted her lips in a hideous grin.

"A false friend!" she declared, "A deceiver! Just like everyone in Academia!"

"I was not deceiving her!" Sora screamed back, enraged that the girl had somehow managed to find his precious memories and distort them into a picture she wanted to see.

"Really!?" the girl snarled, "Well… why don't we see how you repaid their friendship!"

The scene changed again, and Sora suddenly relived his duel with Shun as he watched himself mercilessly tear apart the holographic representation of Heartland with his Fusion Monsters in an effort to destroy his opponent.

The girl stood silent this time, clenching her right fist harder and harder, until blood trickled between her fingers as she dug her nails into her skin.

The hooded duelist whipped her head around to face Sora.

"Do you know who I am!?" she hissed.

"I don't care who you are!" Sora shouted back. "This is none of your business! You have no right to see this!"

"I have every right to witness the pain of my friends, family, and homeland!" she roared, blasting the scene back into a raging tempest of black clouds with a wave of her bloody hand. "And I have every right to avenge them! Thank you, child of Academia!" she declared with a god-like reverb, "You have shown me all the reasons I am fighting now! You have reminded me how to feel true rage!"

"I summon another copy of Salvation Seraphim Priestess!" she said, slamming down a card, "And now I activate its effect! I excavate the top cards of my deck, adding Salvation Seraphim Oracle to my hand, while sending the cards, Salvation Seraphim Acolyte and Disciple, to the graveyard!"

She shoved a pair of cards into her graveyard while adding the other card to her hand while lightning clapped behind her.

"From my hand…" she continued, "…I activate the effect of Salvation Seraphim Oracle! By sending it and the Salvation Seraphim Saint from my hand to the graveyard, I am allowed to arrange the top six cards of my deck in any order!"

A copy of Salvation Seraphim Saint and a new black-winged angel, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, descended into the graveyard. Salvation Seraphim Oracle wore a black bandage over her eyes like a blind person while running her fingers along the cracks of some burnt bones like an ancient Chinese fortune teller.

The girl picked six cards up from her deck, and promptly put them back on top of her deck without even looking at them.

"Of course…" she mused, "…Oracle's effect does not truly matter now. I only need her to experience the pain of the graveyard before I unleash that pain right back at you!" she proclaimed, pointing her bloody finger at Sora.

Sora winced at the girl's naked rage, feeling something he had felt back when he had dueled Shun in Standard. This time however, it was a lot more intense.

"I next Special Summon the level three monster, Salvation Seraphim Apostle, from my hand with her own effect!" the girl hissed, staining her card with blood as she placed it on her Duel Disk.

A brown haired girl with glowing, white and gold robes and a pair of black, angel wings with golden tassels hanging from the bottom, flew onto the girl's field. From the folds of her robes, she pulled out a thick, ancient tome and began chanting in an angelic tongue, painting yellow lines in the air with one hand while she did.

"When Salvation Seraphim Apostle is Special Summoned," the girl explained, "I can add one Salvation Seraphim or Rank-Up Card from my deck or graveyard to my hand! I use its effect now to add the Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force, from my deck to my hand!"

Salvation Seraphim Apostle, chanted a hymn before completing the drawing in the air. It was the same pair of S-shaped markings decorated to look like Angel wings that had appeared on the girl's other cards. The Salvation Seraphim mark condensed into a mass of gold dust till it transformed into a small card that flew into the hooded duelist's hand.

"I next activate the Magic Card, Rank-Up-Magic Pilgrimage Force, which I added to my hand the previous turn! With it, I use my monster as an Overlay Unit to Xyz Summon one Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck that is up to two ranks higher!"

A golden, Double-S symbol appeared above Honored Crusader's head. Flying towards the center of the symbol, the Red-headed angel condensed into a stream of golden light which emptied into the symbol before the symbol exploded in another massive pillar of radiant light.

"Unyielding guardian whose devotion to the gospel of salvation knows no bounds," she chanted, "unleash your righteous fury upon all the works of the evil one as you commit your heart to a life of consecrated service! RANK-UP XYZ CHANGE!" she roared, "DESCEND NOW! RANK 6! SALVATION SERAPHIM ZEALOUS CRUSADER!"

Burning with flaming armor, the new Salvation Seraphim Monster bathed the black clouds in red light as her wild, auburn and orange hair billowed in the wind. The tops of her white wings were clad in crimson and gold battle-armor and the center of her red-hot chest plate blazed with the golden Double-S mark of the Salvation Seraphim. In one hand, she carried a massive, crimson and gold shield while the other hand hefted an enormous, shiny Zweihander with serrated edges.

"Ascension Force Effect activates!" she proclaimed, holding her hand toward the pillar of light. "I attach my Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit to my monster as Xyz Material!"

An elderly angel with short grey hair, a burlap hood over her face, and a large wooden staff in her hand, rose from the bottom of the pillar of light and flew towards Zealous Crusader until it shrank down into a sphere of light which orbited Zealous Crusader's body.

"Zealous Crusader's effect activates!" she declared, "Bring salvation to my monsters now!" she commanded as another swarm of glowing spheres of light rose from her graveyard and approached Zealous Crusader until five spheres orbited its body and another ten orbited its sword.

"Next," she continued, "I banish Pilgrimage Force from my graveyard to activate its effect! I can attach two Salvation Seraphim monsters from my hand, side of the field, or graveyard to a Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster I control as Overlay Units! I use this effect on the Salvation Seraphim Priestess and Apostle I summoned!"

Salvation Seraphim Priestess and Apostle rose into the air, joining the growing column of rings orbiting Zealous Crusader's sword.

She pulled another card from her hand.

"Now that my graveyard is purified," she explained, "I can activate the Magic Card, Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force!"

A massive, pure white Salvation Seraphim Symbol appeared over Zealous Crusader's head. Unlike the previous symbols, the wing patterns on the upper, heart-shaped section of the double S's was more stylized, with larger, silvery wing patterns and a set of ten, shining orbs embedded within the lines. On the bottom half of the double S's, a second pair of smaller wings decorated the serpentine ending of each "S." Zealous Crusader glowed with silvery light before merging itself into the symbol and exploding into a pillar of blinding white light.

"With Paragon Force, I can use my monster to Xyz Summon a Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster whose rank is up to four ranks higher."

She bowed her hand and placed her hands together in a prayer.

"Noble spirit with essence distilled from the purest materials of heaven," she chanted, "carry forth the will of the almighty God and lead the hosts of paradise in a glorious crusade! RANK UP XYZ CHANGE! BEHOLD!" she declared, "RANK 8! SALVATION SERAPHIM GLORIOUS CRUSADER!"

Sora shielded his eyes as the entire field was enveloped in an infinitely bright white light that banished the shadows of the dark storm clouds. Tossing her long grey-and-white hair behind her head, the new angel spread out two, massive pairs of white wings, clad in silver and gold armor, in a large X-pattern. The Salvation Seraphim marked blazed on her chest-plate, and massive shield, while the hilt of her gargantuan sword was styled to mimic the shape of the symbol. As the angel raised her sword above her head, Sora could hear angelic choirs singing in the background, proclaiming the arrival of the hooded duelist's new monster.

"Ascension Force effect!" she commanded, raising her arms to the Angel, "I attach the Rank one, Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor, in my Extra Deck to my monster as an Overlay Unit!"

An angel with dark grey feathers arose from the bottom of the pillar of light before making a quick bow to Sora. Her short grey hair was pulled into a tight bun which she kept mostly covered with a deep black hood and a wide brimmed black hat that concealed most of her face. Beneath the folds of her dark black judge robes, she held a massive iron gavel in one hand while her other hand held a small grey iron scale. Ascending the pillar, she shook her head at Sora before transforming into a sphere of light that orbited the body of Glorious Crusader.

The Xyz duelist stared back at Sora with an iron hard glare from beneath her hood.

"Glorious Crusader gains the effects of each Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster attached to it as an Overlay Unit. With seven Xyz Monsters as Overlay Units and twelve other cards as its regular Overlay Units, Brave Crusader's ability raises Glorious Crusader's attack and defense by 1900."

Sora gasped in Shock as a holographic indicator showed Glorious Crusader's ATK rise from 3000 to 4900.

"As my monster is," the girl remarked examining the angel with a scowl, "I could destroy you right now."

She looked back down at Sora and smiled.

"But that would not be enough." she murmured, "It's not enough to merely beat you." she held out her arms like she wanted to embrace Sora, blood still dripping from her right hand.

"I am here to cleanse you, child of Academia!" she proclaimed, "I will purge your soul of each of your iniquities, every bit of them!"

"Stop calling me that!" Sora muttered, trying to maintain a little dignity even if it looked like he was about to be defeated.

"All the people of Academia are nothing more than wayward children to me." she smirked, "Including your dear professor. They need to be punished before they can be purified. But don't worry, I will see to it that you all are thoroughly cleansed before I redeem your dimension." She extended her hand toward her face-down card. "Let's start with you!"

"I activate my face down!" she declared, "Rank-Down-Trap Judgment Force!"

"Rank-Down!?" Sora cried, never hearing of a card like that before.

Her face-down card flipped over, revealing a picture depicting a set of large scales weighing a cluster of glowing white Overlay Units on one scale, against an equally large pile of pitch black crystals on the other scale.

"Rank-Down-Trap Judgment Force allows me to target 1 Xyz Monster I control in order to Dark Xyz Summon a Dark Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck whose Rank is equal to the Rank of the targeted Xyz Monster times negative one using the targeted Xyz Monster as the Dark Xyz Material."

"Dark Xyz Summon!?" Sora exclaimed, growing even more confused.

The girl smiled coldly back at him before turning to her monster as a set of black chains poured from the Trap Card and bound the angel.

Salvation Seraphim Glorious Crusader gasped in shock as she struggled against the dark bindings. Looking down at the girl as if she had been betrayed, she seemed to plead with the hooded duelist to release her from her bondage.

In response, the girl held out her bloody, right hand and slowly clenched it in a crushing gesture.

Glorious Crusader screamed in agony as her overlay units slowly compacted and condensed until they formed small compressed shiny black crystals, which hovered in place instead of orbiting her body and sword. As Glorious Crusader gasped for breath, the sound of her screams suddenly faded from existence as her body slowly became colorless and translucent. When she was almost completely invisible, her body suddenly collapsed in on itself, sucking the nineteen black crystals into an infinitely tiny point of space. The center of the singularity warped the fabric of space as the surrounding area seemed to bend and stretch till it was sucked inside. As the singularity grew in size, Sora felt himself being pulled toward its center as he struggled against the sudden surge of gravity.

Seemingly unaffected by the anomaly, the hooded duelist raised her hands high above her head and began chanting like she was saying a prayer.

"LEGENDARY, FALLEN GUARDIAN OF THE FIRST PARADISE!" she called in a voice that sounded like a god's, "THE TIME HAS COME FOR THEE TO EXECUTE DIVINE PUNISHMENT UPON THE WAYWARD SOULS OF HUMANITY ONCE MORE! UNSHEATH THY FLAMING SWORD OF VENGEANCE AND SMITE THE ENEMIES OF HOLINESS WITH THY RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION! DARK XYZ SHOKAN!" she screamed as the fabric of space seemed to unfold from the singularity and a new monster stretched out from the center. "DESCEND NOW!" she commanded, "RANK NEGATIVE EIGHT! EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO CHERUBIM!"

From her extra deck, she pulled out the most unusual card Sora had ever seen. The card was slightly translucent so that Sora could see the girl's fingers though the card as she held it above her head. Unlike the black stars on the left side showing the rank of the Xyz monster, this card had a set of eight, cream colored stars on the right side somewhat similar to a regular monster level. The instant she placed the card on her Duel Disk, Sora was blasted back as shockwaves emanated from the hooded duelist and the new monster landed on her field.

Sheathed in thick, shiny steel armor, the girl's new monster looked like a cross between an angel and a living metal statue. Each of its wings were broken into three massive separate hovering segments, which were each completely sheathed in shiny chrome armor. Its armor was thick, sinuous, and tight against its skin, with literally millions of steel segments flexing against each other like muscle fibers. Its face was covered in an ornate steel helmet with seven spikes poking from the top like a crown and a steely mask with an emotionless expression. A primitive looking pattern of white lines covered the angel's body and glowed with a ghostly white light against its solid body. In its massive clawed hands, it held a gargantuan two-handed sword that was twice its own height and looked like it was made of pure red-hot magma as it blazed with uncontrollable flames. Instead of a multitude of translucent, spherical Overlay Units, Sora could see several small circular regions of its body that were translucent, allowing him to see into the monster like an X-ray and notice a shiny black crystal hovering in place within the monster. The monster had a crystal in each of its wing segments, one in each ankle, one in each upper leg, one in its navel, one in its chest, a single crystal in each bicep and in each of its wrists, one in the center of its forehead, and three embedded within its massive sword.

"Geo Cherubim's original attack and defense are each equal to the number of Dark Overlay Units it possesses times one-thousand." the girl coldly remarked.

Sora froze, open mouthed with terror as the angel rose into the air, unfolding its massive metallic wings and detaching small, metal pieces from them until each metal piece hovered in place to form a gigantic steel ring, which glowed with immeasurably intense light, behind the monster while the monster's sword blazed with a fiery inferno and its ATK rose to 20,000.

"This is bad!" Sora thought to himself. "Very bad!"

"Geo Cherubim's effect activates!" the hooded duelist declared. "I can banish one of its Dark Overlay Units and one card on the field or graveyard to cut my opponent's life points in half!"

"What!" Sora gasped.

The girl smiled back at him.

"I told you…" she whispered, "…I would purify every wretched sin from your soul before sending your miserable self to the afterlife." she pointed her bloody finger at him. "Your field and graveyard are stained with the hideous crimes of your Fusion Summoning." she hissed. "But now…" she grinned, "…now I will make your field and graveyard pure as the wind-driven snow!"

Sora stared back at her in stunned disbelief.

She raised her hand to her monster. "Geo Cherubim's effect!" she snarled. "I banish one Dark Overlay Unit and Death Toy Scissor Tiger to halve your Life Points!"

Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim began flexing his right arm, muscles bulging beneath his metal armor as he did. With the sound of intense cracking and shattering, the black crystal in his wrist slowly compacted into a tiny speck until it disappeared entirely and the skin over where the black crystal once stood became opaque. Geo Cherubim's body began radiating a deep black light before the ring behind its body lit up the entire duel field as it shot a cylindrical ring of light into Death Toy Scissor Tiger, burning the hideous demonic stuffed animal away until not even dust remained.

"For invading our city and destroying our homes," the girl chanted, "feel the destruction you inflicted upon us! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!" she called out as the angel plunged his massive sword into the ground, ripping a massive fissure into the earth and sending fiery magma strait at Sora.

Sora screamed in agony as the magma seared his flesh and knocked him back till he slammed against the white force field and his Life Points dropped to 2650.

"For the thousands you killed when your destruction forced us to suffer disease, drought, and famine!" she shouted, "I banish another Dark Overlay Unit and Death Toy Tomahawk Owl to cut your life points in half! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!" she commanded.

The Angel flexed his left arm, crushing the Dark Overlay Unit on his left wrist into a singularity till it vanished away. In another blazing column of light, Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim vaporized the screeching stuffed owl monster before plunging his sword into the ground once more and slamming Sora back into the wall with another wave of magma, reducing his Life Points to 1325.

Struggling back onto his feet, Sora looked up to see tears streaming down the girls cheeks.

"For taking everything from me," she wept, "for tearing my life apart and ripping me from everyone I loved. For sending me to my grave!" she screamed, "I banish another Dark Overlay Unit and your Death Toy Factory! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Sora screamed as his Spell Card was disintegrated and another wave of magma blasted him against the wall, dropping his life points to 662.5.

Shockwaves from the blast blew against the girl's face, blowing off her hood and exposing her face.

Sora gasped when he saw her. Other than a pair of coal-black eyes with glowing blood-red irises and a white wing tattoo over her left eye, the girl looked completely identical to Yuzu.

"I AM KUROSAKI RURI!" she proclaimed, "AND YOU CANNOT OPPRESS ME ANYMORE!"

Ruri raised her hands above her head.

"FOR MY FRIENDS, MY FAMILY, AND ALL THE VALIANT FATHERS WHO DEFENDED THEIR LOVED ONES!" she screamed, "I BANISH THREE DARK OVERLAY UNITS AND YOUR FURNIMAL MICE! FEEL THEIR PAIN NOW AS YOU BURN IN THE FLAMES OF VENGEANCE! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Geo Cherubim flexed his muscles, crushing the three Dark Overlay Units on his right wing into nothingness. A ghostly after-image of Sora's three Furnimal Mice rose from the grave before getting ripped into smoke by the blast from Geo Cherubim's ring. Swinging its sword above its head, the angel fired a blast of magma at Sora from its sword blade, flipping Sora ten meters into the air before he landed with a thud and his life points dropped to 82.8125.

"FOR THE INNOCENT MOTHERS, CHILDREN, AND NEW-BORN INFANTS!" Ruri roared, veins sticking out from her neck and forehead, "I BANISH THREE DARK OVERLAY UNITS AND YOUR THREE DEATH TOY NEEDLE MICE! EXPEREINCE THEIR HORROR AND KNOW THAT YOU CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Geo Cherubim crushed three Dark Overlay Units on his left wing.

Sora didn't even know, or care how many Life Points he had left. All he knew was that they were low… very low. As the angel blew away the Needle Mice in his graveyard and used its sword to continuously beat Sora against the wall of light, Sora felt agony rip through his body as his bones crunched against each other, his flesh burned, and his gashes bled.

"Feel every pain we endured as you beat us down with your violence!" Ruri hissed, tears dripping from her chin. Geo Cherubim crushed a Dark Overlay Unit on his right bicep. "RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!" she commanded.

Geo Cherubim fired another beam of light into Sora's graveyard, annihilating Sora's Edge-Imp Scissors before slicing into Sora's left shoulder with another fiery blast of magma.

"Tremble in fear as you face the horrors you made my people experience." Ruri whispered, quivering with agony and rage as Geo Cherubim Crushed the Dark Overlay Unit in its right bicep. "RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!" she roared.

Geo Cherubim blew Edge-Imp Tomahawk into a powdery mist with another beam of light before slashing Sora's right shoulder with more searing magma.

"For all these things…" Ruri snarled, "…I will never forgive Fusion! I banish two Dark Overlay Units and both copies of Fusion from your graveyard! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Sora didn't even manage to stagger to his feet before a wave of magma sliced into his left leg.

"FOR TAKING AWAY OUR HOPES!" Ruri screamed, scattering blood as she slashed the air with her right hand, "I BANISH ANOTHER DARK OVERLAY UNIT FROM MY MONSTER AND THE TOY POT FROM YOUR GRAVEYARD! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Sora struggled to maintain consciousness as a shard of flaming magma stabbed into his left arm, scattering sparks before Sora managed to beat it away with his right arm.

"FOR TAKING AWAY OUR DREAMS!" Ruri wept, face burning red hot as her expression twisted into one of pure rage, "I BANISH A DARK OVERLAY UNIT FROM MY MONSTER AGAIN, ALONG WITH THE WRETCHED EGE-IMP NEEDLE FROM YOUR GRAVEYARD! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Sora let out a scream, tears streaming down his eyes as yet another blast of magma slashed into his right arm.

"FOR TAKING OUR JOY!" Ruri mourned, closing her eyes as a fresh stream of tears gushed out, "I BANISH A DARK OVERLAY UNIT AND FURNIMAL OWL! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!

Sora lost hearing as a blast of magma blew into his right leg, knocking him back against the wall and leaving a dull ringing in his ears.

"For every last sin Academia has committed against the universe…" Ruri whispered, slowly approaching Sora, "…I punish thee now… child of Academia."

Ruri looked into Sora's eyes with pure loathing, irises glowing with a blood-red flame against her coal-black sclera.

"Righteous Indignation." she murmured as Geo Cherubim crushed a Dark Overlay Unit in its sword.

Geo Cherubim's ring glowed with intense light as it shot a final massive, cylindrical ring of light into Sora's graveyard, ripping through the ghostly image of Sora's Death Toy Mad Chimera like light through shadow.

Sora managed to shield his chest and face with his wounded arms and hands, before a final wave of magma slammed into his body, slamming him against the wall of light so hard, that he stuck to it for a moment before sliding down to the ground.

Ruri approached Sora's broken body and picked him up from the ground by the collar with her bloody right hand. Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim slowly descended from the sky, holding his fiery sword like an executioner's blade above Sora's head while a holographic indicator displayed a still-massive attack power of 3000. Barely able to keep consciousness, Sora managed to glance at his Duel Disk and see he had a measly .040435791015625 Life Points left. Normally, the emergency forced return function on his Duel Disk would detect his critical injuries and warp him back to Academia, but Sora had made sure to disable that function before he left the island.

"Before I destroy you…" Ruri whispered into Sora's ear, "…I want to hear you beg for my forgiveness! I want to hear you plead to every single person you've tormented as you whimper for your pathetic life to be spared. Now…" she commanded, "…appeal to my mercy!"

Sora barely managed to lift his head before his eyes widened with shock when he noticed something happen on the Friendship Cup track.

"YUZU!" he screamed, forgetting about his pain.

"What!?" Ruri exclaimed, whipping her head around to see what Sora had witnessed. Noticing a holographic screen displaying the Friendship Cup duel, she watched as Sergey slammed his massive bike into Yuzu's tiny pink D-wheeler, sending her flying off the track.

"FLOWER BLOOMING UPON THE BATTLEFIELD…" Ruri heard Sergey scream, "…SCATTER!"

A massive wheel of twisted vines and thorns slammed into a beautiful fairy bound to a sphere of thorny vines, slicing it to pieces before the shockwaves from the blast knocked Yuzu into the side of a massive skyscraper.

"YUZU!" Sora screamed again as a violent explosion burst from the side of the skyscraper. He could not believe what had happened. If it hadn't have been for his duel against Ruri, if he had of just been able to beat her during his turn, he could have been watching Yuzu. He could have saved her!"

Ruri dropped Sora on the ground and deactivated her Duel Disk, running in the direction of where Yuzu had crashed. As Sora slowly lost consciousness, he felt himself hallucinate as Ruri inexplicably grew a pair of angel wings from a glowing white heron mark shining beneath her clothes and flew away towards the skyscraper before disappearing entirely.

…

Ruri flew as fast as she could to the burning crash site, rushing past helicopters and holographic screens as she flapped her wings. Swooping down into the smoking hole in the side of the building, Ruri slid onto the floor before folding her wings back into her mark. Tossing aside D-wheelers and rubble, she cleared away a path for herself before spying Yuzu's burnt body lying underneath a pile of burning D-wheelers and rubble.

Ruri pounced on Yuzu's unconscious body, wrenching her free from the flames before raising her right hand into the air.

"Disperse." she commanded.

Immediately, the flames and smoke cleared away in a fifteen meter radius around her.

Cradling Yuzu in her arms, she removed her cracked pink helmet and wiped soot and hair from her face before closing her eyes, making it look like she was only sleeping.

"Why does this have to happen to us?" Ruri mourned, kissing Yuzu's forehead before gently laying her body on the ground.

Ruri's eyes and mark glowed with white light as she raised her arms above her head, forming a circle of black fire around them.

"I'm coming for you… Yuzu." she whispered before laying down next to Yuzu and closing her eyes, letting her spirit drift into the Underworld.

…

"Yuzu…Yuzu!"

Yuzu awoke when she heard someone calling her name. Lifting her head, she gasped when she beheld her body suspended in an infinite, black mist.

Swimming against the shadows, she struggled to stand upright as she tried to take in her desolate environment and recall what had just happened to her. She remembered dueling only moments before. She remembered winning against her opponent, Sergey, before he was suddenly badly injured when a piece of the track tore open his right arm. She had tried to stop the duel so he could get care and medical attention rather than just get dropped into the underground force labor facility the second he lost to have his wound get infected till he died from disease and over-work. She had tried to convince the audience to cancel the duel, but nobody was listening to her.

After that… things became blurred. She remembered Sergey suddenly laughing at her. Taunting her like he wanted to be in pain. He started muttering something about the beauty of crushing her just when she thought she had won. He sped away on his bike, laughing like a maniac before pulling out a Fusion card and Fusion Summoning a monster nobody saw coming. She remembered gasping in shock when his 0 ATK monster suddenly raised its ATK to 4600 with its own ability before reducing her own monsters ATK to 100 and increasing its own ATK to an even greater 4800. He declared an attack on her monster, preparing to wipe out her Life Points in one go, when she had suddenly spotted something on the track… an Action Card! She raced her bike forward to grab the Action Card and turn the duel around before she suddenly saw Sergey swing his bike around and slam into her. She went flying into the air as his monster smashed into her Bloom Prima, and then… and then…"

Yuzu's head suddenly ached as she strained to remember what happened next.

"Yuzu… can you hear me!?" a voice called from the darkness.

Yuzu whipped her head around, trying to find the speaker.

I'm here!" she called into the shadows, hoping that someone had come to rescue her.

Immediately, Yuzu was enveloped in gentle white light as a girl stepped towards her from the distance. Adjusting her eyes to the glow, Yuzu managed to make out a silvery bracelet with a gold gem on the girl's right hand. Looking up, Yuzu saw that the girl's face looked exactly the same as her own.

"Who are you!?" Yuzu gasped, shocked by the visitation of one of her counterparts.

"I am Kurosaki Ruri," the girl explained stepping towards Yuzu, "we haven't ever met before, but I know your name… Hiragi Yuzu."

"RURI!?" Yuzu exclaimed, recognizing the name.

The girl blinked.

"Yes." she replied, "Have you heard of me before?"

"I've met your brother, Shun, and your friend, Yuto." Yuzu explained, head buzzing with questions. "They've been looking for you! I'd heard you'd been kidnapped by Academia! How did you escape!?"

The girl hung her head.

"I died… Yuzu." she murmured.

"Died?" Yuzu questioned, wondering what she was talking about.

Ruri nervously pulled at one of her pony tails.

"I wish there were an easier way to explain it," she said, "but it's probably better to not beat around the bush. You and I have both died, Yuzu." she explained, "You perished when Sergey Volkov slammed your bike off the track and into a building. This place is the Underworld, a realm designed to receive souls like yours and mine."

Yuzu gasped in shock, before looking around at her dark surroundings, tears welling up in her eyes.

"No…" she gasped, "…you can't be right! This can't be real!"

"I wish it weren't real." Ruri replied. "But ignoring reality will change nothing."

Yuzu gazed into the black space and began taking in the utter emptiness of her new world. Other than her glowing companion, she was alone… terribly alone.

"Daddy!" she cried, "Tatsuya! Ayu! Futoshi! Gongenzaka! YUUUYAAAAA!" she wailed, collapsing into a ball and shaking with uncontrollable tears.

Ruri knelt down and enveloped Yuzu in her arms, letting herself shed a tear as she empathized with the Standard girl's suffering.

"Let it out." she whispered, patting Yuzu on the back. Not knowing what else to say, Ruri patiently let Yuzu weep into her chest, using her long, black and white sleeve to periodically wipe tears from Yuzu's cheek.

When Yuzu finally exhausted herself with crying, Ruri let Yuzu rest her head on her shoulder while she whispered in Yuzu's ear.

"I know you're scared," she whispered, "and confused about why this happened to you. But I promise you, I know what happened to you is wrong, and if you let me, I can help you make things right! I can save you from this fate and help you return to the ones you love!"

Yuzu's ears perked up after hearing the last part of Ruri's promise.

"What do you mean?" Yuzu asked, pulling away from Ruri. She was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that she was not only speaking to the Ruri she had heard so much about, but a Ruri that apparently was as dead as she was. For that matter, Yuzu still hadn't decided if she had come to terms with her own death!

Ruri contemplated the situation for a moment, remembering when she was in the exact same position Yuzu was in.

Ruri removed her hood and cape and turned around. The back of her long dress, down to just a few inches above her tailbone was bare, with just two black straps around her shoulders holding it up. Blazing on her back and neck with white light, a massive heron mark gently glowed against the darkness.

Yuzu gazed at the mark. "What happened to you?" she asked, wondering if Ruri was the one who actually needed her help rather than the other way around.

"I was given a special power." Ruri related. "With it, I was able to return from the dead and come to you. I wish to share this gift with you now."

She turned around and offered Yuzu her left hand. Glancing at Ruri's right hand, Yuzu noticed a deep bleeding gash against her palm.

"Are you hurt?" Yuzu asked, rushing forward to examine Ruri's hand, before silently thinking to herself that asking a dead person if she was hurt was normally considered pretty stupid by the vast majority of humanity.

"It is nothing…" Ruri replied, closing her palm, "…you don't need to worry about me."

"But if you're injured…" Yuzu stammered, searching her pockets to see if she had a bandage. Pulling out the handkerchief Yugo had given her, she silently asked Rin to forgive her before clamping it down on Ruri's hand and tying it tight against her palm.

Ruri noticed Rin's Kanji embroidered on the folds of the handkerchief.

"This is Rin's!" she exclaimed as the fabric staunched the bleeding.

"You were in Academia together." Yuzu pondered before suddenly looking concerned, "Is Rin alive? Did Academia kill both of you!?"

Ruri paused, thinking how to answer Yuzu's questions.

"Yes and no to the first question… and yes and no to the second question." she replied, realizing how confusing her response must have sounded to Yuzu.

Sure enough, Yuzu stared back at her with a bewildered expression.

"I know you must have a lot of questions, Yuzu," Ruri explained, pressing Rin's handkerchief against her palm, "but they will have to wait a little while until I know you're safe. Just know that Rin and I were both given extraordinary powers that let us escape from Academia's imprisonment… including the imprisonment of the grave. If you and I use this power together," she continued, "I believe we can create a new world. A world where wars and murders like this one never occur. A world filled with smiles."

"A world filled with smiles?" Yuzu asked, recognizing Yusho and Yuya's line.

Ruri nodded her head.

"It was an ideal shared with me by my friend, Sayaka." she told Yuzu, wearing a bitter-sweet smile on her face. "I wished to achieve this ideal and bring smiles to others with my dueling."

She looked down on the ground with a scowl.

"But that ideal cannot be achieved in a universe ravaged by the threat of Academia." she said, turning to face Yuzu while her irises glowed red. "Do you know of the Fusion Dimension?" she asked Yuzu.

"I've heard what they did to your hometown." Yuzu replied, taking Ruri's hands in her own. "I'm so sorry!" she whispered, "My pain is nothing compared to what you've gone through!"

"You are kind." Ruri murmured, pulling Yuzu into another hug while letting a few tears of sorrow and gratitude trickle down her cheeks.

She let go of Yuzu and stood at her full height.

"I wish to end this destructive war." Ruri declared, marks glowing with intense light. "Will you help me do this?" she asked Yuzu.

It was a lot to take in. Here was the girl Yuzu had been hoping for the longest time to rescue from Academia now offering to save her from the imprisonment of the grave. She claimed to have some kind of miraculous power that could fix everything. Yuzu hadn't ever met Ruri before, but Yuto and Shun had devoted their lives to finding her. She had heard nothing but glowing praise for Ruri from everyone that had known her, even from psychos like Yuri who complemented her determination. Why would Ruri go to all the trouble of visiting Yuzu in the underworld just so she could lie to her? What if what she was saying was true and there was a way Yuzu could end the inter-dimensional war with Yuya and the other Lancers?

Yuzu approached the Xyz duelist, face hardening into a determined expression.

"Yes," she replied holding out her hand, "I share your wish. I only want to stop the inter-dimensional war and go home."

Ruri gave Yuzu a warm smile.

"Then I will help you do that!" she cried with pure joy.

Ruri grasped Yuzu by the right arm and looked into her eyes.

"This will hurt a little," she warned, "but when it's over, it will all be worth it!"

"What do I have to do?" Yuzu asked, looking at where Ruri was grasping her arm.

"You will need to be prepared to accept some dramatic changes." Ruri explained, "But if you can do that and help me achieve my goals, I promise to give you everything you desire. Now brace yourself." She commanded, grasping Yuzu's arm a little tighter.

Yuzu closed her eyes as a circle of black flames formed around them and Ruri began chanting.

"Hiragi Yuzu!" she cried, "You have been chosen by the gods to plant the seeds of change in this afflicted universe and build the ideal world of your desires! Raise your voice in singing the divine hymns of renewal! Silence the foolish tyrants who wish to oppress the innocent with the words of your holy song! Bring joy to the hearts of the victim as you call them forth to join your choir! Become a goddess, clothed with power and glory! Be reborn, Yuzu! Be reborn as a Dark Signer!"

Yuzu shrieked in pain, ripping her arm away from Ruri's grip as a crimson, flower-shaped mark with six circular petals, a spiral center, and a long rectangular stem burned into her right arm. Clutching her left eye in agony, she felt something sear itself over her left eyelids and cheek as she momentarily lost vision. Shadows gathered around her, congealing into a thick ooze, which covered her clothing and warped her attire until she was clothed in a short back top that was trimmed with red markings and that left her midriff exposed, a medium length red and black cape, a pair of black and red shorts with a thick leather belt, black and red shoes, a pair of black stocking that came up past her knees, and a set of black fingerless gloves that stretched past her elbow.

As Yuzu staggered to her feet, Ruri took a step forward to examine her face.

Over Yuzu's left eye, a crimson flower mark with six highly detailed petals burned against the darkness like red-hot lava. Down the left corner of her cheek, a single veiny red leaf mark glimmered like a single tear-drop. Her sclera had blackened and her blue irises shone like brilliant sapphires. Recovering from the shock of her pain, Yuzu gazed upon the change of her appearance with wonder.

"What's happened to me?" she asked.

"You have become an almighty goddess, Yuzu." Ruri replied, smiling proudly. Taking Yuzu by the hand, she walked with her through the shadows, slowly leading her out of the underworld.

"Welcome Yuzu." Ruri proclaimed, "Welcome to the Dark Signers!"

…

To say that Barrett was lucky to be standing in the professor's presence was an understatement. As Barrett contemplated his colossal failure of not only permitting Selena to visit another dimension, but also lose Selena shortly after arriving in Standard, Barrett marveled at Professor Akaba's extreme mercy in not only allowing him to live, but find redemption by successfully completing a mission to retrieve Selena, and possibly, Hiragi Yuzu. Were the roles reversed, and Barrett the professor, Barrett was certain he wouldn't have been so lenient.

Bowing low to the ground, Barrett showed the utmost in respect as the professor briefed him on his assignment.

"Dennis has returned and confirms that both Selena and Hiragi Yuzu are residing in the Synchro Dimension's City. As soon as the Obelisk Force finishes their preparations by tonight, I want you to accompany them." the professor ordered, sitting on his throne.

"Yes." Barrett replied, bowing his head with gratitude. "I thank you for giving me the chance to redeem myself."

"Yuri will also be there soon." the professor continued, "Make sure you work with him."

The professor rubbed his forehead, looking slightly agitated.

"You have heard the reports regarding the escaped prisoners, Ruri and Rin, right?" he asked, looking down at Barrett.

"Right!" Barrett confirmed with a nod.

"Our intelligence believes that they will both be working in the Synchro Dimension, possibly trying to recruit others to their cause." the professor explained. "Under no circumstances," the professor commanded, "are you or the Obelisk Force to engage with either of them without support from Yuri."

"That will be unnecessary." Barrett proudly replied, gazing back into the professor's face with his one, unwounded eye. "I will personally see to it that Selena-Sama, Hiragi Yuzu, Rin, and Kurosaki Ruri are brought to Academia!"

"The Dark Signers are out of your hands." the professor sternly admonished, silencing Barrett's boasting. "I am sending a specialized team to handle the situation."

From the shadows, a trio of duelists wearing emotionless masks and metal helmets strolled in front of Barrett and stood at attention. They wore capes and sleek, light armor that was pure white and covered every inch of their skin. Similar to the Obelisk Force's helmets, the helmets of these soldiers were styled to look like one of the legendary Duel Monster gods, but theirs completely concealed their faces and looked like the face and helmet of The Creator God of Light Horakhty.

"These duelists are tasked with engaging the Dark Signers directly." the professor decreed, indicating the masked individuals. "Your only task is to make sure you and the Obelisk Force stay out of their way."

Barrett bowed his head.

"Yes professor… I understand." he humbly acknowledged as the three masked duelists turned their backs to him and faced the professor.

The duelist in the center stepped forward before all three bowed to the professor.

"The Agents of Horakhty are at your disposal!" the center one called out in a filtered, robotic voice that disguised his real one.

"We are grateful to perform this valuable service for Academia." the one on Barrett's left contributed with an identical robotic voice.

"The path to Academia's victory… is clear." The one on Barrett's right droned with a rhythm that slightly distinguished his robotic pitch from the others.

The professor leaned forward.

"You will stay together and engage the Dark Signers as a team." he ordered, fixing the three duelist's with a hard gaze. "Do not separate and do not underestimate their power. Use whatever force is necessary to subdue them, but bring them back to Academia alive."

"You have nothing to fear, professor." the center one replied, standing up. "We will carry out your orders with perfection as we have always done!"

The professor leaned back in his throne, placing his left hand against the metal plate on his head.

"I'm counting on you," the professor warned, "Hell Kaiser."

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Sora's Monsters

Edge-Imp Needle/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 300/ Once per turn, you can target 1 "Furnimal" monster in your graveyard: Special Summon that Target.

Sora's Extra Deck

Death Toy Tomahawk Owl/ DARK/ Level 5/ Fiend/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1600/ Furnimal Owl + Edge-Imp Tomahawk

Once per turn, you can add 1 "Polymerization", "Furnimal", or "Edge-Imp" card from your deck or graveyard to your hand. Each time you Fusion Summon a "Death Toy" monster, you can inflict 800 damage to your opponent's LP.

Death Toy Needle Mouse/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 600/ Furnimal Mouse + Edge Imp Needle

If this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can activate this effect: Special Summon up to 2 "Death Toy Needle Mouse" from your Extra Deck or graveyard. (You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck the turn you activate this effect except Fusion Monsters). If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can activate this effect: Increase your LP by 800.

Ruri's Monsters

Salvation Seraphim Acolyte/ DARK/ Level 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 200/ DEF 100/ You can discard this card from your hand: Set 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card or "Salvation Seraphim" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck. During either player's turn, if this card is in your Graveyard, you can discard 1 card to target 1 Winged Beast Type Xyz Monster you control: Attach this card to that target as an Xzy Material. (You can only use this effect of "Salvation Seraphim Acolyte" once per turn).

Salvation Seraphim Priestess/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster to your hand and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Healer/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 1000/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Healer" once per turn with this effect). Once per turn, you can send the top card of your deck to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" monster from your graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Apostle/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 100/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Apostle" once per turn with this effect). If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Salvation Seraphim" or "Rank-Up" card from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Salvation Seraphim Saint/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 700/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. Once per turn, you can send the top 3 cards from your deck to the graveyard: Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field, up to the number of "Salvation Seraphim" monsters sent to the graveyard with this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Angel/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Oracle/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ ATK 0/ DEF 2500/ You can discard this card and 1 other card from your hand: Arrange the top 6 cards of your deck in any order desired. If there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Normal Summon this card without tributing. Once per turn, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Special Summon 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Ruri's Extra Deck

Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor/ LIGHT/ Rank 1/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 300/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 3 Monsters

Cannot be destroyed by battle while you have no monsters in your Graveyard. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add all excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monsters to your hand and return all other cards excavated by this effect to the top of the deck in any order.

Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 2800/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 700/ 2 or more (Max 5.) Level 3 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to itself. Once per turn, if you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can detach any number of Xzy materials from this card: Inflict 100 damage to your opponent's LP for each card detached for this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Inspired Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 4/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ 2 or more (Max. 5) Level 4 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. If this card battles a monster, negate that monster's effects and decrease its ATK and DEF by 100 for each of this card's Xyz Materials at the end of the Damage Step.

Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 5/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 1800/ 2 or more (Max. 5) Level 5 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. If this card destroys a monster by battle, you can banish 2 Xyz Materials attached to this card: This card can make an additional attack on a monster your opponent controls.

Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2100/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Glorious Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 8/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2800/ _Effects unrevealed._

Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim/ LIGHT/ Rank -8/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ 3 Level -8 monsters

This card's original ATK and DEF are each equal to the number of Dark Xyz Materials attached to this card X 1000. You can banish 1 Dark Xyz Material attached to this card and 1 card on the field or in either player's graveyard: Halve your opponent's LP.

Ruri's Spells

Sanctified Realm/ Spell/ Field/ This card's effects are not applied to players who do not control a monster(s) that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck or who have a monster(s) in their respective graveyard. Player's take no damage. Each card a player controls cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn. Once per turn, the turn player can add 1 Spell/Trap Card from his/her deck to their respective hand, but that card cannot be set or activated the turn this effect was activated.

Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force/ Spell/ Continuous/ If a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster is Xyz Summoned to your side of the field, you can activate this effect: Attach 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck to that card as an Xyz Material. If you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can tribute this card to target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is up to 2 Ranks higher than that target's Rank, using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is 1 or 2 Ranks higher than that target's Rank by using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Rank-Up-Magic Pilgrimage Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is 1 or 2 Ranks higher than that Target's Rank by using that Target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster). You can banish this card from your graveyard: attach up to 2 monsters from your side of the field, hand, or graveyard to a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as Xyz Material.

Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate only if you have no monsters in your graveyard. Target 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is up to 4 Ranks higher than the Rank of that Target by using that Target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Salvation Seraphim Holy Shield/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Salvation Seraphim" monster you control. While you have no monsters in your graveyard, that monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects and you take no damage from battles involving that monster. If this card is in your graveyard while there are no monsters in your graveyard, you can banish 1 Spell/Trap Card from your graveyard: Attach this card to 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as an Xyz Material.

Lost Salvation/ Spell/ Continuous/ _Effects unrevealed._

Ruri's Traps

Salvation Seraphim Reconciliation Force/ Trap/ Normal/ _Effects unrevealed._

Rank-Down-Trap Judgment Force/ Trap/ Normal/ Target 1 Xyz Monster on the field: Dark Xyz Summon 1 Dark Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is equal to the Rank of that Target X -1, using that Target as the Dark Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Dark Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).


	5. Part 1: Chapter 5

Part 1: Chapter 5 – Upgrades

"That idiot!" Jean-Michel Roger roared, slamming his fist against the computer console as he watched Yuzu slam into the side of a building. He was already having enough problems assembling a defense force against a possible invasion from Academia. The last thing he needed was for Sergey to splatter his bargaining chip into a bloody puddle.

Roger quickly pushed a button on his desk. "Send all nearby Security to the crash site immediately." he commanded, hoping that the girl would at least be salvageable. She did not have to be in good health, but if she was dead, she'd be completely useless to him.

He glanced back at the computer screen and watched Sergey as he returned from the duel, laughing his head off like a maniac.

"She's gone!" he screamed, "She's done for! Did you see her face twisted in fear!? HA HA HA HA HAAA! UTSUKUSHI!"

Still laughing uncontrollably, he offered absolutely no resistance as a squadron of Security officers shot webs of holographic energy nets onto Sergey and hauled him away.

Roger folded his arms over his chest.

"To think his mind would break from that level of a duel." he sighed, "…It looks like he needs to be fixed up again."

He lifted his finger to contact the man in charge of calibrating Sergey's behavior, but he was interrupted when two surveillance officers, a man with short, spikey black hair and a woman with longer brown hair, entered his office with a pair of display screens in their hands.

"What?" Roger huffed, not interested in dealing with another problem.

"Chief…" the man began, presenting Roger his screen, "… there's something we really think you need to see."

"Something strange happened in the duelist penthouse the other night, and just a few moments ago, something similar occurred near the track-way." The girl agreed.

"And why…?" Roger snarled, "…do you have to waste my time with this? Why haven't you shown it to your superiors!?"

"We did, chief." the man explained, "But he referred us to you. He told us to tell you that he thinks this might concern the safety of the entire city."

"Don't tell me Academia's already here!" Roger thought to himself. Taking a deep breath to calm his agitated nerves, he settled on his chair and held out his hand.

"Show me the footage!" he commanded. The two surveillance officers fiddled with some options on their screens and handed the footage over to Roger.

"This one's of the penthouse." The man explained, pressing the play button. For a brief moment, Roger suddenly saw a girl in black-and-green clothing streak across the screen in a flash of green light before stopping at a door, phasing through the door, and then zooming away in another flash of green light.

Roger froze, his eyes widening with shock.

"We think it must be a hologram." the man explained. "Our first suspicion was that some party in the Friendship Cup is trying to spy on the contestants, but our superior seemed to suggest that it was something more sinister… Chief?" he asked, noticing that Roger didn't seem to be hearing a word he was saying.

"Zoom in on the arm!" Roger commanded, sweat beading on his forehead.

The man looked at his partner as if not understanding what Roger was asking him to do.

"WELL!?" Roger roared, "IS THAT TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU!?"

"No, chief!" the man hastily responded, taking his screen in his hands and making a few swiping motions until he had expanded a shot of the girl's right arm.

"Enhance the image!" Roger barked, staring at the screen with great intensity. The man pushed a button on the screen.

After a second, the blurry image cleared up to reveal a glowing green whale mark shining brightly against the girl's skin. Roger gave an involuntary yelp and jumped out of his chair, backing away from the screen.

"Chief!?" the girl asked, wondering what was going on.

"Well!?" Roger suddenly shouted, sweat running down his face in rivers as his face slowly turned red, "What else is there!? What else did you two imbeciles come to show me!?"

Quivering from Roger's growing rage, the girl nervously fiddled with her own screen and showed Roger a shot of a building near the duel lane.

"I…it was fairly brief…" she stuttered, "…but we haven't managed to explain what happened here.

Roger tore the screen from the girl's quivering hands and slammed his finger against the play button. Leaping from building to building, Roger noticed a small boy in an Obelisk Blue uniform keeping pace with the other duelists as they continued their game.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a girl in black-and-white clothing seemed to materialize from thin air and stop the boy in her tracks. They seemed to converse for a brief moment before the girl raised her hands above her head… and then they both suddenly vanished.

But Roger was only interested in one detail.

He scrolled through the recording. After a little while, the two duelists reappeared. Then, the girl left the Academia duelist's side and ran towards Yuzu's crash-site, leaping into the air before a pair of wings sprouted from her back.

That's when he say it. Shining through the girl's white-and-black cape, a massive white heron mark blazed with intense light.

"They're here!" Roger gasped, dropping the screen to the ground.

"…Chief?" the man nervously asked.

Roger clutched at the sides of his head, shaking with intense fear before his eyes locked on the two surveillance officers.

"What are you doing here?" he snarled, advancing on them. "Why aren't you scrambling the Arrest Corps right now!?"

"The… the Arrest Corps?" the girl stuttered, wondering what was going on.

"Yes you idiots!" Roger roared, "I want every last available member of the Arrest Corps in the Duel Palace sector sent immediately to Yuzu's crash site and I want them there Now! No… better yet… I want them there yesterday!"

"We…" the man stuttered.

"DO YOU HEAR ME!?" Roger threw his fists into the air, "RELAY MY ORDERS TO EVERY LAST SECURITY OFFICER RIGHT NOW OR I AM THROWING THE BOTH OF YOU IN THE DEEPEST GARBAGE PIT IN THIS CITY AND FORCING YOU TO LABOR THERE UNTIL YOU DROP!"

He angrily ripped his chest board from the desk and threw it at the surveillance officers, barely missing the girls head as they made a mad dash out the door.

When they had both gone he began pacing back and forth.

"It can't be…" he murmured under his breath, "There was only one of them before. What are they doing here!? AND WHY NOW!? The professor will be sending the Obelisk Force and…that boy! Why do I have to deal with this now!? Why when I'm already threatened with an invasion from Fusion!? What do the Earthbound want with me!?"

He stopped mid-step and looked back at his computer screen, an idea forming in his head.

"That's right…" he thought, "… the Earthbound."

He pushed a button on his screen and brought up an image of a lanky man who had large side-burns on his face and was wearing a white lab-coat, Sergey's chief behavioral and bio-cybernetics therapist. While Security officers began encasing an unconscious Sergey in a white cement-like goo, the behavioral therapist checked Sergey's vitals on a screen.

When he noticed that Roger was watching him, he immediately stopped what he was doing and stood at attention. "Director!" he bowed, addressing Roger.

"I have orders for you, Doctor." Roger replied, not wanting to waste any time. "After you fix Sergey, I need you to begin making some bio-mechanical modifications on Sergey's body. I want the former Duelist Crusher to be as durable as a tank and twice as lethal. Replace whatever bits of flesh you need with mechanical upgrades and train him to use his new body. I need him ready to crush far more than teenage girls when you're done."

"Y…yes sir." The man stuttered. "It will take a little while, but I should be able to come up with something to fit your description."

"You have by this evening." Roger coldly replied.

The man's eyes bugged out of his head, but he just bowed and stuttered, "Y… yes chief! I will see what I can do!"

"You will get it done or you will be the next to be chopped up and modified." Roger threatened, turning off the screen and pushing another button on his desk.

This time, a shorter man with thick round glasses appeared on Roger's screen. A team of Security officers were hauling in Sergey's bike while he examined the contents of Sergey's deck and a few recordings of Sergey's last duel while scribbling some notes on a notepad.

"Engineer." Roger called.

The man jumped and quickly pivoted on his feet to face Roger, nearly dropping Sergey's deck as he did so.

"Oh… um… what a surprise… chief! What can I do for you?" The man stammered, straitening his glasses.

"Retire Sergey's Thorn Prisoner deck immediately," Roger ordered, "and replace it with his original deck along with the upgrades I previously requested. You have completed the design of the Underworld Resonance card… correct?"

"Yes… of course!" the man stammered, setting Sergey's Thorn Prisoner deck down and punching a code into a key-pad on his desk.

From a small hatch, a deck rose from the man's desk. He picked up the deck and skimmed through the contents till he stopped at a spell card depicting a column of green Synchro rings with the small orange dragon and demon from the Fusion spell card embedded between two of the rings, orbiting a column of light.

He held it up to the screen, presenting it to Roger. "I have also created the Fusion Monsters you requested chief," he continued, pulling out a few more cards, "and have even created an ace monster, Geo Glasya…"

"Incorporate Sergey's original ace monster into the build." Roger ordered, interrupting the man mid-sentence.

The man's face suddenly turned pale. "Sir…" he stuttered, "… I… I wouldn't advise using that card!"

"Is there a problem?" Roger scowled, "I was under the impression that you were not the ones giving orders here."

"W… well…" the man sweated and adjusted his clothing, "… I… I am just saying… that card… it… it resists every attempt we make to use it! We managed to develop some new cards based on its design, but… well… it took sixty security officers to take out Sergey and his ace monster last time. There could be incalculable damage if we were to unleash this card again! It's just too… too… it's just too savage!"

"I'm counting on it being as savage as possible." Roger replied, "And unless you want to be Sergey's first opponent when you add that monster into his Extra Deck, I suggest you use whatever means necessary to make that card usable by this evening."

"This evening?" the man whimpered.

"Bye." Roger finished, closing the screen with a push of a button.

He got up from his desk and started pacing the room again, shaking his head with frustration. He was tempted to march strait into the laboratories of those men and shove a mind control chip right into their brains.

Unfortunately, doing so would probably just ruin their intellect… assuming they had any intellect to begin with!

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead, which had started to drip cold sweat into his eyes. "How could this be happening!" he thought to himself. "I thought I already took care of this when I dealt with Sergey! Where did those two come from!? Are they the real thing!?"

He vigorously shook his head, wishing he could just wake up to find that the day's stress had just caused him to go momentarily delusional.

But wishing for that would do no good. He had to take charge. He had to shepherd the idiots of the Synchro Dimension or there wouldn't be any dimension left to lead!

He paused in his thoughts when he noticed the scattered chess pieces he had knocked to the floor.

"A new player has appeared." He murmured. Thinking back on the footage, he picked up a black queen and a bishop.

"There are two of you right now… but who is who?" He set them down together before picking up a white pawn and rook, smiling as the ancient strategy game helped him to order his thoughts.

"Let's scout out their strength with a few pawns…" He slapped down the pawn.

"Before I capture them with my ace." He slammed down the rook.

He gazed down at the chess pieces, stroking his chin thoughtfully while thinking of the girl heading towards Yuzu's crash site.

"Yes…" he thought to himself, "… once I assess your abilities, I will know if I am dealing with the King, or just a few of his pawns!"


	6. Part 1: Chapter 6

Part 1: Chapter 6 – Mentor

Yuzu woke with a start. Coughing up some dust in her throat, she heaved forward and struggled upright. When she looked down at herself she saw, or at least barely managed to make out through the thick smoke, that she was clothed in her regular, though badly torn, riding outfit. For a brief moment she wondered if she had dreamed meeting Ruri until she noticed the crimson flower mark blazing with light on her right arm.

She felt different. Surveying her crash site, she expected to feel some kind of pain, such as a burn or bruise, from the violent fall she had experienced. But she felt no pain whatsoever. More than that, her body felt firmer and stronger than it ever had before. The thick smoke in the room didn't seem to bother her one bit. She couldn't even smell it, and it didn't bother her when she accidentally inhaled a smoggy plume of it. Curious, she held her breath. When she had held her breath for a full minute without feeling the least bit bothered, she suddenly gasped and felt her chest to see if her lungs were still working. Immediately when she put her hand up to her chest, she noticed that her heart had ceased beating.

"How are you coping?" Yuzu heard Ruri ask.

She whipped her head around to see Ruri standing behind her, draping her cape around her bare shoulders. Out of the corner of her eye, Yuzu noticed that the handkerchief she had given Ruri was missing, leaving the large cut in her hand exposed.

"I'm okay." Yuzu replied, staggering to her feet and feeling around in her pocket for Rin's handkerchief. "Did you take the bandage off?" she asked Ruri before she suddenly found the handkerchief resting in her pocket.

Ruri looked at her hand and shrugged. "I don't think you actually gave me the physical handkerchief in the Underworld, Yuzu." she explained, "I haven't learned everything about how the Underworld works, but please don't worry about me. I really am okay. And besides, I honestly think Rin would be happier if you returned her handkerchief to her without my blood stains."

"There must be something I can do though." Yuzu protested, examining Ruri's wounded hand.

Ruri smiled. "You really are such a kind person, Yuzu. Honestly! You've just died, you've been through the Underworld and back, and now the first thing you're interested in is my silly paper cut! I really appreciate your concern, but I don't really feel any pain, and besides, there's nothing much either of us can do about it at the moment."

"I'm not… so sure." Yuzu replied, feeling something welling up inside of her. Given the dramatic changes Yuzu was experiencing in her own body, it wasn't hard for her to believe that Ruri really couldn't feel the gash in her hand. Despite that, it bothered Yuzu to see Ruri wounded like that. With a pang of regret, she briefly thought of Sergey and how he had repaid her when she had tried to be merciful. Deciding to ignore the growing number of despairing thoughts, she pushed the memories of Sergey from her mind. This time, her kindness would not be wasted.

"What are you doing?" Ruri asked when Yuzu suddenly grabbed Ruri's wounded hand in her left hand while holding her right hand over Ruri's gash. The marks on Yuzu's arm and face began glowing brighter and the blue irises of her eyes lit up like lamps. As Yuzu illuminated the room with her light, the cut on Ruri's hand slowly mended itself together until it was as clean and smooth as it was before her duel against Sora.

Ruri gazed at her mended hand in wonder. "Healing powers." she murmured, "Truly… a very appropriate power for you." She gave Yuzu a warm smile before stepping forward and gently hugging her. "Thank you." she whispered, patting Yuzu on the back. "You're learning just as fast as Rin."

Yuzu pulled away from Ruri and gazed at her own hands with a shocked expression on her face. "I didn't… I didn't have any idea that would happen! I just felt like I wanted to act… to help you somehow. How did I do that?"

"I told you Yuzu." Ruri smiled, "You have been given a great gift. All those things you wanted to do in your past life, all those dreams you couldn't fulfill before, now you have the power to accomplish them. You and I are now stronger, quicker, more durable, and more capable than we ever were before. Together, we can do anything!"

Yuzu smiled back at Ruri, but then looked down at herself remembering something.

"I feel a little off." Yuzu explained, "…Actually, now that I think about it… I hardly feel anything at all."

Ruri hung her head, looking a little downcast.

"I'm sorry Yuzu." she apologized, "I don't have the power to truly resurrect you. At least not yet. Until I figure out how to truly give us our lives back, we'll all just have to cope with our own individual changes."

"What other changes are there?" Yuzu asked, sounding concerned.

Ruri pulled out her deck. "Along with our new bodies, Rin and I were given new decks. Of course, in our case, we couldn't carry our original decks with us, so the Earthbound must have created our decks from scratch."

"Earthbound?" Yuzu questioned.

"One of them rests within your soul." Ruri explained, "It is that spirit that has enabled you to return from the dead and which is giving you your power now."

Yuzu felt the mark on her arm, looking a little worried. "Is it possessing me?"

Ruri shook her head. "The bond between the Earthbound and the Dark Signer is symbiotic. Even if I have been given new powers and a new life, I am still Ruri Kurosaki just as you are still Yuzu Hiragi. Even if we may share our thoughts with our Earthbound spirits, it does not stop us from believing in what we believe in, desiring what we desire, and loving those we love."

Yuzu let Ruri's words sink in. It was true. Despite the insane experience of being raised from the dead and coming back as something she still couldn't comprehend, she didn't feel like her thoughts, feelings, or beliefs had changed in any way. She still upheld the ideals of You Show Duel School, she still wanted to end the dimensional war and bring peace to the four worlds, she was still Shuzo's daughter, and she was still friends with Yuya, Gongenzaka, Sora, Ayu, Futoshi, Tatsuya, Masumi, and so many others. She thought of each of their faces, but suddenly felt fear come over her when she thought of approaching them as she was now.

"Will the others accept what I've become?" she whispered, nervously shaking as she grappled with the reality that she might never be the same girl again.

Ruri looked off into the distance with a forlorn expression on her face. "I've asked myself that question every day since I transformed. I can only hope that the ones I care for continue to love me as much as I continue to love them."

"I've met Shun and Yuto." Yuzu reassured Ruri, "Believe me, if they cared about you before, their concern for you has only grown since you've been gone. They've done everything they could to try and find you."

"Please Yuzu, tell me about them!" Ruri begged, suddenly sounding anxious as she grabbed Yuzu's shoulders. "Have they been hurt? Are there others besides them? How did you come to meet them? What are you doing together now? What are you doing in this dimension at all?"

Yuzu was momentarily stunned as the roles reversed and she was suddenly the one getting bombarded with questions. Ruri seemed to realize this. She bowed her head and opened her mouth like she was about to apologize.

"It's alright." Yuzu reassured her, taking her hands in her own, "It's just a lot to explain. Some of it I don't even understand myself. Yuto and Shun came to my dimension looking for you. They actually mistook me for you because we look so similar. I got to know them a little, watching them duel as they searched for you and tried to protect me. I learned about the other dimensions from them and what happened to your home town. Academia eventually invaded our dimension, trying to capture me and Selena."

"Selena?" Ruri asked, looking concerned. "Is she another person that looks like us but comes from Fusion?"

"Yes… but she's a friend." Yuzu reassured her, "At first she came looking for Yuto and Shun, but after she learned about what happened to your dimension, she came to our side."

Ruri looked off into the distance, face hardening. "I wouldn't be too sure about that." she murmured. "If there is one thing I have learned, it's that the people of Academia are especially good at infiltration. Especially the ones that claim to be your friends. You should be careful, Yuzu." She seemed to recall something. "By the way Yuzu, I understand you were taught Fusion Summon. Who was your mentor?"

"It was another person from Academia." Yuzu explained, "A friend named Sora. I understand where he comes from, and that he attacked your people. I even know me might not regret it, but I think he was sincerely being a friend when he taught me how to Fusion Summon. He never needed to take the time to do it. So even if he may be an enemy, I still see him as a friend and my teacher. I want to help him, just like the other people in Academia."

Ruri closed her eyes. "Believe me Yuzu. I know it may seem hard to accept, but he was only using you. Everything he did, from becoming your friend to teaching you Fusion Summoning, it was all just so the Professor could add you to his collection."

"I understand why you'd think that." Yuzu sighed sympathetically. "But I still have faith in him. If you ever have the chance to meet him, I'm sure you'll see the good I see in him."

Ruri decided not to mention that she had met Sora and found no good whatsoever in the recesses of his soul.

"So how did you survive Academia's invasion?" she asked, returning to the previous topic.

"While I was helping Selena learn the truth about Academia's invasion, I was pursued by Yuri."

Ruri visibly grimaced, "So you got a chance to meet Yuri, face to face?"

"Yes," Yuzu nodded, "he spoke of you and Rin. He wanted to capture me just like he did with you two. I was cornered by him. He would have carried me off to Academia, but I was saved by this." she showed Ruri her bracelet. "I don't understand how it works, but whenever I am near a person who looks just like Yuya or Yuto, my bracelet starts glowing. Then, if anyone else like them approaches, the person I was with before vanishes. Yuri had found me and was just about to capture me, when another person like Yuri, Yugo, approached me. Yuri disappeared and Yugo approached me, thinking I was Rin. Then, not too long after that, my bracelet started glowing again, and Yugo and I found ourselves in the Synchro Dimension. We tried to warn the people here about the inter-dimensional war, but nobody listened to us so we both decided to join the Friendship Cup to make our voices heard."

"A noble goal." Ruri approved with a nod of her head. "Go on please. Sorry for interrupting."

"It's okay." Yuzu smiled, "I needed to take a breath anyway… or… actually…" she muttered, remembering how little she seemed to need to breathe now.

Ruri curled her lips into an understanding smile.

"So anyway…" Yuzu resumed, "… we both managed to enter the Friendship Cup and before I knew it, I learned that Yuya, Gongenzaka, Shingo, Tsukikage, Reira, Selena, Shun, and Dennis had followed me here."

"What about Yuto?" Ruri asked, looking somewhat fearful, "What happened to him?"

Yuzu cast her eyes down to the ground, looking a little ashamed. "I'm sorry Ruri, but I don't really know. He disappeared some time during the Miami Championship tournament in Standard. Sometimes I think I see him when I look at Yuya, but… it's hard to explain."

Ruri closed her eyes, tears glistening beneath her lids.

"I don't think he's dead." Yuzu tried to reassure her, "He's just… missing. I'm really sorry, but I don't know how else to explain it."

"It's alright Yuzu." Ruri sighed, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm glad you got to know him a little. He wouldn't have wanted you to worry about him."

"He cared deeply about you. I truly mean that." Yuzu replied, feeling her own tears forming in her eyes.

"I know." Ruri nodded, "I cared, and will forever care about him." she smiled, "And I care about your friends as well, Yuzu, even if I haven't met them. I wish to protect them and everyone else in this universe from Academia, including the people in the Fusion Dimension. Even if I can't forgive Academia for what they've done, I do wish to redeem them just as you wish to redeem Sora and Selena. But we have to be careful. If you can help my plan to succeed, I promise to give redemption to every last person this war has harmed, including the perpetrators."

"How do you plan to do that?" Yuzu asked, enraptured by the conviction in Ruri's voice.

"Look through your deck." Ruri offered. "You'll find some of the answer there."

Yuzu pulled out her deck and began examining the contents, steadily looking more confused and shocked as she skimmed through.

"I never put some of these cards in here!" she exclaimed, "And some of the cards I already had are different now! Aria's effect has changed, Opera has had more added to her effect…" she pulled out two other cards, "… what on earth are these things!?" she handed the cards to Ruri who examined them thoughtfully, "Dark Tuner? Yami no Kakubunretsu? What on earth are these things?" she gasped, skimming through her extra deck to find several strangely colored cards.

Ruri handed the cards back to Yuzu. "Remember what I told you about the Earthbound building new decks for Rin and me? Well it looks like they have done the same for you. They didn't need to build an entire deck for you like they did when Ruri and I were resurrected, but it looks like they still bestowed their power inside of your deck."

"But what are these things?" Yuzu questioned, holding out the strangely colored cards, "And why does my Extra Deck suddenly have Xyz and Synchro monsters. I never learned either of those summoning techniques."

Ruri smiled, "I think the Earthbound saw hidden potential in you. You do come from Standard after all. If my understanding is correct. Your dimension isn't as bound to one summoning technique as the others. If you would like, it would be an absolute honor and privilege for me to teach you Xyz Summoning."

"I appreciate that." Yuzu hastily thanked Ruri, "But I'm still confused. I've heard of Xyz, Synchro, and I've even Pendulum summoned before..."

"Pendulum Summon?" Ruri asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Something that my friend, Yuya, invented," Yuzu explained, "It's a lot to explain."

"You'll have to teach me some time." Ruri smiled. "I think it would be good if the three of us Dark Signers could use multiple summoning methods in our dueling."

"Right…" Yuzu agreed, "… but anyway, what on earth are these things!?" she held up the strangely colored cards to Ruri. "Dark Synchro? Dark Xyz? Dark Fission? I've never heard of these things.

Ruri took the cards from Yuzu and displayed them in front of the Standard duelist's face.

"As Dark Signers," she explained, "you and I have been given special privileges and powers unique to the rest of humanity. These cards…" she indicated the cards she was holding, "… mark you as a person worthy to use the power of the Earthbound. They are your regalia, the proof of your royalty and divinity."

"Divinity?" Yuzu questioned.

"I meant it, Yuzu." Ruri smiled, "You have been reborn as a true goddess, and this…" she took Yuzu's deck from her and skimmed through the contents until she found a card and presented it to Yuzu. "…this is your crown."

Yuzu stared at the card, dumbfounded as she read the text. Holding the card in her hand, she felt like it was far more than a thin sheath of cardboard. It felt alive, aware, and strangely, part of her very being. As she stared at the card, she felt her marks pulsate against her skin and glow with even brighter light.

She put the card back into her deck, feeling the marks on her skin become less agitated as she did. Looking back up at Ruri, she asked, "But what does my deck have to do with your plans?"

Ruri grinned, looking back at Yuzu like a sphinx watching a traveler struggle to solve its riddle, "Actually, your deck illustrates my point better than either mine or Rin's."

"How so?" Yuzu pressed, returning her deck to the slot in her Duel Disk.

Ruri put her hand on Yuzu's shoulder, "Your deck incorporates not only multiple known summoning techniques, but quite a number of summoning techniques the vast majority of the world has never even heard of. Mastering what the world considers impossible is what we Dark Signers are all about. Just as you will eventually master every single one of the summoning techniques in your deck, together, the Dark Signers will master every single one of our powers and master the entire universe in the process. We will create the utopia others have thought was impossible, one without war, inequality, or suffering."

Yuzu stared back at Ruri when she finished her speech. Ruri clearly believed in what she was doing. Her face had been animated and her marks had been glowing with bright light as she elaborated on her objectives. But there was something about what Ruri said about building a utopia. Something familiar to what Selena had said to her not too long ago when they first met.

"It sounds…" Yuzu hesitated, not wanting to hurt Ruri's feelings, "… it sounds a little like what Academia wants to do."

Ruri's eyes widened. From Ruri's shocked and angered expression, Yuzu could see that her comment had deeply offended her.

"Academia destroyed my home and my friends!" she shouted. "All their talk about building some fantastic paradise by fusing the worlds together is nothing more than propaganda trash! I'm nothing like them! I'm not some ego-maniac who wants to rule the universe with an iron fist! I just want to protect my friends! Is it wrong for me to want to end this war like you do!? Is it wrong for me to want to build a better world like Yusho wanted!?"

Yuzu recoiled from Ruri's angry tirade. "I'm sorry!" she apologized, "I know you're nothing like them. It's just… your goals seem so… grand. I can understand wanting to end the war, but it just seems…. it just seems like you want everything to be… perfect. I am all for building a better world, but I just don't see how we can achieve the kind of thing you're talking about."

"Forget about it!" Ruri snarled, dismissing Yuzu's comment with a wave of her hand. "I shouldn't have expected you to understand anyway!" She turned her back on Yuzu, angrily folding her arms against her chest.

Yuzu hung her head down, upset that she had offended the very person that had helped her in her time of need.

"I'm sorry." She repeated. "You're right… I don't understand what you've been through, but I want to help. Can you forgive me?"

Ruri turned to face her. Seeing Yuzu's sincere remorse, her face softened and she took a deep breath and slowly approached Yuzu. "I forgive you… Yuzu." She hung her head down, ashamed that she had lost her temper. Yuzu was right. When she thought about it, her plans really did seem grandiose and unrealistic. For a moment, she felt shocked that she had ever conceived of such a monolithic goal as paradise for every world. No wonder Yuzu had reacted the way she had.

"You are right, Yuzu." she acknowledged, "On the surface, my goal is very much like what Academia claimed they would bring to the universe."

"I shouldn't have said…" Yuzu stuttered.

Ruri silenced her with a hug. "No. You were right to bring up that concern. I just let myself get offended too quickly." she stroked Yuzu's hair, "There's no way I can really prove to you that my plan is any better than Academia's. I can only ask you to trust me. I have no desire to subjugate this universe to my rule. I just want to make things better. Especially since… well… in a way it was my fault Academia destroyed my home."

Yuzu looked into Ruri's eyes, shocked by her last statement. "How is it your fault Heartland was destroyed?"

Ruri sighed. "Had I not been there, Academia would not have called in the invasion. They attacked the moment Dennis discovered me."

Yuzu shook her head. "You can't blame yourself for what happened! Academia was planning to conquer your dimension anyway. Whether you were there or not wouldn't have changed their desire for war."

"You're just like Rin." Ruri smiled, shaking her head. "She also told me not to blame myself." she examined her bracelet. "I suppose you're both right, but that doesn't change the fact that the professor has been driven to war with the prospect of obtaining some hidden power by gathering us together."

"Hidden power?" Yuzu asked.

"I don't know all the details myself." Ruri admitted, "But I do believe you, I, and all our other counterparts are stronger when we're together. There's a reason we've been drawn together. One of my objectives is to find out why." She withdrew from the hug and held her hand out to Yuzu. "Will you help me do this?"

"Of course." Said Yuzu, taking Ruri's hand.

"Thank you." Ruri bowed, grateful to have another ally, "We should get going, there's plenty more that must be done, Rin should…" She stopped mid-sentence and scowled, staring down at something from across the dilapidated room.

Yuzu followed her eyes and let out an involuntary gasp. Across from them, nine Arrest Corps operatives wearing heavy armor and gas masks, quickly surrounded the two duelists in a wide circle and whipped out their Duel Disks.

"What are they doing here!?" Yuzu exclaimed, "Did they come to take me underground!?"

Ruri looked disgusted. "It doesn't matter what they came here to do. They should have stayed well enough away." She raised a hand and surrounded everyone in a circular wall of light. The arrest corps adjusted their stance but didn't seem perturbed.

"What did you do?" Yuzu asked, shocked by the sudden appearance of the barrier.

"I'm making sure your training session isn't interrupted." Ruri coolly explained, activating the wing-shaped duel field on her own Duel Disk.

Yuzu looked at Ruri, who didn't seem the least bit concerned that they were outnumbered by more than four to one. "Training session?"

Ruri smiled. "I'm going to use this to our advantage. It will be the perfect opportunity to teach you Xyz Summoning. Go ahead and summon your Duel Disk. Your god should help you with that."

Yuzu glanced at the Arrest Corps and then back at Ruri who stared at her opponents with a determined expression on her face. Feeling her own determination strengthening, Yuzu sensed something rising within her, beckoning to be unleashed.

"I'll duel with you Ruri." Yuzu proclaimed, "I'll do whatever it takes to help you end the war."

Ruri nodded in response as Yuzu stretched out her hands. Feeling immense power coursing through her veins, she instinctively clamped her hands together and felt a massive indoor breeze swirl around her in a mini tornado. Arrest Corps operatives backed away as darkness gathered around Yuzu until she couldn't see her surroundings anymore. Just like in the Underworld, Yuzu felt her marks burn against her skin as her clothing rapidly warped into the dark attire she had worn when Ruri first made her a Dark Signer. Transforming the second time was still excruciatingly painful, but her feelings of pain were eclipsed by an immense feeling of exhilaration as her powers were unleashed. When the darkness cleared away and she looked upon the Arrest Corps the second time, they suddenly looked tiny and insignificant.

Yuzu looked down at her new Duel Disk. Like her clothing, it had also transformed. The deck slot was a large black hemisphere with a red spiral and jagged teeth over the deck-slot. Jutting from the deck slot, a long black rectangular extension that looked like a thin rectangular shield with elaborate red patterns stretched past her left elbow. Taken together, the Duel Disk looked like a black and red flower with a thin stem and a circular center. Sensing the other duelists, the Duel Disk's red markings lit up and six crimson petal-shaped solid vision duel fields formed around the hemisphere like a flower in bloom. The petal over Yuzu's left hand displayed three card slots while the other five petals each held two.

"Action Field on." a coy female voice called from Yuzu's Duel Disk, "Earthbound Battlefield."

Ruri and the Arrest Corps operatives looked surprised as a wave of holographic energy burst from the center of Yuzu's Duel Disk. As the border of the wave expanded outward and made contact with the inside of the building, the interior transformed until the duelists were standing on a glowing raised platform shaped like Yuzu's mark with six petal-shaped extensions and a long stem. Hundreds of other platforms shaped like primitive drawings of animals, birds, fish, plants, humans, and geometric shapes surrounded the duelists on all sides while glowing with multi-colored light as diverse as the rainbow. Looking on all sides, Yuzu noticed nothing but empty black space above and beneath the platforms. From the flower platform, multiple ethereal crimson vines stretched out and snagged onto the other platforms, creating a web of thin bridges. Looking up, Yuzu noticed a large sphere of light shine above their heads before exploding and scattering tiny action cards across the platforms.

"That's quite some decoration." Ruri commented, mesmerized by her new surroundings. "I didn't expect something like this to happen."

Yuzu looked just as surprised as Ruri.

"I didn't mean to do it. I mean…" she paused, "… I've always preferred dueling in Action Fields, but I don't remember activating this one."

"Another gift from the Earthbound." Ruri shrugged, examining the surroundings. "Do try not to hurt these men, Yuzu." she admonished, "They're not our true enemies, and besides, they don't even have any free will of their own now." She smirked at one of the operatives. "Isn't that right Roger?"

"Dark Signer…!" a booming voice called out. From the suit of one of the officers, a beam of light shot out and displayed a colossal twenty meter tall holographic image of Jean-Michel Roger. Standing with his arms folded behind his back, he bent down and leered at Ruri like she was a mouse in a cage. "…that was an impressive display of your power just now. I must admit that I did not recognize you at first from the security recordings, but now that you're standing right next to miss Hiragi here…" he briefly glanced at Yuzu who just stared back at him with an expression full of contempt, "…I believe I have a good idea who you are. Do I have the pleasure of speaking with Hiragi Yuzu's counterpart from Xyz or Synchro?"

Ruri tossed her hair back and smiled back at the giant holographic image. "I'll let you decide where I'm from based on my dueling. I on the other hand…" her expression turned to a scowl as her irises began glowing with blood-red light, "… know exactly where you come from… child of Academia."

Roger threw back his head and laughed. "Child of Academia?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard of Academia, "I'm afraid you are mistaken miss…"

"Kurosaki." Ruri replied.

"Kurosaki…" Roger stroked his chin, "… now where have I…? Of course!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "Miss Kurosaki Ruri from the Xyz Dimension! Dennis mentioned you in his duel against Shun… your brother, right?"

"Yes." Ruri admitted, "The very same brother your people took from me when they kidnapped me after invading Heartland."

Roger's smile deepened. "Then if you are Ruri, your companion with the whale mark must be the one from here. And speaking of marks…" he pointed his gigantic finger at Ruri, "… that mark on your back… are you the first to bear it, or was there another who had a mark just like yours?"

Ruri snorted disdainfully. "You seem to know a lot about the Dark Signers. How did you come to hear of us?"

"One learns many things when one leaves their home and becomes familiar with the culture of a new land." Roger smiled, spreading out his hands.

"So you are from Fusion." Ruri smiled.

"Originally." Roger admitted with a shrug. "But I can assure you that I have severed all ties with that organization. I have no interest whatsoever in helping the professor achieve his goals. Quite the opposite in fact. It is entirely my intention to ensure that the Synchro Dimension remains forever outside of Academia's grasp."

"And why should I believe you?" Ruri interrogated, eye mark glowing white.

"How could I possibly benefit from an invasion of Academia?" Roger asked, holding out his hands as if the answer was patently obvious. "If I let the professor destroy the city, I am left with nothing! I go back to being the professor's stooge, a mere henchman awaiting the next assignment from his master." He leaned in closer, "If your enemy is Academia, then I believe we can benefit a great deal more from working together. With your power, you could help me keep Academia off my back, and in return, with my resources, I could give you the support you need to say… take your revenge on Academia with a full-scale invasion of their dimension? Well now…" he extended his hand to Ruri, "… how does that sound?"

Ruri threw back her head and laughed. Roger scowled back at her.

"Honestly!?" she cried, clutching at her sides, "You!? Helping me!? I think I'd only end up helping you by conquering Fusion for you!"

"I would carefully consider it." said Roger, looking completely unamused. "The two of you don't stand a chance against Academia alone. You two don't even stand a chance against me. Believe me Ruri. The last thing you want is the entire Synchro dimension as your enemy. Why not see if we can help each other instead. Last chance."

"Yes Roger." Ruri agreed, "It is your last chance. Step down from your throne and relinquish your control over this dimension, or there will be no forgiveness for you when I tear down your pride."

Roger looked over at Yuzu. "And do you stand with her?"

"You have no right to rule this city." Yuzu declared, staring back into Roger's eyes. "You cannot hope to build a future with force and control. I'll do everything in my power to return the smiles to the people of this city, even if it means standing against you."

"How unfortunate." Roger sighed. "Well then… Battle Royal rules I suppose. Destroy them all!" he ordered before vanishing.

"My turn!" an Arrest Corps member with the label, A-054, on his armor announced in a muffled voice, pulling three cards from his hand.

"Have you played in an Action Field before?" Yuzu hastily asked Ruri.

"Focus on the duel." Ruri admonished. "I'll figure things out. Trust me. The last person you need to worry about is me."

"I activate the magic card, Fusion," A-054 continued, "and fuse two monsters, Goyo Regent, from my hand, who are always treated as Synchro Monsters!"

Two monsters in royal robes rose into a large fusion portal above A-054's head. Over their faces, they wore painted masks with black makeup over the eyes and red makeup over the mouth and cheeks. Each held an elaborate fan in one hand and a small jutte in the other hand. Nodding to each other, they crossed juttes and began spinning into the center of the portal in a swirl of blue and red light.

"Noble souls of integrity with the authority to execute imperial justice," he chanted, "Now become one and sublimate! Yuugo Shokan! Come forth! Successor of the majestic predator's lineage! Level 10! Goyo Emperor!"

A monster kneeling upon a massive, elaborate throne hovered through the portal before dropping his head to his fist and looking down on Ruri and Yuzu with a disapproving expression on his face. His hair was purple and tied into two pony tails that rested over his chest. His face was painted a pale white with lines of red makeup over the eyes and cheek. His silk robes were extremely elegant and he wore a colorful silk emperor crown above his head. A holographic indicator appeared below the monster and showed it had 3300 ATK.

Yuzu gasped at the appearance of the Fusion monster, remembering how fearsome it had been when it had been used against Yuya. Ruri, on the other hand, looked unimpressed.

Meanwhile, several kilometers away, Roger watched the duel with amusement.

"Dark Signer or no," he mused with a smile on his face, "they are still subject to all the rules of dueling, especially those rules that generate rather below-the-belt strategies. Naturally, I cannot have the Arrest Corps attack on their first turn, but that doesn't prevent me from subduing them by other means."

"I activate the equip magic, Goyo Arrow…" A-054 continued, "…and equip it to Goyo Emperor!"

A small Gatling cannon appeared in front of Goyo Emperor. Taking it in his hands, Goyo emperor lowered the gun in the direction of the two signers.

"Once per turn," A-054 explained, "Goyo Arrow enables me to inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to the level of my monster times one-hundred!"

Ruri folded her arms over her chest. "You truly are from Academia Roger. I'm willing to bet your entire plan consists of taking us both out with effect damage before we even begin our first turn! Is that why you sent nine officers against us?"

"Take out the leader, Ruri, first." Roger instructed from behind his desk.

"I use its effect now on Ruri!" A-054 declared, extending his hand toward the Xyz duelist.

"Ruri!" Yuzu cried, scanning the field for an action card as Goyo Emperor quickly lowered his Gatling cannon at her friend.

"I can take care of myself!" Ruri called back. "You just worry about you!"

Yuzu nodded and leapt off the flower platform, diving down before grabbing onto a vine, and using the vine to swing herself up with superhuman strength towards an Action Card lying on a platform shaped like a dog.

Before she could manage to grab the action card, Goyo emperor had already commenced his attack. From his Gatling cannon, Goyo emperor fired a stream of bullets strait at Ruri's face. However, despite the hailstorm of bullets, Ruri looked completely calm.

"Salvation Seraphim Prophetess effect!" Ruri declared, eyes and back glowing with white light. "If I would take damage while I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can Special Summon this card from my hand!"

As she threw the card onto her wing-shaped duel field, a majestic black-winged angel wearing long blue and white robes descended from the sky. She wore a small amulet inlaid with lapis lazuli over her neck, golden sashes over her waist and shoulders, and small white sandals over her feet. Her hair was long and black with white streaks and her face glowed with angelic light. Landing in front of Ruri, she held out her arms protectively while a holographic indicator appeared and displayed an ATK of 3000.

"When Salvation Seraphim Prophetess is summoned with her own effect, negate any damage I would take. In addition, while I have no monsters in my graveyard, I take no damage." Ruri explained as Prophetess stretched out her arms and summoned a golden force-field in front of herself and Ruri, vaporizing the bullets before they even touched either of them.

Roger gritted his teeth. Without the ability to attack for the first round, Ruri had successfully shielded herself from any further effect damage. Fortunately, Yuzu was a different story.

"Continue the strategy." He ordered his soldiers, "Only this time, focus your attacks on Hiragi Yuzu."

"My turn!" an officer with the label, A-261, on his armor declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck. "I activate the magic card, Fusion, and fuse two copies of Goyo Regent from my hand together to summon Goyo Emperor! Yuugo Shokan! Come forth! Goyo Emperor!"

A second copy of Goyo emperor appeared above the officers and glared up at Yuzu with a haughty expression.

"I activate the equip magic, Goyo Arrow," he continued, repeating the previous turn, "and use its effect to inflict damage to Yuzu's Life Points equal to the Level of the equipped monster times 100!"

"Again!" Yuzu exclaimed, unable to believe he had managed to draw the exact same hand through sheer dumb luck.

"They've disabled the auto-shuffle function on their Duel Disks!" Ruri snarled, looking disgusted. "You would never have dared to duel us with even odds, Roger!"

From the safety of his desk, Roger chuckled lightly to himself. What Ruri said about him rigging the duel from the start was true, though he hadn't exactly needed to entirely disable the auto-shuffle function of the Duel Disks. There was a perfectly easier way to ensure victory without having to cheat in such a blatantly obvious way. Instead of entirely disabling the auto-shuffle function, one needed only to slightly adjust the mechanism in order for the Duel Disk to shuffle only the bottom thirty-four cards of the deck instead of all forty, and Voila! The deck was technically shuffled, leaving his Arrest Corps free to manipulate the top six cards in order to create a combo capable of inflicting up to nine-thousand damage to the other players before they even began their turn.

"Go!" A-261 ordered, "Goyo Arrow!"

A-261's Goyo emperor fired a quick spray of bullets from his Gatling gun up to the platform where Yuzu was standing.

"Action Magic!" Yuzu declared, diving off the platform while slapping a card onto her Duel Disk, "Acceleration! The effect damage is negated!" she flipped through the air and landed on a vine before vaulting thirty meters forward towards a platform shaped like a pair of hands connected to a bird's body.

Roger slammed his hand on his desk. "That little…" he snarled. "Continue the strategy! QUICKLY!" he ordered the other officers.

"Action Magic." Ruri murmured to herself, understanding how the mechanic worked from Yuzu's demonstration. Summoning a pair of wings from her mark, she launched herself off the platform and headed upwards towards a platform shaped like a tree while Prophetess followed behind her.

"Not so fast!" an officer with the label, A-837, declared, running along a vine in order to keep up with the duelists. "I activate Fusion, and fuse two copies of Goyo Regent to Summon Goyo Emperor! Yuugo Shokan! Come Forth! Goyo Emperor!"

Goyo Emperor barely emerged from the Fusion Portal before A-837 slammed down another card.

"I equip Goyo Arrow to Goyo Emperor! Effect activate!" he ordered.

Ruri dived onto the platform and slid along its surface till she snagged an Action Card resting on one of the tree branches. However, when she looked at it, she saw that it was an action card called Miracle. Something completely useless to Yuzu in her current situation.

Fortunately, Yuzu had already managed to find what she needed resting on one of the platform's fingers.

"Action Magic, Acceleration!" she declared, dodging another spray of bullets before back-flipping off the platform and grabbing ahold of another vine in the air, swinging herself towards a platform shaped like a large rectangular Pelican.

"I'm sorry Yuzu." Ruri apologized. "I didn't get the right one. Can I just get rid of this one?"

"It's okay!" Yuzu reassured her, landing on a vine and sprinting towards the platform, effortlessly maintaining her balance. "I looked at the card description on my Duel Disk. It says we can each carry two Action Cards in our hands rather than the usual one!"

"Got it!" Ruri replied, diving down to a platform shaped like a gigantic spider.

"All Arrest Corps!" Roger angrily ordered, "Obtain Action Cards, immediately!"

All nine of the officers instantly left the Flower platform and started making a mad dash across the vines, scanning the field for Action Cards.

"My turn!" an officer with the label B-733 declared, yanking out a card, before leaping down onto a condor shaped platform and snagging an Action Card. "I fuse two copies of Goyo Regent together and Fusion Summon! Come Forth! Goyo Emperor!"

His copy of Goyo Emperor charged out of the Fusion Portal, aggressively flying towards Yuzu on his floating throne.

"Goyo Arrow activate!" B-733 declared, equipping Goyo Emperor with an Equip Spell.

Goyo Emperor gave a roaring battle cry before unleashing a hail-storm of bullets at Yuzu who had leaped off the Pelican shaped platform when she noticed no Action Cards on top of it.

"Action Magic!" Ruri declared from overhead, swooping towards the officer, "Reflect! Now you take the effect damage!"

"Action Magic!" B-733 countered, "No Action! The effect of your Action Card is negated!"

"Action Field effect!" Yuzu declared, holding an Action Card in her hand while standing atop a platform shaped like a hummingbird. "I banish one Action Card in my hand to negate the activation of your Action Card!"

"Nani!?" B-733 exclaimed. Instantly, just as the stream of bullets from Goyo Emperor's Gatling cannon was about to hit Yuzu, a clear force-field formed around Yuzu, reflecting the spray of bullets back into B-733. B-733 let out an angry yelp before almost getting knocked off his platform as the bullets slammed into his armor and reduced his Life Points to 3000.

"Idiot!" Roger roared, at his wits end. "All operatives, keep any Action Card you find in your hand! When either of them activates another Action Card, use Earthbound Battlefield's effect to negate it! Beat her at her own game!"

The Arrest Corps redoubled their efforts, sprinting even harder as they swept through multiple platforms and balanced across numerous vines in search of Action Cards.

"Yuugo Shokan!" an officer with the label, B-234, screamed as yet another Goyo Emperor appeared before getting equipped with another Goyo Arrow. "Effect activate!" B-234 ordered, stretching his hand towards Yuzu while adding an Action Card to his hand.

"Action Magic!" Ruri roared, "Acceleration!"

"Earthbound Battlefield effect!" B-234 countered. "The effect is negated!"

Ruri watched helplessly as a storm of bullets sped towards Yuzu.

"Action Magic!" Yuzu called, making a daring dive headfirst down to a platform shaped like a lizard, "Earthbound Trial! If I would take effect damage, I halve that damage and I can add one random card from my deck to my hand!" She landed on the platform and snagged another action card just as the spray of bullets slammed into her, knocking her back and reducing her Life Points to 3500. "Effect activate!" she declared as her deck was shuffled and a random card popped out. Leaping onto a platform shaped like a monkey, she glanced down at the card and then froze when she saw what it was.

Earthbound God Ti'ika Sara.

The card Ruri had shown her earlier. The one she had said was the supreme symbol of her power. As she gazed upon the card, she felt power surging through her veins. Her marks began glowing brighter and seemed to come to life, wriggling slightly against her skin like little worms.

" _At last!_ " a voice proclaimed from within Yuzu's head. Listening to it, Yuzu suddenly recognized it as the youthful female voice that had spoken when her Duel Disk activated. " _After all this time… I have returned once again!_ " The card glowed with intense red light. Pressing her finger against the surface, Yuzu could swear she felt a heartbeat within. " _Now Yuzu…_ " the voice commanded, " _… merge with my thoughts and we shall crush our opposition to dust!_ "

"Yuzu!" Ruri called out when she noticed Yuzu had frozen like a statue. Hastily Yuzu looked up only to see another officer, B-916, equip yet another Goyo Emperor with Goyo Arrow before ordering his monster to fire his weapon at Yuzu. Yuzu tried to dodge the sudden stream of bullets, but was too late as a spray caught her in the chest, knocking her on her back and reducing her Life Points to 2500.

Yuzu leapt to her feet, and started making a mad dash towards another platform shaped like an Orca, which had a glimmering Action Card resting on the tail.

" _Not that one Yuzu._ " the voice admonished. " _Look below._ "

Yuzu felt something direct her gaze downward to the bottommost platform, a simple spiral shape. In the very center, Yuzu spied an action card.

" _Who are you?_ " Yuzu asked, diving downward as yet another Goyo emperor was summoned by an officer with the label, C-238.

" _I am Ti'ika Sara._ " The voice proclaimed, as Yuzu swung her body around with a vine and directed herself towards a platform shaped like a giant man. " _I am the god who chose you to carry on my legacy. I am your ally and companion. I am your very soul!_ "

Yuzu nearly managed to land on the Giant platform before a spray of bullets knocked her away, sending her flying through empty space as her Life Points dropped to 1500. Ruri struggled to fight against the onslaught of Goyo Arrow armed Goyo Emperors, but no matter how many Action Cards she managed to activate, another officer would always have one in his hand to negate her card with the effect of Yuzu's Action Field.

Yuzu spread out her arms and legs, using her body to direct her fall as she fell towards the spiral platform. Noticing a vine leading down to the platform, she adjusted her body so that she was falling in a direction approaching the vine. Suddenly, an officer with the label, C-888, slid down the vine with a Goyo Arrow armed Goyo Emperor hovering right next to him.

"Effect activate!" he ordered, extending his hand toward Yuzu.

Utterly helpless, Yuzu felt an endless stream of bullets slam into her body, reducing her Life Points to 500 and knocking her back until she was falling down the empty abyss, eyes gazing up towards the ceiling where she could see a final officer with the label, C-460, merging his hands together as a final Goyo Emperor emerged from a Fusion Portal. From deep within, she felt unfathomable rage bubble up to the surface. "How dare they!?" the thought came to her mind, "How dare those… those… mortal scum knock me about like this!? DO THEY HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM!?"

Yuzu gasped as she felt the sudden inexplicable feeling of rage consume her. She wanted to hurt them, she wanted to rip them apart, she wanted to watch them suffer and beg for mercy before blowing them to ash!

"NO!" she screamed, struggling against the feeling. She didn't want that. Ruri was right. They were innocent. They didn't know what they were doing. She only had to defeat them. She didn't have to destroy them.

" _You will miss the platform without my help._ " Ti'ika Sara counseled. " _Merge your mind with me now or you will lose._ "

" _I'm not beaten yet!_ " Yuzu mentally called back, fighting against the intense urges coming over her mind and body. Spinning herself around so she was facing the spiral platform, she opened up her arms and legs and directed her falling body towards the center of the platform just as the final Goyo Emperor started zooming towards her on his floating throne.

"Goyo Arrow!" C-460 called.

Yuzu heard the Gatling Canon fire.

"Action Magic!" Ruri called.

"Earthbound Battlefield effect!" an officer countered, banishing an action card in his hand.

"No!" Ruri screamed as the stream of bullets approached Yuzu.

Yuzu's right hand slammed into the very edge of the platform. Barely clinging on with just a few fingers, Yuzu managed to throw herself into the air and front flip onto the center of the platform, snagging the Action Card just as the column of raging bullets nearly touched her feet.

"ACTION MAGIC!" Yuzu roared, slamming down the Action Card. "EARTHBOUND RETRIBUTION!"

Instantly, a shadowy force-field formed around Yuzu, vaporizing the bullets before they could even touch her.

"Action Field effect!" an officer declared, "I negate your... AHH!" his hand was suddenly shocked by a surge of electricity when he attempted to banish his Action Card.

"Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to Earthbound Retribution's activation or effect." Yuzu calmly explained, looking up at her opponents with a disdainful expression on her face. "If I would take damage while my Life Points are one-thousand or less, I can negate that damage, and inflict the same amount of damage to my opponents instead!"

The force-field around Yuzu burst into nine streams of shadow that flew strait towards the officers, slamming them all back and reducing the Life Points of A-054, A-261, A-837, B-234, B-916, C-238, C-888, and C-460 to 3000, and the Life Points of B-733 to 2000.

"After the effect resolves," Yuzu continued, "my opponents cannot activate Action Cards for the rest of the turn, in addition I get to add 1 Earthbound Card and 1 Field Magic Card from my deck to my hand! I choose the Field Magic, Divine Melodious Stage, and the Continuous Magic, Earthbound Gardens."

The officers groaned in response, small bursts of black electricity occasionally crackling against their armor.

From above, Ruri landed behind Yuzu before taking her by the waist and lifting her off the platform, flying with her back to the center of the flower platform. Looking around, Yuzu saw that the Arrest Corps had surrounded them on all sides from multiple platforms, and yet, despite their immense numbers, she did not feel the least bit afraid. On the contrary, Yuzu almost felt pity for the officers as they recovered from the effects of her Action Card.

"There's nothing more you can do, Roger!" Ruri growled. "Your cheap tactics have failed you, but I will not forget what you did to Yuzu! End your turn now and prepare to face your punishment with dignity!"

It was disconcerting for Roger to have his plan thwarted, but he and his Arrest Corps were far from defeated. Even if they hadn't managed to eliminate either Ruri or Yuzu, they still held an overwhelming advantage.

"Turn end." C-460 declared, assuming a defensive stance. All nine of the Arrest Corps officers had managed to secure a safe position on a platform and acquire two Action Cards each. With an army of nine Goyo Emperors each armed with Goyo Arrow, they were ready to hold off just about any attack until they could unleash another stream of damage from attacks and effect damage during the next round.

Ruri removed her cape and cracked her knuckles, glaring angrily at the Arrest Corps before turning to Yuzu with a concerned expression on her face. "How are you holding up?" she asked.

"I'm okay." Yuzu reassured her, panting slightly. "Thank you for your help. I'm ready to learn Xyz Summoning now."

Ruri grinned back at her. "Yes." she agreed, "It's time. Watch closely, Yuzu! I'm going to teach you two of the greatest summoning methods ever created!"

The Arrest Corps braced themselves, holding their Duel Disks in front of their chests like shields.

"My turn! Draw!" Ruri declared, pulling a card from the top of her Duel Disk. Irises blazing like red fire, Ruri hardly paused as she moved through each play of her turn. "First, I activate the second effect of Prophetess. By banishing this monster until the End-Phase of this turn, I can make it so the Special Summon of Salvation Seraphim monsters cannot be negated!"

Prophetess glowed with intense white light before vanishing from Ruri's field, leaving a bright golden mist behind.

"Next, since I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can Special Summon the Level six, Salvation Seraphim Angel from my hand!"

A black winged angel wearing a white halo above her head and white battle-armor on her body while carrying a long spear and shield, descended onto Ruri's field.

"Next, I Normal Summon the level six monster, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, without release with its own effect!"

Salvation Seraphim Angel was joined by another black-winged angel with a bandage around her eyes and cracked fortune-telling bones in her hands.

"Oracle effect!" Ruri continued, "I excavate the top three cards of my deck in order to Special Summon one excavated Salvation Seraphim monster while sending all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard!"

Salvation Seraphim Oracle touched several segments of her bones while her eyes lit up with blinding white light from beneath her bandages. Above her head, the ghostly images of two black-winged angels and a long spear shimmered in the air like a mirage.

"I Special Summon the Level three monster, Salvation Seraphim Martyr, and send the monster, Salvation Seraphim Priestess, and the Equip Magic Card, Salvation Seraphim Holy Spear, to the graveyard."

A black-winged angel in a white dress and a long, golden spear descended into Ruri's graveyard through two black portals while another black-winged angel appeared to Ruri's field. Salvation Seraphim Martyr was a fairly small angel in comparison with the others. Her hair was coal black and her skin was a smooth chocolate brown. Looking up towards the Arrest Corps, she wore an expression on her tanned face that was sorrowful, yet determined. Her hands and feet were bound with strong cords, and her black wings were clamped together with a set of iron chains. A holographic indicator appeared at her feet and showed an attack of 300.

"I next Special Summon the Level three monster, Salvation Seraphim Healer, from my hand with its own effect, and activate its effect. I send Salvation Seraphim Disciple from the top of my deck to the graveyard in order to Special Summon the Salvation Seraphim Priestess I sent to the graveyard."

Yuzu watched as Ruri rapidly summoned a black-winged angel to her field and sent another angel to her graveyard before summoning yet another angel. She now had a force of five monsters on her field, two of them Level six, and three of them Level three.

"Priestess effect!" Ruri declared, "I excavate the top three cards of my deck, adding Salvation Seraphim Archon to my hand while sending the monster, Salvation Seraphim Acolyte, and the Magic Card, Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force, to my graveyard!" Ruri turned to Yuzu after adding a card to her hand and sending the rest to the graveyard. "Watch me now, Yuzu!" she instructed, "This is the art of Xyz Summoning!"

She stretched her hand towards her monsters. "Using the monsters, Salvation Seraphim Priestess, Healer, and Martyr, who each have the same Level of three, I construct the overlay network!"

Instead of sending the monsters to the graveyard, Ruri took her three monsters and stacked them together, before pulling a card from her extra deck. Meanwhile, on her field, the three monsters each turned into a stream of yellow light before draining into a galaxy-shaped black and yellow Xyz Portal, which formed on the ground in front of Ruri. Holding her hands together like she was praying, Ruri began her summoning chant:

"Noble heavenly servant clad in the armor of righteousness, take courage now as you raise your holy blade to smite the forces of darkness and bring salvation to this world! Xyz Shokan!" she cried, eyes glowing white, "Rank 3! Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader!"

She placed the card from her Extra Deck on top of the stack of cards just as the Xyz Portal in front of her exploded in a blast of multi-colored light. From the center, a proud looking angel with blonde hair and white wings arose from the portal before posing in front of Ruri, holding its blade aloft. Three spheres of white light orbited the blade of its sword in a series of concentric rings.

"Brave Crusader's effect activates, and Martyr's effect chains to the activation!" Ruri declared, stretching her hand towards the ground. "If Salvation Seraphim Martyr is used as a material for an Xyz Summon, I can attach one card from any player's graveyard to the summoned Xyz Monster as an Overlay Unit! I choose to attach one Goyo Regent from your graveyard to my monster now!"

One of the officers snarled in frustration as a card was yanked from his graveyard before it zoomed towards Brave Crusader and transformed into another sphere of light that orbited her sword.

"Brave Crusader's effect!" Ruri declared as two black portals opened up beneath her feet. "I attach the Salvation Seraphim Disciple and Acolyte in my graveyard to my monster as Overlay Units! With six Overlay Units attached, Brave Crusader's effect raises its attack power to 2400!"

"Amazing!" Yuzu exclaimed, watching Ruri's angelic monster and its Overlay Units shine with brilliant golden light.

Ruri smiled back at Yuzu. "Do you understand it now?" she asked.

"I should be good so long as I remembered to put my Xyz Monsters in the Extra Deck." Yuzu replied with a slight chuckle.

"Why would you put them anywhere else?" Ruri asked, looking confused.

"Long story." Yuzu sighed.

"It'll have to wait." Ruri replied, pulling another card from her hand, "There's still much to show you!" she looked up at her opponents with a confident expression on her face. "Since I have no monsters in my graveyard, I Special Summon the Level 1 monster, Fallen Divine Mentor from my hand!"

Yuzu suddenly sensed a drop in the room's temperature as Ruri's new monster materialized into existence. Shape-wise, the new monster looked angelic, but it was bound like a mummy from the tip of its wings to the bottom of its feet in layers of thick paper bearing black Kanji spelling out thousands of different words such as, "Hidden," "Secret," "Unknown," "Mystery," and "Forgotten." Beneath the folds of paper over its mouth, Yuzu could hear the creature silently breathing ragged breaths. Yuzu couldn't tell what lay beneath the paper, but she had a sinking feeling that whatever rested within wouldn't be a pleasant sight to behold.

"Behold Yuzu!" Ruri declared, eyes glowing white with triumph as her voice reverberated across the room like a god's. "This is the power of the Dark Signers! With Fallen Divine Mentor's effect, I multiply the Levels of all monsters I control by negative one!"

"Negative one!?" one of the officers exclaimed. "That's impossible! You can't have a monster with a negative level!"

"Oh ye of so little faith." Ruri sighed, shaking her head as Fallen Divine Mentor rose into the air above Salvation Seraphim Angel and Oracle. With a banshee-like shriek, Divine Mentor shot thousands of ribbons of paper from her body, which bound Angel and Oracle together in a tight bundle. Screaming in agony, the two angels struggled against the bindings, but seemed unable to break through the paper, as if the paper had suddenly become as strong as iron chains. Brave Crusader looked shocked, and turned towards Ruri as if begging her to stop what she was doing. Meanwhile, the screaming of Angel and Oracle gradually faded away as their bodies slowly grew translucent.

"Stop it!" Yuzu shrieked, watching the monsters' agony with horror. "You're hurting them!"

"It has to be done." Ruri calmly replied. "Watch closely now. Soon, you will be doing the same thing." She raised her hands above her head as Divine Mentor flew upwards, carrying the imprisoned angels with her. "Using these two Level negative six monsters, I build the Dark Overlay Network and Dark Xyz Summon!"

With a final muted shriek of agony, Salvation Seraphim Angel and Oracles bodies disappeared completely as they collapsed into a small singularity, which warped the fabric of space around it.

"Legendary giant who inherits the blood of the divine," Ruri solemnly chanted, closing her eyes, "Open thy all-seeing eyes now, gaze upon the works of humanity, and dispense righteous judgment! Dark Xyz Shokan! Descend now! Level negative six! Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim!"

Yuzu braced herself as Ruri slammed a translucent card on top of the Angel and Oracle cards, sending a shockwave through the field as she did. As space folded out from the singularity, a giant blue angelic woman unfolded from the center and stepped onto Ruri's field, unfolding a massive pair of wings that each looked like a solid piece of flexible carved sapphire as a holographic indicator appeared to show an ATK of 2800. Ghostly yellow markings decorated its skin and dress while glowing with a faint yellow light. The upper half of its face was hooded with a deep-black cloak that covered most of its body, but beneath the hood, Yuzu could make out six massive white eyes that stared up at the Arrest Corps like spot-lights. Through patches of translucent skin and clothing, Yuzu could make out two shiny black crystals within Geo Nephilim, one in the chest and one in her midriff. Divine Mentor flew to the giant's feet and fell to her knees, repeatedly lifting her hands in the air and bowing to the monster as if worshipping it.

"When a monster is Dark Xyz Summoned," Ruri continued, "Fallen Divine Mentor's second effect activates. I can attach it to the summoned monster as a Dark Overlay Unit."

Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim, raised Divine Mentor to her feet with one of her own massive hands. Making a quick crushing motion with the other hand, Fallen Divine Mentor suddenly compacted into a shiny black crystal before flying into Geo Nephilim's forehead, phasing through the skin and becoming another one of its Dark Overlay Units.

"Why did you do that?" Yuzu asked, shocked by how brutal the summoning method seemed.

Ruri sighed. "Yuzu," she explained, "this war has unleashed a great amount of pain upon the universe. One of the powers of the Earthbound is to collect human pain in order to use it as a source of power. Using the power of that pain, we can stop the people who began this war, and ultimately put an end to all pain and suffering. You are a gentle spirit, and I can understand if you are disturbed by my monsters' pain, but good things have always required sacrifice, whether it was to call forth a stronger monster in Duel Monsters or build a greater world. But no matter how much individuals like us may have to offer, the blessings that will come from such selfless sacrifices always outweigh the costs. Now behold those blessings!" Ruri commanded, stretching her hand towards her monster, "I activate Geo Nephilim's effect! Once per turn, during any player's turn, it can attach a number of cards from the top of any player's deck, graveyard, or that are currently banished to one Xyz or Dark Xyz monster, except Geo Nephilim, as Overlay or Dark Overlay Units! With this effect, I attach one Goyo Regent from three of your graveyards to Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader as Overlay Units!"

Geo Nephilim flapped its Sapphire wings once before stretching out its hands as the Dark Overlay Units within its body glowed with intense black light. Three copies of Goyo Regent were ripped from three officer's graveyards and morphed into spheres of white light that sped toward Brave Crusader's sword before joining the other Overlay Units and raising Brave Crusader's ATK to 2700.

"I cannot attack on my first turn due to Battle-Royal rules." Ruri sighed. "So I'll set one card face-down and end my turn. And of course, with the end of my turn, Prophetess returns to my field." As Prophetess reappeared to Ruri's field, she looked over at Yuzu and nodded her head. "Show me what you have learned." She commanded.

"My turn." Yuzu began, "Draw." She looked down at the cards in her hand. She had plenty to work with, but she was struggling to focus on any except one of them.

" _It's time to embrace the powers you've been given._ " Ti'ika Sara admonished, glowing with red light from within the card. " _Call me forth, and I shall take revenge against these pathetic mortals._ "

Yuzu shook her head, struggling against her own thoughts as memories of the Arrest Corps' abuse and Sergey's cruel murder resurfaced to her view. " _There's a better way._ " Yuzu thought back, gritting her teeth as she pulled a card from her hand.

"Due to the effect of Earthbound Battlefield, I am allowed to play one additional Field Magic without having to remove Earthbound Battlefield from the Field Magic Zone." She wiped some sweat from her brow before slowly placing a card above Earthbound Battlefield on her Duel Disk. "I activate the Divine Melodious Stage I added to my hand!"

Filling the dark battlefield with brilliant light, the duelists were suddenly surrounded by a massive opera theater with a crystal chandelier, flowing red curtains, and a raised platform looming above rows of thousands of cushy red seats. Bits of confetti rained from the sky and legions of tiny fairy and sprite performers playing small instruments filled the air with joyful melodies. Taking in the bright atmosphere, Yuzu took a deep breath, even if it was unnecessary, and allowed herself to relax before continuing her turn with a small smile on her face.

"Next," she continued, feeling her spirits lift a little as she resolved to duel in the way she believed in, "I activate the Magic Card, 1st Movement Solo, and Special Summon Sonata the Melodious Diva from my deck!"

Pirouetting through the air with angelic grace, a green haired fairy in a blue dress decorated with musical notes tossed back her long hair before landing on the platform and letting out a beautiful, clear, high-pitched note while indicators showed a small ATK of 1200.

"Sonata's effect!" Yuzu proclaimed, steadily growing more confident, "If it is Special Summoned, all Fairy Type monsters I control gain five-hundred attack!"

Sonata's singing grew in volume as her ATK rose to 1700.

From his desk, Roger laughed. "Really!" he snickered, "That's the Dark Signer's play? At least Ruri was semi-interesting. I really wonder if I overacted when I found them here."

Yuzu, however, was far from done.

"Divine Melodious Stage's effect activates!" Yuzu declared, happily raising her hands over her head as the duel field filled with the sound of soothing music. "Once per turn, if I Special Summon a Melodious monster, I can add one Melodious monster from my deck to my hand!" She snagged a card from her deck and added it to the large pile of cards in her hand. "I use its effect now to add Quartet the Melodious Songstress from my deck to my hand!"

She shuffled through the cards in her hand, placing Earthbound God Ti'ika Sara in the back of the pile as she did. "Next," she continued, "since I control a Melodious monster, I Special Summon Cannon the Melodious Diva with its own effect!"

A blue-haired fairy wearing a golden mask and an elegant dress with pink puffed sleeves, a purple vest, and a short black and blue diamond pattern skirt appeared next to Sonata. Rings of musical notes orbited Cannons body like Overlay Units as it joined its voice with Sonata.

Yuzu reached for another card in her hand when she was suddenly interrupted by the voice.

" _All is in place._ " Ti'ika Sara declared, " _Summon me now and I shall wipe them all out in one blow_!" Yuzu strained her face as the sound of intense girlish giggling filled her mind. Looking up to the Arrest Corps, she had a sudden urge to do as the voice said. Instinctively, she knew that what the spirit had said about finishing the Arrest Corps off in one blow was true. They had thought they could overwhelm her with their sheer numbers, but their numbers would only lead to their downfall! Quivering against the growing desire, Yuzu shakily reached out her right hand before pausing when she suddenly caught a glimpse of Ruri's Geo Nephilim from the corner of her eye.

"What am I doing?" Yuzu thought to herself, sweat beading on her forehead. She thought about what Ruri had said about sacrifices needing to be made in order for great things to be brought about. What she had said about summoning stronger monsters was certainly true. Whenever Yuzu Fusion summoned, there was always the cost of a few of her monsters. What about now? Resting on her field were two weak monsters who wouldn't be able to do anything against the Arrest Corps. Sacrificing them now would be nothing. She had done it before when she Tribute Summoned her Level eight monster, Mozarta the Melodious Maestra. But for some reason, this didn't feel… right. Ruri had caused her monsters pain when she Dark Xyz Summoned her Earthbound monster. Yuzu didn't want to do the same by summoning one of her own. And yet…

"You're struggling, Yuzu." Ruri observed.

Yuzu snapped out of her muddled thoughts and looked back towards the Xyz duelist.

"I don't believe you ought to tie your hands behind your back if there is a way you can win." Ruri smiled, "That said, I believe you should trust your instincts and duel in your own way."

Yuzu smiled back at Ruri, appreciating her understanding. "Thank you, Ruri." she said, sighing with relief, "You don't know how much that helps."

"Trust in the dueling you believe in." Ruri encouraged, "Whether you choose to follow my teachings or not, I still believe you will make a great Dark Signer."

Yuzu bowed to Ruri like she used to when she was being trained by Sora. "Thank you… teacher. I will definitely learn from your teachings and become stronger!"

Yuzu plucked the Earthbound God card from her hand and gently transported it to her pocket. "Forgive me," she whispered, "but I have to do this my way."

" _We will speak again._ " Ti'ika Sara's voice reassured, slowly fading from Yuzu's mind. The instant the card was out of sight, Yuzu felt a weight lift from her shoulders as the marks on her eyes and face began to dim. Looking back through her hand, she continued her turn.

"I now Normal Summon the Level four, Solo the Melodious Songstress, from my hand!"

A fairy wearing an elegant red dress, white gloves, and a headdress decorated with golden treble clefts, appeared on the stage with Canon and Sonata, twirling on one foot like a ballerina while filling the air with a playful, "La la la la laaaa!"

Yuzu smiled back at Ruri. "Watch this. I'm about to show you what I've learned!"

Spreading out her hands to the Arrest Corps like they were her audience, she bowed to them before continuing with her move. "Ladies and gentlemen!" she proudly proclaimed, mimicking Yuya, "For the first time ever, we have the rare opportunity to see something never before accomplished by the Melodious! Please welcome our participants… the elegant Canon, and the graceful Solo as they perform an Xyz Summon!"

The stage darkened before a pair of spotlights beamed down on Canon and Solo, who looked stunned and anxious, but a little excited.

Canon bowed to Solo who took her by the hand with a smile. Together they leaped off the raised platform, transformed into a pair of yellow streams of light, and drained into the center of a black and gold Xyz Portal that formed in the center of the stage, spotlights shining on the center of the vortex.

Yuzu stacked the cards on her Duel Disk together just like Ruri did and commenced a summoning chant:

"Beautiful fairy who composes the songs of the heart, raise your baton to the air and touch the souls of all with your supreme genius! Xyz Shokan! Come Forth! The unrivaled artist! Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra!"

Ruri clapped her hands together with delight as Yuzu's Xyz Portal burst in a flash of multicolored light and a new Xyz Monster appeared to the field. Vivaldina had long black hair tied into pony tails to the sides of her head with two hair-clips shaped like bass clefts. She wore green eye liner over her glittering, solid gold eyes and had a black eighth note painted on each of her cheeks. Her dress was elegant but simple, with long translucent black sleeves over her arms, and a long, thin black dress that extended to her ankles. Large red ribbons covered the front of her chest, the back of her dress, and the top of her elegant red shoes along with an elegant pattern of golden musical notes. In her right hand, she carried a long wooden baton that sprinkled the air with shimmering pink dust and musical notes wherever it was waved. In place of Canon and Solo, two shimmering Overlay Units orbited the monster's body like miniature planets. Laughing to herself, the monster spread a pair of wings that looked like ethereal black harps and twirled through the air before landing next to Sonata. Indicators showed an ATK of 1800.

"Sonata increases the attack of all Fairy-Type monsters by five-hundred." Yuzu smiled, "In addition, Vivaldina increases the attack of all Fairy-Type monsters I control by two-hundred for each of her Overlay Units!"

Sonata and Vivaldina glowed with yellow light at Sonata's ATK rose to 2100 and Vivaldina's rose to 2700.

"Do you know how to use Overlay Units?" Ruri asked, still very pleased that Yuzu had managed to pull off a successful Xyz Summon.

"I've seen Shun and Yuto do it." Yuzu confidently replied. It should work like this. She removed a card from below Vivaldina and transported it to her graveyard. "Next I activate Vivaldina's effect! By sending her Overlay Unit, Solo the Melodious Diva, to the graveyard, I can draw one card from my deck!"

Vivaldina absorbed an Overlay Unit into her baton and pointed it towards Yuzu's deck, shooting out a beam of golden light from the end of the baton as if it were a wand. Yuzu's deck lit up with light and she drew a card before revealing it to the Arrest Corps.

"The Card I drew is Tam-Tam the Melodious Diva. Since it is a Level four or lower Melodious Monster, Vivaldina's second effect allows me to Special Summon it. Come Forth! Tam-Tam the Melodious Diva!"

A fairy with a mallet and a shield-like drum appeared to Yuzu's field. Smiling down at Yuzu she beat her drum with the mallet before posing next to Yuzu's other monsters.

"Since Tam-Tam was Special Summoned while I control other Melodious Monsters, her effect allows me to add one Fusion from my deck to my hand!"

Ruri's smile suddenly dropped when she saw Yuzu add the Spell Card to her hand. Turning her head away, she averted her eyes, not wanting to see what happened next.

Yuzu noticed Ruri's reaction and paused.

"What's wrong?" Yuzu asked, "Are you upset that I'm about to use Fusion?"

Ruri sighed. "I don't care what strategy you use, Yuzu, but please, whatever you do, do NOT use that card! I can never forgive it for what it did to my hometown!"

Yuzu felt a little ashamed that she had brought back Ruri's memories of the invasion just after she had managed to bring a smile to her face. She didn't want to offend Ruri, but Yuzu felt that her attitude towards Fusion Summoning in general was a little too narrow-minded, regardless of how much others had used it as a tool for conflict.

"I'm sorry you've had so many bad experiences with Fusion." Yuzu placated, "But I promise you, I'll show you the true power of Fusion. It can be so much more than a weapon." She smiled, thinking about something Sora had once said, "Used right, it's like blending ice-cream and custard together."

Ruri scowled. "And who, may I ask, taught you that?"

Yuzu looked straight into Ruri's eyes, not allowing herself to back down. "My teacher, Sora, from the Fusion Dimension."

Ruri angrily rolled her eyes and turned her back on Yuzu once more. "The Fusion Dimension," she growled, "was not fusing ice-cream and custard together when they attacked!"

Yuzu bowed her head in resignation, deciding that it would be better to show Ruri what she was talking about.

"I activate the magic card, Fusion, and fuse my Tam-Tam the Melodious Diva with the Serenade the Melodious Diva and Quartet the Melodious Songstress in my hand!"

Ruri grimaced, not daring to look back.

Above Yuzu's head, a glowing blue and orange Fusion Portal materialized into existence. Holding their hands together, Tam-Tam and two other fairies floated into the center of the portal. Serenade was a pink-haired fairy who wore an elegant long flowing red and yellow dress that left her shoulder's bare. Quartet had short white hair with black quarter-note shaped side tails and wore a crystal crown on her head and a dress that seemed to be an amalgamation of multiple styles and colors. Her left sleeve was blue and decorated with glimmering rubies while her right sleeve was crimson and decorated with shimmering sapphires. The front of her slender dress was a blue and orange swirl that vaguely resembled a fusion portal while her skirt was a swirl of black and yellow like an Xyz portal. Her long stockings and slippers were a bluish white with green rings like the column of a Synchro portal. Nodding their heads together the three fairies transformed into a swirl of radiant pink, yellow, and green light, which blended together into a sphere of color in the center of the Fusion portal.

"Echoes of the soul, music of the lover, inspiration of the divine," Yuzu chanted, "blend your voices together and be guided by the strokes of the baton into a new angelic hymn! Yuugo Shokan! Come forth! Prolific master of the written verse! Level five! Haydina the Melodious Maestra!"

Involuntarily, Ruri spun her head around and cracked open her eyes to get a glimpse of Yuzu's monster. In a swirl of petals, Haydina spun onto the dueling field, singing a high-pitched opera note and scattering light from the tips of her fingers and tiny white cherub wings as she did. Her elegant dress was a swirl of pink and gold, with a frilly chamber-ball dress bottom that extended down to her knees and a thin top that swirled around her upper body, leaving her left shoulder covered with a large white flower attached to her dress and slim parts of her upper body and her left shoulder and arm completely bare. In her naked right hand, she carried a baton just like Vivaldina's while her left hand was decorated with elegant green, blue, yellow, and red rings. Her elegant long honey-blonde hair was stacked into a swirling pile on top of her head, while a long strand at the bottom cascaded over her bare left shoulder. Smiling brightly at her audience with a pair of solid pink eyes, she winked once at Ruri before posing next to Vivaldina while indicators revealed an ATK of 2100.

"Quartet's effect activates! If it is used as a material for a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon of a Melodious Monster, I can add one Melodious Songstress monster from my deck to my hand! I choose to add the Level four, Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress!"

She plucked a card from her deck before extending her hand towards her Fusion Monster.

"Haydina's effect!" Yuzu called, "While it is on the field, all other monsters I control gain three-hundred attack for each monster used in its Fusion Summon! Combining with Sonata and Vivaldina's effect, it means Sonata and Vivaldina's attack each go up by sixteen-hundred while Haydina's goes up by seven-hundred!"

Haydina joined her hands with Vivaldina and Sonata. Together they spun in the air together, blending their voices together in a harmonic song before Haydina and Sonata's ATK increased to 2800, and Vivaldina's ATK increased to 3400.

Ruri was enraptured by the strange sight. Here on Yuzu's field were an Xyz and a Fusion monster, monsters Ruri could only conceive of as eternal enemies. And yet, despite all her experience had taught her, here they were, holding hands and drawing strength from each other's effects like they were best friends. Feeling the gentle light of Yuzu's monsters tickle against her skin, she wondered if there really could be a good form of Fusion Summoning.

She looked back at Yuzu who was smiling at her almost as if saying, "I told you so."

Ruri folded her arms against her chest. "I'm impressed, Yuzu. I didn't think anybody could ever make me like a Fusion Monster." She looked up at Yuzu's three smiling fairies who were still holding their hands together. "Why don't I offer my own gift to your monsters?" she offered, holding out her hands to her Geo Nephilim.

"I activate the effect of my Dark Xyz Monster!" Ruri declared. "I take another three Goyo Regent from your graveyards and attach them to Yuzu's Vivaldina as Xyz Material!"

Vivaldina gazed in wonder as Geo Nephilim extended her hands towards the trio of fairies, causing a swarm of three glowing white Overlay Units to launch from three of the Arrest Corp's graveyards and join the two other Overlay Units already orbiting Yuzu's monster. Singing with joy, the spun around in the air once more as Vivaldina's effect rose Haydina and Sonata's ATK to 3400 while Vivaldina's rose to 4000.

"It's a shame we can't attack yet." Ruri commented, allowing herself to smile at Yuzu's monsters. "But I'm sure you have something figured out."

Yuzu nodded her head as she pulled another card from her hand.

"Haydina the Melodious Maestra cannot be targeted for attacks while I control another Melodious monster." Yuzu explained, "With that in mind, I will now equip Haydina with the Equip Magic, Saint Instrument!"

A large instrument that looked like a conglomeration of horns fastened onto Haydina's back while Haydina giggled with joy and blew a few clear notes from the bells of her new accessory.

"While Saint Instrument is equipped, the only monster that can be targeted for attacks is the equipped monster, in addition, if any player would take effect damage, I can use Saint Instrument's effect to negate the damage and increase her attack by the same amount of effect damage instead."

Ruri grinned till her white teeth were showing. With Saint Instrument and Haydina, Yuzu had effectively created a complete lockdown against the Arrest Corp's strategy. They could not choose any monster but Haydina as an attack target, but with Haydina's effect, she could not be targeted for attacks while Yuzu controlled another Melodious monster. Furthermore, if they tried to damage anyone's life points with an effect, Saint Instrument would only turn that damage into more attack points for Yuzu's monster.

"Thanks for that." Ruri said, thanking Yuzu, "You have no idea how much that helps me out. Now we just have to wait for Roger to finally complete his turns and we should be clear to win this duel."

Yuzu nodded her head, glad that she was once again on friendly terms with her counterpart form Xyz. "During my End-Phase, Divine Melodious Stage increases my Life Points by five-hundred for each Melodious monster I control." She sighed with relief as ribbons of music swirled around her and her Life Points rose to 2000. "With this I end my turn."

Roger reviewed the stats, twirling a pawn in his hand. Despite a few impressive plays, this was hardly the caliber of dueling he had been anticipating. Even if she seemed like the leader of the two, Ruri's dueling was just a little above average while Yuzu's had only slightly improved from her duel against Sergey. Still, the Haydina/Saint Instrument lock would be a little troublesome. Fortunately, there were quite a few ways around it.

"Hold position." he instructed the Arrest Corps. "Proceed to capture the two signers and be ready to counter any of their Action Cards with Yuzu's Action Field."

"My turn!" A-054 began, yanking a card from the top of his deck. "I summon the Level two tuner monster, Jutte Knight, from my hand!"

A diminutive man with black hair and glasses appeared to the officer's field. In his right hand he carried a small jutte.

"Next," A-054 continued, "Since I control a Warrior-Type monster, I Special Summon the Level one monster, Kiribi Lady, with its own effect!"

An even smaller woman with a white and red hood over her eyes and a pair of coals in each hand appeared next to Jutte Knight. A-054 stretched his hand towards his two monsters and continued his turn, "I tune my Level 2 Jutte Knight with my Level 1 Kiribi Lady and Synchro Summon! Come Forth! Level three Synchro Tuner! Goyo Officer!"

Jutte Knight morphed into a pair of green rings that surrounded Kiribi lady until her body was reduced to a golden outline with a single floating white sphere inside. In a column of white light, A-054's monster burst to the field. Goyo Officer was a short and rotund monster that wore a large white and red mask with a samurai helmet on top and a boar-hair moustache under the nose. In his hand, he held a long jutte with a red ribbon on the handle. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1500.

"Goyo officer's effect! Once per turn, I can pay one-thousand Life Points to Special Summon one Level six or lower Goyo monster from my Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions." His life points dropped to 2000. "Come forth! Level 3! Goyo Defender!"

A short soldier with white and red makeup over its face appeared to A-054's field. In its right hand it carried a short jutte while its left hand carried a large rectangular riot-shield.

"Geo Nephilim effect!" Ruri declared, "It's time to diversify your strategies a little! I attach three cards from the top of A-261's deck to Yuzu's Vivaldina as Xyz Material!"

Vivaldina giggled with delight as another three spheres of light joined the four already orbiting her body. With her effect, her own ATK rose to 4600 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK each rose to 4000.

"Turn end!" A-054 declared, seemingly unfazed.

"My turn!" A-261 began, drawing his own card. "From my hand, I summon the tuner monster, Jutte Knight, and use Kiribi Lady's effect from my hand to Special Summon herself to the field! I next tune my Level 2 Jutte Knight with my Level 1 Kiribi Lady to Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level 3! Goyo Officer!"

"Honestly…" Ruri groaned at the repeat of the last turn, "…I thought I might see something different if I changed up the top of your deck."

"They all still have some cards in their hand." Yuzu observed.

"Yep." Ruri agreed, folding her arms across her chest. "I guess we might as well brace ourselves for a very dull round."

A-261 continued with his move as if he didn't hear either of them. "I next activate Goyo Officer's effect! I pay one-thousand Life Points and Summon Goyo Defender from my Extra Deck!"

Another copy of Goyo Defender appeared to the Duel field, stacking its shield next to the other Goyo Defender in a defensive wall.

"I guess if you're doing the same thing, then so am I." Ruri sighed, "I use Geo Nephilim's effect to attach the top 3 cards of A-837's deck to Vivaldina as Xyz Material!"

Vivaldina's ATK rose to 5200 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK rose to 4600.

"Turn End." A-261 declared.

Roger sneered at Ruri from behind his desk. "You don't think I'd actually make ALL of their opening hands exactly the same, do you? If you're just dying for some diversity, why don't you enjoy this?"

"My Turn!" A-837 began. "I summon Jutte Knight from my hand!" he extended his hand toward the pair of Goyo Defenders as his monster appeared to the field. "I next tune my Level two Jutte Knight with two Level three Goyo Defender and Synchro Summon! Prostrate before the power of absolute authority!" he roared as Jutte Knight morphed into a pair of green rings that circled the two Goyo Defenders until their bodies vanished away, leaving a line of six glowing white spheres. "SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Appear! Level eight! Goyo King!"

A massive, beefy warrior appeared to A-837's field. His stern face was decorated with the same white and red makeup as the other Goyo monsters, but his attire was more royal looking, with elegant robes and an antler-decorated crown. In one beefy arm, he carried a massive spear with a jutte-shaped blade on the end while a jutte-shaped sword hung at his side. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2800.

"Next," he continued, "from my hand, I equip the Magic Card, Goyo Sasumata to my Goyo King!"

Goyo King's spear transformed into a longer and broader spear with spikes down the shaft and a U-shaped pair of blades extending past the spear head.

"Goyo Sasumata effect!" A-837 commanded, "The equipped monster can attack my opponent's Life Points directly!"

Yuzu gasped in shock. Saint Instrument only made it so the only _monster_ her opponent could attack was the equipped monster. Since players were not considered monsters, that made an attack on a player perfectly valid. Ruri would be fine with Salvation Seraphim Prophetess on her field, but her own Life Points were wide open. Even if she managed to get an Action Card at this point, the other Arrest Corps operatives would be able to negate the activation of that card.

"Goyo King's effect!" A-837 declared, "If it battles, it gains four-hundred attack for each Goyo monster I control!"

Yuzu desperately ran for an Action Card as Goyo King's ATK rose to 7600 before the Arrest Corp officer's monster charged at Yuzu with his spear.

"Trap activate!" Ruri countered, "Rank-Down Trap Judgment Force! I target my Rank three Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader and Dark Xyz Summon, using it as the Dark Xyz Material!"

Yuzu and Goyo King both stopped in their tracks as Ruri's trap shot out a web of chains that ensnared Brave Crusader in their coils. Screaming in agony, Brave Crusader slowly turned transparent before its nine Overlay Units compacted into shiny black crystals and its body got sucked into the center of a singularity. Ruri pressed her hands together and began another summoning chant:

"Eternal wheel of heaven who carries the throne of the divine god, circle through the sky in an eternal cycle and protect the innocent from the wrath of the evil forces who oppose thee! Rank Down Xyz Change! Descend now! Rank negative three! Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim!"

Ruri threw another translucent card over her Xyz Monster, sending a shockwave across the duel field that blasted Goyo King away from Yuzu. From the center of the singularity, Ruri's new monster stretched out onto the duel field.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim looked like a female Buddhist monk with lilac hair tied into a short bun while wearing a half-lidded golden mask with a red ruby on the center of the forehead over her face. Her hands were balled into fists and pressed against each other over her chest while her legs and bare feet were crossed together in a meditation position. Her plain robes were a simple orange and brown and left her arms and shoulders exposed while covering up her body and legs down to her ankles. Surrounding her was an ethereal violet wheel that slowly turned the girl clockwise while an even larger ghostly white wheel inlaid with ten circles that surrounded the edges of the smaller wheel, spun around at a more rapid rate counter-clockwise. Slowly turning upside-down and back again, Ruri's new monster orbited the edges of the duel field, seemingly unconcerned with her surrounding environment as she maintained her meditative pose. Within each of the ten circles, Yuzu could see a glimmering black crystal shining against the light of Divine Melodious Stage.

"I know you don't like it." Ruri apologized, turning to Yuzu, "But perhaps I can teach you of the good that can come from the Dark Xyz Summon just as you showed me the virtues that can come from Fusion Summoning."

Roger slammed his fist against his desk as Ruri's abrupt summon forced a replay to occur. "Enough of this!" he shouted, "Repeat your attack!"

"Goyo King!" A-837 called, "Attack Yuzu directly!"

"I will not let you!" Ruri roared, extending her hand towards her new monster. "Geo Ophanim effect! I banish one Dark Overlay Unit in order to negate your attack and make it so that none of your other monsters can attack this turn!"

Goyo King suddenly stopped in his tracks as Geo Ophanim calmly cupped her hands outward and a Dark Overlay Unit in one of its circles collapsed in on itself. Blowing a kiss at Goyo King, a ghostly wheel suddenly surrounded the Synchro Monster. Goyo King's eye glowed white and it dropped its spear, staggering backwards in a daze.

"Next I activate Geo Nephilim's effect!" Ruri growled, "I attach three cards from the top of B-733's deck to Vivaldina as Overlay Units."

Vivaldina's ATK rose to 5800 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK each rose to 5200.

"Set Storming Mirror Force face down!" Roger ordered, frustrated that another of his brilliant strategies had been countered.

"I set one card face down and end my turn!" A-837 finished.

"My turn!" B-733 began, drawing a card. "I Normal Summon Jutte Lord from my hand and activate its effect! I Special Summon Jutte Knight from my hand! Next, I tune my Level two Jutte Knight with my Level four Jutte Lord and Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level six! Goyo Bodyguard!"

A massive, obese Goyo monster appeared to B-733's field. Wearing an orange demon mask with long black hair and little else but a loin cloth, white cape, and pair of sandals, the new monster looked more like a Sumo Wrestler than an actual bodyguard. A holographic indicator appeared and displayed a DEF of 2400.

"Goyo Bodyguard's effect! When it is Synchro Summoned, I can Special Summon Goyo monsters from my Extra Deck or graveyard whose total levels equal 6 or less! Come forth from my Extra Deck! Two Goyo Defender!"

"Not happening!" Ruri countered, "Geo Ophanim's effect! If my opponent activates a monster effect, I can banish one Dark Overlay Unit to negate the activation and make it so my opponent cannot declare an attack this turn!"

Geo Ophanim crushed another Dark Overlay Unit in its outer wheel before extending its hands toward Goyo Bodyguard. Instantly, Goyo Bodyguard froze as he was surrounded by an ethereal wheel of light. As his eyes glowed with white light, he roughly fell to his knees and stared off into the distance as if he was possessed.

"Nephilim effect." Ruri continued. "I attach three cards from the top of B-234's Deck to Vivaldina as Overlay Units.

With the added boost of Overlay Units, Vivaldina's ATK rose to a whopping 6400 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK trailed just behind at 5800.

"I set one card face down." B-733 grunted, placing down a copy of Mirror Force. "Turn end."

"My turn!" B-234 snarled, stepping forward. "From my hand I summon Jutte Knight! And now, since I control a Warrior-Type monster, I summon Kiribi Lady from my hand! With these two monsters, I Synchro Summon Goyo Defender! Come forth! Level three! Goyo Defender!"

A copy of Goyo Defender appeared to his field, slamming down his shield as if daring one of Ruri or Yuzu's monsters to approach.

"Next," B-234 continued, "I activate the Magic Card, Monster Reborn, and Special Summon Jutte Knight!"

Jutte Knight flipped onto his field, posing next to Goyo Defender in a crane stance as he did.

"I now tune the Level two Jutte Knight with my Level three Goyo Defender and Synchro Summon! Come forth! The compulsive power of authority! Level five! Goyo Recruiter!"

A pot-bellied Goyo monster wearing elegant robes appeared to B-234's field. On its back, a large banner depicting a pair of crossed Juttes waved in the wind. It wore an extremely stern and demanding expression on its white-makeup face is it pointed to other Goyo Monsters on the field and shouted orders at them. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1600.

"Goyo Recruiter gains two-hundred attack for each Goyo Monster I control. With fourteen Goyo Monsters on our field, that's an extra twenty-eight hundred attack!"

Goyo Recruiter roared as his ATK rose to 4400.

"I next activate Goyo Recruiter's effect! Once per turn, I can add one Goyo or Jutte card from my deck to my hand! I use its effect to add the Continuous Magic, Goyo Checkpoint, to my hand!"

Ruri snorted. "I'll allow it. I still need to train Yuzu after all."

Yuzu blinked at Ruri who just smiled back at her before sighing and saying, "Trust me Yuzu, you have no idea how much I've been holding back in this duel."

"I activate Goyo Checkpoint!" B-234 growled, not appreciating the interruption, "While I control a face-up Goyo monster on my field, my opponent must pay one-thousand Life Points to declare an attack!"

"Nephilim effect." Ruri yawned, completely uninterested in the Spell Card's effect. From the top of B-916's deck, three more Overlay Units zoomed towards Yuzu's Vivaldina.

At this point, Vivaldina became covered in so many Overlay Units that it looked like a solid sphere of light had formed around her body rather than a swarm of orbiting Overlay Units. Cheering with delight, she and Yuzu's other monsters twirled through the air as Vivaldina's ATK rose to 7000 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK rose to 6400.

"I don't know if you managed to figure it out by now, Roger," Ruri smirked, "but your entire squad is now caught in an infinite loop. No matter how many monsters you summon, my Geo Ophanim will always be ready to stop their attacks and any unwanted effects. And since there are now so many turns in a round with all your Arrest Corps, Geo Nephilim will be able to constantly boost the attack power of Yuzu's monsters or replenish any of Geo Ophanim's Dark Overlay Units should the need arise. I don't know about you, but I'd seriously consider either quitting or coming up with a completely different game plan and coming up with one fast."

"Stop screwing around and get her now!" Roger roared at his officers, provoked by Ruri's taunting. "I need as many Goyo King on the field as possible and I need them right now!"

"My turn!" B-916 declared. "From my hand, I activate the Continuous Magic, Goyo Authority! With its effect, once per turn, I can target one Goyo monster on the field to have one Goyo monster I control that has a higher Level gain the effects of that Target! I target Goyo Recruiter to have Goyo Emperor gain the effects of that monster!"

A scroll appeared in B-916's Goyo Emperor's hand. Unrolling the scroll, Goyo Emperor displayed it to Goyo Recruiter as if it was a badge before glowing with red light.

"Goyo Emperor effect!" B-916 ordered. "Because it has gained Goyo Recruiter's effect, I can add one Goyo or Jutte card from my deck to my hand! I choose to add the Level six monster, Goyo Regent from my deck to my hand!"

He plucked a card from his deck and added it to his gloved hand.

"Goyo Regent effect! If I control a face-up Goyo or Jutte Monster, I can Special Summon this card from my hand with its own effect! Come forth! Goyo Regent!"

"Geo Nephilim effect." Ruri ordered as a copy of Goyo Regent appeared to B-916's field. I attach three cards from the top of C-238's deck to Vivaldina as Xyz Material."

B-916 grunted as Ruri repeated her monster's effect. "I set two cards face down and end my turn!" B-916 declared, setting down a copy of Dimensional Prison and Negate Attack before turning to C-238, nodding his head as if giving his fellow officer the permission to act.

C-238 nodded back as if understanding. "My turn!" he declared, drawing a card. "From my hand, I summon Jutte Knight!"

A copy of Jutte Knight appeared next to Goyo Regent.

"Next, I tune my Level two Jutte Knight with my Level six Goyo Regent and Synchro Summon! Come Forth! Level eight! Goyo King!"

A new copy of Goyo King roared onto the field, pointing his spear in Yuzu's direction with a menacing scowl on his face.

"I next equip Goyo King with Goyo Sasumata and attack Yuzu directly! Go! Goyo King!"

"Ophanim effect!" Ruri countered. Just like before, Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim crushed a Dark Overlay Unit within one of its circles before summoning an ethereal circle around Goyo King, stopping the Arrest Corp officer's dazed monster in its tracks.

"Naturally," Ruri sighed, stretching her hand towards Geo Nephilim. "You know what's next."

Vivaldina glowed like a supernova as yet another trio of spheres joined her growing number of Overlay Units.

"I set one card face-down." C-238 muttered, throwing down a copy of Call of the Haunted. "Turn end!"

"My turn!" C-888 snarled, drawing his own card. "From my hand I summon, Jutte Knight!"

"I'm really tempted to start playing Rin's point game right about now." Ruri muttered to herself.

"Trap activate!" C-238 declared, "Call of the Haunted! With it, I Special Summon Goyo Regent to my field! Be revived, Goyo Regent!"

C-888 nodded as C-238's Goyo Regent reappeared to the field with a small roar.

"I tune my Level two Jutte Knight with my Level six Goyo Regent!" C-888 roared, "Come forth! The absolute power of authority! Level eight! Goyo King!"

"They're summoning so many monsters!" Yuzu exclaimed, eyes sweeping the field as she counted the seemingly innumerable host of monsters the Arrest Corps had assembled.

"And yet, they can do nothing." Ruri replied. "Thanks to you the only out they have at this point is…"

"Goyo Sasumata!" C-888 declared, equipping Goyo King with another long U-blade tipped spear. "Attack Yuzu directly!"

"… and that's my cue." Ruri sighed, rolling her eyes. "Geo Ophanim and Geo Nephilim in that order please."

A repeat of the previous turn occurred with Geo Ophanim stopping Goyo King's attack with its effect and Geo Nephilim powering up Yuzu's monsters even further by supplying Vivaldina with even more Overlay Units.

"I set one card face down!" C-888 grunted, throwing down a second copy of Call of the Haunted. "Turn end!"

"I summon Jutte Knight!" the last officer, C-460 declared after drawing his card.

"Call of the Haunted!" C-888 replied, "Revive Goyo Regent!"

"Synchro Summon!" C-460 reciprocated, tuning Jutte Knight with Goyo Regent. "Come Forth! One more Goyo King!"

A fourth Goyo King appeared to the duel field, swinging his jutte-sword above his head as he roared with fury.

"Sasumata!" C-460 snarled, equipping his Goyo King with another massive spear.

"Seriously guys." Ruri groaned, "You're not going to get through all of Ophanim's Dark Overlay Units!"

"Attack Yuzu, Goyo King!" C-460 roared, not seeming to hear or care about what Ruri said.

"Pop quiz, Yuzu." Ruri sighed, pinching her forehead in exasperation. "What am I about to do?"

"Something different from all the other times." Yuzu shrugged, knowing exactly what she was going to do.

"I wish." Ruri groaned, activating Ophanim and Nephilim's effects in sequence.

Roger was beside himself with rage. They were humiliating him! Between Yuzu's lock and Ruri's constant interference, his Arrest Corps were managing to do nothing but slowly get their decks whittled down while Yuzu's monsters just kept getting stronger. Swiping through some options on his computer screen, he quickly reviewed the duel stats.

"End your turn C-460." he ordered, "The Dark Signers think they've won. I want to keep it looking that way. All of you will wait for them to attack. Once they do, use Mirror Force, or if necessary, Storming Mirror Force, and wipe out their armies."

"Turn end!" C-460 complied, keeping a single card in his hand.

"Finally." Ruri sighed, shaking out her hair. "Draw." She only briefly glanced at the card she drew before turning to her Geo Nephilim. "I think your monsters have enough of a power boost for now, Yuzu, so if you don't mind, I think I'll have Geo Nephilim replenish Geo Ophanim's Dark Overlay Units with a few cards from the top of A-054's deck."

Yuzu reviewed the stats for her own monsters. Ruri was absolutely right. Thanks to her help for the past ten turns, Vivaldina now had thirty-one Overlay Units, almost enough to create an entire deck. Between the various ATK boosting effects of her monsters, Vivaldina's ATK had climbed to 9400 while Haydina and Sonata's ATK had risen to only a slightly smaller 8800.

Ruri lowered her hands once the number of Geo Ophanim's Dark Overlay Units had been replenished to eight through Geo Nephilim's effect. "That's all for my turn." She finished, tossing back her hair before turning to Yuzu. "I'm leaving the rest to you. Show me what you've learned."

Yuzu smiled and nodded her head before looking back at her opponents with a determined expression on her face. Not even an hour before this moment, had Yuzu been faced with a similar situation, she wouldn't have believed she could have survived for more than three minutes against such an overwhelming force without running and hiding. But now, between Ruri's encouragement and their outstanding success against the Arrest Corps thus far, she felt nearly invincible. Without a single doubt in her mind, she was certain this was going to be her greatest entertainment duel yet, so why not go all out!

"Atashi no turn! DRAW!" she exclaimed twirling through the air as she felt power course through her arm and into the card she drew. Turning it over, she smiled when she saw what it was. Sora would be beyond proud of her if he could be with her now. But the card she drew would be for the finale. First, she needed to build excitement with her opening act.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" she proclaimed, spreading her hands out to her audience while spotlights shone on her three monsters. "On my field, we have the beautiful entertainers, Vivaldina, Haydina, and Sonata!" her three monsters graciously curtsied to the audience. "And on the opponent's field are nine Goyo emperor, four Goyo King, Goyo bodyguard, Goyo Recruiter, and two Goyo Officers. Behind these seventeen monsters are many facedown cards and in my opponents' hands are eighteen Action Cards!" Yuzu's three monsters gasped for dramatic effect. "We might not be able to win this turn," Yuzu frowned melodramatically before shrugging her shoulders, "but oh well! We'll still try our best, after all, the show must go on! Drumroll please."

Diminutive fairies and sprites lining the balconies of Divine Melodious Stage began beating on tiny snare drums, building anticipation as Yuzu continued her move.

"I activate Vivaldina's effect!" Yuzu declared. "I detach Canon as an Xyz Material to draw a card from the top of my deck, and if it is a Level four or lower Melodious monster, I can Special Summon it!"

Vivaldina absorbed an Overlay Unit into her button and pointed it at Yuzu's deck, looking a little anxious as Yuzu dramatically pulled a card from the top of her deck and put it against her face, keeping the back-side facing the audience. The sound of the snare drums grew in intensity as she slowly turned the card around.

"The card I drew…" Yuzu bowed her head and made a sad face, causing her three Melodious monsters to groan and a tiny sprite to play a melancholy "Bwah, bwah, bwaaaaaaaaah!" on a trombone.

Yuzu smiled, lifted her head, and displayed the card. "…just kidding!" she giggled, "The card I drew is none other than the Level four monster, Orchestra the Melodious Diva! With Vivaldina's effect, I special summon her!"

Yuzu's three monsters cheered and clapped their hands before Vivaldina opened her right hand and threw a tiny paper bomb into the air that exploded in a blast of confetti and music. When the smoke cleared away, a new fairy presented herself to the audience with a bright smile and a curtsey. Her puffy dress and short wavy hair were both an elegant crystal white while the irises of her eyes were a bright yellow. On her back, a pair of golden wings shaped like curled French Horns flapped through the air like the wings of a Cherub. Yellow diamonds shimmered on her dress and white gloves as she twirled in the air, causing her dress to billow out from her like a giant wedding cake.

"Goyo King effect!" four officers shouted. "If our opponent summons a monster, we can tribute one Goyo monster to take control of one Level eight or lower monster our opponent controls. We tribute our two Goyo Officers, Goyo Bodyguard, and Goyo Recruiter to take control of your Salvation Seraphim Prophetess, Haydina, Sonata, and Orchestra!"

All four Goyo Kings swung Jutte tipped ropes over their heads before launching them at the monsters, intending to capture all of them.

"Please hold all applause until after the performance." Ruri smiled, getting into the spirit of the moment as Geo Ophanim crushed four of its Dark Overlay Units and negated all four Goyo King effects. "Yuzu hasn't even reached the finale yet."

"Thank you, Ruri." Yuzu bowed. "Have no fear ladies and gentlemen! All of you will be thoroughly entertained!"

"ENTERTAINED!?" Roger roared, staring at Yuzu with disbelief. "Did those almighty ancient gods seriously choose this uppity little punk!?" he glanced back at the screen showing Geo Ophanim who still had four Dark Overlay Units, not to mention the ability to gain even more Dark Overlay Units with Nephilim's effect. If the Arrest Corps tried using their ability again, they'd only end up drastically reducing their forces before they managed to actually capture anything.

"HOLD YOUR POSITION!" Roger roared at the Arrest Corps. "Wait for the Dark Signer to attack and then clear away all their monsters with your Trap Cards!"

"And now," Yuzu announced, pulling out a card from her hand, "please welcome to the stage the elegant singer, Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress! Since I control a face-up Melodious Monster, this card can be Special Summoned!"

A new fairy twirled through the air, spreading out a pair of black sixteenth note-shaped wings while singing with a clear operatic falsetto. Mezzo-Soprano's hair was long, wavy, and aqua-marine with a strand of hair covering her left eye. Her eyes were a clear blue and covered with a pair of glasses. She wore a pearl necklace around her neck and an elegant yellow and black dress with turquoise buttons up the front.

"Once per turn, Mezzo-Soprano can change the Levels of all Melodious Monsters I control to a Level between four and seven! I choose to make the Levels of all my Melodious Monsters Level seven with her effect!"

Mezzo-Soprano smiled shyly at the audience before tossing back her hair, spreading her wings, and belting out a clear middle-pitch note, raising the Levels of Sonata, Orchestra, Haydina, and herself to seven.

"The Stage is now set!" Yuzu happily declared, clapping her hands together. "Using the Level Seven Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra, I construct the Overlay Network!"

Orchestra offered Mezzo-Soprano her hand. Blushing slightly, Mezzo-Soprano took it in hers before they both leaped through the air, transformed into two streams of surging yellow energy and poured into the center of a large black and yellow Xyz Portal.

"What monster will come to the field?" Yuzu asked, putting her finger to her chin for dramatic effect, "And what will it do when it appears? Let's have a drum roll please!"

A crowd of sprites giggled before pulling out their tiny drum sticks and beating on their miniature snare drums.

"The excitement is almost too much for me!" Yuzu exclaimed, "I'm getting the shivers!" she put her hands together and started wiggling her body back and forth, before winking at the Arrest Corps.

"Shivers!?" Ruri guffawed, unable to help herself. "Where on earth did you pick up that?"

Yuzu smiled back, delighted to see she had put a smile on Ruri's face again. The Arrest Corps, meanwhile, looked completely unimpressed, and even worse, increasingly hostile. Determined to put a smile on even their faces, Yuzu rose her hands to the air and began her summoning chant:

"Serene Angel flying through the music-filled air with a song of delight in your heart, spread your elegant wings now and touch the mind and spirit of all who gaze upon you with your divine inspiration! XYZ SHOKAN! Take your place on the stage! Rank Seven! Wing Diva the Melodious Choir!"

Rather than just exploding in a burst of multi-colored light, the Xyz Portal rang with the sound of choir music before bursting into thousands of white feathers that swirled around an indoor tornado before dispersing and revealing a new Xyz Monster.

Wing Diva the Melodious Choir looked like a cross between Yuzu's Melodious Monsters and Ruri's Salvation Seraphim monsters. Her flowing long grey hair fell down to her ankles and was encased in a golden hair net inlaid with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and yellow diamonds. Her blue eyes were lined with green makeup and she wore an elegant necklace around her neck. Her yellow dress was large, with a slender waist, puffed sleeves, pads over the waist and rear, and black musical notes covering every inch. At the bottom of her dress, streams of elegant white fabric flowed downwards like the tail feathers of a bird. But the most outstanding feature of Yuzu's new monster was a massive pair of wings on her back. The feathers of her wings were mostly white, but a few large feathers were black, making her wings look like the keys of a piano. Throwing back her head, the monster smiled at the audience and expertly sang up and down a wide scale of notes before an indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2000.

"Since Orchestra the Melodious Diva was used as an Xyz Material, her effect activates! Furthermore, I chain the effect of my Divine Melodious Stage to the Special Summon of my Wing Diva!" she plucked a card from her deck and added it to her hand. "To my hand, I add the Level eight monster, Mozarta the Melodious Maestra! And now, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Orchestra and her monster effect! When she is used as an Xyz Material for the Xyz Summon of a Melodious Monster, the summoned monster gains this effect: If it is summoned, until the end of this turn, my opponents cannot activate Magic or Trap Cards!"

"WHAT!?" all nine Arrest Corps officers and Roger screamed in unison.

Wing Diva spread out her arms and wings. Slowly, segments of her wings changed colors till they looked like a rainbow colored piano. With a mighty flap of her glowing wings, she sent a wave of music towards the Arrest Corp's face-down cards and the Action Cards in their hand, till all their Spell and Trap Cards began glowing with rainbow colored light.

"You may have sealed the trap cards." Roger snarled. "But Goyo Checkpoint's effect is continuous. It does not activate and therefore cannot be affected by your monster's ability. And besides…" he reviewed the card in C-460's hand, "… there are other kinds of effects you still haven't sealed!"

"Wing Diva's monster effect!" Yuzu grinned, "I detach Orchestra the Melodious Diva from my monster to Special Summon one Melodious Monster from my hand! I use this effect now to Special Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!"

A tall fairy with curly grey hair, solid blue eyes, an elegant red and gold dress, and a large baton in her hand appeared to Yuzu's field, graciously bowing to the audience before flying next to Wing Diva and Yuzu's other monsters.

"Wing Diva's effect!" Yuzu declared, "Each time I Special Summon one or more Melodious Monsters, I can inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points! Go! Elegant Surge!"

Wing Diva absorbed an overlay unit into her chest before putting her hands to her diaphragm and singing a sustained high-pitched note. A sphere of light and musical notes formed just in front of her mouth before she flapped her wings and doubled her singing volume, sending the ethereal sphere strait towards the Arrest Corps before it burst into an explosion of musical notes that knocked them all back, reducing A-054, A-261, and B-733's Life Points to 1500, and A-837, B-234, B-916, C-238, C-888, and C-460's Life Points to 2500.

"I don't care what you have to tribute!" Roger snarled, "Use Goyo King's effect now!"

The officers staggered to their feet before A-837, C-238, C888, and C-460 each extended their hands toward their monsters. "Goyo King effect!" They all declared, "We tribute four Goyo Emperor in order to take control of Salvation Seraphim Prophetess, Haydina, Mozarta, and Sonata!"

"Ophanim…!" Ruri began.

"Wait!" Yuzu countered, leaping strait down the abyss towards a platform shaped like a large coiled snake.

"I hate it when she does that!" Ruri exclaimed, astonished by Yuzu's recklessness. Even if her body was more durable as a Dark Signer, she was certain it could still get shattered if she slammed against the platform at terminal velocity.

Yuzu snagged an Action Card hanging from a vine and continued falling strait towards the platform. Fortunately, just before she smashed her body against the platform, Wing Diva swooped down and caught her in her arms as Yuzu activated the Action Card.

"Action Magic!" she declared, "Earthbound Suppression! I send the Continuous Magic, Earthbound Gardens, from my hand to the graveyard to negate the effects of all my opponent's monsters until the end of this turn!"

Just as the four Goyo Kings threw their ropes towards Ruri and Yuzu's monsters, a wave of darkness suddenly burst from Yuzu's action card, severing the Goyo King's ropes and blasting the monsters back. Yuzu flew up to the flower platform with Wing Diva before leaping from her monster's arms and landing next to Ruri.

"Good work Yuzu." Ruri complimented, impressed that Yuzu had managed to counter the Goyo King's effect without her help. "I think you've pretty well mastered Xyz Summoning at this point. If you want to end your turn now, I can make sure to take them out my next turn so you don't have to pay any Life Points for Goyo Checkpoint."

Yuzu grinned back at Ruri. "But I'm not done yet! It's like Yuya always says, the fun has just started!"

She raised her hands up to Wing Diva. "You have done an amazing job entertaining us. Now it's time to call a new performer to the stage!"

Ruri looked intrigued. "How are you going to do that when you already have five monsters on your field?"

"Simple." Yuzu answered, "I'm going to perform another Xyz Summon!"

"With Haydina and Sonata?" Ruri asked. "I didn't see any Rank-Up cards in your deck."

"I think you have an idea, miss infinite possibility." She teased with a wink.

"There are several ways." Ruri admitted, "I'm just eager to see what _you_ will do."

"Then brace yourself!" Yuzu replied. "The real show starts now!"

She closed her eyes and smiled to herself, almost not believing that she was figuring out so much about Xyz Summoning already. It had taken her days to figure out Fusion Summoning, and here she was, just learning about it in one duel and already talking about making plays like she was an expert.

"Using my Rank seven Wing Diva the Melodious Choir as Xyz Material, I construct the Overlay Network!"

Wing Diva spread out her arms and opened up a black and gold Xyz Portal beneath her feet. Descending into the center, she gave a final curtsey to the audience before disappearing completely as Yuzu began her summoning chant:

"Enchanting Muse who fills the heavens with the singing of a thousand hymns, take flight through the melodious sky, encompass the world below in your divine wings, and lift the souls of all to a higher plane of genius! RANK-UP XYZ CHANGE! To the center of the stage! Rank Eight! Wing Prima the Melodious Choir!"

The swirling Xyz Portal rose to the sky before morphing into thousands of rings of golden musical verses, radiating thousands of harmonic melodies. Merging together, the Musical Verses blended their physical form and music together until they formed a pair of golden angel wings attached to the body of a radiant fairy. Her long white hair was stacked in a pile on top of her head like a wig and adorned with strands of pink pearls. On her ears, she wore a pair of large earrings shaped like white treble clefts. Her warm eyes were a deep mocha, and her lips and cheeks were decorated with red lipstick. Her long dress was similar to Wing Diva's, but hers was white with large golden ribbons and gemstones that were a deep green color. Holding up a crystal goblet, she began singing an extremely high-pitched note until the crystal goblet exploded in her hand, causing the new fairy to blush dramatically. An indicator appeared below the monster and showed an ATK of 3000.

"Wing Prima can attack once for each of her Overlay Units!" Yuzu declared. "With two Overlay Units, that's a total of two attacks, however…" she smiled and turned her head to Ruri.

"Got it!" Ruri grinned. "Geo Nephilim effect! I attach Goyo Officer, Goyo Bodyguard, and Goyo Recruiter from my opponent's graveyards to Yuzu's Wing Prima as Overlay Units!"

Wing Prima sang with delight as three white spheres joined the other two already orbiting her body.

"Wing Prima's second effect!" Yuzu declared, "I can detach one Overlay Unit from Wing Prima in order to return one card on the field to the owner's hand! I detach Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress from my monster to return Goyo Checkpoint to my opponent's hand!"

Wing Prima absorbed an Overlay Unit into the center of her chest gem before inhaling and letting out another high pitched note that resonated through the air in a column of sound waves. With a flap of her golden wings, she caused ribbons of golden musical verses to stream from her wings and wrap around the columns of sound waves before the entire mass of harmonic music slammed into B-234's Goyo Checkpoint, causing it to disappear in a shower of golden sparks.

"Brilliant work Yuzu!" Ruri complimented. "You've truly learned a lot. I think you could teach me a thing or two about Xyz Summoning."

"We're not done yet!" Yuzu enthusiastically shouted. "If I attack now, we'll only be able to defeat eight of our opponents. I'm going to make sure I defeat them all on this turn!"

"I'm sorry, Yuzu," Ruri apologized, "but I can't use Geo Nephilim's effect again. With your field already full, I'm afraid the maximum number of attacks you can do this turn is eight."

"There is a way!" Yuzu asserted. "It's time to show you what Xyz and Fusion can do when they work together!" Smiling even wider, she pulled the out the card she had drawn at the beginning of her turn.

"I activate the Magic Card, Melodious Fusion! If I control a Melodious Monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, this card allows me to Fusion Summon one Melodious monster from my Extra Deck by sending monsters I control to the graveyard and banishing monsters in my graveyard as Fusion Materials! Everyone," she invited, "come forth to the stage!"

All the monsters on her field gathered together on the center of the raised platform while a group of ghostly melodious monsters from her graveyard joined them.

"I fuse Haydina the Melodious Maestra together with the Canon, Mezzo-Soprano, Orchestra, Tam-Tam, Quartet, Serenade, and Solo, in my graveyard to Fusion Summon!"

Haydina joined hands with a legion of seven other fairies before ascending to the center of a glowing fusion portal and swirling into the center in a raging vortex of red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, white, and black light. Closing her eyes and raising her hands above her head, Yuzu began her Fusion Chant:

"Prolific master, noble resonance, tranquil voice, converging harmony, echoes of the soul, inspiration of the divine, music of the lover, the flutter of angel wings, by the guidance of the baton assemble your power! YUUGO SHOKAN! Now on stage! The song of passion! Level seven! Bloom Prima the Melodious Choir!"

In a swirl of flower petals, Bloom Prima the Melodious Choir pirouetted onto the stage. She wore an elegant yellow dress that looked like an upside-down blooming flower and had a pair of blue and black flowers attached to her back. Twirling through the air, she sang several clear notes before landing next to Wing Prima. Smiling, the two monsters took each other's hands and gave a curtsey to the audience.

Ruri felt something from the display of Yuzu's Xyz and Fusion summoning. It dawned on her that Yuzu was doing more than offer entertainment through her dueling. She was using her dueling to convey a message. By combining Xyz and Fusion Summoning together, she was showing Ruri that the two summoning techniques not only could work together, but might even be stronger together.

"Haydina and Quartet's monster effects activate! Since Haydina was removed from the field, I can increase the attack of all monsters I control by three-hundred for each monster previously used in her Fusion Summon, thus maintaining the original attack boost and giving my new Bloom Prima an additional nine-hundred attack. Furthermore, Haydina's second effect allows me to add 1 Melodious monster from my deck to my hand. With her effect, I add the Level two monster, Score the Melodious Diva, to my hand. Next, since Quartet was used as a Material for the Fusion Summon of a Melodious Monster, her effect allows me to add one Melodious Songstress monster from my deck to my hand! I choose to add Contralto the Melodious Songstress from my deck to my hand!"

After adding the two cards to her hand, she extended her hand towards her five monsters.

"All of my monster's effects are applied. Sonata increases the attack of all fairy-type monsters I control by five-hundred, the Haydina that was sent to the graveyard raises them by nine-hundred, Vivaldina, with thirty Overlay Units, raises the attack of my monsters by six-thousand, and finally, Bloom Prima, with her own effect, gains three-hundred attack for each monster used in her Fusion Summon!"

The entire duel field filled with light and music as holographic indicators displayed Sonata's ATK at 8600, Vivaldina's ATK at 9200, Mozarta's ATK at 10,000, Wing Prima's ATK at 10,400, and Bloom Prima's ATK at 11,700.

"Bloom Prima can attack twice per Battle-Phase." Yuzu explained. "With the added attacks from Wing Prima, Vivaldina, Mozarta, and Sonata, that's nine total attacks!"

"Impossible!" Roger gasped, failing to comprehend how a few pathetic fairies and their entertainment duelist could become such a formidable force.

"Bloom Prima begins!" Yuzu declared, "Attack C-460's Goyo Emperor!"

Bloom Prima rose into the air in a shower of flower petals and raced towards C-460's Goyo Emperor, flowers on her back blooming to expose their beautiful blue, black, and white interior.

"Activate Jutte Lady's effect!" Roger screamed in desperation, "Stop her now! STOP HER NOW!"

"Jutte lady effect!" C-460 declared, "If a Goyo monster I control battles, I can discard this card from my hand to have my monster gain one-thousand attack for each Goyo monster I control! With nine Goyo Monsters on our field, Goyo Emperor gains nine-thousand attack! GO! DESTROY BLOOM PRIMA!"

A woman wearing white and red make-up and a black ninja outfit appeared next to Goyo Emperor before bowing to him. Presenting a golden Jutte to Goyo Emperor, she dropped a smoke bomb and vanished before Goyo Emperor picked up the Jutte and glowed with intense red light before rending the air with a roaring battle-cry. As his ATK rose to 12,300, Goyo Emperor placed his fist to his mouth and blew a raging inferno of scarlet fire from his mouth straight towards Yuzu's Bloom Prima.

"Score the Melodious Diva's effect activates!" Yuzu roared, jumping into the air to fly right alongside her monster. "By discarding this card from my hand, I change the attack of the monster my Bloom Prima is battling to zero!"

"WHAT!?" Roger gasped, "But that wasn't even its effect before! How is she not cheating right now!?"

Just before the stream of fire reached Bloom Prima, a diminutive blue-and-violet-haired fairy, who was wearing a white and purple dress zoomed underneath Bloom Prima and Yuzu, creating a pathway made of light behind her. Yuzu landed on the pathway and sprinted towards Bloom Prima, who used the sudden upsurge created from the path to dodge the flame of fire before swooping down and catching Yuzu in her arms. Swooping Down, Score opened up a sheet of music and let out a high pitched note straight at Goyo Emperor, dropping its ATK to 0 as Goyo Emperor shielded his face with his hands. Bloom Prima followed soon afterwards, blowing Goyo emperor and C-460 away is she opened her wings and let out two simultaneous streams of musical sound waves.

"Next is C-888," Yuzu ordered, stretching out her hands while being cradled in Bloom Prima's own delicate hands. "Attack his Goyo King!"

Roger watched with growing horror as Bloom Prima blasted back another of his Officers while he was completely powerless to stop it.

"And now the Grand Finale!" Yuzu declared, "Everyone! Come to the stage!"

Tiny fairies and sprites all over Divine Melodious Stage began playing little instruments while Yuzu's five fairies rose into the air and joined Bloom Prima.

"Eins, zwei, drei!" Bloom Prima called, counting in German.

Joining hands, the five fairies joined their voices together as they glowed with intense light. In a flurry of shimmering golden music, flower petals, and feathers, the remaining seven Arrest Corps officers and their monsters were lifted off the ground on each of their own mini-tornadoes of music and thrown down, each of them landing on the flower platform in a dazed heap before their Life Points dropped to 0 and their monsters disappeared. All around the Arrest Corps, the air swirled with golden light, flower petals, and golden feathers before converging together, shooting into the sky, and exploding into a golden firework that spelled, "Fin."

Flying down to Ruri, Yuzu jumped out of Bloom Prima's arms before the Duel Field faded away, leaving Ruri and Yuzu standing in the same damaged sky-scraper with a pile of unconscious Arrest Corps officers.

Yuzu approached one of them, looking a little concerned.

"They should be fine." Ruri reassured Yuzu. "Once I finish my work in the Synchro dimension, I'll make sure to free every one of them from Roger's mind control."

"Roger seemed to know something about us." Yuzu replied, deactivating her Duel Disk.

"It won't really matter what he does so long as we're together." Ruri smiled before looking a little nervous. "And Yuzu, I… want to thank you for the duel you showed me just now. It… it was nice to see how open minded you were towards… other summoning methods."

"Have you changed your mind about Fusion?" Yuzu asked, feeling almost as hesitant as Ruri.

Ruri turned her head away, looking sorrowful. "I can never forgive Academia for destroying my home." She turned back to face Yuzu and smiled, "But perhaps I can forgive Fusion Summoning."

"I should teach you sometime." Yuzu offered with a grin.

"I'm actually more interested in the Pendulum Summoning you mentioned." Ruri replied. "Who did you say invented it?"

"My friend, Yuya." Yuzu replied. "He's a bit of a goofball sometimes with his Entertainment Dueling, but he has a kind heart."

Ruri smiled and shook her head. "You really need to meet my friend, Sayaka. I sincerely hope and pray with all my heart that she is okay. You two would make such wonderful friends!"

"Well…" Yuzu smiled back, "… I'm glad I already got to make a new friend today. Thank you for your help in that duel."

Ruri shrugged. "I stopped a few attacks and gave you a few Overlay Units. You were the real star in that duel."

Yuzu closed her eyes, appreciating the compliment. "I could never have done what I did without your help… teacher."

They both bowed to each other before Ruri noticed something.

"Well way to ruin the moment!" she sighed as three-hundred Arrest Corps operatives began flooding the dilapidated room.

Yuzu looked around at the army of opponents, looking worried. "We need to go! I don't think we can take them all."

"No." Ruri smiled, shaking her head. "You go, Yuzu. Head to the Duel Palace Stadium where Rin is. I'm sure she'll be happy to teach you Synchro Summoning if you ask her nicely."

"But what about…!" Yuzu stuttered, not wanting to believe that Ruri was going to sacrifice herself to allow her to escape.

Ruri chuckled to herself before tossing her hair back and activating her Duel Disk. "What do I keep telling you, Yuzu? The last person you need to worry about is me. I should be done with these people in about five minutes."

Yuzu looked back at Ruri and noticed her face brimming with confidence. She could feel that Ruri was not just telling her a lie so she would leave. With a nod, Yuzu quickly leaped out of the hole in the side of the building, and began leaping across the roofs of buildings and the tops of track-ways at superhuman speeds. Eyeing the Duel Palace, she thought of her friends and how they must be worrying about what happened to her.

"Wait for me Yuya." she whispered, "I'm coming for you!"

Ruri watched Yuzu race into the distance before turning to face her opponents.

"Honestly…" she sighed, shaking her head, "…you'd think Roger would give me a challenge after witnessing our power." She placed her hands on her hips and sized up her opponents. "So…" she asked, "…which one of you is the first to taste my judgment?"

"My Turn!" one of the Arrest Corps officers began, activating his Duel Disk.

Ruri grinned, marks and eyes glowing with intense white light. "And we have a volunteer!"

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Arrest Corps Monsters

Goyo Regent/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1600/ (This card is always treated as a Synchro Monster). If you control a "Jutte" or "Goyo" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).

Jutte Lady/ EATH/ Level 3/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 1800/ If a face-up "Goyo" monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can discard this card at the start of the Damage-Step: Increase the ATK of that "Goyo" monster by 1000 for each "Goyo" monster you control until the end of the Battle-Phase.

Arrest Corps Extra Deck

Goyo Officer/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1500/ DEF 1000/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Once per turn, you can pay 1000 LP: Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower "Goyo" monster from your Extra Deck or Graveyard except "Goyo Officer" ignoring its summoning conditions. The monster summoned with this effect cannot attack the first turn it was summoned. This card cannot be selected as an attack target while you control another "Goyo" monster.

Goyo Bodyguard/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

(You can only control 1 "Goyo Bodyguard"). When this card is Special Summoned, you can Special Summon up to 2 "Goyo" monsters from your Extra Deck or graveyard whose total Levels equal 6 or less, ignoring the summoning conditions. While you control 2 or more "Goyo" monsters, you take no damage. If this card or another "Goyo" monster you control is targeted for an attack, you can tribute 1 "Goyo" or "Jutte" monster you control: Negate that attack.

Goyo Recruiter/ EARTH/ Level 5/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ This card gains 200 ATK for each "Goyo" monster you control and 300 ATK for each monster you control that is owned by your opponent. Once per turn, you can add 1 "Goyo" or "Jutte" card from any player's deck to your hand. (This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect).

Arrest Corps Spells

Goyo Sasumata/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster you control. The Equipped monster can attack your opponent's LP directly.

Trivia: Like the jutte, the sasumata was a special weapon used by imperial Japanese police during the Edo period. Its unique U-shaped end was exceedingly useful for grabbing the limbs of opponents and suppressing them from a distance.

Goyo Checkpoint/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, your opponent must pay 1000 LP to declare an attack.

Goyo Authority/ Spell/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can target 1 "Goyo" monster you control to select 1 other "Goyo" monster on the field with a lower Level: the targeted "Goyo" monster gains the effects of the selected "Goyo" monster until the end of this turn.

Ruri's monsters

Salvation Seraphim Disciple/ DARK/ Level 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 100/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Acolyte/ DARK/ Level 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 200/ DEF 100/ You can discard this card from your hand: Set 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card or "Salvation Seraphim" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck. During either player's turn, if this card is in your Graveyard, you can discard 1 card to target 1 Winged Beast Type Xyz Monster you control: Attach this card to that target as an Xzy Material. (You can only use this effect of "Salvation Seraphim Acolyte" once per turn).

Salvation Seraphim Martyr/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 300/ DEF 1800/ If this card is sent to the graveyard by battle or a card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your graveyard. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Martyr(s)" once per turn with this effect). An Xyz Monster that was Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is Xyz Summoned, you can target 1 card in either player's graveyard: Attach that target to the summoned monster as Xyz Material.

Salvation Seraphim Priestess/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster to your hand and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Healer/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 1000/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Healer" once per turn with this effect). Once per turn, you can send the top card of your deck to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" monster from your graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Angel/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ You can send this card from your hand or your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can declare a Level from 1-6: The Levels of all face-up "Salvation Seraphim" monsters you control become the declared Level until the End-Phase.

Salvation Seraphim Oracle/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ ATK 0/ DEF 2500/ You can discard this card and 1 other card from your hand: Arrange the top 6 cards of your deck in any order desired. If there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Normal Summon this card without tributing. Once per turn, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Special Summon 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Prophetess/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Winged Beast/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2800/ If you would take damage while this card is in your hand and you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, that damage becomes 0. You take no damage while you have no monsters in your graveyard. You can banish this card until the End-Phase of this turn: Until the end of this turn, the Special Summon of "Salvation Seraphim" monsters and the activation of their effects cannot be negated. (This is a quick effect).

Fallen Divine Mentor/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Fairy/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you have no monsters in your graveyard. If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: The Levels of all monsters you control become equal to their current Level X -1. If you Dark Xyz Summon a monster, you can activate this effect: Attach this card to that monster as a Dark Xyz Material.

Ruri's Extra Deck

Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 700/ 2 or more (Max 5.) Level 3 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to itself. Once per turn, if you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can detach any number of Xzy materials from this card: Inflict 100 damage to your opponent's LP for each card detached for this effect.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim/ LIGHT/ Rank -3/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 2400/ 2 Level -3 monsters

If your opponent activates a monster effect or declares an attack while you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can banish 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card: Negate the activation of that effect or attack, and if you do, your opponent cannot declare an attack until the end of this turn.

Trivia: "Ophanim" refers to the wheels seen on the chariot by Ezekiel. According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Ophanim are an actual race of angels, who, with the Seraphim and Cherubim, keep an eternal watch over the throne of God. The monster's wheel design for this story was inspired in part by the witch, Walpurgisnacht, from the anime, _Madoka Magica_.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim/ LIGHT/ Rank -6/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2600/ 2 Level -6 monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can attach cards from the top of either player's deck, either player's graveyard, or that are currently banished to an Xyz or Dark Xyz monster on the field (except "Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim" as Xyz or Dark Xyz Materials, up to the number of Dark Xyz Materials attached to this card.

Ruri's Spells

Salvation Seraphim Holy Spear/ Spell/ Equip/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force/ Spell/ Continuous/ If a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster is Xyz Summoned to your side of the field, you can activate this effect: Attach 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck to that card as an Xyz Material. If you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can tribute this card to target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is up to 2 Ranks higher than that target's Rank, using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Ruri's traps

Rank-Down Trap Judgment Force/ Trap/ Normal/ Target 1 Xyz Monster on the field: Dark Xyz Summon 1 Dark Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is equal to the Rank of that Target X -1, using that Target as the Dark Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Dark Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Yuzu's Monsters

Quartet the Melodious Songstress/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Fairy/ Effect/ ATK 400/ DEF 400/ If this card is used as a Material for the Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon of a "Melodious" monster, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Melodious Songstress" monster from your deck to your hand. If this card is removed from the field, you can activate this effect during the End-Phase: Special Summon 1 "Melodious Songstress" monster from your hand or graveyard.

Contralto the Melodious Songstress/ LIGHT/ Fairy/ Tuner/ Effect/ Level 3/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ _Effects unrevealed._

Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Fairy/ ATK 1500/ DEF 1000/ If you control a "Melodious" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can only Special Summon "Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress" once per turn this way. Once per turn, you can declare a Level between 4 and 7: The Levels of all face-up "Melodious" monsters you control become the declared Level until the End-Phase of this turn. You cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect except "Melodious" monsters.

Orchestra the Melodious Diva/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ ATK 1000/ DEF 2500/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control no monsters. A monster Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is Summoned, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap cards until the end of this turn.

And of course, something I'm certain everyone has been anticipating for a long time…

Earthbound God (Jibakushin) Ti'ika Sara/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed._

Trivia: "Ti'ika" is the Quechua word for "Flower." Mama Sara was an ancient Incan goddess of grain and fertility.

Yuzu's Extra Deck

Haydina the Melodious Maestra/ LIGHT/ Fairy/ Level 5/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 2100/ DEF 1200/ 2 or more "Melodious" monsters

Increase the ATK of all other monsters you control by 300 for each material used in this card's Fusion Summon. Cannot be targeted for attacks while you control another "Melodious" monster. During the turn this card is removed from the field, you can activate this effect: increase the ATK of all monsters you control by 300 for each material used in this card's Fusion Summon, and if you do, you can add 1 "Melodious" card from your deck to your hand.

Trivia: This card is named after the famous classical composer, Franz Joseph Haydn.

Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra/ LIGHT/ Rank 4/ Fairy/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1000/ 2 Level 4 "Melodious" monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Draw 1 card. Then, if the card drawn by this effect was a Level 4 or lower "Melodious" monster, you can reveal that monster: Special Summon it. Fairy-Type monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to this card.

Trivia: This card is named after the famous Baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi.

Wing Diva the Melodious Choir/ LIGHT/ Rank 7/ Fairy/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000/ 2 Level 7 "Melodious" monsters

Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. You take no damage from battles involving this card. Inflict 500 damage to each of your opponent's LP each time you Special Summon a "Melodious" monster(s). Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Special Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your hand or graveyard.

Wing Prima the Melodious Choir/ LIGHT/ Rank 8/ Fairy/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 2 Level 8 "Melodious" monsters

You can also Xyz Summon this card using 1 Rank 6 or higher "Melodious" monster you control as a material. Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card. This card can make 1 attack per Battle-Phase for each of its Xyz Materials. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 card on the field: Return that target to the hand.

Yuzu's Spells

Action Field – Earthbound Battlefield/ Spell/ Action Field/ You can play 1 Field Spell Card in addition to this card. Players can use Action Cards but each player can only have up to 2 Action Cards in his/her hand at a time. If a player would activate an Action Card, any player can banish 1 Action Card in his/her hand to activate this effect: Negate the activation of that Action Card, and if you do, destroy it.

Divine Melodious Stage/ Spell/ Field/ Cannot be destroyed while you control a Special Summoned "Melodious Monster". Once per turn, if you Special Summon a "Melodious" monster, you can activate this effect, add 1 "Melodious" monster from your deck to your hand. During each of your End-Phases, increase your LP by 500 for each "Melodious" monster you control.

Melodious Fusion/ Spell/ Normal/ You can only activate 1 "Melodious Fusion" per turn. If you control 1 or more "Melodious" monsters that were Special Summoned from the extra deck, you can Fusion Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field, and/or by banishing monsters in your graveyard as Fusion Material.

Yami no Kakubunretsu/ Spell/ Normal/ _Effects unrevealed._

Trivia: Literally translated from Japanese, "Yami no Kakubunretsu" translates to "Fission of Darkness," or, "Dark Fission." A possible English dub name would be, "Dark Hydrolysis," referencing the chemical reaction opposite to polymerization. Its Japanese name references the chemical reaction of Nuclear Fission whereby material is added to an unstable atom until the nucleus splits and tremendous energy is unleashed.

Action Cards

Reflect/ Spell/ Action/ If you would take damage from an opponent's card effect, you can negate that damage, and if you do, your opponent takes damage equal to the damage you would have taken.

Earthbound Trial/ Spell/ Action/ If you would take effect damage, halve the damage, and if you do, add 1 random card from your deck to your hand.

Earthbound Retribution/ Spell/ Action/ Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card and its effects. If you would take damage while your LP are 1000 or lower, you can negate that damage, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the damage you would have taken. Then, you can add 1 "Earthbound" card and 1 Field Spell Card from your deck to your hand. After the effects of this card resolve, your opponent cannot activate Action Cards for the remainder of this turn.

Earthbound Suppression/ Spell/ Action/ Discard 1 "Earthbound" Card from your hand: Until the end of this turn, the effects of your opponent's monsters on the field are negated.

SPECIAL OFFER

 **This series was inspired by fan art, especially the fan art of a particular artist named MoonFlowerLilica. In recognition of this fact, I wish for this series to promote the fan art of my own readers. Here's how it works: First create some "Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V," "Yu-Gi-Oh 5 D's" or "Signs of Renewal" related Fan Art. (Only fan art of these series will be accepted. Submissions must be an original work created by the submitter, and nothing M-rated or otherwise vulgar or graphic will be accepted. If you have a question, please PM me). After you have created your Fan Art, please PM me a link to your work and your work could be featured as a cover for "Signs of Renewal" for a full week, meaning plenty of artists will have an opportunity to display their art. There is no time limit for this offer, so get out your paintbrushes, coal, colored pencils, and have at it! Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to seeing your submissions. Stay awesome everybody and, as Tiny Tim would say, "God bless you, everyone!"**


	7. Part 1: Chapter 7

Part 1: Chapter 7 – Devotion

Roger watched with growing displeasure as the rest of the Arrest Corps surrounded Ruri before one of them drew his opening hand. Before the officer could begin his move, Roger stopped him with a more practical order.

"I'm not wasting time with another duel." Roger fumed. "Capture her by force!"

Immediately, the other two-hundred and ninety-nine Arrest Corps officers whipped out a net-gun and fired a web of Solid Vision netting at Ruri while she was still facing the first opponent, wrapping her up in a web-like encasing until she looked like a caterpillar in a chrysalis.

Roger gripped the arm of his chair, waiting for some struggle from the Dark Signer, but nothing happened. "Well…" he nervously laughed, wiping some seat from his brow with his handkerchief, "…that was surprisingly easy. Bring her back to Headquarters." He ordered his officers, "Leave the Dark Signer intact and unharmed, but do not let her escape."

"Escape?" Roger suddenly heard Ruri's voice call from within the netting. Judging by the tone of her voice, she seemed neither upset nor concerned. If anything, she sounded… bored. "Please Roger, I never intended to run away. Those days are behind me now." Suddenly, the encasement of holographic energy began glowing with intense white light. In a blinding flash, the encasement instantly vaporized into nothingness. From the center of the blast, Ruri stepped forward and turned her head until she was directly facing Roger from his computer.

"It's very rude to interrupt a duel, Roger. It would be even more ungracious if I were to try and leave. So please… let's try to settle things amicably rather than like a bunch of wild apes." Roger flinched at her speech, not so much for being compared to an ape, but for the sinking feeling that all throughout her speech, Ruri had been staring at him as if seeing him, face-to-face. She turned away from Roger and faced the Arrest Corps. "Please continue your turn… X-921? Really Roger? They have names you know." She tossed back her hair, "Regardless… I will be more than happy to take you all on. Shall we play by Battle Royal rules again, or do you have something different rigged in your favor this time?

Roger rubbed his forehead in frustration before deciding that it would be best to project strength against the Dark Signer rather than desperation. He pushed a button on his desk in order to project himself on the Duel Field again.

"Why not make things more fast-paced?" Roger's colossal holographic figure offered. "I'm not going to lie, Ruri, you have greatly displeased me. GREATLY displeased me. I have no interest in wasting any more time. I have much better things to do than obsess over you and your pitiful vendetta. Standard rules. The first player cannot attack their first turn, while the rest can. This is your last chance… Kurosaki. I will not be holding back like I did last time! Surrender now!"

"You said you weren't going to lie…" Ruri smirked, "…and yet, right there, you just lied through your teeth!"

"About what?" Roger snapped.

"You said you held back last time." Ruri replied, positioning her head so that she was once again looking directly at Roger through his computer screen, rather than at his holographic projection. She shook her head as if she pitied him. "Please… there's no point in trying to salvage whatever's left of your pride. I would be more worried about what will happen to you once I am through with these men, rather than about your reputation as a, soon to be deposed, ruler of this city."

"New orders…" Roger growled, "…leave nothing left of the Dark Signer when you're finished with her."

Ruri sighed. "Unrepentant to the end then? Well… don't say I didn't give you a chance." She turned once again to the Arrest Corps. "Watch closely, Roger. I have forgiven these men for whatever atrocities they may have committed under your control, but whatever pain you force me to inflict upon them shall be answered on your head tenfold. Continue your turn Roger!" she commanded, "We'll see if you were really holding back in the last duel!"

"I activate the magic card, Fusion!" X-921 declared, holding up two cards. "Using two Goyo Regent from my hand as material, I Fusion Summon! Come forth! Goyo Emperor!"

Ruri's hair was blown back as X-921's Fusion Monster exploded from the portal. Hovering above the duel field on a massive crimson throne, the purple-haired emperor looked extra angry as it clenched its fists and glared down at the Dark Signer.

"Next," X-921 continued, "Since I control a Goyo monster, I Special Summon Goyo Regent from my hand!"

A bluish white portal opened onto X-921's field below Goyo Emperor. From within, another copy of Goyo Regent leaped out before posing in front of Goyo Emperor with his jutte held forward and his fan held out like a shield.

X-921 slapped another card onto his Duel Disk. "I next summon the Tuner monster, Jutte Knight, and since Goyo Regent is always treated as a Synchro monster, I tune it with my Goyo Regent now to Synchro Summon the Level eight Synchro Monster, Goyo King! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Come forth to suppress all enemies of the state! Goyo King!"

In an explosive pillar of light, Goyo King burst onto the duel field before leveling a massive Jutte-tipped spear at Ruri. "How's that for not holding back?" Roger muttered from behind his desk.

"It's okay for a start." Ruri responded, looking directly at Roger. Roger nearly jumped from his chair. He hadn't projected his voice onto the dueling field.

Ruri smirked at Roger from behind the computer screen. "Unfortunately for you, your best efforts aren't going to be nearly enough to defeat me. Especially if you disabled the auto-shuffle function _again_ in order to ensure that all your Arrest Corps would be able to have the exact same turn."

Roger gritted his teeth. She could not be serious. It was impossible! It was out of the question! Never in a million years could a single duelist, no matter how ludicrously powerful, defeat three-hundred well-trained opponents!

"My turn!" Ruri declared, drawing a card before Roger or any of the other Arrest Corps could respond. She glanced through the cards in her hand and seemed to make some calculations before continuing with her turn. "Since I have no monsters in my graveyard, I special summon the Level 6 monster, Salvation Seraphim Angel, from my hand!"

Salvation Seraphim Angel descended to Ruri's field before pulling out her spear and staring down, with a confident expression on her face, at Goyo Emperor and Goyo King, who glared back at her with a hostile expression on each of their faces.

Ruri held up two cards. "It's time to create a new future. I discard Salvation Seraphim Oracle and Salvation Seraphim Disciple in order to activate Oracle's effect. I can arrange the top six cards of my deck in any order desired." After depositing the two cards into her graveyard, she picked up six cards from the top of her deck, quickly sorted through them, and placed them back on top of her deck. "Next, since I control a Salvation Seraphim Monster, I Special Summon the Level three monster, Salvation Seraphim Healer, from my hand."

An angel with curly blonde hair, which had herbs and berries interwoven within, appeared to Ruri's field. Tugging a few ingredients from the tangled strands of her hair, she crushed some herbs and berries in her hand before depositing them into a mixing bowl and pounding away at the contents with a broad stick.

"Using Healer's effect," Ruri continued, "I send the top card of my deck, Salvation Seraphim Archon, to the graveyard, in order to Special Summon the Level six, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, from my graveyard."

"She's going to summon Nephilim again!" Roger realized. "She probably has that other card in her hand to do it!" he quickly pressed a button on his desk. "Activate Goyo King's effect now! Capture Salvation Seraphim Oracle!"

X-921 stretched his hand forward. "Goyo King Effect! If my opponent Normal or Special Summons a monster, I can tribute one Goyo Monster to take control of one Level eight or lower monster my opponent controls! I tribute Goyo Emperor now to activate Goyo King's effect! Take control of Salvation Seraphim Oracle!"

Goyo Emperor burst into a puff of gold holographic dust. Immediately afterwards, Goyo King whipped out a jutte-tipped lasso and threw it towards Ruri's Salvation Seraphim Oracle. Oracle screamed out in panic and attempted to fly away as the lasso tangled around her body, but Goyo King roughly yanked her forward and held her in front of himself like a human shield.

Roger smiled at this. "Xyz Monsters, and even Dark Xyz Monsters, require monsters with equivalent levels to be used as materials." He thought to himself. "Sorry to disappoint you, Ruri, but I won't be letting you repeat the last duel." He looked at Ruri through the screen but was surprised to find that she looked exceedingly unperturbed.

Ruri extended her hand towards Salvation Seraphim Angel. "I activate the effect of Salvation Seraphim Angel! Once per turn, I can declare a Level from one to six, and if I do, the levels of all face-up Salvation Seraphim monsters I control become the declared Level until the End-Phase! I declare the Level of three in order to equalize the Levels of my monsters!"

Salvation Seraphim Angel spread out her wings and glowed with intense golden light. In a shower of golden sparks, both she and Salvation Seraphim Healer glowed with a golden aura of energy before a holographic indicator showed Angel's Level drop to three.

"With their levels now equal, I use my two Level three monsters to build the Overlay Network!" Ruri declared, raising her hands above her head as her monsters transformed into a pair of streams of yellow light before draining into the center of an Xyz Portal. Clamping her hands together and bowing her head in a prayer position, Ruri began her summoning chant:

"Diligent seeker of the truth willing to selflessly sacrifices all thy life to find spiritual enlightenment, journey now through a thousand years of wandering and obtain the divine revelation thou hast sought! XYZ SHOKAN! Come forth to distill heavenly wisdom upon my mind and soul! Rank three! Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim!"

In an explosion of multi-colored light, Ruri's new Xyz Monster flew from the depths of the Xyz Portal before landing behind Ruri and protectively cloaking the Dark Signer in her brown shawl while she held her walking stick out in front of her like a weapon and glared at the surrounding Arrest Corps officers.

Ruri hugged her monster's arm appreciatively before extending her hand forward. "I next activate Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim's effect! By detaching my Salvation Seraphim Angel from my monster, I am allowed to excavate the top three cards of my deck and add any excavated Salvation Seraphim Monsters to my hand. And since Oracle's effect has already arranged the top six cards of my deck, I add the three monsters, Salvation Seraphim Prophetess, Salvation Seraphim Hierophant, and Salvation Seraphim Priestess to my hand." She plucked three cards from her deck and added them to her hand before the rest of her deck was automatically shuffled by her Duel Disk.

Ruri's marks began glowing more brightly. "And now Roger, It's time to begin your judgment! Using my Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim as an Overlay Unit, I Xyz Summon the Rank one, Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor, from my Extra Deck with its own effect!"

Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim bent down and kissed Ruri on the forehead before smiling at her and briskly walking away. At the bottom of the Xyz Monster's feet, an Xyz Portal appeared before Wandering Pilgrim descended into the depths and Ruri began a new summoning chant:

"Divinely appointed judge of the Most High, weigh the souls of humanity against thy scales of righteousness, give respite to all the righteous in heart, and condemn the souls of the heretic as thou useth thy authority to decree thy final verdict! RANK DOWN XYZ CHANGE! Come forth to dispense true justice! Rank one! Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor!"

Ruri's new monster slowly rose from the Xyz Portal before solemnly turning its concealed face to gaze at the surrounding Arrest Corps. In comparison with Ruri's other monsters, Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor looked more threatening with grey wings, long black judge robes, a dark, wide-brimmed hat and hood concealing the upper half of her face and most of her grey hair, and a massive iron gavel in her right hand. Smashing her gavel into the ground, she created a shockwave that knocked against the surrounding Arrest Corps before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1000.

"Since I have successfully Xyz Summoned a monster, Salvation Seraphim Archon's effect now activates!" Ruri declared, stretching her hand forward where a black graveyard portal had appeared. "If it is in the graveyard when I successfully Xyz Summon a Salvation Seraphim Monster, I can Special Summon my monster from the graveyard, and if I do, I can Special Summon one other Salvtation Seraphim monster from my hand or graveyard! Come forth! Level eight! Salvation Seraphim Archon!"

In a pillar of radiant golden light, Salvation Seraphim Archon rose from the graveyard before unfolding two pairs of armored black wings, which radiated with even more golden light. Her face was hooded beneath a white cloak, but her skin radiated so much light that the Arrest Corps could see that the angel had emerald green eyes and midnight black hair. The angel was dressed in large white robes and shining golden armor with the double "S" Salvation Seraphim Mark emblazoned in the center of its chest. Unsheathing a pair of golden swords from her sides, the angel gave a mighty battle cry before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2400.

"Archon Effect!" Ruri commanded, "I Special Summon the Level eight, Salvation Seraphim Hierophant from my hand in defense position!"

A pair of white clouds appeared above the dueling field and Ruri's new monster descended in a pillar of light. The new black-winged angel was robed in an elegant white dress with silver trimmings, held a massive silver and gold staff that looked like a shepherd's crook with the Salvation Seraphim Mark on the end, and wore a large silver and gold headdress over her black and grey hair. Gently landing next to Archon, she spread out her arms before a holographic indicator appeared and displayed a DEF of 2900.

Roger gawked at Ruri's field in disbelief, unable to believe she had summoned so many high-level monsters at once.

"You're reaction is a little too soon, Roger." Ruri commented, looking directly at Roger through the computer screen. Roger stared back at Ruri, frozen in fear. She was watching him!?

Ruri smiled back at Roger. "Save that expression for when I actually do something impressive." She turned back towards her Salvation Seraphim Hierophant. "Hierophant effect! Once per turn, if I would Xyz Summon a Salvation Seraphim Monster, I can use one or more appropriate monster from my hand or graveyard as a Xyz Material! Using this effect, I overlay my Salvation Seraphim Archon and Hierophant on my field with the Salvation Seraphim Prophetess in my hand to construct the overlay network!"

The Arrest Corps backed away as the three monsters swooped into a massive Xyz Portal in a blinding flash of white and yellow light before Ruri began her summoning chant:

"Noble spirit with essence distilled from the purest materials of heaven, carry forth the will of the almighty God and lead the hosts of paradise in a glorious crusade! XYZ SHOKAN! Come forth! Rank 8! Salvation Seraphim Glorious Crusader!"

Unfolding two pairs of glowing, armored white wings in an X-shape, Glorious Crusader raised her sword above her head before ascending above the Arrest Corps and driving them back with an array of blinding white light.

"Glorious Crusader's effect activates and Hierophant and Archon's effects each chain to the activation!" Ruri proclaimed, basking in the glory of her Xyz Monster. "If Salvation Seraphim Archon is used as an Xyz Material for the Xyz Summon of a Winged Beast Type monster, I can attach two monsters from my Extra Deck to the summoned monster as Overlay Units! I choose to attach the Rank six monsters Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit and Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader to my monster!"

Two spheres of light flew out from Ruri's Extra Deck and began orbiting the body of Glorious Crusader. Ruri's Xyz Monster now had three Overlay Units orbiting her sword and two orbiting her body.

"Next Hierophant's effect activates! If she is used as an Xyz Material for the Xyz Summon of a Winged Beast Type monster, I can add 1 Rank-Up Card from my deck to my hand!" Ruri grinned confidently as she plucked a card from her deck and showed it to her opponents. "The card I choose to add is the Magic Card, Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force! And finally, since Glorious Crusader was Xyz Summoned, her effect allows her to attach all Salvation Seraphim monsters in my graveyard to herself as Overlay Units!" Two more spheres of light flew from Ruri's graveyard and began orbiting Glorious Crusader's sword.

The sclera of Ruri's eyes began glowing white while her irises shone against the whiteness with a lurid red flame. "Now the true fun can begin!" she proclaimed, mimicking Yuzu before revealing a card in her hand. "I discard the Level one monster, Fallen Angelic Guide, from my hand in order to activate its effect! If it is discarded, I can add one Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand! With this effect, I add the Field Magic, Sanctified Realm, to my hand!"

As Ruri pulled a card from her deck, a dark, angel-shaped figure descended into her graveyard. The monster was completely concealed in thick black garments that wrapped around every inch of her skin and wings. Over her head and body, the monster wore a large black burka with a thin rectangular screen over the eyes. In its linen wrapped hands it carried a long black pole with a lantern on top. As the monster descended into the graveyard, the Arrest Corps and Jean-Michell Roger, felt a rapid drop in their body temperature.

Ruri held the Spell Card in her hand aloft. "I now activate the card I just added to my hand! The time has come to be judged of me! Witness the power of my field magic, Sanctified Realm!"

The second Ruri slotted the Field Spell Card into her Field Spell Zone, the floor of the building was bathed in a sea of heavenly white clouds. The Arrest Corps stared around at the duel field, dumbfounded by its appearance. Ruri turned towards X-921 and held out her hand towards him.

"X-921…" she began, before stopping and shaking her head. "No…" she sighed, "…let us call you by your real name, Pyotr Ivanov." She smiled while X-921 nervously backed away. "Yes… Pyotr Ivanov. It's the name your family gave you. The one Roger took away when he made you his slave. Now my child, let's see what else Roger has taken from you." She gently touched the clouds beneath her feet with the tip of her finger.

Instantly, the white clouds melted away and were replaced with the interior of a simple, run-down apartment. Next to a small fireplace, an elderly man slept in a wheelchair, while a machine hooked up to some large green oxygen tanks pumped a steady supply of air into the man's nose through a pair of tubes. Next to the man, a broad-shouldered, dark-skinned man with an unshaven face, dark brown eyes, black hair, and a double chin, helped adjust a pair of blankets over the man.

"Your father." Ruri whispered, voice full of sympathy. "The reason you joined the Arrest Corps in the first place. How else were you going to provide for your family?"

A petit girl with Pyotr's same brown eyes and short black hair stepped into the room, carrying a tray with some food and a bottle of pills.

"Your sister, Elizaveta." Ruri sighed, looking through the crowds before stopping once her gaze fell upon a short Arrest Corps officer clad in smaller and more feminine armor. "She's with us right now. You both had no choice but to let your younger siblings take care of the family while you tried to provide for them." She looked directly at Roger through the computer screen with a murderous look in her eyes.

"And yet tyrants like you," she growled, wiping away the scene and restoring the white clouds with a flick of her hand, "give no care whatsoever about such things. Not so long as you can have your cheap, unpaid, private slave army to rule the world." She leaned in closer, "I will not warn you again, Roger. This is your last chance. Stop everything you're doing, remove yourself from your throne and your station, fall down at my feet and the feet of everyone you have wronged, beg for their forgiveness, and I will spare you. Otherwise…" the marks on her eyes and back glowed even brighter.

Roger could not believe he was in this situation. How dare she!? How in the world did she have the gall to say those things!? It was outrageous! He could not lose! He would not give in! Not to her, not to Academia, not to anyone!

"Destroy as many of the Arrest Corps as you want!" Roger hissed back at her, looking directly at the computer screen. "Feed your bloodlust on their corpses for all I care! It won't matter! I have more! There will always be more! You cannot defeat them all! You can't even defeat all of these ones! So make your move! Impress me with your little Dark Signer tricks! It will all be futile in the end!"

Ruri looked back at Roger with a cold expression on her face. "Yes, Roger," she agreed, "It will all be futile… for you." She turned back to Pyotr, face softening. "Today, I free you and everyone in the Synchro Dimension."

She extended her hand forward. "I activate the effect of my Fallen Angelic Guide. If it is in the graveyard while I control a face-up Field Spell Card, I can Special Summon it from my graveyard. Come forth. Fallen Angelic Guide."

From a black graveyard portal, Fallen Angelic Guide rose to Ruri's field before raising her lantern above her head while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

"Next," Ruri continued, "I normal summon the Level three, Salvation Seraphim Priestess from my hand."

A small black-winged angel in a white robe appeared to Ruri's field and held a wooden staff inlaid with lapis lazuli above her adorned head.

"Priestess effect." Ruri declared. "If it is summoned, I can excavate the top three cards of my deck in order to add one Salvation Seraphim Monster to my hand while all other cards are discarded to the graveyard." She plucked three cards from her deck before adding one to her hand and discarding the others to the graveyard. "Using her effect, I add the Level six, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, to my hand, while sending the monsters, Salvation Seraphim Martyr and Fallen Ardent Missionary to my graveyard."

She paused as two monsters, one a dark-skinned, black winged angel, and the other, a strange angelic figure wearing long sleeved preacher robes, red gloves, and a blank white mask over her face, descended into her graveyard through two black portals.

"I now activate Fallen Angelic Guide's effect." Said Ruri, revealing the Salvation Seraphim Oracle in her hand. "I reveal one monster in my hand and shuffle it into the deck in order to change the levels of all monsters I control to the Level of the revealed monster times negative one."

Sweat beaded on Roger's forehead as he watched her shuffle the card into her deck. "It's coming!" he thought. "A Dark Xyz Monster!"

Fallen Angelic Guide rose into the air and let go of her lantern. Instead of dropping to the ground, the lantern floated in mid-air directly in front of the angelic figure while the angelic figure stretched its hands out towards Salvation Seraphim Priestess. In a flash of movement, the linen around Angelic Guide's arms unraveled and entwined itself tightly around Salvation Seraphim Priestess. Roger and a few of the Arrest Corps gasped in shock as the monster's action exposed its arms. Beneath the linen, the angel's arms were extremely emaciated and disease ridden, with a thin layer of unhealthy skin stretched tightly over the bones. The ends of her fingers were tipped with razor-sharp black talons, and on each of her palms, a blood-red tattoo of an eye shone against her dark skin. Raising its clawed hands into the air, it lifted Priestess of the ground like the bound angel was a puppet while Priestess screamed in agony. Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor dropped her gavel in shock, and Glorious Crusader looked on in horror. Glorious Crusader approached Ruri as if to stop her from continuing, but Ruri held out her hand, arresting the movements of her monster as if she had suddenly gained control over gravity. Fallen Angelic Guide continued to raise Priestess into the air until both she and priestess were level with the lantern. Turning Priestess around, the two monsters stared at the lantern, Priestess's eyes glowing with an eerie yellow light as if she were possessed, before the lantern and the two monsters became translucent and collapsed into a growing singularity while Ruri began her summoning chant:

"Legendary giant who inherits the blood of the divine, open thy all-seeing eyes now, gaze upon the works of humanity, and dispense righteous judgment! Dark Xyz Shokan! Descend now! Level negative six! Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim!"

The same Dark Xyz Monster Ruri had used in her last duel appeared to the field. Unfolding a pair of sapphire wings, the monster spread out her arms and revealed a pair of Dark Overlay Units, one resting in her chest while the other rested in her midriff.

"Of course," Ruri continued, placing down another card, "there is more. I activate the Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force I added to my hand and use its effect on my Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor in order to summon a monster that is two ranks higher!"

The white double "S" symbol of the Salvation Seraphim appeared above Inquisitor. Flying to the center of the symbol, Inquisitor entered a black singularity before Ruri began her summoning chant:

"Noble heavenly servant clad in the armor of righteousness, take courage now as you raise your holy blade to smite the forces of darkness and bring salvation to this world! Xyz Shokan! Descend now! Rank 3! Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader!"

Ruri's blonde haired Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster flew onto the field before raising her sword into the air and summoning a sphere of light from a black portal.

"With her effect, I attach the Salvation Seraphim Martyr in my graveyard to my monster as an Overlay Unit!" Ruri declared as the sphere of light joined the other Overlay Units around Brave Crusader. Brave Crusader's sword had two Overlay Units orbiting her sword blade while two more orbited her body. "Next." Ruri declared, "Since I Xyz Summoned a monster using a Rank-Up Card, I can banish that card in order to Special Summon Fallen Ardent Missionary to my field! I banish Seraphim Force now! Come forth! Fallen Ardent Missionary!"

The masked angel appeared to Ruri's field before pulling out an ancient black book with translucent pages.

"If Fallen Ardent Missionary is summoned with this effect, I can set 1 Earthbound Spell or Trap Card from my deck." she popped a card from her deck and set it face down. "And now," Ruri declared, raising her hands to the air, "the time has come to behold my judgment! Fallen Ardent Missionary's second effect activates! I can banish this monster to immediately use each Xyz Monster I control as a Dark Xyz Material to Dark Xyz Summon a Dark Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck whose rank is equal to the rank of the material times negative one!"

"What?" Roger exclaimed as the masked angel rose into the air before opening her book. From the translucent pages, tendrils of black shadow streamed out before binding Ruri's Glorious Crusader and Brave Crusader. Screaming with agony, the two monsters slowly faded into nothingness before collapsing into two separate singularities while Ruri began chanting:

"Eternal wheel of heaven who carries the throne of the divine god, circle through the sky in an eternal cycle and protect the innocent from the wrath of the evil forces who oppose thee! Rank Down Xyz Change! Descend now! Rank negative three! Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim!"

A petit girl meditating in the center of two ethereal circles unfolded onto Ruri's field from the center of the singularity, black crystals shining inside of five ghostly circles. Not even a second after the monster emerged, Ruri threw back her head and raised her arms to the air before beginning another summoning chant.

"LEGENDARY, FALLEN GUARDIAN OF THE FIRST PARADISE!" she roared in a godly voice while her marks shone like supernovas, "THE TIME HAS COME FOR THEE TO EXECUTE DIVINE PUNISHMENT UPON THE WAYWARD SOULS OF HUMANITY ONCE MORE! UNSHEATH THY FLAMING SWORD OF VENGEANCE AND SMITE THE ENEMIES OF HOLINESS WITH THY RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION! RANK DOWN XYZ CHANGE! DESCEND NOW! RANK NEGATIVE EIGHT! EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO CHERUBIM!"

The second Ruri slammed her translucent Dark Xyz Monster card on top of Glorious Crusader, a black shockwave emanated from her Duel Disk, knocking back the Arrest Corps while her armored angel unfolded from the singularity and bared its flaming sword at Pyotr. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 8000.

"Nephilim effect!" Ruri commanded, "Take two Goyo Regent from the graveyard and augment the power of Geo Cherubim now!"

Geo Nephilim's six eyes glowed beneath her hood before she stretched out her gigantic hand and made a grasping motion, causing two ghostly images of Goyo Regent to rise from the graveyard before they were both compacting into a pair of shiny black crystals which embedded themselves within Geo Cherubim's sword, raising its ATK to 10,000. Pyotr stared at the Dark Xyz Monster, which was radiating with intense black light, and fell to his knees.

"I forgive you Pyotr," Ruri declared, in a gentle voice that made her sound like a godly mother. "and everyone else in this company, but I must still purify you. Once you are free from Roger's control, I promise to give you the justice you seek!"

"Ten-thousand attack?" Roger murmured, staring at the monster in disbelief.

"I told you… child of Academia." Ruri purred, staring at Roger while stretching out her arms as if she wanted to embrace him, "All your resistance will be futile. Now… behold my power and learn why you can never defeat me!"

Roger stared, open mouthed as Ruri stretched her hand towards Pyotr's field. "Geo Cherubim's effect!" She declared, "I banish two of its Dark Overlay Units, Goyo King, and Salvation Seraphim Oracle in order to halve the Life Points of my opponents twice! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!"

Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim disassembled segments of his metallic wings and created a silvery, chrome halo behind his body. Flexing his arms, he crushed a dark crystal in the palm of each hand before bathing the field in deep black light and shooting a cylinder of blinding white light from the edges of his metal halo. The beam of light ripped through Goyo King and Oracle, blasting their bodies into smoking powder.

"Be gentle." Ruri commanded. "These ones are innocent."

Geo Cherubim nodded his masked head. Sheathing his gargantuan magma sword behind his back, he disassembled his ring and reassembled his metal wings before balling his metallic right hand into a fist, swooping down, and slamming his fist into the ground. The force of the impact left a massive crater in the ground while intense shockwaves exploded from the impact site, knocking back all three-hundred Arrest Corps officers and reducing the Life Points of each one to 1000.

Before the Arrest Corps could recover and get back on their feet, Ruri had already stretched her hand towards Pyotr.

"Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim!" she commanded, "Direct attack!"

Geo Cherubim leaped forward with supernatural speed and knocked his fist against the top of Pyotr's helmet. Pyotr fell back and lay limp against the ground, knocked unconscious.

"I now activate Sanctified Realm's effect." Ruri declared, "Since I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can add one Magic or Trap Card from my deck to my hand, but I cannot set or activate that card this turn." She plucked a card from her deck and added it to her hand. "I use its effect to add Earthbound Fury from my deck to my hand. With this, I end my turn."

Roger stared back at the Dark Signer as her three Dark Xyz Monsters bared down on Roger's forces. Reviewing the stats, Roger took a deep breath before letting himself laugh with relief. "That's your divine judgment!?" he hooted. "All you managed to do was defeat one officer!" he pushed a button on his desk. "Summon Goyo King and Goyo Emperor and use Goyo Sodegarami to enable Goyo King to attack without Ruri able to activate any Spell, Trap, or Monster effects in response. Once Goyo King destroys any one of her monsters, we'll take her monsters for our own!"

"My turn! Draw!" said an officer with the label, V-285. "I activate the Magic Card, Fusion, and fuse two Goyo Regent in my hand to Fusion Summon Goyo Emperor! Come forth! Goyo Emperor!"

Ruri blinked with boredom as V-285 began a repeat of the last officer's turn.

"Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim's effect." Ruri droned. "I attach two Goyo Regent from your graveyard to my Geo Cherubim as Dark Overlay Units."

Geo Cherubim flexed his muscles as two new Dark Overlay Units embedded themselves into his chest, raising his ATK to 10,000.

"I'm not done yet!" V-285 continued, placing another card on his Duel Disk. "I summon…"

"I summon Goyo Regent with his own effect and then normal summon Jutte Knight. With these two monsters, I next Synchro Summon Goyo King." Ruri interrupted. "Tell me if I'm wrong."

V-285 paused for a bit before continuing with his plays, doing exactly what Ruri had stated. "Goyo King." He muttered, as the Synchro Monster burst onto the duel field. "Next," he snarled, "I activate the Equip Magic, Goyo Sodegarami, and equip it to my Goyo King!"

Goyo King's spear morphed into a new weapon with a long spike-covered shaft that ended in a long metal tip with cruel hooks sticking out from all ends.

"Goyo Sodegarami effect!" V-285 declared, "If I attack with the equipped monster, my opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the damage step! Go! Goyo King! Destroy her Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim!"

Goyo King charged forward and slammed his weapon against Geo Ophanim. However, the second the hooks of his weapon were about to touch Ruri's monster, a golden barrier formed around Geo Ophanim, knocking Goyo King back.

"Sanctified Realm's continuous effect." Ruri explained. "While I have no monsters in my graveyard and control a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, each card I control cannot be destroyed once per turn. In addition, I take no damage."

"It's fruitless, Dark Signer." Roger growled, "Goyo Sodegarami has another effect."

"Goyo Sodegarami's second effect!" V-285 declared, "I banish one "Goyo" monster from my graveyard to enable my Goyo King to attack once again in a row! I banish one Goyo Regent in my graveyard to activate the effect!"

"In response to the activation of that effect, I'll activate this…" Ruri declared, extending her hand towards her face down card, "…Continuous Trap, Earthbound Pledge of Devotion." Her face down card flipped up to reveal a scene depicting a hooded individual wearing robes, not too dissimilar from Ruri's, bowing down before a massive ghostly condor with violet markings. "This card can only be activated if the only monsters I control are Earthbound." She explained. "In addition, I cannot summon monsters while this card is active, my Life Points are halved during the end phase of each turn, and I take five-hundred damage immediately after my life points are halved." She smiled. "But of course, for every sacrifice, a blessing comes forth. While Earthbound Pledge of Devotion is active, Earthbound cards I control cannot be targeted or destroyed by my opponent's card effects and cannot be destroyed by battle! So go ahead and attack again. Because your monsters need to destroy one of my monsters to activate their effects, you won't be able to capture my monsters. In addition, no matter how often you attack me, while my graveyard is pure, I will take no damage. You've done it again, Roger. Thanks to your cheating, you've stuck yourself in another infinite loop."

Roger stared back at Ruri in disbelief before reviewing the effects of her trap card. There was no denying it. She had managed to protect her monsters with her card. There was now little Roger could do to damage Ruri. However, the cost of her card was exceedingly heavy, and if what Roger understood about Dark Signer duels was true, Ruri would feel a great amount of pain for every last life point she lost. He pressed a button on his desk and projected himself once more on the Duel Field.

"If you think I'm going to give up from that, then you are sorely mistaken." Roger sneered as his holographic form loomed over Ruri. "There are still plenty of turns to go before you even get your next turn. I wonder… just how long can your body last as you continuously pay the cost of your trap card?"

"Today…" Ruri murmured, "…you shall behold the depth of my conviction!"

Roger snorted. "Let's see how that conviction holds up. Continue attacking!"

"Goyo King!" V-285 roared, "Attack Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim!"

The second Goyo King's weapon was about to touch Geo Ophanim, a ghostly image of Ruri suddenly appeared in front of the monster and took the blow in the center of its chest before bursting in a flash of light and knocking back Goyo King. V-285 staggered backwards before shaking himself off.

"Turn end!" he declared, turning to the next duelist.

"Earthbound Pledge of Devotion!" Ruri declared, "My life points are now halved!" Ruri's trap card became enshrouded in thick shadows. As shadows emanated from the trap, a second wing mark branded itself over Ruri's right eye as she screamed in agony and her Life Points dropped to 2000. Gasping, Ruri held out her hand towards her trap. "It's second effect…" she gasped, "…I immediately take five-hundred damage!" The markings over her eyes and back suddenly blackened and started crackling with purple electricity, but her Life Points remained unchanged. "Fortunately…" she groaned, "…Sanctified Realm shall forever protect me from damage… but that does not stop…" another gasp, "…the demand for my physical sacrifice!" In a final spark of lightning, Ruri collapsed to her knees before her marks returned to normal.

"Keep going!" Roger ordered, "Hold nothing back!"

"My turn!" said another officer, drawing a card. He rapidly repeated the previous turn. "I equip my Goyo King with Goyo Sodegarami!"

"Geo Nephilim effect!" Ruri declared. "I attach two cards to Geo Cherubim as Dark Overlay Units!" A pair of cards transformed into two crystals which embedded themselves in Geo Cherubim's knees, raising his ATK to 12,000.

"Attack her Geo Ophanim!" V-285 ordered, stretching his hand towards his Goyo Sodegarami armed Goyo King.

"Earthbound Pledge of Devotion!" Ruri roared, "My monsters cannot be destroyed!" Just like with the previous turn, each time Goyo King attempted to destroy Ruri's monster, an image of Ruri stepped forward and took the attack instead.

"Turn end!" the Arrest Corps officer declared, watching as a marking shaped like a pair of angel wings connected to a circle appeared in the center of Ruri's forehead before all her markings turned black and drained her Life Points to 1000. In another surge of dark electricity, Ruri felt pain that was so intense, that it forced her down to her hands and knees. However, once it was over, she quickly got back up and stared back at Roger with defiance in her eyes.

"I will not be broken!" she declared, daring Roger to continue.

"You cannot last!" Roger roared. "Keep going!" he ordered, "Do not stop! Keep attacking!"

The Arrest Corps continued attacking, repeating more or less the same turn two-hundred and ninety-seven more times.

"Attack her monster!"

"Pledge of Devotion effect!"

"Goyo Sodegarami!"

"I pay half my Life Points!"

"YUUGO SHOKAN!"

"I TAKE FIVE-HUNDRED DAMAGE!"

"GOYO KING!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

…

…

…

Two-hundred and ninety-seven turns later, Ruri peeled her face from the ground, and slowly staggered upright, body crackling with dark electricity. Shakily tossing her hair back, she held up her head proudly before triumphantly bearing her Duel Disk at her oppoenents.

"Bakana!" Roger stammered after the last Arrest Corps officer completed his turn. "BAKANA!"

With the combo he had prepared, each of his Arrest Corps officers had been able to summon one Goyo King and one Goyo Emperor. Forty-nine had their Goyo King equipped with Goyo Sodegarami, fifty had equipped their Goyo King with Goyo Sasumata, fifty had set a copy of Storming Mirror Force, fifty had set a copy of negate attack, fifty had each activated a copy of Goyo Checkpoint, and the last fifty kept a copy of Jutte Lady in their hands. And yet, despite such a defense, Roger felt exceedingly uneasy that they hadn't managed to take down the Dark Signer.

Ruri, on the other hand, couldn't have looked more confident. Her life points were reduced to a decimal so low, that Roger's computers had to use a negative exponent to display the result. And yet, after all Roger's attacks, after collecting so many hundreds of marks on her body that she looked like a Native American shaman, after going through so much pain, Ruri stood before the Arrest Corps like an omnipotent god.

Roger reviewed the stats for Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim, which Ruri had continuously been powering up with Geo Nephilim.

"Six-hundred and six thousand attack?" Roger asked, unable to believe such a monster could exist. "It's impossible…"

"Nothing is impossible." Ruri replied as her multitude of marks glowed with radiant light, "Look upon it and see for yourself."

Roger looked down at Ruri's Geo Cherubim. Sure enough, a holographic indicator next to the monster showed an ATK of 606,000. So many Dark Overlay Units had embedded themselves within her monster, that Geo Cherubim looked like a translucent ghost stuffed with watermelon seeds.

"Bakana!" Roger repeated, still not comprehending what he was seeing.

"If that's all you have to say." Ruri replied, "I think I will begin my turn." The light from Ruri's body and monsters intensified as she began her turn.

"My turn! Draw!" the second she drew her card, the screens of Roger's computers went completely white as the room of the building was bathed in light. When the light had dimmed just a little, Ruri looked at her card, which was shining with white light like a fragment of a star.

"So you've come." Said Ruri with a smile. "My god, Jatun Waqar." She looked back at Roger and held up the card she had drawn, turning it around so Roger could see its face.

"REMEMBER THIS CARD!" Ruri boomed in a godly voice. "FOR ONCE OUR MARK SHINES IN THE SKY, THOU SHALT KNOW THAT THY REIGN COMETH TO AN END! FOR IT WILL BE THIS CARD THAT TEARS THY REGIME ASSUNDER!"

Roger stared open mouthed at the card, the one he had heard so much about from his interrogations with Sergey. An Earthbound God.

Ruri looked down at the card thoughtfully. "I could use this to win… but I think we both agree that it is unnecessary."

" _Our wills are in alignment._ " a voice in Ruri's head agreed. " _I do not wish to be wasted on this rabble_."

Ruri smiled before her eyes glowed with pure white light. "The time to behold our true power is not yet, Roger." Said Ruri in the same god-like voice. "But rest assured, we are more than capable of destroying our opponents this turn." She stretched out her hand. "First, although redundant, in order to teach thee just how limitless our power is, we activate Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim's effect to attach two Dark Overlay Units to our Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim!"

Geo Cherubim roared within his mask as his ATK rose to 608,000.

Roger tried to keep himself calm and focus on the duel stats. True, Ruri had an extremely strong defense and an exceedingly powerful Earthbound Disciple monster. Fortunately, she could only attack one player at a time. Roger had two-hundred and ninety-nine Arrest Corps officers at his disposal. Geo Cherubim's effect enabled it to banish up to 608 of his cards, but between the two-hundred and ninety-nine Goyo Emperor, two-hundred and ninety-nine Goyo King, Forty-nine Goyo Sodegarami, fifty Goyo Sasumata, fifty Storming Mirror Force, fifty Negate Attack, and fifty Goyo Checkpoint, Ruri wouldn't be able to banish everything. At most, if she skillfully removed the necessary cards, she'd be able to direct attack three players. Once that was done, all Roger had to do was hold out and wait for his officers to draw at least two Mystical Space Typhoon. If he could just destroy Sanctified Realm, then Ruri would be done in with her own Trap Card. All he had to do was wait.

Ruri smiled at Roger as if reading his thoughts. "It is pointless Roger. This is the last turn of this duel." She unfurled a pair of angel wings from her back and rose into the air before placing down a card.

"We activate the effect of the Earthbound Fury we added to our hand during our previous turn!" Ruri declared in a godly voice that sounded like two people speaking instead of one. "We target our Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim in order to enable it to attack once per battle phase this turn, up to the number of monsters our opponent controlled at the time of this card's activation! With five-hundred and ninety-eight monsters on your field, that's five-hundred and ninety-eight attacks! However…" Ruri smiled, "…as in all things there is a cost. Any damage our monster inflicts that is greater than one-hundred, becomes one-hundred."

Geo Cherubim roared with anger as the black light shining from his body intensified.

"Our judgment commences!" Ruri declared, spreading out her hands. "EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO CHERUBIM, SMITE OUR ENEMIES WITH THY POWER NOW! WE BANISH FIVE-HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT DARK OVERLAY UNITS, FORTY-NINE GOYO SODEGARAMI, FIFTY GOYO SASUMATA, FIFTY GOYO CHECKPOINT, ONE-HUNDRED FACE-DOWN CARDS, AND TWO-HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE GOYO KING IN ORDER TO HALVE THE LIFE POINTS OF OUR OPPONENTS FIVE-HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT TIMES! FEEL OUR ABSOLUTE JUDGEMENT! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!

Geo Cherubim rose off the floor and hovered next to Ruri before disassembling his wings once again. Instead of forming a halo behind his back, Geo Cherubim arranged the metal segments of his ring until it orbited around his, Geo Nephilim's, Geo Ophanim's, and Ruri's body like the ring of a planet. With the crunching sound of hundreds of crystals getting compacted into nothing, Geo Cherubim crushed five-hundred and forty-eight Dark Overlay Units all over his body. As black light emanated from his body, Roger's screens suddenly went pitch black. Suddenly, in a flash of light, the screens were once again illuminated, as Geo Cherubim's ring shot a column of light through the roof and floor of the building. Slowly, the column of light expanded outward, vaporizing everything in its way. Roger watched in horror as two-hundred and ninety-nine Goyo King and all his Spell and Trap Cards faded into non-existence on contact with the wall of light. All two-hundred and ninety-nine Arrest Corps officers were thrown back several meters as their life points were reduced to an even smaller decimal than Ruri's own diminutive Life Points. All that was left on the field were two-hundred and ninety-nine Goyo Emperor, who wore uneasy expressions on their faces as they hovered in their thrones.

When the column of light faded away, Geo Cherubim unsheathed his sword as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 60,000.

"Go my servant!" Ruri whispered in her normal voice, grinning from ear to ear. "Smite all our enemies! Give the tyrant, Roger, a glimpse of what shall happen to him!"

Geo Cherubim roared with fury, and charged at the army of Goyo Emperors with demonic speed.

Fifty officer's stepped forward. "We activate the effect of the Jutte Lady in our hands!" they roared, throwing their cards into the graveyard. Immediately, the ATK of fifty Goyo Emperors rose to 302,300 before each of the powered up Goyo Emperors put their fist to their mouth and blew an inferno of flame at Geo Cherubim, stopping him in his tracks, and blasting him down several floors.

Ruri laughed like a maniac. "IT IS POINTLESS, ROGER!" she roared. "I take no damage, my monster is not destroyed, and I still have five-hundred and forty-eight attacks left! Continue the battle my servant! Show Roger the fate of tyrants!"

Geo Cherubim emerged from a flaming hole in the floor. His chrome armor glowed with red hot light and burned with flames from the attacks of the Goyo Emperors. Rather than damaging Ruri's monster in any way, the flames seemed to have only made the monster more threatening and aggressive. With an ear-splitting roar, Geo Cherubim hoisted his gargantuan magma blade into the air and let loose a raging inferno of flame from the blade before closing the distance with a group of fifteen Goyo Emperors in a single bound. With just one swipe of his blade, Geo Cherubim, bisected all fifteen Goyo Emperors and vaporized them in an explosion of flame before the monsters could even register their injuries. Nanoseconds later, Geo Cherubim had beheaded another twenty Goyo Emperors as he wielded his ludicrously massive blade with superhuman prowess. Spinning around, Geo Cherubim punched his clawed arm through a stack of four Goyo Emperors before tossing their corpses at another group of Goyo Emperors, knocking the group back before they were brutally sliced to ribbons by his blade. Goyo Emperors began desperately flying away on their thrones, but Geo Cherubim was too quick. With a slash of his sword, he sent a hailstorm of magma at the fleeing Goyo Emperors, vaporizing half of them as they were caught in the flames before pouncing forward, cutting several of them in half with his blade, and another several in half with his claws in one fluid motion. After just five more seconds of slicing, dicing, and burning the army of Goyo Emperor, just one Goyo Emperor remained, cowering on his throne and holding out his hands as if begging to be spared. Geo Cherubim flew over and stared down at the cowering emperor with his emotionless mask. Goyo Emperor crawled out of his throne and bowed to Ruri's monster, holding up his hands in a begging gesture. Without a second of hesitation, Geo Cherubim swiftly lifted the monster off the ground by its purple hair, and beheaded it in one swift stroke. As the last Goyo Emperor exploded in a shower of sparks, the final Arrest Corps officer fell to the ground, joining the other three-hundred and eight unconscious Arrest Corps Officers whose Life Points had all dropped to 0.

Roger gaped at the computer screens, unable to even speak. He quickly started searching through his databases, trying to see what other squadrons of Security and Arrest Corps officers were available.

"It's pointless, Roger." Said Ruri as her monsters and extra markings faded away as the duel came to an end. "You cannot defeat the Dark Signers, no matter how many men you throw at us. Don't try to make things worse for yourself, you're already in enough trouble as it is. Keep standing against us like this, and you'll only dig your own grave deeper."

Roger quivered with rage, momentarily forgetting his fear. "Now listen here, Kurosaki!" he hissed at the computer screen, "You may have won this battle, but the game isn't over! I still have many pieces yet to play. Believe me, Kurosaki, there are other ways to get to you!"

"Everything you try to do to us will be turned upon your own head." Ruri countered before raising her hand to the air. "This conversation is over, Roger. Frankly, I'm sick of you watching me."

Ruri's eyes and marks began glowing white. Suddenly, the screens of Roger's computers blackened before displaying a pixelated image of Ruri's white heron mark. Roger leaped out of his chair as the terminal started sparking with electricity.

"If I were you, I'd leave my office." Said Ruri, voice emanating from the computer terminal. Roger had just enough time to rush to the door and open it, before the computer terminal exploded behind him, knocking him out of the room.

Once she had dealt with Roger, Ruri turned her attention to the unconscious Arrest Corps officers. "It's time for you to be free." She whispered as she stretched her hand towards the officers.

Slowly, the bodies of each officer became transparent, revealing a blinking red chip inside each of their brains. "Be ye purged!" Ruri commanded with a wave of her hand. Instantly, each chip vanished away before the bodies of each officer become opaque once again.

With several hundred loud groans, each officer slowly got up off the ground before noticing Ruri, and cowering back, some putting their hands over their heads protectively.

"Peace." Said Ruri, gently stepping towards one of the officers and helping him off the ground. "I intend none of you any harm."

The other Arrest Corps officers began muttering to themselves, looking very confused.

"What the heck happened to me?" one groaned. "Why do I feel like a semi-truck hit me in the head!?"

"Am I dreaming?" another quivered, "Or was I really doing those things?"

"What am I doing here? I promised my family I'd be back home!"

"What's the date? What's going on?

Why is this building wrecked!?

"ENOUGH!" one of the Arrest Corps officers, Pyotr, screamed, quieting everyone down. He approached Ruri and tore off his helmet. Beneath the mask, his hair and eyes were dark, just like what Ruri had seen in the Field Spell. His facial hair, however, had grown into a small beard, which concealed his cleft chin. Kneeling before Ruri's feet he looked up to her in awe.

"Who are you?" he asked. Without his mask, his voice had lost its robotic tones and now had a rich Russian accent.

"Stay away from her!" a petit officer admonished, tearing off her own mask. Like Pyotr, her complexion and hair were dark, but her skin was less rugged and her chin was rounded.

"Elizaveta, she helped us!" Pyotr protested.

"We don't know anything about her!" Elizaveta snapped, activating her Duel Disk. "She could be the real enemy for all we know!"

"Are you kidding me!?" another officer exclaimed, ripping off his own helmet to reveal a youthful, freckled face with a scar over the left cheek and a couple buck teeth like a mouse. "Don't you get it! Roger had us brain controlled! That makes him the bad guy!"

"That doesn't mean she isn't just as bad, Garret!" Elizaveta snarled, advancing on Ruri. Ruri maintained her stance but did nothing to provoke Elizaveta.

"You've got to admit…" another Officer muttered, ripping off her own helmet to reveal a larger girl with bright red hair, intelligent eyes, and piercings on her left eyebrow, nose, cheek, and lip. "…if she did want to get rid of us, she could have easily taken us out during that duel, not to mention when we were all unconscious on the ground." She smiled at Ruri, "Officer, Mita Takeda, a pleasure to meet you." She got up from the ground and walked up to Ruri before shaking the Dark Signer's hand. Compared to Ruri, Mita looked like a tower as she loomed over both Elizaveta and Pyotr. "I'd thank you for freeing us, but I'm guessing you've got a reason for doing so. So… not to sound like Elizaveta, but what is your agenda?"

Ruri bowed to the officer. "I thank you for your trust…"

"Don't push it, lady!" Another officer growled before tearing off his own helmet to reveal a handsome man with tan skin, green eyes, and black hair. "We don't even know who you are, much less if we can trust you. Frankly, you pretty much look like a gangster to me. What's the deal with those eyes and those tattoos?"

"Officer Guevara." Said Mita, introducing the new officer. "He was my unit leader at one time. He has something against body peircings and tattoos." She whispered in Ruri's ear.

"MITA!" Officer Guevara roared.

"Oh come on!" Mita snapped. "What's she gonna do with that information?"

"I don't know!?" Guevara roared back, "But I sure as heck don't feel comfortable with her knowing it! We have no idea what she's after or what she wants from us!"

"I require nothing from all of you!" Ruri shouted back, silencing everyone.

"Nothing?" Elizaveta asked, looking suspicious.

"Yes." Ruri nodded, "Nothing. I am here for one purpose and one purpose only. To liberate this dimension from the grasp of Roger and the threat of other invading forces. Even if I were alone, I have the power to accomplish this task."

Mita glared at her. "Then why go to the trouble of freeing us? Was that all just altruism?"

"You are free to believe whatever you want." Ruri replied, folding her arms over her chest. "I understand that freeing you from Roger's mind control does not give me a free pass to earn your trust or service. Nor is it my desire that you all should be freed from one slave master just to join another. The only thing I really do wish to know is what you all want? You have all seen what Roger is doing to this dimension and will continue to do. If any of you go back to Roger now, he will most certainly put you under his control again. Any of you who try to defect will be hunted down and arrested. And that's only the half of it. Roger will use as many people as he can against their will in order to carry out his agenda. The Synchro Dimension will become a police-state dystopia, with Roger as the Chief of Police. I ask you all… is this what you want?"

Crowds of officers began muttering amongst themselves until Pyotr finally raised his voice.

"No!" he roared, "Roger has betrayed the city! I cannot speak for everyone here, but I absolutely will not stand for his oppression!"

"I'm not going back to Roger." Elizaveta muttered, "But that still doesn't mean I can trust you!"

"Elizaveta still has a point, regrettably." Mita mused. "How do we know what you're offering is any better? You're an impressive duelist… scratch that… you are a CRAZY AWESOME duelist… but I just don't see you running the city any better than Roger, even if you probably can defeat him singlehandedly."

Ruri nodded her head, understanding Mita's point. It was honestly still disconcerting for Ruri that she could be in her position right now, holding an authoritative presence like a queen or goddess against so many Officers of the law.

"I don't expect you all to take my word for it." Ruri explained, "But know that I am more than just a fourteen year old girl with a big dream."

"She's fourteen?" Garret whispered to another officer.

"The way I see it," Ruri continued, "these are your options. You can go back to Roger and become his mind slave, or you can defect from Roger. I'm not going to lie. I would be overjoyed if any of you would stand with me in fighting against this tyrant, but I do not wish to compel you like Roger would. If you choose to fight with me, I welcome you with open arms. If you choose to flee and escape from Roger's wrath, I only wish to provide you the necessary protection so that no harm comes to either you or your loved ones." Ruri breathed in before extending her hand to an empty section of the floor. Over the section of floor, a white heron mark matching the one on her back blazed to life.

"I extend this offer to you." Ruri proclaimed, "If you wish to join me in liberating the Synchro Dimesnion from tyranny, I ask only that you stand in that mark that I may grant you powers to fight against the oppression. If you wish to escape, you are all free to go. I promise that as long as I am here, no harm will come to either you, your friends, or your family. The choice is yours. I won't hold you back either way. Choose."

Mita looked back at Elizaveta before both of them looked at Pyotr. Pyotr looked at Guevarra and Garret who both nodded their heads. All five officers stepped forward and leaped into the mark.

"I don't know if I like you," Elizaveta muttered, "but you are right. If I want my father to live, there's only one option for me now."

"Any leader who respects the opinions of their followers is a leader I can trust." Mita grunted, patting Elizaveta encouragingly on the back.

"I made an oath to uphold the security of the city." Guevara growled, cracking his knuckles, "If that means keeping it secure from my commanding officer, so be it."

"We are with you." Pyotr declared.

Hundreds of other officers looked at each other before advancing towards the mark, casting away their helmets and revealing their true faces. As more men and women poured into the mark, the mark expanded until everyone but eight officers stood within.

"You may go." Ruri nodded to the other eight officers. "I know your names and faces. No matter what happens, I promise I will not let Roger harm you."

The other eight officers bowed their heads before removing their helmets and exiting the building. Once they had left, Ruri turned her attention to the three-hundred and one officers standing within her mark.

"I thank you all for accepting the call!" Ruri proclaimed, eyes tearing up with joy. "You will be the first of many heroes to bring salvation to not only this city, but the entire universe! Your courage shall be recorded for all eternity! Now… accept new strength, give place in your souls for the Earthbound to enter! Lift up your heads with gladness, for you shall accomplish greater things than man has ever known! Cast away your identities as slaves and be reborn now! Be reborn as… Earthbound Disciples!"

All three-hundred and one officers gasped with astonishment as each of their eyes glowed and a white heron mark blazed to life on their backs before it faded into their skin and their eyes dimmed. The mark on the ground vanished away and Ruri's disciples stepped forward.

"Wow!" Mita exclaimed, flexing her arms, "This is something! I feel like I've been living on nothing but protein shakes and steroids my entire life!"

"You're telling me!" Guevara gawked, gripping his helmet. "I feel like I could crush this thing in one hand!"

"It's not just our muscles!" Elizaveta remarked, "I used to be deaf in my left ear!" she tapped her ear, "But now… now it feels like all my senses are sharper!"

"Our decks are different, look!" Pyotr instructed, holding up his deck.

All the former Arrest Corps officers pulled out their decks and examined them.

"Sweet!" Garret cheered. "This was actually my old deck, but now it's even better!"

Ruri smiled at them all. "Each of you have been given gifts from the Earthbound. There should be at least one special card in each of your decks.

Elizavata skimmed through her deck. "Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird." She murmured, looking at a card that looked vaguely like an Xyz Card, but had blue stars on the right side and was labeled with the words, "Dark Synchro," over its card text.

"I have one too…" said Pyotr, holding up his own card, "…Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi."

Each of the officers pulled out their own cards and began comparing them with each other's.

Ruri nodded her head. "These decks have been given to you in order for you to carry out your divine mission. And yes… that mission is indeed divine. You no longer serve a mortal man, and you most certainly do not serve a mortal fourteen-year-old girl. You and I both serve mighty gods who wish to build a better universe. Together, we will accomplish this task!"

"What are your orders… Kurosaki-Sama?" Officer Guevara asked.

Ruri smiled warmly at him. "Please… there's no real need for that. You are all my friends, and my friends can call me Ruri as far as I'm concerned. But yes, I do have orders for you." She walked down the line of disciples, looking each one in the face as she spoke. "Roger will no doubt be coming to check on you all. He doesn't know that you have been freed and I intend to keep it that way. I need you all on the inside of his regime so that when the revolution begins, we will not be fighting to break through Roger's outer defenses."

"That sounds smart." Mita agreed. "With us on the inside, we'll be able to give you information and sabotage any of Roger's plans should the need arise."

Ruri nodded her head. "Each of you are mentally connected with me. I can see through your eyes and hear through your ears. In addition, if any of you have the need to communicate with me, you can mentally speak to me and I will hear you."

" _IS IT WORKING!?_ " Garret mentally shouted at Ruri, causing Ruri to flinch.

"Yes…" Ruri muttered, "…just… turn down the volume a bit."

"Sorry." Garrett mumbled.

"So what do you want us to do?" Elizaveta asked, "Act like brain controlled zombies the whole time until given further orders?"

Ruri chuckled. "In a way… yes. I do need you all to maintain your cover. Unfortunately, it will mean following every one of Roger's orders implicitly. Should a concern arise, feel free to contact me, but don't disobey any order of Roger unless I tell you. By tonight, once my plans are complete, Roger will see just how little control he truly has over this city."

"So what are your plans?" Elizaveta asked. "How do you plan on overthrowing Roger?"

Ruri examined her bracelet. "There is only one piece left." She thought to herself before turning to Elizaveta.

"There are two others like me who will be working alongside us. When all is said and done, I intend to recruit one more. With our combined power, we will be able to become an overwhelming force capable of sweeping Roger off his throne with ease."

Pyotr shrugged his shoulders. "Well… I can't say I understand it. But then again… I'm not really understanding anything that's been going on today. If you say you're going to walk on water before striking Roger with a thunderbolt, I think I'd believe you at this point."

"Don't tempt me." Ruri grinned before letting out a sigh. "And now comes the somewhat unpleasant part. I need this to be realistic, so… if you all could put your helmets back on… I'm afraid I'll have to knock you all out for a little bit. Long enough to be believable."

"Knock us out?" Garret asked, looking nervous.

"It will be painless." Ruri assured her disciples. "I guess the easiest way to explain it is… I'll be using magic."

"Works for me." Garrett shrugged before everyone else began putting on their helmets and walking back to where they had been knocked out. Laying down, each disciple tried to mimic the position he/she had been in when they were knocked out.

"Sleep." Ruri commanded, extending her hand towards the former Arrest Corps operatives. Instantly, all three-hundred and one officers collapsed to the ground, a couple of them snoring loudly.

Ruri smiled when they had all fallen asleep. Turning transparent, she unfurled her wings and leaped out the hole in the building.

"I hope I'm not too late." She muttered to herself as she sped towards the Duel Palace Stadium. "I was actually interested in seeing some of the duels today."

…

Roger slowly picked himself off the ground and rubbed his sore head. A couple medical officers were rushing towards him, but he angrily pushed them aside and marched strait to the main control room where a large group of surveillance officers were monitoring the city and the current duel featuring the Lancer, Yuya, and his opponent, Shinji Weber. Normally, Roger would have been intrigued by the performance of the Lancer, but right now the duel was irrelevant to him. Taking his seat next to a chess board, he punched a few buttons on a computer and began broadcasting a message throughout Security's Headquarters.

"In light of recent events regarding the security of this city, it is with solemn regret that I must initiate directive, Alekhine's Gun. This city is now under Martial Law. All male citizens of the city age eighteen and older are now required by law to work a minimum of eight volunteer hours per day as Public Security Officers. All female citizens age nineteen and older are required to work a minimum of four hours as volunteer surveillance officers. All citizens currently laboring in the underground waste processing facilities are to immediately cease all activity and assist in safeguarding the city. All citizens are required by law to report any strange activity directly to Security. All citizens are to immediately report to the Bureau of Public Security should they encounter any one of these individuals!" A holographic image of the Dark Signers, Ruri, Rin, and Yuzu appeared in multiple areas around the building. "Resistance to this directive will not be tolerated! Any found in non-compliance with the law will be subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment without a trial! Any attempts to uphold the security of this fair city will not go unrewarded. Any attempts to subvert the security of the state will not go unpunished! All Security Officers are to ensure that these directives are carried out immediately!"

Roger slammed his finger against a button when he was finished. Wiping some sweat from his brow, he examined his chess board.

"You're an aggressive piece, little queen. But I have far more pawns to spare!"

SPECIAL OFFER 1: ACCEPT THE CALLING

 **Citizens of the Synchro Dimension! The regime of Jean-Michell Roger is crumbling! Who will stand with the forces of the Dark Signers as they seek to liberate us from his tyranny!? The time to rise up in rebellion is now! Pledge your allegiance to the Dark Signers now, and join us in building a paradise upon this world!**

 **The Dark Signer's forces are growing, and now you, my dear readers, have the opportunity to take part in the Dark Signer's glorious crusade. I have already created the outline for the story, but there are many segments of the outline which say things like, "The Lancers duel these minions." I don't know about you, but frankly, I find faceless minions to be rather boring antagonists. That's where you come in! During the course of my writing, I will be accepting original characters and decks submitted by you, the readers! A special shout-out needs to go to ghost83 who submitted his own original character and LOTS of cards long before this offer was extended. Here's how this will work. Simply PM a message containing information on an original character of your design, one or more of your own fan-cards, or both! I will go through these cards and characters, and in a future chapter, you could see your own character and/or card(s) appearing in "Signs of Renewal." Currently, I am mainly accepting character designs for Earthbound Disciples (the servants of the Dark Signers) or members of Roger's Security regime, but you are free to submit other ideas. I have already figured out everyone who is going to be a Signer and Dark Signer, in addition to their ace monsters and all the Earthbound God Cards. If you want, you can still submit to me ideas for Signers, Dark Signers, or their Ace Monsters, but I will not be incorporating those cards into the plot. However, in special sections of my story, I will be featuring all fan contributions whether or not they made it into the plot of the final story. Credit will be given to the creators of characters and cards in the Featured Fanfic Card section of each chapter in addition to the fan-contribution sections. When submitting a character and/or cards, please follow this format:**

 **1\. Include some info on the character. (Name, physical description, personality, Alliegance (Dark Signers, Roger, Academia, other), History, and relationships.)**

 **2\. When submitting the fanfic monsters, please follow this format:**

 **Card Name/ ATTRIBUTE/ Level or Rank/ Monster Type/ Card Type (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, etc./ Other information (tuner, Gemini, union, etc.) ATK/ DEF/ Effect Description/ (Optional physical description of the monster, i.e. what does the monster look like when it is summoned?).**

 **3\. For Spell/Trap Cards, Please follow the format:**

 **Card Name/ Spell/Trap Type/ Effect description. / (Optional: What does the card look like and what does it do when it is activated?)**

 **There is no limit to how many ideas you can submit, and no time limit (other than the end of the story). I look forward to seeing your ideas and promise to give you full credit for your creations even if I make some slight modifications in the final version. Thank you all for your continued support. If you have any questions, please PM me, and please DO NOT post any submissions in the review section. Until next chapter (which is coming VERY soon), this is Donjusticia signing out. God bless you everyone!**

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Arrest Corps Monsters

Goyo Regent/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1600/ (This card is always treated as a Synchro Monster). If you control a "Jutte" or "Goyo" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).

Jutte Lady/ EATH/ Level 3/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 1800/ If a face-up "Goyo" monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can discard this card at the start of the Damage-Step: Increase the ATK of that "Goyo" monster by 1000 for each "Goyo" monster you control until the end of the Battle-Phase.

Arrest Corps Spell/Trap Cards

Goyo Sasumata/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster you control. The Equipped monster can attack your opponent's LP directly.

Trivia: Like the jutte, the sasumata was a special weapon used by imperial Japanese police during the Edo period. Its unique U-shaped end was exceedingly useful for grabbing the limbs of opponents and suppressing them from a distance.

Goyo Checkpoint/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, your opponent must pay 1000 LP to declare an attack.

Goyo Sodegarami/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster. If it attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage-Step. Once per turn, if the equipped monster attacked an opponent's monster, you can banish 1 "Goyo" monster on your side of the field or graveyard: The equipped monster can attack once again in a row.

Trivia: Together with the Sasumata and Tsukubo, the Sodegarami was issued to Edo Period police as one of the three tools for arresting. Its hooked ends were designed to grasp the clothing of suspected criminals and suppress them in a non-lethal manner.

Pyotr Ivanov's Extra Deck

Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi / _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_.

Elizaveta Ivanov's Extra Deck

Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird / _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_.

Ruri's Monsters

Salvation Seraphim Disciple/ DARK/ Level 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 100/ _Effects unrevealed_.

Salvation Seraphim Priestess/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster to your hand and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Healer/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 1000/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Healer" once per turn with this effect). Once per turn, you can send the top card of your deck to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" monster from your graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Martyr/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 300/ DEF 1800/ If this card is sent to the graveyard by battle or a card effect, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Martyr(s)" once per turn with this effect. An Xyz Monster that was Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is Xyz Summoned, you can target 1 card in either player's graveyard: Attach that target to that monster as an Xyz Material.

Salvation Seraphim Angel/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ You can send this card from your hand or side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can declare a Level from 1 to 6: The Levels of all face-up "Salvation Seraphim" monsters you control become the declared Level until the End-Phase.

Salvation Seraphim Oracle/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ ATK 0/ DEF 2500/ You can discard this card and 1 other card from your hand: Arrange the top 6 cards of your deck in any order desired. If there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Normal Summon this card without tributing. Once per turn, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Special Summon 1 excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Archon/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ If you Xyz Summon a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster while this card is in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Monster from your hand or graveyard. A Winged Beast Type Xyz Monster Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is Xyz Summoned, attach up to 2 cards from your Extra Deck to that card as Xyz Material.

Salvation Seraphim Hierophant/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2900/ Once per turn, if you would Xyz Summon a "Salvation Seraphim" Monster, you can also use cards from your hand or graveyard as Xyz Material. A Winged Beast Type Xyz Monster Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is Xyz Summoned, you can add 1 "Rank-up" card from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Salvation Seraphim Prophetess/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Winged Beast/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2800/ If you would take damage while this card is in your hand and you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, that damage becomes 0. You take no damage while you have no monsters in your graveyard. You can banish this card until the End-Phase of this turn: Until the end of this turn, the Special Summon of "Salvation Seraphim" monsters and the activation of their effects cannot be negated. (This is a quick effect).

Fallen Angelic Guide/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Fairy/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 Field Spell Card from your deck or graveyard to your hand. If you control a face-up field Spell Card, you can Special Summon this card from the graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Fallen Angelic Guide" once per turn). You can reveal 1 monster in your hand: Shuffle that card into the deck, and if you do, the Levels of all monsters you control become the Level of that monster X -1.

Fallen Ardent Missionary/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If you Xyz Summon a monster using a "Rank-Up" card, you can banish that card from the graveyard: Special Summon this card from your hand or graveyard, and if you do, you can set 1 "Earthbound" Spell/Trap Card from your deck. Once per turn, you can banish this card: Each Xyz Monster you control is immediately used as a Dark Xyz Material for the Dark Xyz Summon of a Dark Xyz Monster whose Rank is equal to the Rank of the Xyz Monster being used as a Material X -1. (Xyz Materials attached to each monster become Dark Xyz Materials on each respective monster Dark Xyz Summoned with this effect).

Earthbound God (Jibakushin) Jatun Waqar / _Stats unrevealed._ / _Effects unrevealed_

Trivia: Jatun Waqar is the Quechua word for "Heron."

Ruri's Extra Deck

Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor/ LIGHT/ Rank 1/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 300/ 2 or more (Max. 5) Level 1 monsters

You can also Xyz Summon this card using 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as the Xyz Material. Xyz Materials attached to that card also become Xyz Materials on this card. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as an Xyz Material. If your opponent would Special Summon a monster(s) while you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can banish 3 Xyz Materials attached to this card: Negate the Special Summon of that monster(s), and if you do, destroy it.

Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 3 Monsters

Cannot be destroyed by battle while you have no monsters in your Graveyard. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add all excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monsters to your hand and return all other cards excavated by this effect to the top of the deck in any order.

Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 2800/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 700/ 2 or more (Max. 5) Level 3 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to itself. Once per turn, if you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can detach any number of Xzy materials from this card: Inflict 100 damage to your opponent's LP for each card detached for this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2100/ _Effects unrevealed._

Salvation Seraphim Glorious Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 8/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2800/ 3 or more (Max. 5) Level 8 monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as Xyz Material. While you have no monsters in your graveyard, this card is unaffected by your opponent's card effects.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Ophanim/ LIGHT/ Rank -3/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 2400/ 2 Level -3 monsters

If your opponent activates a monster effect or declares an attack while you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can banish 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card: Negate the activation of that effect or attack, and if you do, your opponent cannot declare an attack until the end of this turn.

Trivia: "Ophanim" refers to the wheels seen on the chariot by Ezekiel. According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Ophanim are an actual race of angels, who, with the Seraphim and Cherubim, keep an eternal watch over the throne of God. The monster's wheel design for this story was inspired in part by the witch, Walpurgisnacht, from the anime, _Madoka Magica_.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim/ LIGHT/ Rank -6/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2600/ 2 Level -6 monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can attach cards from the top of either player's deck, either player's graveyard, or that are currently banished to an Xyz or Dark Xyz monster on the field (except "Earthbound Disciple Geo Nephilim" as Xyz or Dark Xyz Materials, up to the number of Dark Xyz Materials attached to this card.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Cherubim/ LIGHT/ Rank -8/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ 3 Level -8 monsters

This card's original ATK and DEF are each equal to the number of Dark Xyz Materials attached to this card X 1000. You can banish 1 Dark Xyz Material attached to this card and 1 card on the field or in either player's graveyard: Halve your opponent's LP.

Ruri's Spells

Sanctified Realm/ Spell/ Field/ This card's effects are not applied to players who do not control a monster(s) that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck or who have a monster(s) in their respective graveyard. Player's take no damage. Each card a player controls cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn. Once per turn, the turn player can add 1 Spell/Trap Card from his/her deck to their respective hand, but that card cannot be set or activated the turn this effect was activated.

Rank-Up-Magic Seraphim Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is 1 or 2 Ranks higher than that target's Rank by using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster).

Earthbound Fury/ Spell/ Normal/ Target 1 "Earthbound" Monster you control: That target can make 1 attack during each Battle-Phase of this turn for each monster your opponent controlled at the tie of this card's activation, but other monsters you control cannot attack this turn. During the turn this effect was activated, any battle damage your opponent takes that is greater than 100 becomes 100, unless you control a face-up "Earthbound God" Card.

Ruri's Traps

Earthbound Pledge of Devotion/ Trap/ Continuous/ You cannot activate this card unless the only monsters you control are "Earthbound" monsters. You cannot Summon Monsters. "Earthbound" Cards you control cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects or be destroyed by battle. During the End-Phase of each player's turn, pay half your LP, and if you do, you take 500 damage. If you do not control a face-up "Earthbound" Monster, destroy this card.


	8. Part 1: Chapter 8

Part 1: Chapter 8 – The Return

Yuzu could see the Duel Palace in the distance as she lept from rooftop to rooftop. All around her, citizens were watching the Duel occurring with such interest that nobody took notice of her as she flew over their heads with a series of rapid leaps and bounds. As for Yuzu, only one thing concerned her as she spotted where Yuya and Shinji were dueling. She could see that Yuya was fighting hard against Shinji, but he looked unfocused and depressed, and Yuzu was certain she knew why. She had to reach him. She had to show him she was okay.

She landed on top of a glass skyscraper before pausing when she saw her reflection in the roof. Looking down at herself, she suddenly realized that Yuya might not recognize her if she was wearing her current outfit. She tried to decide if she should change, or just keep heading to the trackway and hope Yuya recognized her face.

" _Needing my help?_ " a girlish voice giggled in Yuzu's head.

Yuzu flinched as the laughter of the foreign voice filled her head. " _I'm okay._ " she mentally replied, " _I just need to help Yuya now._ "

Yuzu heard another round of giggling as the voice of her inner spirit filled her head. " _You know…_ " the spirit mused, " _I didn't much appreciate being stuffed in your pocket during that duel, but I've got to say… I absolutely LOVED your entertainment style! You were just so… ADORABLE! Oh, it just makes me want to wrap myself around you and squeeze you like a little doll!_ "

"Uhm… thanks?" Yuzu replied in her speaking voice, not sure if she liked the compliment. Still, this was the spirit that had brought her back from the dead. Maybe she should try harder to be friendly with it.

"Uhm…" she paused, trying to think of what to say, "I'm glad you enjoyed the duel, and I am sorry for… uhm… putting you in my pocket… uhm… Ti'ika Sara?" she paused after realizing she was talking to a trading card.

" _Oh don't worry about it!_ " Ti'ika Sara giggled. " _I mean… after all… I wasn't REALLY in your pocket._ " Yuzu felt her marks wriggle against her skin as something seemed to squirm inside her body as if she'd swallowed a bundle of giant, twisted snakes. Yuzu shivered with the sensation, before Ti'ika Sara resumed speaking. " _You know…I was just thinking… if you really want a fashion change right now, I'd LOVE to play dress-up with you!_ "

"Dress up?" Yuzu asked, pulling out the Ti'ika Sara card.

" _Oh yes!_ " Ti'ika Sara giggled as the card shone with a dim red light, " _I heard your thoughts after all. I know you don't want to scare your widdle Yuya Wuya._ "

"What?" Yuzu asked, wondering where Ti'ika Sara had come up with the nickname.

" _You know…_ " Ti'ika Sara teased with a little "tee-hee-hee," " _…Yuya Wuya, your widdle pet name for your boyfriend!_ "

"He's not my…" Yuzu protested before Ti'ika Sara interrupted her.

" _Oh don't worry Yuzu!_ " Ti'ika Sara reassured the bracelet girl, " _I'll keep your secret safe._ " She began giggling like a hyperactive four-year-old.

Yuzu stared back at the card, trying to remember what Ruri had told her about it. From Ruri's tone, she had acted like her Earthbound God card was something to be reverenced. But so far, Ti'ika Sara was sounding less like a wise and powerful spirit and more like an annoying little sister.

"Who are you?" Yuzu asked, examining the card as if it was a strange new species of animal.

The giggling stopped and Yuzu felt as if the spirit were staring at her. " _I already told you, Yuzu._ " Ti'ika Sara replied in a more controlled and mature voice. " _I am a part of you, your ally, companion, and soul. I share your desire to stop this ridiculous human war, bring peace to the dimensions, and reunite you with your friends… especially Yuya._ "

"Why are you so interested in Yuya?" Yuzu questioned. "For that matter… why are you so interested in me?"

" _I have been watching you for a while now, Yuzu._ " Ti'ika Sara replied. " _I watched as you were brutally murdered by that idiot, Sergey, and felt your despair and sorrow when you suffered in the Underworld. I chose you when you accepted the call to be a Dark Signer and began sharing in your thoughts, emotions, and desires when we became bound as one. I felt your rage when you were assaulted by those Security oafs, and was deeply impressed when you decided to spare them, despite your anger. I felt tremendous amusement from watching you display the power of your ideals, and have grown to appreciate your spirit. You are lighthearted and gentle, yet serious and fiery when you want to be. A lot like me to be honest, though while you are a mortal human, I am an immortal spirit creature. And yet… despite this little difference, we really aren't too different. I, like you, want peace. I, like you, want joy in life. I, like you, have people I like, and people I could care less about. We both have opinions, beliefs, desires, and tastes. Together, we are the Dark Signer, a more perfect creature who holds all the strengths of human and spirit without all the nasty little imperfections of either. You benefit from the ability to share in my power, and I…_ " she giggled before changing back to her more youthful, hyperactive voice, " _…I get someone I can call Onee-Chan! So that's why I'm interested in you and Yuya. Because I'm your friend! I LOVE YOU!_ "

Yuzu blinked as Ti'ika Sara's giggling filled her head again. "You've been watching me? Why?"

" _You're special, Yuzu!_ " Ti'ika Sara giggled, " _My special little Onee-Chan!_ "

"Okay look…" Yuzu sighed, feeling more uneasy from Ti'ika Sara's adoration than flattered, "…I appreciate what you've done for me… raising me from the dead and all… but I don't… I don't really know you. Frankly, I don't think you really know me either! I appreciate the fact that you want to be friends, but… but I don't really feel comfortable with you calling me Onee-Chan. I still don't even understand all the details about this whole Dark Signer bond I've made with you, much less anything about who you are. So just… just hold off on all that… ok? Until I know you a bit better, let's just… let's agree to call each other… partner, ok? Partner?"

Ti'ika Sara seemed to be thinking. " _Mmmm… okay… partner._ " she called back in a more serious tone before letting out a little giggle and reverting back to her more girly voice. " _So anyway… Yuzu-partner, before I got distracted, I think I wanted to show you how to change your appearance._ "

"That could actually help me right now." Yuzu admitted, looking down at her clothing. "Just so long as whatever you're suggesting doesn't involve anything weird." she hastily added.

" _That depends on what your definition of 'weird' is._ " Ti'ika Sara smugly replied. " _Believe me Yuzu…_ " her voice switched back to being more mature and serious, " _…what you mortals call miracles is nothing more than a Tuesday evening for me. So why don't I help you out a little? Then you can have your sweet little reunion with your friend._ "

Yuzu looked back over at the trackway where Yuya was dueling against his opponent. "Okay…" she sighed, "…just tell me what to do."

" _Focus on your mark._ " Ti'ika Sara advised, " _Feel your veins suck up the energy like roots sucking up water from the ground. Feel those veins carry that energy throughout your body until it weaves into your entire being. Then… focus on what you desire your appearance to be in your mind, and it will be so._ "

"That simple?" Yuzu asked, looking down at her glowing flower mark.

Ti'ika Sara seemed to smile. " _You can take my word for it… partner._ "

Yuzu put the card back into her deck and began doing as Ti'ika Sara had instructed. Closing her eyes and clearing her mind, she began focusing on the mark on her right arm. Just as Ti'ika Sara had instructed, she focused until she felt tremendous energy course through her mark, down her veins, and into her heart before exploding outwards and weaving into her entire body. As she pictured herself in Rin's riding outfit that Yugo had given her, she felt her clothing warp against her skin. Opening her eyes, she saw that her Dark Signer outfit was gone and replaced with the exact same clothing she had worn before being resurrected. Her physical appearance had also changed. Her eyes were now their regular color and the marks on her skin had vanished away as if nothing had happened.

"Thank you… Ti'ika Sara." She murmured, appreciating the help.

" _Can I call you Onee-Chan now?_ " Ti'ika Sara probed.

"Well see." Yuzu replied, before leaping off the building and sprinting towards the duel at top speed.

…

"Now it begins!" Shinji roared, after his Synchro Monster, Azusa the Spirt Bow, successfully destroyed Yuya's Salutiger.

"What am I doing?" Yuya thought to himself, only half-focused on the duel. "I can't save Yuzu like this!" The words Shinji had spoken to him before the duel flashed through his mind.

" _Once someone loses, it's over._ "

So nobody even cares if Yuzu is hurt!?

" _You could Say Hiragi Yuzu has become another sacrifice for this world._ _It's time for the commons to rise up against the tops so incidents like that don't happen again. You will be my stepping stone to accomplish that!_ "

So what then!? Was Yuzu just supposed to be a martyr for the common's riot!? How would Shinji's rebellion even be worth anything if Yuzu was left suffering, badly injured, and possibly dying, just so the commons could vent their hatred against the Tops!? Yuya couldn't accept any of it. He'd tried to end the duel as quickly as possible, but Shinji's Bee Force Nest had stopped him. Yuya had no idea what to do! He knew he had to save Yuzu… she needed help! But how was he supposed to help her if he lost now!? Was his only choice to forget about her and focus all his attention on the duel!? He couldn't do that even if he wanted to!

Yuya snapped out of his thoughts when he suddenly noticed Shinji holding up a card.

"By sending Dart the Pursuit from my hand to my graveyard, I can deal the attack of a monster destroyed by battle as damage!" he explained.

"What!?" Yuya exclaimed, brain scrambling to think of a response.

"And with Azusa the Spirit Bow's effect, that damage is doubled!" Shinji roared.

"The attack of Salutiger was 1700!" Yuya exclaimed.

"And twice that, with 3400 damage, this will be over!" Shinji agreed, preparing to throw his card into the graveyard.

"No!" Yuya thought, desperately skimming through the cards on his field and in his hand for a counter. When he found nothing, he began searching the track for Action Cards, but none were in sight. "It can't end like this!" he protested. If the duel ended now, he'd be shuttled off to the underground and Yuzu would be left where she was, discarded like a used up playing piece.

Then, Yuya saw something from the corner of his eye.

"It can't be!" Yuya exclaimed, as he suddenly spied a figure standing on top of a building. A sudden turn in the trackway caused Yuya to lose sight of the figure, but not before noticing that the clothes she was wearing where white and pink.

"What?" Yuya blinked, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him.

"YUUUUUUUUYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He heard someone call.

Whipping his head to the side, he saw her, leaping onto the next building with unbelievable speed.

"Yuzu!?" Yuya gasped, unable to believe his eyes, "YUUUUUUUUUUUUZUUUUUUUUUU!" He bellowed, half from shock and half from blissful relief.

He saw Yuzu's eyes tear up as she kept pace with his duel runner, smiling as she did. There was no question about it! It was her! She was okay! Yuya saw Yuzu briefly glance at his opponent, Shinji, before looking back at Yuya and nodding her head.

Yuya quickly reigned in his emotions and nodded back at her. "I understand!" he agreed. "Watch me Yuzu! I'm not going to lose this duel! I'm keeping the promise I made to you!"

"This is the end!" Shinji declared, tossing his card into the graveyard. "I send Bee Force – Dart the Pursuit to my graveyard and activate its effect!"

An aggressive hornet, with a massive stinger on its abdomen and face, appeared above Shinji's D-Wheeler before quickly spinning around and zipping towards Yuya.

"I'm not giving up on you, or this duel!" Yuya promised, accelerating his bike. Without a second of hesitation, he raced forward and used his momentum to launch himself off a ramp on the edge of the trackway, flip his bike upside-down mid-air, and make a grab for an Action Card suspended in the air. Just as he grabbed the Action Card and landed back on his bike, Dart the Pursuit, swung around and slammed itself into Yuya, leaving behind an intense explosion.

On the other side of the trackway, Yuzu gasped in shock, hoping that Yuya hadn't lost.

" _Oh get a grip._ " Yuzu heard Ti'ika Sara yawn. " _He's fine._ "

Sure enough, just as Ti'ika Sara finished her sentence, Yuya blasted out of the smoke, catching up to Shinji as he accelerated his D-Wheeler.

"Due to the effect of the Action Magic, Acceleration, the effect damage is negated!" Yuya proclaimed with a determined expression on his face.

"What!?" Shinji gasped, staring back at his opponent. Only a few seconds ago, Yuya had looked desperate, distracted, and scared. Now he looked determined, driven, and utterly focused on the duel. Shinji began wondering if Yuya's attitude at the beginning had all been a front just to put him off guard. Unfortunately, there was nothing more he could do for his turn.

"So… you were saved by an Action Card." Shinji growled, deciding not to read too much into Yuya's sudden change of attitude. He had just gotten lucky and was now feeling the effects of that sudden artificial confidence boost. "It won't happen again! I will defeat you and start a revolution! I end my turn!"

"Watch this, Yuzu!" Yuya thought, preparing to begin his turn. "Just like how you pushed forward with your own dueling and tried to tell them about the Inter-Dimensional War, I'll win the Friendship Cup with my dueling and then, make everyone in this city smile!" He focused in on Shinji who was still ahead of him, keeping his eyes off of Yuzu who was still following next to him. It didn't matter if he looked at her or not. All that mattered was that she was there, and she was safe! Feeling the stress drain from his body as he was able to focus more of his energy on the duel and less on worrying about his friend, he let a smile come over his face. "I'll end the Inter-Dimensional War and we'll all go home together, where the principle, Futoshi, Ayu, Tatsuya, my Mom, and everyone else are waiting!"

Swinging his arm through the air with dramatic flair, Yuya ripped a card from his deck.

"ORE NO TURN!" Yuya roared. He glanced at the card he drew and raised his hand to the air.

"With the already set Pendulum Scale I Pendulum Summon!"

A multitude of giant versions of Yuya's pendant circled through the sky as a pink portal appeared in the air beneath them. In the center, a streak of orange light streamed through the center of the portal before slamming onto the ground and revealing Yuya's new monster.

"Come forth!" Yuya declared, "Timesword Magician!"

Rising from the ground, a young warrior with brown hair, green eyes, a golden headband, a large brown cloak with a yellow belt over the right shoulder, and a massive sword with hooked ends at the end of the blade, raced next to Yuya's Entermate Silver Claw while letting out a brief battle cry.

"And here Yuya goes with a Pendulum Summon!" Mellissa Clair cheered from overhead, watching the duel while riding on her helicopter. "But… he only summoned one monster!"

"I activate Timesword Magician's monster effect!" Yuya proclaimed, "When this card alone is Pendulum Summoned from my hand, its attack is doubled!"

A trio of ethereal clocks appeared around Timesword Magician's blade in a series of concentric rings as the warrior's ATK rose from 1400 to 2800.

"An attack of twenty-eight hundred!" Shinji gasped.

Yuya didn't give Shinji any time to process what just happened. Extending his hand outwards he proceeded with his turn by declaring, "I attack Azusa the Spirit Bow with Timesword Magician!"

The diminuitive Timesword Magician raised his sword to the air before aggressively slamming it against the ground and sending out a violent shockwave towards Shinji's monster, dusting the humanoid bee archer. Shinji let out a grunt as his Life Points were reduced to 3400. Before Shinji had any time to recover, Yuya had already begun his next move.

"Next, I attack Pin the Hit with Silver Claw!" Yuya's wolf rushed forward at his command, extending his claws as he gained on Pin the Hit.

"At attack declaration," Yuya declared, "Silver Claw's effect increases its attack by 300 for the rest of the Battle-Phase!" As Silver Claw sprinted towards Shinji's monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed its ATK rise to 2100.

"I activate Bee Force Nest's effect." Shinji countered, looking somewhat irritated. "When Pin the Hit is targeted by an attack, I Special Summon another from my deck and end the Battle-Phase!" A diminuitive bee with a stinger on its nose and an abdomen that looked like a miniature rocket booster appeared to Shinji's field. Silver Claw growled as the effect of Shinji's Trap Card blew it back and reduced its ATK to its original 1800.

"Shinji has held off the second attack!" Mellissa Clair commented, sounding even more excited as both duelists were now fired up.

"But…" Yuya countered, "…with its effect being used twice, Bee Force Nest is destroyed." Shinji's Trap briefly appeared before getting blown into dust. "Now you can't forcefully end the Battle Phase any more!" Yuya roared, the serious expression on his face deepening as his desire to reunite with Yuzu grew. "Turn end! The real fight starts now!

Yuzu nodded her head as she watched Yuya duel. There was no doubt in her mind now. Nothing could stop him from winning.

Shinji seemed to disagree.

"Even if you get serious now, you're too late!" Shinji snarled, raising his voice as he began another speech to the commons, "I'm not alone! Tens of thousands of Common's wills are with me! The revolution is already starting! No one can stop it anymore!"

All around the stands, hundreds of Commons began standing up, matching Shinji's determined expression as they did.

"ORE NO TURN!" Shinji roared, ripping a card from the top of his deck.

"I WON'T LOSE!" Yuya countered, slamming on the accelerator, "I PROMISED I WOULD WIN WITH MY DUELING!" Nearly slicing against Shinji's bike as he gained momentum, he increased speed until he flew by Shinji's bike, taking the lead.

Shinji, however, looked unperturbed by Yuya's action.

"I activate the magic card," he declared, "Bee Jewel of Rebirth!" As a holographic image of his Spell Card appeared to the field, a dark cloud of bees rose from the ground before coalescing into a solid cluster of bees above Shinji's head.

"I negate the effect of one Bee Force monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it!" Shinji explained.

Brushing aside the swarm of bees, Azusa the Spirit Bow suddenly appeared to Shinji's field once more.

"Now rise up commons!" Shinji ordered, "It's time for our strength to come together as one! Bring forth a revolution! Drag down those Tops and give them a taste of our suffering!"

All across the city, Commons watching the duel began cheering at Shinji's speech, raising their fists into the air and chanting his name. Mellissa Clair looked very displeased as she watched the crowd get thrown into a frenzy.

"I said no provoking the audience!" she snapped, "Didn't I!?"

From the main control room, Roger briefly glanced at a few screens displaying crowds of Commons becoming a little unruly. "It doesn't really matter." He thought to himself. "The commons won't rise up. They've been oppressed by the Tops precisely because they're all bark and no bite. It's enough for them to vent their frustration at the Tops with a few angry screams and speeches. Shinji was a little full of himself. He could do nothing to truly change society. However… if a stronger leader showed up… then there could be problems."

"Chief!" One of the surveillance officers called, "Shinji's really riling up the crowds. Should we do anything about it?"

"I'm already taking care of it." Roger replied with a bored expression on his face, as he pressed a button on his desk and began speaking with a squadron of Security officers. "Arrest all Commons gathered along the trackway and recruit them into Security Service as per directive, Alekhine's Gun." He ordered. "Hold off on the Commons gathered in the stadium and send word to Melissa Clair and all other news agencies to hold off on any reports regarding Security activities. The last thing I need right now is for them to riot out of desperation." He pushed another button on his desk and contacted his Bio-Cybernetics Therapist. "How is production on the chips coming along?" he asked, lowering his voice.

"I've set the machines to overdrive." The Therapist stammered, nervously tugging at one of his side burns. "We're boxing thousands as we speak. However, I must warn you, it takes a long time to safely inegrate the chip into someone's brain. Even with all these chips, there's no way I can get them all installed for you and complete Sergey in one day."

"No need to worry." Roger replied. "My engineering teams have already developed a simple hand-held weapon capable of shooting the chip through someone's skull with a push of a trigger. All they have to do is get up close to apply the nozzle to someone's forehead."

The therapist's eyes widened at this. "But… that could… that could permanently damage their brains if the chip isn't implanted without the proper surgery!"

"What is that to you?" Roger asked, eyeing the engineer with a hostile expression on his face. "We can worry about damaged brains later. All I need from you is the amuninution. Fortunately, if your reports are accurate, it sounds like you are doing a beautiful job. Now… how is Sergey doing?"

"All is on schedule." The therapist hastily reported, flipping through some charts. "I have integrated the weaponry and armaments into Sergey's biology and have began work on an exterior bio-suit. Assuming all goes well, he should be able to withstand a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade without a single scratch on his armor. I just need to install an appropriate power source."

"Draw energy from Sergey's ace monster." Roger instructed.

The therapist went pale, hands quivering as he struggled to hold up his charts.

"Work with the engineer." Roger coldly replied. "You are on a tight schedule. I would hate to see you fall behind."

"Y-yes sir." The therapist whimpered, as Roger closed the screen.

"CHIEF!" One of the Surviellance officers shrieked.

"What!?" Roger snapped, staring down at the woman who had clamped her hands over her mouth in shock.

"It's Hiragi Yuzu!" the girl hastily reported, displaying a large holographic screen of the camera feed she was watching to the whole room. "One of the one's you told us to watch for! I don't believe this! I thought she'd just crashed!"

"WHAT!" Roger roared, leaping from his chair and sweeping through the camera feed with his eyes. Sure enough, there was Yuzu. Her marks had dissappered, but Roger still recognized the signs of her status as a Dark Signer as she effortlessly leaped across buildings and kept pace with the duelists while watching them duel.

Roger took a deep breath before continuing. "Proceed with the plan." He ordered. "Have a squadron of Security Officers tail Hiragi Yuzu without being seen and have them stand by for my orders."

"Yes chief!" the girl replied, hastily complying with Roger's orders.

"She's not like Ruri." Roger thought to himself, nervously picking up a black pawn and twirling it in his hand. "If I play this right, we should be able to take care of her… quietly." He looked back at the duel. "Yes… quietly." He thought to himself. "Let the populace enjoy their entertainment while I take care of security matters."

And indeed, the population did seem to be enjoying the duel. The audience was on the edge of their seats as they anticipated the next move.

"Shinji…" said Yuya, trying to reason with his opponent as he continued to call for rebellion, "…I understand your pain, but all this hatred won't change anything! I want to change this society by making people smile thorugh my dueling…"

"Smile!?" Shinji sneered, interrupting Yuya mid-sentence. "We'll smile when we drag those Tops down from their cushy penthouses! That's why we need a revolution!" he extended his hand forward. "I activate Pin the Hit's effect! Once per turn I can inflict two-hundred points of damage!" his three Pin the Hits swarmed forward before the stingers on their faces began glowing. "I have three Pin the Hits, for a sum of six-hundred damage!"

Each bee shot a lance of energy at Yuya's bike, knocking him about as his Life Points dropped to 1900.

"Shinji's effect damage hits the mark!" Melissa cheered, "It's now 1900 verses 3400 Life Points!"

The crowd roared their approval and screamed Shinji's name as their hero tightened his lead.

Yuya looked back at Shinji. "You plan on reducing my Life Points with effect damage before attacking Silver Claw with Azusa the Spirit Bow?"

Shinji smirked back at Yuya. "How naïve. Did you think that I'd summon Azusa the Spirit Bow with its effect negated just for that?" He leaned forward on his bike. "I tune the three Level one Pin the Hits to the Level five Azusa the Spirt Bow!"

"That Synchro Monster is a Tuner as well!?" Yuya gasped.

Shinji's three Pin the Hits rushed forward and formed a single file line before Azusa zoomed ahead of them, disappearing into a stream of five stars that each morphed into a green ring of light. Rushing forward, the three Pin the Hits flew into the center of the five concentric rings, turning transparent and revealing a single glowing white sphere within each of their bodies as Shinji began his summoning chant:

"Power in concert, bear the flames of grudge and release the arrow of revolt! Synchro Shokan! Level 8! Bee Force – Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow!"

In a flash of white light, Shinji's new Synchro Monster appeared to the field, compound eyes glowing with red light. The new monster was humanoid like Azusa the Spirit Bow, with two arms, two legs, and thick green and orange battle armor. However, just like Shinji's previous Synchro monster, Hama possessed several apian traits with a pair of antenne, compound eyes, an insectile mouth, and two pairs of bee wings. In his right hand, he carried a massive compound bow that glowed with green light. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2800.

"Twenty-eight Hundred attack?" Yuya exclaimed.

"Shinji Weber Synchro Summons again!" Mellissa declared, she was about to continue her commentary when she noticed something happening on the ground beneath the chopper. Several Security Vans had pulled up near the track near to where a group of Commons were watching the duel, throwing some empty bottles at the screen while shouting "Down with the Tops!" Swiftly, the vans each deployed a large revolving turret from the top of their roofs before shooting webs of netting at the group of Commons, suppressing them all after just a few rounds.

"Uhm…" Mellissa Clair mumbled, staring at the scene. She opened her mouth to say something about the scene when one of her aids suddenly rushed forward and directed her attention to a message on his computer screen, while gestering with his fingers to stay quiet. Melissa looked down at the computer screen, gulping when she had read the message.

"We have your sister in custody…" it read, "…make sure the news is accurate for her sake."

Melissa stared blankly at the screen, sweating and shivering before the aid nervously prompted her to keep going.

"Uhm…" Mellissa Clair stammered, plastering on a massive fake smile. "…this duel… this duel is one of the most exciting we've seen! The city is one! We are all friends!"

Shinji, meanwhile, looked like he had already achieved victory.

"Now Commons!" he commanded, as a triumphant grin spread across his face, "Gather by my side, just like this monster! We'll change this society with our own hands!"

As the crowds of Commons roared Shinji's name in response, Shinji looked around the the groups of Commons who were supporting him when he suddenly noticed something happening to a group of Commons outside the trackway. A group of Security offcers were hauling away some netted people before jamming a device against each of their foreheads and pulling a trigger.

"NO!" Shinji gasped, horrified that Security was responding this way to his dueling.

Yuya noticed Shinji's expression, and looked in the same direction Shinji had glanced. Letting out a gasp, Yuya looked up to the helicopter and called to the reporter.

"Hey!" he shouted, "Are you seeing this!?" he indicated the groups of security Vans that had turned their weapons on another crowd of fleeing Commons, rapidly netting them before Security Officers jammed more devices against their foreheads. "What's going on!? Security needs to stop!"

A new message appeared on the screen of Melissa Clair's aid. "You are currently experiencing some audio difficulties." It stated.

Melissa Clair ran her hand across her throat while keeping her fake smile firmly plastered to her face, indicating to her aids to cut the audio feed of the duel.

Crowds of Commons in the stadium began a new wave of protests, but this time because the audio to the duel had been cut, leaving everyone wondering what Shinji and Yuya were saying as they screamed at the screen.

"It's begun!" Shinji roared, "They're already trying to stop us! Now's the time! Stop standing around! Rise in rebellion! Take this city from the Tops!"

"We appear to be having some issues with the audio." Melissa apologized while smiling brightly. "Fortunately… it looks like we still have visual of the duel, so… I'll just provide commentary on what the duelists are saying. Shinji trades a few insults with Yuya who counters with a bit of spicy rhetoric of his own! My, my! Such bad sportsmanship! This is supposed to be fun!"

Yuya stared back at Melissa Clair, unable to believe what was going on. Shinji must have really scared the Tops with his speech. Enough for Security to think they had to start arresting people en masse in order to prevent his revolution. Why else would they be attacking so many people like that and trying to shut up Shinji's speech?

"It's no use." Shinji growled. "They're trying to silence me." He balled his hand into a fist. "But I don't need words to talk! I only have to defeat you, Yuya!" he snarled at his opponent. "Then we'll rise up against the Tops! And I will lead them on the front lines!"

"Shinji!" Yuya protested. "This isn't helping! You're only making things worse!"

"SHUT UP!" Shinji roared back, extending his hand to his monster. "YOU KNOW NOTHING! HAMA THE EVIL CRUSHING BOW, ATTACK HIS ENTERMATE SILVER CLAW!"

Hama conjured a large arrow made of pure energy from a slot in his wristband before loading his massive compound bow. Unleashing his arrow, he blasted Yuya's Silver Claw to dust, causing Yuya to almost lose control from the force of the attack as his life points dropped to 900.

"Uhm… Shinji's attack hits the mark! Yuya now only has nine-hundred life points left!" Melissa stammered when a new message, "Calm down the crowds or we will be forced to." Appeared on her aid's computer screen. "Isn't this fun, aren't you all excited! Let's… let's enjoy this duel together! Everyone?"

"Yuya!" Yuzu called as his life points were dropped down to the hundreds. She couldn't hear what Yuya had been saying, but clearly something was upsetting him. Looking down, she gasped when she saw the same thing Yuya and Shinji had spied. Security had now moved on to another segment of the track, systematically breaking up crowds and capturing them with massive nets fired from the turrets of Security trucks before pushing something against each arrested person's head and hauling them away.

"No!" Yuzu gasped, horrified by what she was seeing. From deep within her, she felt her anger growing. What was Roger doing!? Was he so scared of Shinji's speech that he was just going to arrest the entire city before anyone even committed a crime!? Forgetting about Yuya, she advanced forward and prepared to activate her Duel Disk, feeling the urge to take on all of Security and stop them in their tracks.

" _Well… this is interesting._ " said Ti'ika Sara, sounding eager. " _I can tell this is REALLY upsetting to you. Care for my help?_ "

Yuzu was about to reply when another voice filled her head.

" _Yuzu!_ " Ruri's voice called, " _What's going on? Are you alright!?_ "

" _Oh great…_ " Ti'ika Sara whined, " _…what does SHE want!?_ "

Yuzu blinked, shocked that Ruri was suddenly in her head. "What!?" she exclaimed, "Ruri!? Is that you!? How are you speaking to me now!?"

" _Oh… sorry._ " Ruri apologized, " _I forgot I didn't explain anything to you about the mental links._ "

"No… I don't mean that!" Yuzu stammered, "…Although… yeah… you forgot to mention you could speak to me like this. I meant to ask how you escaped from Security!?"

Yuzu could sense Ruri grinning. " _I beat them, and then recruited them after I freed them from their mind control._ "

"All of them!?" Yuzu gawked. "There were… hundreds of them!"

" _To be fair… I don't expect to be able to do something like that again so easily._ " Ruri explained, " _Roger's strategy was completely linear and repetitive. He wasn't able to exploit any of my deck's weaknesses. Now that he knows how I work, I expect he'll come well prepared during our next engagement… assuming he even attempts to duel at all._ "

Yuzu looked down to the fleet of Armored Security cars which were quickly moving from block to block, netting and loading up Commons en masse before shipping them off. "I'm sorry…" Yuzu apologized, activating her Duel Disk, "…I can't talk anymore right now. There's something I have to do."

" _What are you planning?_ " Ruri interrogated.

Yuzu hopped down to a building, approaching the convoy of armored Security Vehicles. "I'm stopping them. I'm stopping them right now before they take anyone else!"

Yuzu heard Ruri sigh. " _I'm having the same problem with Rin right now._ " She seemed to mutter to herself. " _I'm very sorry Yuzu, but it's not a good idea right now. If we engage Security here, we'll only be playing right into Roger's hands._ "

"What are you talking about!?" Yuzu asked, feeling her anger grow as swarms of Security officers manhandled even more innocent civilians. "We beat nine Security officers together, and you just beat hundreds of them on your own! If Rin's like us and she joins us, we can do something about this!"

" _You're assuming they'll even give us the chance to duel them._ " Ruri replied, sounding just a little exasperated. " _I've been watching a few of them myself. Believe me, these ones aren't messing around. As soon as they see even one of us, they'll fire those nets at us en masse. Those turrets are fast, and they don't seem to miss from what I've seen of them. Not to mention that those are only the non-lethal weapons on those things. You and Rin are still developing your powers. Even if I went in there, those tanks would probably be able to hold me off long enough for Roger to send in enough soldiers to overwhelm me. And like I said, unless he really is a brain-dead monkey, he'll know how to exploit my deck's weaknesses._ "

"So what are saying?" Yuzu asked as another group of civilians were brutally carted off by Security. "We just sit here and do nothing!?"

" _I didn't say that._ " Ruri sighed before continuing. " _Look… I'm not abandoning these people. I swear I will do everything in my power to free the people of this dimension. But we'll need more help if we're going to take down Roger without uneccessary bloodshed._ "

"What do you mean by uneccessary bloodshed?" Yuzu hesitantly asked.

Ruri paused. " _I have… spoken with my spirit before. She… she says there are some ways I could stop Roger right now. But… but it's not something pleasant._ "

A vision suddenly filled Yuzu's mind. She saw the entire city laid before her gaze. From the point she was standing, Yuzu suddenly saw Ruri's heron mark, a flower mark, and a green whale mark appear in the sky and on the ground before a massive shadow of black mist poured from the marks. In only a few moments, the mist had spread itself across the entire city, enveloping everyone and everything within before fading away. When it was gone, the city that had once been so loud suddenly became deathly silent as cars ceased moving, dogs stopped barking, and the streets and parks which were once filled with people became eerily empty. Yuzu shuddered at the scene before looking down at her right arm to where her mark once lay, wondering what on earth had happened in the vision.

" _Did you see it?_ " Ruri asked.

Yuzu nervously gulped. "Yes… what… what was that?"

" _It's a power we possess which I never intend to use. I wasn't kidding about us having the power of goddesses. If I wanted to, I could sweep the inhabitants of the Synchro Dimension away like dust._ " She paused, " _But it'd be wrong to do that. It's like having a nuclear bomb. Just because you've got one doesn't mean you use it… unless you really have no other choice. I don't want to hurt any innocent lives. I plan to take this Dimension from Roger the right way. Through dueling. To do that… I'm going to need your help, and we're going to need a lot more help than what we've got right now. Roger still has a massive army. Now that we've shocked him, he's only going to be tightening his grip on the city and the world. Baring the use of the power I just showed you, if we try to take him on now, make no mistake, he WILL win. It might not be when he sends the first wave of one-thousand soldiers, or even the next, but he WILL figure out our weaknesses eventually, and he WILL destroy us._ "

Yuzu looked sorrowfully down at the scene of merciless brutality. "So what do we do?"

" _We use Roger's tyranny against him._ " Ruri explained. " _Rin's been telling me about the oppressed people in the Synchro Dimension. They are willing to take on Roger, but they need leaders. I need you and Rin to be those leaders. Someone who can lead them against Roger's regime._ "

Yuzu looked back at Shinji, who had reduced the ATK of Yuya's monster with the effect of Hama.

"I want to stop Roger." Yuzu replied, "But I don't want to just start a mad riot."

Ruri seemed to nod her head. " _I don't share in all of Shinji's beliefs._ " She agreed. " _That's why I'm counting on you and Rin to be leaders, so that this isn't just some savage riot against the Tops. My goal is to free everyone, Tops and Commons, from Roger. To do that, we need a revolution, not just a rebellion. With your leadership, I think we can do that._ " Yuzu felt Ruri grin, " _Teach them about smiles, just like you reminded me._ "

Yuzu nodded her head, lowering her Duel Disk in resignation. "I understand." She sighed, "But… it still feels wrong… leaving these people to be captured."

" _Justice will be served._ " Ruri growled. " _Mark my words. I will not let Roger off the hook for this!_ "

Yuzu turned her attention back to Yuya's duel, catching up to what happened with a few side-screens showing some recaps of past plays. After Yuya took damage, Shinji activated the effect of his monster, reducing Timesword Magician's attack by the damage Yuya received. Now Yuya's monster only had 1800 ATK and Shinji had activated another effect. His monster could attack twice in one turn. If it hit, Yuya would lose!

Yuzu raced to catch up with the riders, hoping Yuya had something to counter Shinji's attack.

"GO!" Shinji roared, "Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow! Attack Timesword Magician! End it with one-thousand points of damage!"

Hama launched an arrow at Yuya's small warrior, who held out his sword protectively in front of him.

"THE REVOLUTION BEGINS!" Shinji bellowed at the top of his lungs, as if trying to reach the ears of the people in the stadium, "ONCE YOU ARE DEFEATED, THE COMMONS WILL RISE UP AND FIGHT BACK! YOU CANNOT SILENCE US ANYMORE!"

"And Shinji… is getting… really fired up!" Melissa Clair reported, sweat beading on her forehead. "He's saying what a fun duel this is and how he's honored to be a participant in the Friendship Cup!"

Shinji bellowed at the top of his lungs as his arrow connected with Timesword Magician, blowing it to dust.

"YUUUUUYAAAAAAAA!" Yuzu called, desperately hoping he hadn't lost.

Then suddenly, as the smoke cleared from Hama's attack, Yuya suddenly emerged with a phantasmal monster above his head. The monster looked like a cross between a desert tapir and a purple balloon with a black top-hat and large, round black eyes.

"Huh?" Melissa Clair gasped, "What is this?"

Shinji looked shattered. "What happened!? Why!?"

"I activated the effect of Entermate Balloon Baku's effect." Yuya explained. "When I send this card from my hand to the graveyard, I can reduce battle damage to zero just once."

Shinji looked down at the Security vehicles and back up at Yuya before snarling. "I guess you aren't going down that easily. But…" he sneered, "…you only have nine-hundred Life Points left. I'll take you down next turn! Turn end!"

Yuya looked up ahead, spying Yuzu watching him from a building before reverting his attention back to the duel. "There's no way I can lose here." He thought to himself. "I made a promise. I WILL make everyone smile with my dueling, end the inter-dimesnional war, and return to our world with Yuzu!"

He ripped a card from the top of his deck. "ORE NO TURN!" he roared, glancing at the Spell Card he drew.

"I activate the Magic Card, Match Pump!" he declared. "I draw one card from my deck, and if it's a Level four or lower monster, I Special Summon it! Any other card is banished." He put his fingers to the top of his deck. "However… when the Special Summoned monster is a Pendulum Monster, that monster is destroyed and sent to the Extra Deck! In addition, during this turn, I cannot Special Summon except by this card's effect!" He contemplated his move before performing his draw. "If this draw is a Pendulum Monster," he thought, "I can increase effect damage with Extra Shooter's Pendulum effect."

He looked down at his deck, exhaling before taking the risk. "DRAW!"

His eyes widened in shock when he saw the monster he drew.

"This is… Tuning Magician!?" he gasped.

"GET ON WITH IT!" Shinji roared. "I WILL NOT LET YOU STAND IN MY WAY! THE REVOLUTION IS READY TO BEGIN!"

Yuya threw down his card. "I special Summon Tuning Magician in defense mode!"

A short magician with pink hair, white clothing with green trimmings, and a forked magician's staff with a rounded shield-like bell in the center of the pole, appeared to Yuya's field. A holographic indicator showed a Level of one and a defense of 0.

Melissa Clair gasped at Yuya's tremendous bad luck. Jack Atlas, meanwhile, quietly contemplated Yuya's play.

"Why does he have that card?" he thought to himself, watching Tuning Magician strike the bell of her staff, activating her ability. "When it's summoned, the opponent's Life Points increase by four-hundred while the user takes four-hundred damage."

Shinji laughed at Yuya's blunder as his Life Points rose to 3800 while Yuya's dropped to 500.

"Looks the match is decided." He sneered. "Putting such a useless card in your deck has sealed your fate!"

"There's no such thing!" Yuya countered, "Every card has a purpose! I truly believe that! If I listen, the card will surely respond to me!" he bowed his head. "I want to prove that in this tournament." He though to himself before thinking about the card he willingly placed in his deck. "Tuning Magician… there's no way you're just a useless card that hurts your user."

He raised his hand to the air. "I activate Extra Shooter's Pendulum effect!" Yuya declared. "For every Pendulum Monster in my Extra Deck, I inflict three-hundred damage!" From his Pendulum Zone, Yuya's Extra Shooter pulled back on his slingshot. "There are two in my Extra Deck, which makes six-hundred points of damage!"

Shinji flinched as Extra Shooter's projectile slammed into his bike, reducing his Life Points to 3200. However, the attack didn't seem to worry him.

"Because of this effect." Yuya explained. "I cannot Pendulum Summon. I end my turn!"

"So that was it!?" Shinji sneered. "You were planning on drawing a Pendulum Monster and increasing Extra Shooter's effect damage, but you didn't count on this happening! Drawing such a useless card has spelled your doom!"

He ripped a card from his deck. "ORE NO TURN!" he declared. "I'll bring an end to that useless card! I attack Tuning Magician with Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow!"

Hama once again conjured an arrow from his wristband before loading it into his arrow and launching it at Tuning Magician. Tuning Magician tried to fly away, but was swiftly caught by the arrow before disintegrating into gold holographic dust.

"Tuning Magician!" Yuya called.

"THIS IS IT! THE REVOLUTION BEGINS!" Shinji triumphantly declared. "GO! HAMA THE EVIL-CRUSHING BOW! DIRECT ATTACK!

Shinji's monster launched an arrow directly at Yuya.

"I activate my Doreneko's monster effect!" Yuya countered. "Once per turn, when there are no monsters on my field, battle damage is reduced to zero!"

Yuya's other Pendulum Monster began crashing a pair of mallets against its drum body, sending out waves of sound while chanting, "Nya, nya, nya, nya!" Before the arrow could reach Yuya, the soundwaves blew the arrow off course, saving Yuya from the damage.

"WERE NOT DONE YET!" Shinji barked, looking ready to murder someone. "When Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow fails to inflict battle damage, I inflict three-hundred damage for every Bee Force monster in my graveyard!"

The ground in front of Shinji exploded with light as an army of seven Bee Force monsters burst from his graveyard.

"There are seven Bee Force Monsters in my graveyard!" Shinji growled, "That makes twenty-one hundred points of damage!"

The seven Bee-Force monsters transformed into streams of glowing light, which coalesced and formed into a sphere of light over Hama's right hand.

"This time I'll end it for sure!" Shinji declared, face brimming with determination. "Go! Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow! Become the spark that lights the beacon of revolution! SAKAKI YUYAAAA!"

Hama slammed the sphere of energy against his bow, pulling back the string and launching it strait at Yuya. As the sphere of energy approached, it gradually lengthened until it resembled a flaming yellow arrow.

Yuzu gasped as she watched, unable to believe Shinji had countered Yuya's defense so quickly.

Slamming down on the accelerator, Yuya surged forward, making a rapid turn on the track before spying an Action Card suspended in a clear bubble. As the massive energy arrow gained on Yuya's bike, Yuya managed to swerve out of the way, feeling intense heat from Shinji's attack as it blazed past him.

Shinji blinked as his attack missed. "You dodged it!?" he exclaimed.

"I activated the Action Magic, Encore," Yuya declared. "With this card, I can choose one Action Spell in my graveyard, and use it!"

"An Action Magic in your graveyard?" Shinji suddenly gasped when he realized which one Yuya had chosen to use.

"That's right." Yuya agreed. "I chose, Acceleration! With its effect, Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's effect damage is negated!"

Shinji looked like he was going to foam at the mouth with rage. "Stubborn brat!" he snapped. "But the match isn't over! It's no use drawing it out! I set one card face down and end my turn!"

"It won't end like this!" Yuya roared. "ORE NO TURN!" Before he could even begin, Shinji held out his hand.

"I activate the Continous Trap, Bee Formation!" A cloud of bees began swarming around Hama, forming a glowing infinity sign behind the monster. "When a monster is Normal or Special Summoned to my opponent's field, Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack increases by 400!" Shinji grinned confidently. "I don't know what you drew, but whenever you summon a monster, Hama the Evil Crushing Bow's ATK will go up!"

"Shinji seals his victory!" Melissa Clair declared. "Can Yuya make a counterattack!?"

Yuya looked at the card he drew.

"Monster reborn." Yuya murmured. "A Magic Card that allows you to Special Summon a monster from the graveyard. The monsters in the graveyard are…" he mentally skimmed through his monsters and the monsters of his opponents, "…I have five-hundred life left. Even if I take control of Azusa the Spirit Bow, I can't defeat Hama." He struggled to come up with a strategy when he suddenly felt a sensation come over him.

Looking around, Yuya suddenly noticed that his environment seemed to have faded away before getting replaced with an endless black tunnel with streaks of white light.

"What is this!?" Yuya thought, not understanding the sudden vision. Looking to the side of the tunnel, he was able to make out the city of the Synchro Dimension. However, the city looked different. It was bathed in darkness. Several buildings were on fire, while dozens of skyscrapers had collapsed to the ground. Forming a triangular formation around sections of the city, three massive marks blazed against the ground with intense energy. At the top, there was a green, whale-shaped mark with a spiral eye. On the right bottom corner, a crimson flower mark with six petals blared against the darkness like a bonfire. On the lower left, a ghostly-blue dog-shaped mark with a long upright tail, cast an eerie glow against a cluster of ruined buildings. Shining in the sky with intense white light at the center of the formation, a massive, kilometer-long Heron Mark dwarfed the other three marks in size as it seemed to stare down at the city.

Yuya gasped at the vision, unable to comprehend what was going on. Suddenly, from up above, Yuya was startled by the sound of a massive roar.

Looking up above, Yuya nearly fell from his bike when he saw a massive, ghostly dragon creature, whose body seemed to burn with intense crimson flames, spiraling through the sky with three other smaller dragons surrounding his gargantuan body in a triangular guard-escort formation.

"Did Shinji summon that thing?" Yuya thought, looking back. But Shinji was nowhere in sight, and something told Yuya that there was no way Shinji could possibly have a monster like that in his deck.

" _There are people on those dragons!_ " Yuya heard Yuto suddenly exclaim.

Yuya spun his head around when he suddenly heard Yuto's voice call from within his mind. Appearing next to his bike, Yuya's ghostly companion pointed up at the formation of dragons, directing Yuya's gaze towards the three smaller dragons surrounding the massive crimson dragon.

"Yuto!?" Yuya gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Just look!" Yuto insisted, dark eyes widening as he gazed upon the dragons.

Yuya complied, and stared up at the three dragons. Sure enough, just like Yuto had said, on top of the three smaller dragons, a human sat on the dragon's back, riding it like a horse. On the serpentine body of a blue dragon with elegant humanoid arms and hands, and a pair of white butterfly wings, a girl with long green hair, white shorts, and a long, pink shirt, stared down at Yuya and Yuto with a bright smile on her face. Not far from her, riding a dragon with bright golden scales, two pairs of leathery wings, and a broad tail with a shovel-like end, a boy with green hair tied back in a ponytail, and who was dressed in a tight blue and green riding outfit, watched over the other green haired rider protectively. Looking back and forth between the two riders, Yuya noticed that their faces almost completely matched each other's faces, making them look like twin siblings. Above the twins, riding an ethereal white dragon with a face like a white tiger's, a large white mane, an elaborate headdress, two pairs of arms, no legs, a bushy white tail like a paint brush, and nine pairs of rapidly humming dragonfly wings running down its massive serpentine body, a pale woman, who looked to be in about her early fifties, with long white hair tied back into a bun and ponytail, icy blue eyes, and who was wearing a large black kimono with white flowers, stared down at Yuya and Yuto with a calculating expression on her face.

"What is this?" Yuya asked once again, not knowing what else to ask. Looking through the tunnel, Yuya could barely make out the crowds watching him, but they didn't seem to even be aware of what was going on, much less care.

Yuya and Yuto, however, were not the only ones who saw the dragons.

Hearing a sudden, ear-piercing roar, Yuzu looked up to see the same four dragons Yuya and Yuto had seen. Instantly, the second her eyes made contact with the massive crimson dragon, she felt sudden pain stab through her right arm where her mark once lay.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Yuzu shrieked, as the pain forced her on her knees.

" _YOU!_ " Yuzu heard Ti'ika Sara's voice roar, " _Why are you here!? Why do you have to interfere!?"_ Yuzu gasped in agony as feelings of overwhelming rage and anguish rose up within her.

"What is that!?" Yuzu shrieked, desperately wanting to be rid of the pain.

" _THE ENEMY!_ " Ti'ika Sara hissed. " _The vile one! The imprisoner! Soul binder! Body breaker! Stone layer! Meddler! Deciever! Betrayer! The Crimson Dragon! QUETZALCOATL!_ "

Yuzu struggled back to her feet, as physical and emotional pain continued to wrack her mind and body. Tears dribbled down her cheeks as she involuntarily gnashed her teeth together in growing anger. Just looking on the loathsome dragon, she could understand what Ti'ika Sara was saying. She had only just barely seen it, but she already knew she hated it! She wanted to be rid of it! She wanted to banish it! Bury it! Destroy it!"

Yuzu fell to her knees, gasping for breath as the wave of emotions began to overwhelm her. Was this… was this really what she was feeling right now? Why!? She didn't even know what was going on! And yet… she could still feel the hatred, pressing and burning against her skin as if wanting to burst out like a wild animal and rip the dragon to pieces.

" _Are you feeling this!?_ " Yuzu though to Ruri, struggling not to faint from the simultaneous agony and rage.

"I do." Ruri replied from overhead, landing next to Yuzu, before retracting her wings and cradling her counterpart in her arms. "Rin's feeling it as well."

Yuzu could tell Ruri was deeply upset. While Ruri tried to offer comfort by gently stroking her friend's back, she gazed warily back at the dragon, red irises flaming against her black sclera. Yuzu caught a glimpse of Ruri's hand trembling as she angrily balled it into a fist before another wave of pain suddenly shot through her body, causing her to tense up from the force of it.

"What is it!?" Yuzu moaned, wondering if she could possibly take any more pain.

Ruri closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose. "We might have some opposition."

From the Duel Palace, Jack Atlas rose from his throne when he suddenly caught vision of the Crimson Dragon flying throught the sky above the Friendship Cup contestants. Falling down to his knees and bowing in the direction of the dragon, he held out his right arm until it was facing in the direction of the dragons.

"So you've returned… Quetzalcoatl." He murmured. "I accept the call. I vow to do everything in my power to serve you." The instant he made this declaration, a crimson mark shaped like a pair of dragon wings blazed to life beneath his sleeve.

"Call to them, Yuya!" Yuto instructed his companion, still gazing up at the dragons.

"Do you know them?" Yuya asked, desperately trying to find an explanation for what was going on.

"No." Yuto responded. "But I feel like we should make contact with them."

Yuya gazed up at the dragons and their riders. The dragons and riders had an intimidating air of tremendous power about them, and yet… for some reason, Yuya felt that neither the dragons nor the riders were going to harm either himself or Yuto.

Yuya decided to take Yuto's challenge and see if he could find some answers.

"HEY!" he called at the top of his lungs. "WHO ARE YOU!?"

The older woman in the kimono looked down at Yuya.

"You see us?" she inquired in an even tone, somehow clearly projecting her voice to Yuya without shouting. "If so, then both of you raise your right arm."

"Both of us?" Yuya asked.

"I suppose that works as well." She smiled. "What about your companion next to you?"

"You see me!?" Yuto gasped, floating forward.

"Apparently as well as you see me." The woman replied. She looked around the area, glaring at the marks burning against the city landscape. "This place is not safe to speak. The Earthbound are watching us right now."

"Earthbound?" Yuya asked, steadily becoming more confused.

"Who are you!?" Yuto called. "How can you see me!?"

The rider looked down at Yuto, carefully analyzing him. "You and I are not too different." She explained. "Let's leave it at that for now."

"But who are you!?" Yuto pressed, looking exceedingly glad to have someone to speak to.

The woman smiled warmly at both Yuya and Yuto. "Hashimoto…" she replied, "…Seijun Hashimoto."

She looked back over to where the marks were burning and scowled before looking back down at Yuya and Yuto with a grave expression on her face.

"Beware the ones who bear those marks." She warned. "But be especially wary of this mark."

She extended her hand above her head. The instant she did, a massive, multicolored spiral mark appeared in the sky, stretching out endlessly in all directions before fading away.

The green-haired girl flew her dragon down a little lower and began speaking to Yuya and Yuto.

"Seek us out when you've managed to clear your mind again." She advised. "We'll find a place where we can speak freely."

Yuya's mind was swimming with questions. Looking over at Yuto, he could tell his companion was just as dumbfounded as he was.

"How will we find you again?" Yuya called. "How do we clear our minds?"

The girl's twin flew down to Yuya and Yuto.

"I'd do what lead you here in the first place." He grinned. "It looks like the Crimson Dragon took notice of you guys' spirit in your duel and let you see us. I'll bet if you can achieve that same level of clear-mindedness in another duel, you'd be able to find us again."

"Crimson Dragon?" Yuya gaped, "Duel!?"

"Yep." The boy smugly replied, seemingly enjoying their confusion.

"Speaking of duels." Seijun called from up above. "You've neared the time limit for your turn. Fortunately, it looks like your monster is willing to help you."

Yuya gasped in shock, realizing that the duel must've been continuing, before noticing a flash of light on his left side. Looking upon the light, Yuya watched as Tuning Magician appeared to his field with a determined expression on her face.

"Tuning magician?" Yuya called, looking at the dimunuitive monster who stared back at him with unblinking eyes. Suddenly, in a flash of inspiration, Yuya saw something. Something he could create. Something Tuning Magician could help him create. Looking down through the tunnel, he started rapidly thinking through a series of plays. If he did things right, he could win!

"You have a plan?" Yuto asked.

"Yes." Yuya nodded before looking up at the three riders. "I'll win this duel." He called, "And then I promise I will find you again!"

"We will be waiting for you." Seijun called back, before she, the two other riders, and all four dragons zoomed into the distance and the tunnel faded away, leaving Yuya back on the duel field with just seconds left to complete his turn.

"Uhm… it looks like Yuya doesn't know what to do." Melissa Clair commented. "He has just five more seconds to make a move before the time limit ends his turn."

"ARE YOU GIVING UP!?" Shinji roared from behind Yuya, looking extremely angered. "I DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASTE ON YOUR MOPING! I HAVE A REVOLUTION TO BEGIN!"

Yuya proceeded with his turn without a second more of hesitation.

"With the set scale two, Doraneko, and scale six, Extra Shooter, I Pendulum Summon!" He raised his hands to the sky, up to where a large pink portal opened up between his two Pendulum Cards before twin streams of brilliant green and white light poured onto his field. "Revive from my Extra Deck!" he commanded, "Silver Claw! Timesword Magician!"

Shinji growled as Yuya's action caused the timer to stop, enabling him to continue playing so long as there were no more long pauses.

"Bee Force Formation effect!" he declared, "Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack goes up by four-hundred!"

A holographic indicator appeared and showed Hama's ATK rise to 3200. Yuya, however, continued with his turn as if completely unconcerned.

"I activate the Magic Card, Monster Reborn!" he countered, slamming his Spell Card against his D-Wheeler. "I Special Summon one monster from my graveyard! Lend me your power once more, Tuning Magician!"

As a black portal appeared in front of Yuya, Tuning Magician rose from the depths of the graveyard, wearing a serene expression on her face as she glowed with violet light.

Everyone who was watching looked confused.

"Huh?" Melissa Clair gawked. "Why did he summon Tuning Magician again? What is he thinking!?"

Tuning Magician smiled before banging the bell on her staff once again and activating her effect.

"With Tuning Magician's effect," Yuya declared, "I increase my opponent's Life Points by 400 while I take 400 damage!"

Shinji stared back at Yuya in disbelief. While his own Life Points had risen to 3600, Yuya's had been reduced to a mere 100.

From the building, Yuzu gasped in shock, forgetting her own pain as she watched Yuya groan from the damage taken from Tuning Magician's effect. Leaping out of Ruri's arms before her Xyz counterpart could stop her, she began once again sprinting towards Yuya's location.

Even Roger momentarily wrenched himself from his business to glance at the Duel.

"What's he planning?" he thought to himself.

"Have you lost your mind Yuya!?" Shinji gawked, sincerely wondering if Yuya had decided to avoid losing the duel by trolling him as hard as possible with a ridiculously long pause and a series of wacky stall plays that made no sense whatsoever. Looking down at the convoys of armoed vehicles that were still capturing groups of Commons, he decided to not let Yuya get into his head and continue playing as seriously as he could.

"Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack increases again with Tuning Magician's Summon!" he roared as the infinity sign behind Hama's back glowed with yellow light before Hama's ATK rose to 3600.

Everyone who was not running from Security gaped in shock at Yuya's brilliant stupidity, wondering if the stress of the duel really had snapped his mind.

Yuya continued his turn, completely ignoring the mockery from the crowds.

"I tune the Level four Silver Claw and Level three Timesword Magician with the Level one Tuning Magician!"

"What!?" Shinji gasped, never recalling Yuya having a single Synchro Monster in his Extra Deck, much less the knowledge of how to perform a Synchro Summon.

Tuning magician flew forward before morphing into a green ring which slid across Yuya's two monsters, turning them into golden outlines of themselves before they disappeared and were replaced with a single-file line of seven white spheres of light.

"Hero's blade that sets forth unyielding light, awaken with a flash!" Yuya chanted as a shining column of white light burst through the green ring. "SYNCHRO SHOKAN! LEVEL EIGHT! ENLIGHTENMENT PALADIN!"

In a flash of light, Yuya's new Synchro Monster burst onto the field. Weilding a pair of swords, one with a yellow gem in the pommel and one with a red gem in the pommel, Enlightenment Paladin gave a quick battle-cry before posing in front of Yuya. Enlightenment Paladin resembled Yuya's Magician of Chronomancy, with metallic clock-like accessories adorning his clothing, but this magician looked more like an armored knight with a white mask covering the lower half of his face, and shiny chrome armor covering the rest of his body. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

Everyone in the crowd looked astonished by Yuya's unexpected move.

"Amazing!" Yuzu cheered, grateful to feel delighted over something after enduring so much pain only a few moments ago.

Shinji, however, looked unimpressed.

"It's too late!" he sneered. "Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack is already at thirty-six hundred! And with Bee Formation's effect, it goes up by another four-hundred!" Hama roared as his ATK rose to 4000.

"I activate Enlightenment Paladin's monster effect!" Yuya countered as his monster joined his swords together till they looked like the 6:00 position on a clock. "When a Magician is used as a Synchro Summon Material, I can add one Magic Card from my graveyard to my hand!"

An ethereal clock appeared in front of Enlightenment Paladin before the hands of the clock began rotating counterclockwise. Suddenly, the duel field was bathed in a dark blue light. Time suddenly seemed to stop before both contestants' bikes started running in reverse.

"Wh-what on earth is happening?" Shinji gasped, looking scared.

"I add Gap Power from the graveyard to my hand and activate it!" Yuya declared, slapping down the Spell Card as the trackway reverted to its normal color before the two D-Wheels once again started racing forward. "I add half of the difference between our Life Points to one monster's attack!" the holographic image of Yuya's Spell Card began to glow. "The difference between my and Shinji's Life Points is thirty-five hundred. I add half of that to Enlightenment Paladin's attack!"

Enlightenment Paladin let out a war cry as he began glowing with an aura of golden light. A holographic indicator appeared below him and displayed an ATK of 4250.

"Four-thousand two-hundred and fifty attack!?" Shinji gasped. "Its attack is higher than Hama the Evil-Crushing Bows!?"

"It's all thanks to Tuning Magician." Yuya explained with a serious expression on his face. "Tuning Magician's effect made the difference between my Life Points and Shinji's even larger! Now, Enlightenment Paladin's attack surpasses Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack!"

Shinji's eyes widened in disbelief.

Yuya humbly bowed his head. "I could Synchro Summon thanks to Tuning Magician." He looked up to the audience, thinking of the Commons who were being cleared away like trash. "EVERY CARD HAS A PURPOSE!" he roared, challenging the beliefs of the entire society of the Synchro Dimension. "AS LONG AS I LISTEN TO IT, THE CARD WILL RESPOND!"

Melissa Clair sweated inside her helicopter, not failing to miss the symbolism behind Yuya's action. It had been bad enough when Shinji was trying to insight a revolt with his dueling. Now it looked like Yuya was trying to do the same. One of the aids nervously prompted her to continue.

"Y-Yuya says he is proud to entertain the audience, and uhm… has once again called out his catchphrase… uhm… the fun has just started!" she stammered, hoping nobody in the audience could read lips. It was a terrible position for her to be in. She had already been threatened last night by Security when she was working late at night and caught a glimpse of Security's actions against the Executive Council. They had threatened to take her family if she reported anything. And now… here she was… complying with their orders once again… and yet… they had still taken her sister, Aliesha! What was she supposed to do!?

"GO! ENLIGHTENMENT PALADIN!" Yuya roared, "ATTACK HAMA THE EVIL-CRUSHING BOW!"

Enlightenment Paladin charged forward, swinging his blade down against Hama's bow. From his wristband, Hama shot a bolt of energy back at Enlightenment Paladin, but Enlightenment Paladin managed to quickly block the projectile with his second blade. Raising both swords above his head, he merged the two handles together into a double-ended sword, before swinging the weapon around above his head in a whirlwind of blades. Mowing through Shinji's monster, he obliterated Hama in one swift pass, leaving Hama's severed remains to explode behind him.

Shinji grunted as his Life Points dropped to 3350.

Yuya didn't hesitate for a second before continuing with his turn. "Next, I activate the Enlightenment Paladin's effect! When it destroys a monster in battle, it inflicts damage equal to that monster's attack!"

Enlightenment Paladin spread out his swords, blades glowing with brilliant white light as a ghostly image of Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow appeared behind him.

"Hama the Evil-Crushing Bow's attack is…" Shinji gaped, unable to believe what was happening.

Enlightenment Paladin clashed his two swords together, sending a stream of blue energy that took the shape of Hama towards Shinji, who charged angrily at the bolt of power, inwardly cursing his misfortune. In an explosive blast, Shinji's bike skidded to a stop as it was blasted back and his Life Points were reduced to 0, leaving Shinji to scream at the top of his lungs with agony.

Melissa wiped some sweat from her brow. Relieved that the duel was finally over.

"It's over!" she cheered. "He escaped a crisis with a viscious counterattack and emerged victorious, the winner, Sakaki Yuuuuuyaaaaaaaa!"

From her building, Yuzu smiled down on Yuya, brimming with pride and relief that he had won.

"Thank you… Yuya." She smiled, straitening out her hair which had become frazzled from the pain she endured upon seeing the Crimson Dragon. "I will definitely take your message to heart."

From his room in the Duel Palace Stadium, Jack Atlas, pushed a button on an intercom.

"Send someone to my room immediately." He ordered, I need something delivered.

"Yes sir." A voice responded on the other end.

Jack sat down at a desk and began writing. After a few moments, he finished a letter, and managed to seal it away in an envelope bearing his insignia before the door to his room opened.

Sam stepped into Jack's room, looking a little anxious. His lower lip was quivering and he was rubbing his hands together as if he'd done something wrong.

Jack stepped forward and handed the boy a letter.

"I need you to deliver this to a former Security Officer named Soichi Kazama. You will find his address on the envelope. Be quick and don't stop for anything." He commanded.

The boy hastily took the letter from Jack and turned to leave when he paused mid-step, looking like there was something he wanted to say.

"What is it?" Jack Atlas asked, not in the mood to listen to another bell-boy's demand for a generous tip.

The boy nervously looked up at him. "Uhm… do you…" he nervously stuttered, "…do you… remember me?"

"Hmmmm?" Jack Atlas asked, looking over at the kid.

"Oh… no… of course not." Sam sighed. "Y-you gave me… you gave me the Tuning Magician card." He nervously explained.

Jack's eyes widened in recognition.

"Back then…" Sam hesitated, hoping he wouldn't upset Jack, "…I thought you had given me a useless card that suited me, so I bore a grudge against you." He looked down at the ground, looking like he had committed the greatest crime in the universe. "I gave it to Yuya, t-the Tuning Magician card that is, and told him to beat you for me."

Jack looked down at the boy. "Sakaki Yuya?" he asked.

Sam nodded his head. "I thought the card you gave me was useless, but Yuya taught me that depending on how you use it, it can be an amazing card! He taught me that there aren't any useless cards!" Sam had started to grow excited with his speech, but quickly went back to standing dutifully at attention when he noticed how he was acting.

Jack didn't seem to mind. "He was right." Jack nodded. "There aren't any useless cards. All of them have their purpose." He looked off into the distance, looking somewhat saddened by something. "People are the same." He knelt down at Sam's feet and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "And that's why I need you now. You may not understand what is going on, but you are about to play a very important role in some major events, as will I, and as will others. Right now I need you to fulfill yours." He folded Sam's hands over the letter. "Whatever happens, this letter MUST reach Officer Kazama. If it does not, we will be sorely unprepared for what is coming."

Sam blinked at Jack before nodding his head in agreement and sprinting off with the letter at top speed. When the boy had left, Jack pulled out his deck holder and began examining a picture of a Jack Card on the side of the compartment. Holding it up to his arm, he clenched his fist until his wing mark reappeared on his arm, glowing with brilliant crimson light. As the mark cast its light on the Jack Card, the deck holder gave off a faint beeping sound before a tiny compartment opened beneath the Jack Card and a single card popped out.

Jack took the card in his hands and examined it thoughtfully.

"I had hoped this war was over," He murmured, "but the time for us to do battle has come once again, Neo Majestic Dragon."

…

Ruri had missed most of the duel. She had not bothered to pay attention to it. It had been too disconcerting for her when the dragon had appeared in the sky. After Yuzu had left, she had begun conversing with her inner spirit, Jatun Waqar, for a long time.

"I won't do it." Ruri sighed, a tear trickling down her cheek. "Not unless I have absolutely no other choice. It won't come to that. I can fix this!"

Jatun Waqar offered no response.

Ruri nodded her head. "Thank you for understanding." She sighed before flying towards the Duel Palace. The crowds were going wild, rewatching highlights of the last duel, blissfully oblivious to the brutality happening just outside. Soaring towards the returning D-Wheelers, Ruri looked down at the person Yuzu had talked so much about, Sakaki Yuya. Looking at him, she saw that he indeed looked just like her friend, Yuto, but she could tell it wasn't him. The look in his eyes was similar, but not quite like Yuto's.

As the contestant neared Ruri, the Dark Signer suddenly perceived something briefly flash into existence next to Yuya. With a gasp, she almost stopped mid-flight and plummeted from the sky. Changing direction, she flew down as close to Yuya as she dared and looked down at him once again. When she saw the same image flash next to Yuya, she almost fainted from shock as she recognized a face and gasped one name.

"YUTO!?"

 **JACK'S LETTER**

 **SOICHI KAZAMA,**

 **I HAD HOPED THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME, BUT IT APPEARS OUR OLD ENEMIES HAVE RETURNED. THE CRIMSON DRAGON HAS MADE HIS APPEARANCE TO CALL US FORTH TO BATTLE ONCE MORE. NO DOUBT OUR FRIEND, DR. AKI, WOULD HAVE SENSED THIS, BUT I NEED YOU TO GATHER OUR REMAINING ALLIES. THE ONES WE PREPARED SPECIFICALLY FOR A SITUATION LIKE THIS, THE PHOENIX GUARD. SEND OUR ALLIES IN THIS DIMENSION TO THE OTHER DIMENSIONS AND GATHER AS MANY AS YOU CAN TO THE CITY. WE WILL NEED ALL OF THEM TO STAND AGAINST THE THREAT I FEAR WILL ARRISE. BE SWIFT, BE STRONG, AND KNOW THAT I REMAIN YOUR CONSTANT FRIEND AND ALLY,**

 **JACK ATLAS.**

SPECIAL OFFER 2: BRING FORTH THE LIGHT!

 **The Crimson Dragon has returned. He has come to gather all allies of light together in order to stand against an evil that has returned once again! Gather your strength together and join as one. Join the Phoenix Guard! Together, we will purge the universe of evil and restore light to a world fading into darkness!**

 **My readers. I can't thank you enough for the many ideas you have already contributed to "Signs of Renewal!" I am overjoyed to see character and card ideas from Ghost83, Epsilon Tarantula, and greninja. I have recorded your ideas and you will be seeing those cards and characters in the future!**

 **So Special Offer 2 is just like Special Offer 1. Submit your own fan cards and fan characters to the story. This time, however, you all can submit your characters to a new alliegience, The Phoenix Guard! These are brave duelists from across all the dimensions who, while not holding the position of Signer, stand as allies with the Crimson Dragon's servants. Now is your chance to give life to these characters! I already have several of my own original characters ready to go, for all sides of the conflict, but I can always, and love to, accept more! A shout-out goes to Epsilon Tarantula who is already marshalling an array of characters and their decks together to stand against the Jibakushin. Who will gain more support in the end? I can only imagine. At any rate, same rules apply (see the end of the previous chapter for details). PM me your ideas and watch your characters come to life as they take a stance in this escalating conflict! Stay tuned for chapter nine and ten which will both be coming out next week assuming all goes well with my schedule. I look forward to seeing your ideas! Stay awesome, and until next time, this is Donjusticia, signing out!**

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Jack Atlas's Monsters

Neo Majestic Dragon/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed._


	9. Special Update 1

A Very Quick Update Chapter

Hello readers, this little chapter is mainly just a quick progress report and thank you. I don't expect it to get any rave reviews or too many views (unless you REALLY are into reading updates over and over again.)

First off, I wish to thank you all for the MANY contributions you all have submitted as far as characters and fan-cards go. I now have TONS of characters and decks for many sides of the conflict. I wish to take this time to thank my contributors one by one.

Ghost83: You are amazing my friend. You were the first to offer an original character and deck LONG before either of the special offers cropped up. It's going to be a while before we see your character, but trust me, you and all my other readers, this guy's character is going to be AWESOME when he appears!

Greninja: Thank you for submitting three characters to the story and their ace monsters. I have taken the liberty of making some slight modifications to a couple names of the cards and their effects, but I am sure you will absolutely love what I have come up with. Thank you for submitting your work early and for giving me so many wonderful details on your characters. It really saves me a lot of time and energy when I don't have to fill in as many blanks. As for the decks you requested I create, I think you will like what I came up with for the two sisters. Stay tuned for Thunder Avatars and Aqua Avatars.

Epsilon Tarantula: You sir, have submitted an army of characters, and I am loving each and every one of them! Trust me, I have given a great deal of thought as to how these characters will interact with the other characters, their history, and their future going forward with the story. Stay tuned for an epic future chapter of some amazing battle-royals featuring your characters, shady machinations from one particular character, and quite a bit of comic relief from a snarky character that will be appearing a little later.

Nox Descious: I feel like we're a pair of mad scientists coming up with a new scheme to take over the world. (I won't say whose Pinkie and who's The Brain though.) I absolutely love your character and was delighted to ally him with a character I had previously designed. For you and all the rest of you readers, stay tuned for a pair of some particularly nasty and powerful Academia agents. Won't go into too many details about who these guys are, but I will say that they KNOW Rin and Ruri, and will not be easily quelled by even the bracelet girl's new Dark Signer powers.

Solphage: Your idea has given birth to a character that I love and adore TO DEATH! (No, please don't misunderstand, this is not supposed to be a dark pun implying that he's going to die, I just REALLY love the character.) Thank you for suggesting a video game theme, it's helped me resurrect a very fun, but oftentimes overlooked, Yu-Gi-Oh card theme. Stay tuned guys, this character has a lot of heart and spirit.

KuroganeFang: Thank you for submitting two characters, and especially for submitting a Phoenix Guard character from Academia. This adds a very interesting, yet highly realistic dynamic to the story. I'm also very impressed that you submitted to me an ENTIRE series of deck lists for the characters. It was VERY detailed, and helps me out a LOT with time. Your characters will be appearing a little later, like Ghost83's character, but I absolutely promise you that I LOVE these characters and will give them justice!

FanOfKings: Oooooh, I am so STOKED to use these cards, they are just AWESOME! Thank you for your amazing fan ideas! Yugo is going to GREATLY appreciate the support you have provided for his deck. (Believe me, he will need them). There will be a couple ever so slight tinkering with card names, summon requirements, and effects, but ALL credit for the original ideas will be given to you!

Please let me know if I missed any of you! I REALLY love these fan contributions and can't wait to feature them in my story! "Signs of Renewal" is a TRUE fanfiction, inspired by fans, conceived of by fans, and written by a fan who receives support from the fans! Together, our ideas will conquer the world! Or save it. One or the other. We'll work out the details later.

Now onto a sadder update (not TOO sad though). Unfortunately, I will not be able to post a new chapter of "Sings of Renewal" tonight, mainly because I have been working with the MANY fan contributions you have provided for me. This is not a complaint, NOR is it a subtle way of saying, "Stop giving me your amazing fan contributions!" I appreciate each and every one of them! That being said, I will say that the earlier your ideas are submitted, the easier it is for me to work with them and the more likely it is that your character and decks will feature prominently in "Signs of Renewal." There remains no time limit for your submissions, but in future chapters, I will be periodically providing you with updates and warnings for when it's time to finalize some ideas just so I don't either have to delay work, or shunt your ideas aside for later use (neither of which are things I wish to do). The overwhelming amount of contributions you have given me as of now have prompted me to give one such warning and request.

Until chapter twelve is completed, I invite fans to submit no more than one additional character for "Signs of Renewal." (If you have already submitted a character(s) don't worry, you can still submit one more, but for now, let's keep it at just one more). This will help free up my time so I can focus all my energies on the next chapters which are still in the works (though trust me, they will be EPIC, not going to say too much but, *cough* "Meklords." Yeah, I said it. Scream your fan-boy and fan-girl screams and make of it whatever you will). For the next little while, I recommend sending me info on the characters you have already submitted so these wonderful guys can be as well-rounded and close to your original vision as possible. Thank you so much for your work and your continued support. I promise to continue delivering new content and chapters to you my readers!

On a slightly different note, I wanted to address a concern a few of my readers have raised to me. It involves a certain revelation on the use of brain parasites with Ruri and Rin. Basically the concern goes, "If Ruri and Rin were being brain controlled, how can your story mesh with canon if your story depicts Ruri and Rin voluntarily trying to escape from Academia?"

First off, I would like to say, thank you for your questions. I believe we all like it when our fan-fictions mesh well with the original canon. Some writers even fear that their fanfiction will somehow be ruined if a new revelation from a series contradicts what they have written. So does this revelation ruin "Signs of Renewal?" My answer is an emphatic and absolute, "NO!"

For one, I knew full-well going into this project before Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V had been completed, that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to mesh the events of the story 100% with canon. This did not and does not bother me. I was able to have immeasurable enjoyment doing things like creating Ruri and Rin's decks before those had been released, and it was fun to do a little comparison of the deck I had come up with Rin vs. the deck that she actually used. (I KNEW there'd be an instrument theme! Bell's still count as instruments, right?) Although I like to keep "Signs of Renewal," fairly close to canon, it is not a requirement or even an objective of mine to align the story with every tidbit the show will reveal going forward. If such a requirement DID exist for fanfiction, none of us would be doing anything on this website. This story is an Alternate Universe story formed from the premise of: "What would happen if Ruri and Rin died and the forces of the Dark Signers existed? How would this alter history?" If something is different between "Signs of Renewal," and Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V, don't panic, this is a normal and natural part of belonging to an alternate universe where some character decisions are different, some technologies do or do not exist, etc.

A second, far-less important point. I don't know if the revelation of brain parasites in Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V necessarily contradicts the scenario I had outlined in the beginning of "Signs of Renewal." Some of you have already heard my ranting on this topic, but if the Professor always had those plot-convenience brain parasites, why didn't he just plant one in Selena a long time ago!? She was NOT a well-indoctrinated and compliant Academia student! She kept trying to run away and do all kinds of things against the professor's will! She even joined the Lancer's for crying out loud! Don't tell me that the Professor just couldn't bring himself to brain controlling Selena! This is the Professor we're talking about, who's brain controlling Ruri and Rin as I type and rant! The point being, that I believe, given this evidence, that the brain parasites must have been a more recent countermeasure the Doctor developed in response to the loss of the Xyz Dimension, the rise of the Lancers, etc. As a general rule, I loathe sudden 180 degree personality changes, and brain control just feels like a lazy way of avoiding realistic character development. The brain control chips Roger introduced, I could (kind of) live with, because there was no real personality change. Just shutting down someone's brain and making them a drone. But the whole idea of the Professor being able to completely control a person's character just opens up a whole can of worms that can lead to all manner of unsightly plot holes like, "Why doesn't the professor Parasite Fusioner EVERYONE who works for him?" "Why hasn't the Obelisk Force just been focusing their efforts on flying jumbo jets over the dimensions and dropping clouds of Parasite Fusioners on the inhabitants of the other dimensions?" etc. Regardless, however Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V decides to address the whole brain control theme, "Signs of Renewal" will chug merrily along its original intended narrative train route. I do not intend to panic and start updating the chapters to have an earthbound god suddenly appear to Ruri and Rin in their towers and say, "Hey girl, you've got something in your ear, mind if I clean it out for ya?" So don't worry. Relax. This story IS NOT and WILL NOT ever be canon. That's the magic of creative fanfiction, and I certainly hope that the fear of something being non-canon will not deter any of you my readers from submitting your creative ideas. I love them all, no matter how non-canon.

Sorry for the epic rant. It's just a little pet-peeve of mine when some people criticize a work of fan-FICTION for, quote on quote, being "SO NON-CANON!" as if that were the greatest sin in the world. I could maybe understand the complaint if a writer claimed his/her work meshed completely with canon, but as far as "Signs of Renewal" goes, I'm just letting you all know, that it is neither my claim nor my goal for this story to be totally, 100%, in-line with canon .

Whoo… finally got that out of my chest. Thank you all very much for your continued support. You truly ARE AMAZING! I love the GENIUS ideas you guys have come up with. It really adds spice to this series when all the characters and decks don't come exclusively from my limited perspective and imagination. Please let me know if I have forgotten any of you in this acknowledgement page! I don't want to leave ANYONE out! (PM me if I have, and I will update this update, which sounds weird but it's important to me.) And now, in compliance with Rules and Guidelines, here is a sneak-peek of the next chapter in order to make sure this story is not entirely non-story.

"Errrrrrrrrrrrrrgh…"

Sora struggled to open his eyelids, which pressed down against his eyeballs like sheets of cold steel. The second he managed to crack them open just a little, just enough to make out the blurry outline of clouds in the sky… he immediately regreted it.

As his heart hammered against his chest, it seemed to spread a wave of pain throughout his body. He became conscious of several blisters burning with heat, gashes screaming with a sharp stinging sensation, and the great thumping pain of bruises against the back of his head. With a sharp groan he cracked open his eyes the rest of the way and began groggily blinking as the burning rays of the sun scorched his pupils. When he had finally adjusted to the light of the sun, he slowly tried to lift his rigid body off the ground.

"AAAAAAAAGH!" He yelped before collapsing back onto his back. The second he had pressed his hands on the ground and lifted his body up a few inches, he had been completely incapacited by the twin pains of heat blisters popping on his hands and the feeling of a shattered rib stabbing against his side.

Sora desperately began trying to remember how he'd gotten in this position. There was Ruri… beating him to death with her monster… what was that thing? It was unlike anything Sora had ever seen before. It annihilated every single card Sora had on the field and his graveyard, and it was just about to annihilate him. But…why didn't it? Why was he still alive?

He suddenly remembered what he had seen, just as Ruri had raised him into the air to deliver the finishing blow.

"Yuzu!" he groaned, tears streaming out his eyes. Suddenly, all the pain he was experiencing seemed utterly miniscule, completely overshadowed in comparison to an even more overwhelming agony that gripped his insides and refused to let him find comfort and peace.

He had failed her. He had vowed to do everything in his power to protect her, but he had failed. Crippled by the overwhelming power of Ruri's monster, he had been utterly helpless as he watched Yuzu get ruthlessly off the track by a raging psychopath before crashing head-first into a building.

Why!? Why did it have to be her!? Why hadn't he been able to prevent it!? Why was he still alive when she was now dead!?

"YUUUUZUUUUU!" Sora screamed with agony, ripping himself from the ground and managing to stand on his two legs before violently falling down on his hands and knees and getting sick. Utterly stripped of all dignity, he let himself make a huge mess of himself and the building as he let out the scanty watery contents of his stomach, before letting out a few final wretches. Pressing down on his throbbing hands, he panted for a long time for breath, the pain in his chest threatening to make him black out once again.

Gritting his teeth, he looked in the direction of Yuzu's crash site. She couldn't be dead; he refused to believe it! There had to be a chance she survived. And if there was any chance she did, he didn't care how much he hurt. He didn't care if Ruri showed up again and killed him. There was absolutely no way he was going to let her get to Yuzu!

Thank you for your continued support, and until next chapter, this is Donjusticia, getting back to work!


	10. Part 1: Chapter 9

Part 1: Chapter 9 – Reunion

"Errrrrrrrrrrrrrgh…"

Sora struggled to open his eyelids, which pressed down against his eyeballs like sheets of cold steel. The second he managed to crack them open just a little, just enough to make out the blurry outline of clouds in the sky… he immediately regreted it.

As his heart hammered against his chest, it seemed to spread a wave of pain throughout his body. He became conscious of several blisters burning with heat, gashes screaming with a sharp stinging sensation, and the great thumping pain of bruises against the back of his head. With a sharp groan he cracked open his eyes the rest of the way and began groggily blinking as the burning rays of the sun scorched his pupils. When he had finally adjusted to the light of the sun, he slowly tried to lift his rigid body off the ground.

"AAAAAAAAGH!" He yelped before collapsing back onto his back. The second he had pressed his hands on the ground and lifted his body up a few inches, he had been completely incapacited by the twin pains of heat blisters popping on his hands and the feeling of a shattered rib stabbing against his side.

Sora desperately began trying to remember how he'd gotten in this position. There was Ruri… beating him to death with her monster… what was that thing? It was unlike anything Sora had ever seen before. It annihilated every single card Sora had on the field and his graveyard, and it was just about to annihilate him. But…why didn't it? Why was he still alive?

He suddenly remembered what he had seen, just as Ruri had raised him into the air to deliver the finishing blow.

"Yuzu!" he groaned, tears streaming out his eyes. Suddenly, all the pain he was experiencing seemed utterly miniscule, completely overshadowed in comparison to an even more overwhelming agony that gripped his insides and refused to let him find comfort and peace.

He had failed her. He had vowed to do everything in his power to protect her, but he had failed. Crippled by the overwhelming power of Ruri's monster, he had been utterly helpless as he watched Yuzu get ruthlessly off the track by a raging psychopath before crashing head-first into a building.

Why!? Why did it have to be her!? Why hadn't he been able to prevent it!? Why was he still alive when she was now dead!?

"YUUUUZUUUUU!" Sora screamed with agony, ripping himself from the ground and managing to stand on his two legs before violently falling down on his hands and knees and getting sick. Utterly stripped of all dignity, he let himself make a huge mess of himself and the building as he let out the scanty watery contents of his stomach, before letting out a few final wretches. Pressing down on his throbbing hands, he panted for a long time for breath, the pain in his chest threatening to make him black out once again.

Gritting his teeth, he looked in the direction of Yuzu's crash site. She couldn't be dead; he refused to believe it! There had to be a chance she survived. And if there was any chance she did, he didn't care how much he hurt. He didn't care if Ruri showed up again and killed him. There was absolutely no way he was going to let her get to Yuzu!

As his rage and determination grew, his body flooded with just enough adrenaline to help him forget his pain and start punching a code into his Duel Disk. From the side, a small compartment popped open, revealing a miniature pocket medical kit with a couple small syringes, pain pills, a roll of bandages, scissors, a sewing needle and thread, a container of ointment, antiseptic wipes, and a single fast-acting poison lozenge for personal use.

Ignoring the pain pills, which would dull his senses if he took them, he immediately set to work treating his numerous injuries. Tearing off pieces of bandage, applying antiseptic, smearing ointment over his burns, and cutting off bits of thread, he bound his gashes, treated his burns, and began stitching together his more serious lascerations, biting down on a thick piece of bandage as he did.

When he had treated as many wounds as he could bear, he removed the cap from one of the syringes and shot it into his arm before throwing away the empty container.

Immediately, Sora screamed with even more pain as the contents of the syringe took effect. In a burst of sudden energy, Sora managed to leap to his feet, and stand upright as his heart hammered against his broken chest. Every fiber of his being felt like it wanted to die… but he was alive, and now thanks to the drug, he could run.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, he began sprinting towards the crash sight, using every ounce of energy he could get from the drug as he ignored his pain and leapt from building to building. Down below, he spied numerous patrols of security in Duel Chasers, and massive armored cars clearing away mobs of unruly Commons.

Carefully, Sora evaded the glances of Security, and eventually made it to a building overlooking the gaping hole of Yuzu's crash site. Making his way down to some lower buildings, he backed off to the edge of a roof and made a running leap off the edge of a building parallel to the hole.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Sora screamed as he flew through the air. Stretching out his bandaged hand, he managed to grab onto the edge of a floor before plummeting to the ground, pulling himself into the building.

"Yuzu! YUZU!" he called, looking through the remains of the building. The building was completely empty of people, but quite a bit of the interior had been destroyed, far more than what would have been expected of a D-Wheel explosion. Looking up at the sealing and walls, Sora noticed deep gashes in the building, which looked like claw and sword marks. Taking a closer look, he noticed bits of melted metal and the remains of what looked like hardened… magma.

Sora quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching as his mind slowly connected the dots. There hadn't just been an explosion. There had been a fight! But between whom?

Ruri seemed like a likely candidate for one of them. After all, she had left the duel immediately when she had seen Yuzu crash. But why? What was she interested in? And who did she end up fighting.

Sora gulped as his anxiety grew. "YUZU!?" he bellowed once again.

She was nowhere in sight. Sorting through some bits of rubble, he managed to find Yuzu's broken D-Wheeler, but there was no sign of the rider. Sora hated to think what his discovery implied.

"YUZU!"

He told himself to calm down. It didn't make sense. Ruri couldn't have been Yuzu's opponent… Yuzu wouldn't have even been able to duel. So where was she? Did Ruri take her? Then why was there a battle? Who did Ruri fight?

Sora was interrupted in his thoughts when he heard the sound of engines engaging outside the building. Rushing over to the hole in the building, Sora looked down to see a massive squad of about three-hundred Arrest Corps officers reporting to another massive squadron of Security Officers, most of which were piloting a convoy of armored vehicles. A pair of tall Arrest Corps officers nodded to a Security Officer, who seemed to be the leader, before they each mounted a D-Wheeler and raced off towards the stadium.

Had Ruri and Yuzu been captured? Right now that seemed to make the most sense. From what he'd seen, it looked like the Arrest Corps had been rounding everyone up.

Most likely, Ruri had come to Yuzu's crash site, for whatever reason, and been confronted by the Arrest Corps. She had resisted arrest, hence the battle, before finally getting beaten and dragged away with Yuzu. Now both of them were probably in one of the armored cars, waiting to be carted off to who-knows-where.

There was, however, a bit of comfort to his theory. Security would never arrest a dead person. Yuzu had to be alive. Severly injured, probably, but very much alive. And as long as she was alive, he could save her.

Sora glanced at his Duel Disk, which was displaying the current time. The effects of each syringe was designed to last six hours. He had spent about fifteen in the building, and he still had one syringe left for the other half of the day. Hopefully, by then, he'd be able to track down Yuzu and rescue her.

Filled with hope and determination, Sora sprinted towards the edge of the hole, and leaped down to a roof of a short building on the other side of the street, coming to a rolling stop when he hit the ground. As one of the armored trucks began pulling away, Sora began following it.

"I'm still here for you, Yuzu." Sora promised as he followed the convoy. "No matter what happens to me, I won't let anything happen to you!"

…

As Yuya returned to the stadium, he could hear all kinds of voices shouting down at him. Some were praising him while others sounded ready to kill him.

"Excellent work Yuya!" A member of the Tops clapped, "Truly splendid work shutting up that horrid drivel about revolt."

"How could you do this to us!?" a member of the Commons roared, "Shinji was our comrade! And you silenced him!"

"TOPS DOG!" a group angrily agreed before another group rallied behind them with a furious chant of "SHINJI! SHINJI! SHINJI! SHINJI!"

Melissa Clair couldn't stop trembling. Things were getting out of hand! She knew she had to somehow stop this all, but she didn't know what to say.

"This is no time to get angry!" Melissa Clair desperately protested, holding back tears, "W-we've finally had a… an excellent and suspenseful duel!"

"Yeah…" she thought to herself, "…that was the right word." In fact it was STILL suspenseful for her. Now, more than at any other time she had provided commentary for the Friendship Cup, she could feel just how thin a tightrope she walked as she desperately tried to reign in decades of Commons anger and suppress a revolt with some cheap gladiator-style entertainment. There had been times when she had begun to feel the dangers that came with her job… times when the Commons threatened to ignore the entertainment the city had provided them and rise up against the Tops. She had always known that if such a thing happened, she would be one of the first to be blamed.

Now, looking back, she couldn't believe she had been stupid enough to accept what back then looked like the chance of a lifetime. What had it gotten her? Money and fame? Sure. But at what cost? Now the commons were riled up worse than they had ever been and Security was making sure SHE was paying for it! They had Aliesha in their custody. Who knows what they would do to her if she didn't find a way to fix this fast! What worried her even more is what would happen if Security lost control over the situation.

As the shouting intensified, Yuya felt his own guilt deepen.

"What have I done?" Yuya inwardly groaned. "I put victory over entertainment, just so I could get to Yuzu and duel Jack. Forget about helping them smile! I've only created more division than ever before!"

Shinji then pulled up to the center of the arena before leaping off his bike, throwing down his helmet and shouting at the crowd at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" he protested, "SECURITY IS ROUNDING UP YOUR FELLOW COMMONS AS WE SPEAK! STOP SITTING AROUND AND DOING NOTHING! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO RISE UP! STAND AGAINST SECURITY! USE YOUR POWER! GO! GOOOOO! WHY ARE YOU STILL SITTING! DON'T BE COWARDS! STAND AND FIGHT! FIGHT THE TOPS! FIGHT SECURITY! DO IT!"

A pair of beefy escorts in green pants and jackets, rushed over to Shinji, pinning him against the ground before taking an arm in each of theirs and dragging him away.

Shinji flailed like a possessed demon, raving and spitting at the escorts before his bloodshot eyes locked onto Yuya.

"REMEMBER THIS YUYA!" he shouted, "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU! I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS! YOU HEAR ME! IF CROW DOESN'T AVENGE MY GRUDGE, THEN I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU FOR KILLING MY BRETHREN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"No! You've got it all wrong!" Yuya protested, "I never meant for any of this to happen! I will help you! You and everyone in this dimension! Stay strong in the underground! Shini!?"

Melissa Clair gaped at the scene with her mouth open, half relieved that Shinji was finally getting dragged away, and half fearful that his removal would only make things worse.

Presently however, just as the two escorts were about to cart Shinji into the underground, a pair of Arrest Corps officers pulled up in front of them on a pair of large D-Wheelers.

"S-security?" Melissa gasped, "W-what are they doing here?"

Yuya heard one of the Arrest Corps officers speak to the escorts.

"Officer Santiago Guevarra." A tall Arrest Corps officer introduced himself, presenting a badge to the escorts. "You will kindly hand over the loser to us so we can personally escort him to the underground under our protection. This is a matter of public security."

"But… we've already got this under control." One of the escorts huffed.

"Yeah…" his companion agreed, "…It's not like this our first time doing this. We can handle ourselves without security poking their nose in where it doesn't belong."

"Have you heard of directive Alekhine's Gun?" the other Arrest Corps Officer, wearing a more feminine suit growled. Getting up from her bike, she strolled over towards the officers until she was standing a full foot and a half over their heads, causing both escorts to back away. "If not, then let's just say that it's a bad idea to stand in the way of Security right now. So hand him over! Otherwise…" she cracked her knuckles, "…the two of you will wish you could go to the underground!"

"Mita." Santiago growled, putting his hand on her shoulder. Next to her, Santiago was a half-foot shorter, but in terms of broadness, he had her beat. Eyeing the guards through his mask he repeated his previous order.

"Hand him over," he growled. "and we'll overlook your previous act of insubordination."

The two escorts looked at each other before relinquishing their hold on Shinji and running away. Shinji tried to use the opportunity to make a dash for freedom, but the two officers were too fast for him. In a flash, Mita and Santiago each pinned Shinji to the ground before pulling his hands behind his back and cuffing him with a pair of solid vision hand-cuffs.

"If you think I'll talk, or betray the revolution…" Shinji snarled at them, "…then you are wrong! I'll never stop fighting! Not even if you torture me! I'll…"

The rest of Shinji's sentence was cut off as Mita slammed Shinji's face onto the ground before leaning her own helmet against his ear.

"If you really want to defeat Security and free the Commons from their oppression…" she whispered, "…then you'll come with us."

"Wha-?" Shinji gasped, not sure if he had heard her right.

"On your feet, scum!" Santiago roared, yanking Shinji off the ground with immense strength. Still processing Mita's last sentence, Shinji offered no further resistance as Mita and Santiago dragged him away in the direction of the underground.

Yuya watched helplessly as Security dragged Shinji away. Shaking his head in frustration, he decided to leave Shinji for now and address a matter that was actually within his power to control. Running over to his D-Wheel, he attempted to mount the bike and drive away, when a security officer clamped his hand over Yuya's wrist, preventing him from punching down on the accelerator.

"Let me go!" Yuya protested, attempting to wrench his arm free. "I found Yuzu! I have to get to her!"

From his control room, Roger didn't fail to catch Yuya's words. Eyes widening with interest, he quickly contacted the Security Officer that was holding Yuya's arm.

"Let him go!" he ordered. "Let's let the boy reunite with his friend."

The security officer complied with a nod, letting go of Yuya's hand and enabling the boy to mount his bike and zoom away at top speed.

"Follow him." Roger instructed another group of Security officers with a smile. "If we play this out right, Yuya might just become one of my true trump cards for dealing with these Dark Signers."

…

When Yuya exited the highway leading to the segment of city across from the Duel Palace, he braced himself for possible encounters against armored security vehicles attacking crowds of civilians. However, in stark contrast to the decrepit slums, the more middle-class segments of the city were surprisingly quieter. True, there were plenty of Security officers in helicopters, Duel Chasers, armored vehicles, and on foot, but they were not hunting the more well-to-do citizens as vigorously as they had the crowds of angry Commons.

Parking his bike in an empty alleyway, Yuya's eyes darted across the vast cityscape, searching for any sign of Yuzu. He didn't dare raise his voice to find her, for fear of Security become hostile. Fortunately, as he continued to search for Yuzu, despite receiving some occaisional glances from officers, nobody made any moves on him.

Others were not so lucky.

"What do you mean my presence is requested at Security Headquarters?" A store owner argued with a Security Officer. "What have I done?"

"This is a matter of state security." The officer curtly replied, "In compliance with directive, Alekhine's Gun, all male citizens age eighteen and older are required by law to submit a minimum of eight volunteer hours of service to the state. Non-compliance with the law will not be tolerated."

"Non-compliance my foot!" the store owner snarled, "I've paid my taxes and done plenty of community service, what gives you the right to say I haven't already given enough!? I'm not budging until…"

The man's protests were immediately silenced as a group of three Security officers slammed the man against his store, slipped a muzzle over his face, and hand-cuffed his hands behind his back. A few bystanders looked on the scene with worried faces, but nobody made any move to help the man as he was dragged into the back of an armored truck.

Yuya clenched his fist with anger. He wanted to walk right up to security and stop them right then and there. But what could he do? Looking through the area, Yuya could see dozens of Security Officers swarming the streets and buildings. Most people were complying with the orders from Security, but the few who offered any resistance were swiftly dealt with. If Yuya tried to stop Security, he might manage to win against a few of them, but Yuya was certain his act of defiance would end up being little more than a symbolic gesture once Security pressed down on him in full force. They weren't even giving most people the opportunity to duel. Instead, net guns were quickly deployed in several situations in order to suppress any feeble resistance the city residents offered.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Yuya made his way down an abandoned alleyway, passing by a group of Security officers who had surrounded a Tops man and his family.

"What's this all about!?" the Tops man with long black hair and an elegant tuxedo snapped. "You oafs have no right to treat me like this! I'll have you know that I come from a long line of well respected Tops citizens! One of them was even a governor of the city! Saito Tami! Look him up!"

"Citizen Tami," An Arrest Corps officer growled, "we are uninterested in your lineage. You're presence is demanded immediately in Security Headquarters in order to address a matter of state security. Any non-compliace with the law will be met with swift and decisive punishment."

"Daddy?" A little girl whimpered, looking up at her father. She looked to be about ten years old, wore a pair of stylish black pants and shoes, a black shirt with onyx stones around the neck and chest, a blue choker with a golden crescent moon in the center, and a pair of silver earings shaped like crosses and inlaid with diamonds. Her long hair was styled into a silky braid that looped around the right half of her neck and cascaded down her right shoulder. Her skin was quite fair, like the marble of a statue, but her eyes were a smoky onyx black and her lips were a deep cherry red. Nervously bowing to the Arrest Corps officer, she twiddled her thumbs and began timidly speaking.

"Uhm… honorable Officer…" she whimpered, "…my daddy hasn't done anything wrong… so uhm…"

"Be quiet Gin!" her mother scolded from behind the girl. Unlike the father and the daughter, Gin, the mother had a head of curly blonde hair, but her eyes were a deep onyx black, just like Gin's. "Your father's not in any trouble. These oafs wouldn't dare arrest us."

"All male citizens age eighteen and older are required to contribute to public security as per directive Alekhine's Gun." The Arrest Corps officer growled. "No exceptions!"

"Look!" the father snapped, "We're not low-lifes! Surely there's an exception provided for someone of our rank!" he signaled over a servant who hastily handed the man over a pen and a blank check. Scribbling down on the piece of paper, the father handed the check over to the Arrest Corps officer who examined it thoughtfully.

"Look… there's my contribution, alright?" he huffed, "There ought to be enough in there for the entire Arrest Corps to buy themselves some new suits. So can we please… just… get on with our day? My daughter, Gin, has Baguazhang practice in the dojo, and I promised I'd watch."

"Get in the car, Mr. Tami." The Arrest Corps officer instructed.

"Thank you!" Mr. Tami sighed, heading over to the limo with the rest of his family.

"Not that car!" the Arrest Corps officer snapped. "This one!" he pointed in the direction of an armored truck.

"What!" Mr. Tami exclaimed. The mother gasped, and Gin's dark eyes widened in shock. "What am I going in that abominable thing for!?"

"You are under arrest." The Officer cooly replied, grabbing Mr. Tami by the hands and activating a pair of solid vision handcuffs.

"Daddy!" Gin shrieked, rushing forward to help him. In panic, her mother grabbed Gin by the shoulders and pulled her back before pushing her into the limo.

"What am I under arrest for!" Mr. Tami roared, trying to rip himself away from the Secuirty officers.

"For bribing an officer of the state." The Arrest Corps officer growled. "You will remain held in our custody without trial. Under the provisions set by directive, Alekhine's Gun, the time of your release and the severity of your punishment are placed entirely within the discretion of the Public Security Bureau."

"DADDY!" Gin shrieked once more, trying to claw her way out of the car. A servant inside the limo held her back while her mother plead with some of the officers. With a violent shove, a security officer knocked the mother to the ground before the other officers roughly dragged Mr. Tami into the back of an armored truck.

The Arrest Corps officer approached the mother who was whimpering on the ground.

"You will immediately return to your home and await instructions from the Public Security Bureau." He admonished, pocketing Mr. Tami's check. "For the sake of your daughter, I suggest you comply with every order you receive. Otherwise, we will not be this lenient in the future."

Shakily getting up from the ground, dress and hair stained with dirt, the mother quietly nodded her head before rushing into the limo and cradling her weeping daughter in her arms. Giving instructions to the driver, the limo zoomed away in the direction of a few buildings on top of a large sky-platform. Heading in the opposite direction, the armored truck rumbled away while the other Security officers dispersed on Duel Chasers.

Yuya froze in utter shock after witnessing the scene. "They're going after the Tops?" he murmered, "Why!? What are they afraid of?"

Yuya shook his head in frustration. The city was growing more messed up by the hour. No wonder Shinji was so desperate to start a revolution! First they threw losers of the Friendship Cup into the waste disposal facilities to labor until they dropped, then they started rounding up Commons at the earliest provocation, and now they were even going after the Tops, the very people who seemed like they ought to be immune such brutality.

Yuya looked down at the ground and put his goggles over his eyes as his hopelessness grew. He had remembered a game he and his mother, Yoko, had played when he was little. It was really mainly a bunch of moral dilemma questions. Yoko would ask Yuya what he would do if say… he saw a bully taking someone's lunch away. Young Yuya would enthusiastically say something like, "I would tell him, 'No!'" Later, as he began understanding more of his dad's teachings, he would refine his answers to something like, "I would teach them that it's wrong to hurt others and show them that instead of fighting, they could share their lunch with each other."

"How about now?" he thought to himself, "How am I doing with that?" he slammed his fist against a wall and began mentally mocking himself.

"Well Yuya, you've not only done nothing to stop the bullies, but you've probably made things even worse by single-handedly taking out the one guy who was willing to stand up to this kind of oppression, Shinji Weber."

"No!" he argued with himself. "Shinji's method wasn't the answer! It only would have made things worse!"

But how had his dueling helped to make things better? He hadn't managed to bring a smile to a single person's face. The city was deteriorating and he was no closer to either ending the war or finding Yuzu.

He exhaled when he thought of Yuzu. "She hasn't given up." He thought to himself. "She's still fighting." He angrily ripped off his goggles and snapped them back over his forehead before wiping away at his eyes which had started to tear up. "As long as she hasn't given up, there's no way I can give up either! I made a promise to her. Even if Security starts burning the city to the ground, I won't stop fighting until I've returned the smiles of each and every person to this city! I WILL do this! I KNOW my dueling can do this! There is STILL hope!"

"YUZU!" he called out, deciding to waste no more time with caution. He couldn't let fear or his past failures control him. There were people counting on him to stay strong, and he was not about to let them down.

"YUZU! YUZU!" Yuya kept calling at the top of his lungs, dashing from alleyway to alleyway he had passed during his duel against Shinji. Eyes frantically darting around the landscape, he was about to retrace his steps and continue his search in another direction, when a hand suddenly shot out from the shadows of a dark alleyway and pulled him inside.

Yuya gasped when he saw who it was.

"YUZU!" he exclaimed, rushing over to hug her.

"SHHHHH!" she hissed, putting her finger to his mouth before beckoning for him to follow her. Quietly the two made their way down a few winding dark alleyways before coming across a shadowy intersection enclosed with a wall of run-down abandoned homes. Yuzu seemed to look around before indicating the top of one of the ruined buildings. Yuya nodded his head in understanding and climbed to the top of he building with her before they both snuck into the shadowy recesses of a broken corner of the building, hiding themselves from sight.

When they had both scanned the area for any sings of Secuirty and found none, Yuya settled down next to Yuzu, and stared into her eyes, wanting to make sure it was really her.

Yuzu stared back at him with her brilliant blue eyes and nodded her head as if understanding his unspoken question.

"Yuzu!" he rejoiced, pulling her into an affectionate hug.

"Yuya!" she wept, hugging her friend back, overjoyed to be with him again.

Yuya held her close, letting a few tears of relief trickle down his cheeks. She was really here! She was alive and okay! He could barely fathom the immense amount of relief and joy he felt after seeing her crash into the building and wondering if she was really alive, only to have her hear with him now, safe and in the flesh.

"I'm so sorry!" Yuzu wept. "I wanted to come back to you as soon as I recovered, but I was held back!"

"It's okay!" Yuya smiled, nuzzling against her neck as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. "I'm so happy right now!"

Yuzu nodded her head and hugged him back, smiling peacefully as she did. Yuya let himself relax as his heart beat against her chest, appreciating the opportunity to hold her warm body in his arms.

That's when he noticed something off about her.

"Yuzu?" he asked, sounding very concerned. Pulling away from her he stuck his hand against her forehead.

"What is it?" Yuzu asked, shocked by the sudden tone shift.

"You're cold!" Yuya gasped, looking even more panicked. "Are you feeling alright!? Do you have a fever!?"

Yuzu looked down at the ground, looking like she was suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Hold on!" Yuya exclaimed, "I'll get you something you can wrap yourself up in!" he glanced over at a discarded tarp and some old bits of clothing hanging on a clothes line. Getting up from the ground, he took a step forward to get Yuzu something, when Yuzu grabbed his arm from behind and held him back.

"What is it!?" Yuya asked, turning around and putting his hand on Yuzu's shoulder. Something was clearly upsetting her. She was looking down on the ground and kept opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to speak, but couldn't figure out what to say.

"Yuya…?" she finally hesitantly asked.

"Yes Yuzu?" Yuya asked, hoping there was something he could do to help.

She swallowed before nervously looking into Yuya's eyes. "Do… do you know how I… how I…" she gulped again, "…survived… the crash?"

Yuya thought back to the awful crash. It had been horrible to see. There hadn't been clear footage of what went on, but the explosion from the building seemed to suggest that it would have been a horrific experience for Yuzu.

"I don't know." Yuya admitted.

"Yes… of course you wouldn't…" Yuzu nervously replied, sounding apologetic, "…it's just… it's just…"

Yuya held Yuzu's hands in his own. "It doesn't matter, Yuzu." He reassured her, "All that matters is that you are here now. You don't have to worry about what happened anymore. I'm here for you! I'll always be here for you!"

Yuzu looked back at Yuya, eyes glistening with tears. Nodding her head she stepped back from him, looking as if she'd decided something.

"Thank you… Yuya." She sighed. "Please don't be shocked. There's something I need to show you."

Yuya stared back at his friend, wondering what she was talking about.

Holding up her right arm, Yuzu closed her eyes and inhaled, seeming to focus on something. Instantly, with a slight ringing sound, a crimson flower mark blazed to life on Yuzu's arm, burning against her skin like fire.

"Nani!?" Yuya gasped in shock, wondering what Yuzu just did. With a sudden flash of recollection, Yuya remembered seeing that exact flower mark in his vision when he was dueling Shinji. What was it doing on Yuzu's arm? What had the woman said about it?

"Please don't panic!" Yuzu begged, holding out her hands. "It's still me! I haven't changed!"

"Changed!?" Yuya stammered, "What are you talking about? What is that thing? Are you okay!?"

Yuzu looked very saddened. "I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"Sorry? About what?" Yuya begged, struggling to figure out what was going on and what exactly was upsetting Yuzu.

"I shouldn't have done this to you." Yuzu wept. "I should have known it would only upset you."

Yuya looked back at Yuzu, deeply hurt by her last statement, not because her words had offended him, but because he knew something he had done had caused Yuzu to lose her confidence in him.

Rushing forward, he pulled Yuzu into a hug once again, refusing to let her go. "There's nothing you can do to upset me." Yuya whispered in her ear. "Whatever's going on here, you can tell me about it. I promise I'll understand!"

Tears gushed from Yuzu's eyes. "But… but how can you understand!" she half cried and half laughed, "What happened to me… it's so… it's so…"

"Tell me what happened." Yuya begged, stroking the back of Yuzu's head.

Yuzu nodded her head, tears still streaming from her eyes. "Alright." She conceded, "I will. I'll show you everything.

Backing away from Yuya she closed her eyes and clamped her hands together. Instantly, Yuzu became encased in a black whirlwind, throwing Yuya back a bit while completely concealing Yuzu from view.

"YUZU!" Yuya yelped in panic.

"IT'S OKAY!" Yuzu called back. As quickly as the dark whirlwind appeared, it vanished away. From its center Yuzu stepped towards Yuya.

Her expression and manner remained unchanged, but her appearance had been altered. Her eyes, which had once looked so bright, now had literally blackened to the color of coal with glimmering blue irises burning against the blackness like flames. Over her left eye, a bright crimson mark shaped like six flower petals and a tear-drop shaped leaf burned against her skin with lurid red light. Her clothing had changed as well. Her riding outfit had vanished away and she now wore a short black top with elegant red patterns woven into the fabric. On her back, she wore a black-and-red cape that stretched down to her upper legs. Most of her midriff was exposed, and her bottom half was only barely covered with a pair of black-and-red shorts held together with a thick leather belt. On her legs she wore a pair of black-and-red shoes and a pair of black stockings that came up past her knees. Over her arms, she wore a pair of fingerless gloves that stretched past her elbows. Depite the arm covering, however, the flower mark burned brightly against her skin, the blackness of the glove only brightening its intense red light.

Yuya's mouth gaped open in shock. "How did you do that!?" he gasped. "Wha-what happened to you?"

Yuzu took in a deep breath and looked directly into Yuya's eyes. "I wish there was some other way I could tell you this. But… when I was hit by Sergey, I… I crashed and… and then… I… I died."

"Died?" Yuya gasped, shaking his head with disbelief. No. It was impossible! She was standing right in front of him!

A tear trickled down Yuzu's cheek. "It's true." She wept. "Look!" she commanded, pressing Yuya's hand against her chest so he could feel her heart. Sure enough, as Yuya felt against her cold, stony chest, he could feel absolutely no heartbeat, even though Yuzu was standing in front of him, talking to him and touching him as if she were real. Had he gone crazy?

A look from Yuzu's eyes told him he hadn't. There was more to her than just the irrational thoughts of a crazy person. Looking into her eyes, he could see that she was a real person, who had needs, hopes, feelings, and desires.

"I…" Yuya stammered, not knowing how to continue. She was dead? Then how was she standing in front of him? Was she a ghost?

Yuzu seemed to know what Yuya was thinking. "It's really me." She promised, "I can prove it! Remember the letter you wrote to me? I have it memorized. I could quote it to you right now, word for word. Or better yet, you can ask me anything. I promise I'll…"

Yuya cut the rest of her sentence off by taking her hands into his own and staring directly into her eyes.

"You don't have to." He replied. "I know it's really you. There's no one else you could be." He looked down at the ground, tears glistening in his eyes, "But then… how… how… how can you be dead!?"

Yuzu looked down at the ground, struggling to figure out what to say. She still wasn't even sure she understood it all herself. Taking another deep breath, she decided to just relate to Yuya what she had experienced.

"After I got killed…" she began, "…I remember waking up in this awful place. It was dark and lonely. I had no idea what was going on. I felt like giving up and just… fading away… but, but I was helped…" she looked into Yuya's eyes, "…by Ruri."

"Ruri!" Yuya gasped. "Shun's sister?"

Yuzu nodded. "She found me there and… and helped me come back. She and Rin had been killed as well… but… but somehow they had all been brought back, just like… just like I have been brought back."

"How did she bring you back?" Yuya asked, still trying to process what Yuzu was saying. He knew she wasn't lying to him, and it felt all too real for her story to be the ravings of a deranged lunatic.

Yuzu thought about how to answer Yuya's question before responding. Holding up her arm to show him the mark, she let Yuya trace his finger over the primitive flower drawing, his eyes open wide in a curious expression.

"I don't quite understand how it works." Yuzu admitted, "But I do know it has something to do with this. Somehow… a… a spirit, took pity on me… and… and used her power to bring me back from the dead. Or at least… I am… less dead… than I was before." She looked at Yuya helplessly, struggling over how much like a stark raving mad paranoid schizophrenic she sounded.

Yuya hung his head down in shame when he saw the pain spread across Yuzu's face. "This is all my fault." He groaned.

"Wha- your fault!" Yuzu gasped, "How…?"

"If I hadn't left you in the battle-royal," Yuya wept, "if I had of just stayed with you, then you wouldn't have been taken away to the Synchro Dimension. You wouldn't have had to face Sergey, and… and…" he fell to his knees and began weeping uncontrollably.

"It's not your fault!" Yuzu protested, falling down to her own knees and cradling Yuya's head in her arms. "If anything… you were the one who kept me going! All those times I read your letter… all those times I wanted to give up… If you hadn't of been there… I would've abandoned hope long ago! You saved me, Yuya! You gave me the strength I needed to come back!"

Yuya grabbed Yuzu into another hug, kissing her forehead before weeping into her hair. Losing control of her own emotions, Yuzu let herself weep with her friend as they held each other close, neither daring to let go.

After a while, the weeping stopped and they just sat on top of the roof, holding each other in their arms while keeping perfectly silent. Eventually, Yuzu broke the silence.

"No matter what's happened to me…" she shakily began, "…I'll always be your friend. I still want to end the dimensional war, just like you do… but..." she hung her head down, "I understand… if… if I can't go home with you anymore."

"What are you saying?" Yuya gasped, pulling Yuzu up so she was looking into his eyes.

"I'm saying…" Yuzu stammered, "…I'm saying I'm DEAD, Yuya! I don't… I don't want anyone else to see me like this! What will I tell my dad!? Or your mom!? Or Tatsuya, or Ayu, or Futoshi!? You know how you reacted when you learned what happened to me! How am I supposed to tell them that I've basically become an undead zombie!?"

"You're NOT undead!" Yuya snarled, giving Yuzu a little shake.

"But…!" Yuzu protested.

"Listen to me!" Yuya firmly insisted, "I don't care if your heart isn't beating or if you're hurt in any other way! That's not who you are! You are Yuzu! You're my friend! You're still my friend! I made a promise to you! You hear me!? To YOU!"

"I…" Yuzu began.

"Listen!" Yuya continued, "None of that matters to me! I don't care how you look! None of that is or ever was important to me! You might see yourself as… as… well as something else. But that's not how I see you! I still care for you, Yuzu, no matter what happens to your body. Even if you can never go back to how you were before… even if you really do start…" Yuya shuddered at the gruesome thought of Yuzu decomposing like a corpse, "…then I'll be with you! It's like you said…" he put his hand on her cheek, wiping away tears as they streamed from her eyes, "…I am… and always will be…" he felt a fresh stream of tears flowing down his own cheek, "…your friend!"

"YUYA!" Yuzu bawled, pulling Yuya into a bone-breaking hug. Yuya gasped at the firmness of her grip. She had always been physically fit, but this felt like a hydraulic press.

"Uhm…Yuzu!" Yuya gasped, feeling the oxygen rapidly leave his lungs.

"Eep!" Yuzu yelped, realizing she had forgotten the strength of her resurrected body. Hastily relinquishing Yuya from her grip, she watched with concern as he fell to the ground and started gasping for breath.

"I'm so sorry!" she whimpered. "I didn't mean to…"

Yuya just started laughing where he lay.

"Yuya?" she asked, a concerned expression coming over her face.

"I'm okay… I'm okay!" Yuya chortled, still shaking with laughter, "Gosh… wow!" he continued laughing as a wave of relief swept through him. It was absolutely true. Nothing important had truly changed. They were still friends. Only difference now was… while Yuzu had to resort to a paper fan in the past, now she could probably just smack him upside the head with equal force using just her bare hands.

"I'm really gonna…" Yuya struggled to stop laughing, "…gonna have to make sure I don't get you mad anymore!" he wiped his tear-stained face on his sleeve, "Otherwise… otherwise you'll put me in the hospital for a week with those things!" he looked back at Yuzu with a smile.

Yuzu smiled back at him and let herself giggle with relief, imagining herself angrily punching Yuya fifty meters in the air with her super streangth.

"Honestly…" Yuya continued. "…you said that Ruri brought you back?"

"Yeah…" Yuzu giggled, "…she… she had gained this power before and she… shared it with me."

"She must have been a body-builder then…" Yuya snickered, "…which I can somehow see… her being Shun's sister and all." He paused, looking like he had suddenly remembered something. "By the way… you met Ruri. How is she…?" Yuya didn't know where to begin.

"She was killed in Academia." Yuzu explained. "Somehow she escaped after being raised from the dead. I don't know all the details of her past, but I know she's on our side. She raised me from the dead, and she's fighting against Academia and Roger right now. She want's to end the war just like we do, and…" she looked down at her mark, a determined expression spreading over her face, "…and I've promised to fight with her."

Yuya nodded in understanding. "And Rin?" he asked, "Where is she?"

"I haven't met her." Yuzu replied. "I know she's with Ruri but…" she paused and looked around is if she suddenly sensed something.

"Somethings not right!" She murmured, eyes widening with fear.

Yuya heard it too. The sound of a hatch opening.

Whipping his head around, Yuya barely managed to catch a glimpse of three large Security trucks, which had somehow managed to sneak right up to their building and deploy their gun turrets without either himself or Yuzu noticing until now. In front of each Security Truck, a column of three Goyo Defender stood at attention with their shields held in front and their Juttes raised above their heads.

"LET'S GO!" Yuya shouted, grabbing Yuzu's arm and pulling her away with him. He and Yuzu barely managed to make it off the roof of the building before three massive energy nets whooshed over their heads. Landing on the ground, he and Yuzu started making a mad dash for a narrow alleyway, when their forward progress was immediately arrested by the appearance of a fourth armored truck, which aimed its turret at them.

Yuzu froze in shock when she saw the massive vehicle. She had seen them before from up above on the buildings, but seeing them on the ground was an entirely different experience. The vehicle was massive, with thick armor plating and reinforced windows. Inside, she could make out the silloutettes of a single driver, and three other Security officers working at computers inside a massive control room. Operating a joystick, one of the security officers lowered the turret at Yuya and Yuzu, threatening to open fire.

Yuya and Yuzu attempted to sprint in the opposite direction, but were immediately stopped yet again as the three other trucks swiftly pulled up through the adjescent streets and surrounded them on all sides, moving with an eerily deathly silence despite the size of the engines they must have used. No wonder these machines hadn't caused such an uproar throughout the city. Nobody would have even heard them coming!

"There's a gap!" Yuya shouted, pointing in the direction of the lone truck facing opposite from the other three, "Quickly, Yuzu!" he yelled, taking her hand and rushing towards the truck in a mad effort to escape through the small gap between the truck's back end and the adjascent houses.

"Since the only monsters we control are Goyo Defender!" a Security officer from within the truck blared through an amplifier, "I summon three Goyo Defender from the Extra Deck!"

Yuya and Yuzu skidded to a stop as three Goyo Defender matierilized in front of them and nearly bashed them in the heads with their shields.

"Next!" the officer continued, "I Normal Summon Road Blocker!"

From the ground, a large metal wall with a single green eye painted on its front rose from the ground. In front of the wall was a deployment of nasty spikes that looked like they were designed to shred the tires of fleeing vehicles. Backing away, Yuya and Yuzu noticed a holographic indicator appear and show an ATK of 0.

"Furthermore!" the officer continued, "Because I control Road Blocker, I can tribute this monster in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 2, and Road Blocker 2 can be tributed in order to Special Summon the thirty-five hundred defense, Level seven, Road Blocker 3!"

Yuzu and Yuya's mouths gaped open as Security's monster began to evolve before their eyes. Opening up, the monster deployed a set of long walls from its sides, which slammed against the sides of the houses, leaving large cracks in the stone. The central wall bulked up and increased in height before deploying a pyramidal top that blocked out the sun and seemed to stare down at Yuya and Yuzu with three large painted green eyes. Massive spikes popped from the depths of the earth in front of the wall in concentric rows, which rapidly approached Yuya and Yuzu as the row numbers increased. Just like the officer had claimed, holographic indicators displayed a massive defense of 3500.

"While Road Blocker 3 is on my field," the officer explained, "My opponent cannot activate Field Spell Cards and the effects of my opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated! Furthermore, other monsters I control are unaffected by my opponent's Spell/Trap Card effects, all my monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects, Road Blocker 3 cannot be destroyed by battle, and my opponent cannot target any other monsters I control for attacks! I set one card face-down and end my turn!" the officer yelled.

Jumping back, Yuya and Yuzu quickly activated their Duel Disks.

"Atashi no…" Yuzu began before all four trucks fired a barrage of holographic nets at her from their turrets, stopping her before she could even begin a turn.

"YUZU!" Yuya yelled as Yuzu was thrown violently down onto the ground where she flailed against her bindings. He couldn't believe it. Why had they all fired at her and left him alone!?

"ORE NO TURN!" Yuya bellowed, yanking a card from his deck before the trucks could reload their turrets.

"FIELD ACTIVATE!" Yuya's Duel Disk droned, "CROSS-OVER! INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" Immediately electric shocks coursed through Yuya's body as multiple transluscent blue platforms appeared across the field and Yuya lost 2000 LP before he could even begin. Shaking off the pain, Yuya continued with his turn.

"I, using the scale two, Entermate Rakudown, and the scale eight, Entermate Odd-Eyes Unicorn, set the Pendulum Scales!" he roared, slamming down his two Pendulum Cards. As the word, "PENDULUM" spelled itself across his Duel Disk in large capital letters the color of the rainbow, a pair of monsters rose above Yuya's field in a two columns of blue light. In the column to Yuya's left, a large brown camel with half-lidded eyes, lazily looked down at the duel field while wearing a top-hat and tuxedo vest. In the column to Yuya's right, A green unicorn with a pink mane, heterochromatic red and green eyes, and blue hooves and horns, smiled down at Yuya's opponents before rising into the air. Beneath the monsters, the numbers "2" and "8" appeared before a massive version of Yuya's pendulum appeared in the sky above them.

Yuya heard the trucks fire their nets and braced himself for the impact. However, instead of hitting him, all four of the nets once again slammed against Yuzu, who had just barely managed to make a small tear in one of the nets as she fought against her bonds.

"YUZU!" Yuya roared, feeling his rage build within him. Raising his arms to the air, he continued with his turn.

"Using the set Pendulum Scale I Pendulum Summon!" Yuya bellowed. "Swing! Pendulum of my soul! Draw an arc of light across the aether!" the Pendulum began swinging across the sky, drawing a large circular arc of light as it oscillated back and forth. "PENDULUM SHOKAN!" Yuya roared, "COME FORTH! MY MONSTER SERVANTS!" A pink portal opened up between the two columns of blue light before three streams of red, yellow, and blue light poured out. "First up, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in attack position! Followed by… Entermate Bubbulldog in attack position, and Entermate Partnaga in defense position!"

A large bulldog with a soap dispenser on top of its head and a covering of bath bubbles over its waist appeared to Yuya's field. Next to the bulldog, a large springy snake with yellow and red stripes, a green star over its eye, a tophat on its head, and a white cartoony glove on its tail bounced next to Yuzu, hissing at the convoy of vehicles. Finally, landing on Yuya's field with a massive thud, Yuya's Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon appeared. Raising its head to the air, it gave a mighty roar before letting Yuya mount its back.

The Security trucks fired another barrage of nets, this time aiming at Yuya and his monsters. With an angry snarl, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon whipped the nets away with his tail before stomping on one of them and tearing it to shreds with his mouth.

"Entermate Partnaga's monster effect!" Yuya roared, "I target my Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in order to increase its attack by three-hundred for each Entermate Monster I control!"

Odd-Eyes roared as his ATK rose from 2500 to 3100.

At this time, I also activate Entermate Rakudown's monster effect by targeting Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Until the end of this turn, all monsters my opponent controls lose eight-hundred defense, also, if the targeted monster attacks a defense position monster, it will inflict piercing damage!"

Shockwaves emanated from Rakudown, slamming against Road Blocker 3 and reducing its defense to 2700.

"Useless!" a Security officer countered. "Road Blocker 3 cannot be destroyed by battle, and you will only end up inflicting four-hundred damage!"

"Ekay Odd-Eyes!" Yuya ordered, ignoring the officer's statement, "Attack Road Blocker 3!"

Odd-Eyes charged forward, Opening its mouth wide to reveal its long, pointy teeth.

"At this time, Entermate Odd-Eyes Unicorn's Pendulum effect activates!" Yuya declared, "My attacking monster gains attack equal to the attack of another monster I control! I choose to increase my monster's attack by the attack of Entermate Bubbulldog!"

As Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's ATK skyrocketed to a massive 5400, Odd-Eyes threw back his head and fired a burst of spiraling multi-colored flame at the intimidating wall.

As the flames burned against the unmoving wall, Yuya angrily stretched his hand forward.

"When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon battles a Level five or higher monster, any battle damage it inflicts is doubled! REACTION FORCE!"

"NANI!?" the officer exclaimed as the spiral of flame punched through the wall and blasted against the armored truck, nearly pushing it onto its side as the Life Points of the officer dropped to 0.

"Get Yuzu, Odd-Eyes!" Yuya commanded his monster, as the officers struggled to get their vehicle running again. Complying with his order Odd-Eyes gently picked up Yuzu with his mouth. From within her cacoon of netting, Yuzu continued to struggle against the bindings as she slowly managed to tear at the solid vision.

From his desk, Roger smiled. "Checkmate… Yuya."

"Trap activate!" an officer from another vehicle bellowed as a trap card flipped face-up, revealing a picture of a Goyo Guardian beating a group of goblins with a Jutte. "Goyo Punishment! If we take damage while we control a Goyo Monster, we can inflict damage to our opponent equal to the damage we took!"

"Activate the others." Roger ordered. "Just to be sure."

"We chain a second Goyo Punishment to the first one!" an officer from onther vehicle roared.

"And we chain a third Goyo Punishment to the activation of the second one!" an officer from the final vehicle roared. As Yuya desperately fled from Security while carrying Yuzu in his monster's mouth, each trap fired a blast of crimson flame in Yuya's direction.

"Entermate Raingoat's effect!" Yuya countered, throwing a card into his graveyard. "The effect damage is negated!"

A large blue raincoat shaped like a goat flew behind Yuya before unfoling its coat and blocking the first column of flame.

"There are still two more!" the officers countered, silently charging forward in their massive vehicles.

Yuya looked ahead to where he was running and spied an action card resting on a platform level with Odd-Eye's head. Jumping up onto his dragon's head, he leaned off to the side and snagged the action card.

"Action Magic!" Yuya roared, "Acceleration! The Effect Damage is negated!" In a burst of speed, Odd-Eyes surged forward, evading the second blast of flame.

"Goyo Punishment!" the third officer roared.

"Go! Odd-Eyes!" Yuya roared, leaping off his dragon's back and making a mad dash towards another Action Card lying on a distant platform. In response to Yuya's sudden change in direction, the column of flame looped around and sped toward's Yuya's face like a homing missile. Just as the flame was about to hit Yuya, Yuya leaped into the air, pulled himself onto a platform, and launched himself onto the adjacent platform, barely snagging the Action Card with the tip of his fingers.

Filled with determination, Yuya held up the Action Card… and stopped when he saw what it was.

Great Escape.

Despite its name, the Action Card Yuya grabbed would do nothing to help either him or Yuzu flee from their pursuers. Before Yuya could get out of the way, the column of flame slammed against him, knocking him off the platform and blasting him onto the ground while reducing his Life Points to 0.

As the flames rushed past Yuya, the boy watched helplessly as the column of raging fire slammed against his ace monster, blowing it to dust and causing Yuzu to drop to the ground where she continued to angrily tear at her bindings.

"YUYA!" she screamed, struggling to stay focused as feelings of immense rage and fear rose up within her. She couldn't stand it! She knew she could beat them! She knew Yuya could have beaten them! But they had to play dirty! They always had to play dirty! They were hardly even playing with all their stupid nets!

" _We can still win._ " Ti'ika Sara rumbled within Yuzu. " _We can still punish them!_ "

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Yuzu roared, struggling to snap her bindings apart.

" _You can't do it without me… partner._ " Ti'ika Sara admonished. " _Only my power can stop them now! Stop holding back! Embrace your destiny!_ "

Yuya struggled to get back to his feet before a truck blasted him with a net, ensnaring him in thick holographic energy.

"YUYA!" Yuzu screamed.

"YUZU!" Yuya hollered back before a squad of Security officers rushed from a vehicle, put a sack over Yuya's head and dragged him off into the back of a truck.

" _Do you WANT them to take Yuya away?_ "

"TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Yuzu roared, as the intensity of her anger caused her vision to begin blurring.

" _Stop letting your mercy get in the way._ " Ti'ika Sara growled, " _You can't tear these nets apart unless you're first willing to tear them apart! Surrender your will to me! I will help you break these mortals!_ "

Yuzu gritted her teeth, struggling to understand what her inner-spirit was saying. She didn't feel like she was holding anything back at all! She wanted to defeat Security! She wanted to save Yuya!"

"Fire some electric rounds at the Dark Signer." One of the officers barked. Yuzu's eyes widened as the turrets on top of the vehicles crackled with electricity. A new barrage of bluish-white nets materialized in the center of the turrets before launching at Yuzu. Unlike the previous nets, these ones remained connected to the trucks by a thick line. The instant they connected with Yuzu, huge bolts of electricity ran from the trucks down the line and straight into Yuzu.

"YUZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Yuya bellowed with all him might, before the Security officers slammed a muzzle over his netted face and slugged him in the gut.

"NO!" Yuzu screamed in agony as the three trucks reeled in their nets and lifted Yuzu off the ground, still pumping a continuous stream of electricity into her body. If she wasn't already dead, she was certain the voltage would have killed her.

"I… can't…" Yuzu groaned, feeling like she'd black out any second.

" _Yes you can!_ " Ti'ika Sara growled. " _Just stop fighting me! Stop holding back!_ "

"I'm not holding back!" Yuzu roared. "I'm trying to break free! I want to beat them! I want to save Yuya!"

Ti'ika Sara sighed. " _That's not enough, Yuzu. You can't just want to beat them. You need something better, something more intense, something stronger!_ "

"WHAT!?" Yuzu shrieked, gnashing her teeth together. The truck containing Yuya began silently pulling away.

" _Do you want to save him?_ " Ti'ika Sara pressed.

" _YES!_ " Yuzu begged, tears streaming from her eyes.

" _Then if you want to save him… kill them._ " Ti'ika Sara began to giggle.

"WHAT!?" Yuzu moaned.

" _This is a war and they are your enemies. You cannot protect the people you love AND spare your enemies!_ " Ti'ika Sara hissed. " _If you keep holding back like this, you'll lose EVERYTHING!_ "

"WHAT DO I DO!?" Yuzu wept, "WHAT DO I DO!? WHAT DO I DO!?"

" _I TOLD YOU!_ " Ti'ika Sara roared, " _STOP HESITATING! ACCEPT WHAT HAS TO BE DONE! KILL THEM ALL! HOLD NOTHING BACK!_ "

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Yuzu roared as the pain and anger grew. It was a viscious, endless cycle. Electricity would surge through her body, pain would rip through her flesh, and rage would burst against her skin, clawing to get out. Rather than cancelling each other out, they amplified and fed on each other, the electricity intensifying as she struggled against her bindings more vigorously, the pain growing as she struggled against the electricity, and the rage boiling over until she felt like she'd explode like a volcano. And yet… despite all the raging energy, Yuzu still felt utterly helpless in her situation.

" _Fine then._ " Ti'ika Sara grumbled. " _Go ahead and pass out. I'll take over once you're asleep._ "

"Keep shocking her until she passes out." Roger instructed. "Once she is safely contained, bring her immediately to headquarters. Until then, continue amplifying the voltage."

"Confirmed." All the officers responded in unison, before adjusting some settings on their computers. Crackling with electricity, the air near the nets began burning with heat as the officers continued doubling and doubling the voltage.

As Yuzu cooked inside the netting she gradually began to lose focus. Just when she was about to pass out, Yuzu suddenly heard another surge of even more intense electricity whoosh past her net before slamming into the trucks. After the sound of an earsplitting explosion, Yuzu suddenly felt the incessant surge of electricity stop. After experiencing so much heat from the rampant electric shocks, Yuzu was surprised by just how cold the world was becoming. Letting out a breath of hot, steamy air, she could see that it wasn't just her imagination. Her breath billowed from her mouth in a cloud of white steam as the cool air caused the water-vapor in her breath to condense. Craning her head to look through the netting, she looked up to the direction the lightning had originated, and spied a rider on top of a motorcycle on the roof of a distant building. The rider was about her own height, with a skin-tight black leather riding suit with green trimmings hugging her feminine body, and a large black helmet with luminescent green whale and wave patterns decorating the sides. Between the fingers of her black gloves, Yuzu could see sparks of black electricity crackle over her hands as the rider clenched her fists with fury. The bike she was riding on looked smooth, sleek, streamlined, and other-worldly, with a front shaped like the head of a whale, a smooth body, and a back-end shaped like the tail of a whale. The body of the bike floated slightly above a pair of massive black wheels with florescent green light glowing against the rims, and which stood perfectly upright despite not being attached to anything. All around the girl, the temperature seemed to have rapidly dropped as steam poured from her mouth whenever she breathed and ice slowly formed over the top of the building. As the girl raised her right arm into the air, Yuzu could make out a large green whale mark blazing through the black leather of her outfit. Through the visor of the girl's helmet, Yuzu could make out a pair of glowing yellow eyes, two glowing green lightning bolt shaped marks on the sides of her eyes, and a face that looked exactly like hers.

"Rin?" Yuzu groaned.

"A Dark Signer!" Roger yelped, before pushing a button on his control panel. "CAPTURE HER IMMEDIATELY! USE YOUR NETS!"

"We can't sir!" the officers hollered back. "She somehow overloaded our systems! Some kind of electric weapon!"

"No! No! No! No! NO!" Roger roared, before pushing another button. "Send back-up immediately to sector AB-122! Do not let EITHER of them escape! Stall the Dark Signer at your current position until reinforcements arrive!"

"I've had it with you!" Rin roared. "I've had it with Security having their way with my city! You're not oppressing us anymore!" She slammed her hand against a panel on her bike. Immediately, just above the handles of the bike, two massive bolts of fluorescent green lightning shot out the sides of her bike before coalescing into a green Duel Disk with a field shaped like a pair of jagged green lightning bolts.

"My turn!" she called, "DRAW!"

"Intrusion penalty, darling." A sauve male voice called from the bike's panel. "So sorry love, but it looks like that'll be two-thousand Life Points." Rin grimaced as a surge of electricity shot though her body, dropping her Life Points to 2000.

"I don't care." She growled. "I'm not letting these people get away with this any more! I'M COMING TO GET YOU YUZU!" she called to her counterpart, who was still feeling very weak from the endless assault of electric shocks.

"I was hoping you'd say that." The girl's bike called back. "Shall we have a little fun with them? Or would you rather make this quick?"

"Let's make this quick." Rin growled. "I can't stomach any more of these people!"

"I'm pretty sure I know EXACTLY what you're thinking of doing, darling." The voice chuckled.

Rin smiled beneath her helmet. "You'd be right… Yene Paryqaqa."

She slammed a card down on the left lightning bolt. "I summon the Level four Gemini Tuner Monster, Synthphonist Violinist!"

From a portal that appeared in front of the girl's bike, a monster that looked like a cross between a travelling street performer and a robot leaped onto the dueling field. Flipping her short, curly raven black hair out of her eyes, she grinned before adjusting a feathery three-corner hat on her head. The right side of her face was sheathed in metal, with a glowing blue robotic eye staring confidently down at the competition. While most of her body was organic, her left arm was robotic and her left leg looked like a metallic peg-leg. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1700.

"Let's go!" Rin roared, speeding off the roof on her motorbike and charging headlong towards Yuzu. Behind her bike, she left behind a bright green streak of light. Without a second of hesitation, she continued with her turn.

"I next activate the Magic Card, Synthphonist Tuning, and use its effect to add Synthphonist Flutist to my hand!" Expertly weaving through bits of wood and stone rubble, she rapidly closed the distance between the wall of Security vehicles with Synthphonist Violinist hovering right next to her.

"If you're planning on attacking, Dark Signer," Roger sneered, "Then it isn't going to work. Goyo Defender gains one-thousand attack for every other Goyo Defender on the field whenever it is attacked. With nine on their field, that makes any Goyo Defender capable to increasing its own attack to nine-thousand."

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Tuning!" Rin continued, jumping her bike over a large pile of rubble and flying eight meters into the air. "By shuffling this card into the deck, I Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster! I choose to Normal Summon the already Normal Summoned, Synthphonist Violinist!"

Synthphonist Violinist twirled through the air as her body and clothing began sparkling with electricity. Throwing out her left arm, Violinist roared with excitement and delight as her prosthetic limb morphed into a massive violin-shaped broadsword that sparkled with intense yellow electricity. From her left leg, a metallic violin bow shot out, which Violinist caught in her organic right arm.

"Cut her free, Violinist!" Rin ordered stretching her hand towards Yuzu. Violinist dashed forward, strumming out a rapid violin rhythm on her left arm with her metallic violin bow. As she continued playing her instrument, the lightning around the sword intensified. When the robotic arm looked like it would explode with electricity, the cyborg girl ripped her bow across the sword, sending a massive bolt of electicity towards Yuzu's netting and severing two of the cables holding her up. Before Yuzu slammed against the ground, Violinist leaped forward, and swung her sword through the air, severing Yuzu's netting without cutting the girl before catching her in her right arm. Rin whipped around on her bike, grabbed Yuzu from her monster and set her on the back of her bike where she leaned limply against the Synchro Duelist, still completely drained of energy.

"Can you ride?" Rin asked, looking concerned.

"I can't…" Yuzu groaned.

"Sorry then." Rin apologized, laying Yuzu's head against the back of the whale tail. "Bind her!" she commanded. Immediately, a set of black chains shot out from the body of Rin's bike, strapping Yuzu securely against the top rear of the vehicle.

"Let's get out of here!" Rin shouted, slamming down on the accelerator of her bike. The whale eyes on the front of her bike glowed with green light before the bike shot forward at break-neck speed.

"We're not letting you get away!" an officer from one of the trucks roared, speeding forward with the other two trucks and nine Goyo Defenders. "I activate the trap card, Oasis of Dragon Souls, in order to bring back Road Blocker 3 from our graveyard as a Wyrm-Type Monster in defense position!"

As the Security Officer's trap activated, Road Blocker 3 rose from the ground directly in front of Rin, bearing an elaborate dragon design on its walls as the effect of the trap changed its type.

"Synthphonist Violinist effect!" Rin countered, not slowing down despite nearing Road Blocker 3's wall of spikes. "If my opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card, I can negate the activation of that Spell or Trap Card and shuffle it into the deck! Go! Synthphonist Violinist!"

Narrowing her left eye with determination, the black-haired cyborg girl placed her chin against the violin body of her left arm and began furiously building up another charge of electricity as she rapidly sawed against the strings of her violin with her bow. Before Road Blocker 3 could fully materialize, Violinist swung her violin broadsword through the air, sending a wave of solid electricity straight towards the trap card, blowing it to pieces and causing Road Blocker 3 to vanish away before it could even be successfully summoned.

"Your not getting in my way again!" Rin shouted back at the vehicles as she slammed another card against her Duel Disk. "I activate the Magic Card, Gemini Storm! By tributing one Gemini Monster on my side of the field that is treated as an Effect Monster, I can destroy all other monsters on the field with an attack lower than the attack of the tributed monster, and inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points for each monster destroyed with this effect! Go Synthphonist Violinist! Gemini Overload!"

Synthphonist Violinist tipped her three cornered hat towards Rin before stopping in her tracks and facing down against the wall of charging vehicles as if she wanted them to run her over. As the distance between themselves and Synthphonist Violinist increased, Yuzu was able to make out Violinist sparkling with more and more intense bursts of electricity before exploding in a violent sphere of lightning, which ripped through all nine Goyo Defenders, blowing the other monsters to dust, stopping the vehicles dead in their tracks, and reducing the Life Points of all remaining officers to 0 as they each took 4500 damage from the card effect.

"Hang on Yuzu!" Rin called back as the duel came to an end. "Were not in the clear yet!"

Sure enough, just as Rin said those words, a pack of six Duel Chasers pulled up next to the two Dark Signers, surrounding them on the left and right. Each Security officer controlled a pair of Goyo Defender and a single copy of Goyo Chaser.

"Ergh!" Rin groaned in frustration. "I don't have time for this!" Slamming down on the accelerator, her bike let out an intense humming noise before exploding forward in a sudden burst of speed, leaving the other Duel-Chasers in the dust.

"Try and keep up!" Rin called back to the officers, holding out her right arm. Yuzu noticed the marks on Rin's arm and face begin glowing with intense green light before a massive blast of icy air shot from her hand. Ducking her head back against the tail of Rin's bike, Yuzu caught an upside-down glimpse of Rin's freezing air slamming against the ground in front of the Duel Chasers and exploding in a cold blast of ice and snow. Undaunted, the Security officers burst through the cold barrier, slamming down on their own accelerators in order to catch up to Rin.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Rin exclaimed. "What are these guys!? Robots!? Oh wait…" she seemed to suddenly remember something. Making a rapid right turn, she slammd the front wheel of her bike against the wall of a building, leaped over the building, flew forty meters into the air, and landed on a duel highway overlooking the buildings. The pack of bikes tried to follow Rin, but all of them stopped when they came to the wall of the building. Rin sped forward, passing several speeding cars on her bike, before a large blockade of Nine More Security officers, each with their own pairs of Goyo Defenders and a single Goyo Chaser, came into sight.

"Wanna see another trick I learned?" she called to the Security officers. Extending her hand forward, black electricity began crackling between her fingers. With a mighty roar, she let loose a bolt of cold black lightning. Yuzu leaned her head forward and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of Rin's lightning slamming into the center of the blockade and blowing a small gap in the wall as monsters and bikes were knocked back. Leaning forward, Rin charged headlong into the blockade, and surged through the small gap, sweating and panting for breath as she did.

"Wow…" she groaned, looking at her fingers. "…that took a lot more out of me than I thought it would…" she looked back. "…oh no!" she groaned.

Yuzu craned her head back and caught a glimpse of the blockade in hot pursuit of Rin.

"What do we do?" Yuzu called to Rin.

"You just rest and try to recover your energy!" Rin called back. "Your new body should be able to regenerate from its injuries after a while if you take it easy. I'll take care of these guys in a duel!"

"But they're technically already dueling each other!" Yuzu exclaimed, "You'll take the intrusion penalty! Not to mention you'll be fighting nine of them at once!"

"I've watched cop shows!" Rin retorted, "I know what they'll do! If we don't initiate the duel now, they'll just force us into one! I'm battling them on my terms!"

Rearing up on the back wheel of her bike, Rin slowed down her momentum until she had let the pack of security officers pull up to her bike. Shuffling her hand from the previous duel into the deck in her bike, she plucked five new cards from the top of her deck for her opening hand.

"Turbo Field activate!" she called, "Speed World Mach 2!" a holographic image of a Field Spell Card appeared in front of Rin's bike. On the picture of the card was an image of an infinitely looping green and blue trackway with shining bikes racing along the tracks at light-speed. From the center of Rin's bike, a ring of holographic energy shot out, bathing the trackway in fluorescent blue and green light. Above their heads, holographic images of Rin's head, and the head of each Security officer appeared with a score indicator beneath each of their heads baring the label, "Speed Counters."

"This duel is now a Turbo Duel!" Rin declared. "Due to the effect of Speed World Mach 2, each time a player draws a card or Special Summons a monster or monsters, they will get to place one of their own Speed Counters on Speed World Mach 2! As the number of Speed Counters for each player grows, our speed will grow and we will be able to unlock different effects by paying Speed Counters and reducing our momentum!"

The Secuirty officers remained silent, keeping pace with Rin.

"Glad everyone understands!" Rin snarled, "Watashi no turn! Draw!" she groaned as her Life Points dropped to 2000 with the intrusion penalty. From up above, the holographic score keeper showed Rin's Speed Counter count increase from zero to one. Recovering quickly from the shock of the intrusion penalty, she slammed a card into the center of her lightning bolt shaped duel field.

"First things first!" she declared, "Even though Speed World Mach 2 is active, I am still allowed to play one Field Magic Card in addition to Speed World Mach 2. I'll start the show with the Field Magic, Synthphonist Orchestra!"

Marble columns with robotic wiring began appearing along the edges of the trackway while the bottom of the track became covered in an elegant marble floor with glowing green and gold circuitry, metal hatchways, ramps, and organ pipes.

"Next!" Rin declared, "I activate Synthphonist Tuning in order to add the monster, Synthphonist Oboist, to my hand!" Swerving to avoid an organ pipe sticking out of the trackway, she weaved in between two Goyo Defenders and raced forward, plucking a card from her deck and adding it to her hand as she did.

"Next! I shuffle Synthphonist Tuning into my deck to activate its effect! In addition to gaining a Synth Counter due to the effect of Synthphonist Orchestra, I get to normal summon the Synthphonist Oboist from my hand! Come forth! Synthphonist Oboist!"

The circuitry on the field began glowing with light as it gained one Synth Counter and Rin's monster appeared to the field. Synthphonist Oboist was a fairly normal looking brown-haired girl with a black dress. However, much like Synthphonist Violinist, her body was also interlaced with robotic parts with metallic wiring interlacing through segments of her skin and three pairs of mechanical oboes resting against her shoulder blades like folded wings. A holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1200.

"Synthphonist Orchestra effect!" Rin declared, "I normal Summon Synthphonist Flutist from my hand!"

A young white-haired girl in an elegant dress appeared to Rin's field. Similar to Synthphonist Violnist, her right arm was missing and replaced with a prosthetic limb. A second holographic indicator appeared and showed an attack of 800.

"I now activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Synthphonist Rehearsal!" The trackway around the contestants began shifting as ramps and organ pipes cleared away, and rectangular segments levitated off the sides of the trackway, connecting in the air until an elegant marble and steel stage hovered in the air above the heads of the duelists. Crackling with electricity, columns rose from the corners of the stage and an elegant white curtain draped over the edges, concealing the center of the stage.

"Synthphonist Rehearsal allows me to Special Summon one Sonic Synthphonist Monster from my Extra Deck with its effect negated, ignoring the summoning conditions. It cannot attack, and it is shuffled into the Extra Deck during the End-Phase." Rin explained. From the center of the hovering stage, large mechanical arms rose up and began operating on something in the center of the stage, moving about as if they were assembling a machine.

"Using the effect of my magic card, I Special Summon the Synchro Tuner Monster, Sonic Synthphonist Adept!"

With the sound of whirring mechanical parts, the curtains opened to reveal a new monster. Her short hair was a smooth purple and blue, with mechanical hairclips that resembled computer chips tying her locks into a round bundle. Her eyes were an icy bluish white and covered with a clear rectangular visor that flashed with images like a computer screen. She was dressed in a simple white toga, which was inlaid with patterns of transluscent green circuitry which seemed to fade in and out of existence as it pulsated with electricity. A pair of hybrid instruments composed of timpanis, chimes, flutes, and trumpets stuck out of her back like a pair of mechanical wings, while her lower left arm was a robotic, with a set of built-in piano keys. Pressing a few keys on her piano while minotoring the screen of her visor, Rin's new monster made some adjustments until the instruments on her back opened up like wings, shot a pair of chords into small plug-ins located within her hair-clips, and began humming with the sound of multiple synchronized instruments and electricity. Leaping down from the mechanical stage, she posed behind Rin's bike, facing off against the pursuing officers while a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1600. Meanwhile, the score counter showed the speed counters increase from one to two.

Rin's bike began steadily increasing in speed as her speed counters rose. As her speed increased, Rin threw another card onto her Duel Disk.

"I next activate the magic card, Synthphonist Resonance, in order to Normal Summon all of my synthphonist monsters!"

In a flash of electricity, Rin's Synthphonist Oboist and Flutist each began to transform, Flutist growing electrical spikes from her bike while her prosthetic arm grew flute keys and computer equipment, and Oboist glowing with electricity as mechanical parts detached from her body, and her oboes spread out like the spokes of a bycicle wheel before creating a disk of solid electricity between their metallic bodies.

Rin threw down the last card in her hand. "I next activate the magic card, Synthphonist Harmony! By declaring a Level between one and four, I can change the Levels of all Synthphonist monsters I control to the declared Level!" swerving to make a rapid right turn onto a connecting trackway, she stretched her arm towards her monsters. "I declare a level of two in order to change the Levels of my Oboist, Flutist, and Adept to two!"

All three of Rin's monsters let out a clear sustained note from each of their instruments, harmonizing their sounds together until holographic indicators showed their levels each adjust to two.

"Synthphonist Flutist effect!" Rin declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "When the Level of one or more Synthphonist Monsters change, I can draw one card from my deck!"

Flutist smiled gleefully as she put her instrument to her mouth and began blowing through it, punching away at flute keys like a keyboard until her computer screens lit up with the words, "DRAW ONE!"

Rin plucked a card from the top of her deck and raced forward with even more speed as her speed counters rose from two to three.

"With this, the stage is set!" Rin declared, stretching her hand forward, "I tune my Level two Sonic Synthphonist Adept with the Level two Synthphonist Oboist, and the Level two Synthphonist Flutist!"

Adept, Flutist, and Oboist each morphed into a pair of green rings which aligned with one another before connecting together like a ring of jumpled hoola-hoops and rapidly rotating in various directions like spinning coins. Raising her hand to the air she began chanting:

"Piercing tone of the oboe, gentle song of the flute, synchronize now with the master of a thousand instruments! Blend your rich music together, tune to each other's pitches, and unleash a new melody! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! In my time of need lend me your power! Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!"

In an explosion of harmonic sound, the circling rings blew outward in a violent gust of cold wind, revealing a new monster in place of the original three. Scanning the field with a set of green robotic eyes, Sonic Synthponist Prodigy adjusted the positions of an elaborate set of musical instruments attached to her back, till the bells of the instruments were pointing at Rin's opponents like artillery cannons. Holding out its hand, a holographic indicator appeared in front of the monster and showed an ATK of 2400.

With the Special Summon of her monster, Rin's speed increased even further as her Speed Counters rose from three to four.

"I now activate the effect of Sonic Synthphonist Adept!" said Rin, leaning forward on her bike, "If it is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon, I get to draw one card!" she yanked a second card from the top of her deck, gaining speed as her speed counters rose from four to five.

"Normally, if I were going first, I would only be able to gain a maximum of four Speed Counters through the effect of Speed World Mach 2 for my first turn in order to keep things balanced." She explained, "However, since you guys were already technically dueling when we started, this isn't treated as my first turn, and therefore… I have no limits right now!"

She made a sharp turn to the left, zipping onto another trackway with Security barely keeping up with her as the gap between her bike and theirs widened.

"Is she meaning to run away?" Roger asked from his headquarters, monitoring Rin's rapid acceleration patterns.

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Harmony!" Rin declared, "By shuffling this card from my graveyard into the deck, I can add one Synthphonist monster from my graveyard to my hand!" she shuffled a card into her deck before adding a card to her hand. "I choose to add the Level four Synthphonist Oboist to my hand with this effect! In addition," she continued, "because I shuffled a card into the deck, Synthphonist Orchestra gains another Synth Counter!"

The circuitry in the trackway began brightening with even more electricity.

"I remove two Synth Counters from Synthphonist Orchestra, Special Summoning Synthphonist Snare Drummer and increasing my Speed Counters to six!"

From a hatch in the trackway, a petit girl with short purple hair and a snare drum attached to her midriff burst from the ground in a blast of air. Adjusting her solid black visor, she sprinted next to Rin's Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy before acrobatically front flipping in front of the Synchro Monster and posing in front of Prodigy with one arm held out in a battle stance.

"I next activate the effect of Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy! Once per turn, I can Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster in addition to my Normal Summon or Set. I choose to Normal Summon the Synthphonist Oboist I added to my hand!"

Through a blue portal, Oboist descended onto Rin's field once more, staring down at Rin's opponents with a determined expression on her face.

"BATTLE!" Rin declared, extending her hands towards a group of the three nearest bikes. "Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy can attack once for each tuner used in her Synchro Summon! I choose to attack the Goyo Chasers of three different officers! GO SONIC SYNTHPHONIST PRODIGY! HARMONIC BARRAGE!"

Prodigy smiled as her green eyes glowed with intense electric light. Extending out her hands, she let out a stream of multiple harmonic blasts from the bells of the numerous instruments attached to her back, blasting away three Goyo Chasers and knocking three officers away from her bike as each of their individual Life Points dropped to 3500. Recovering quickly, the officers slammed down on their accelerators, rapidly gaining on Rin once more.

"I'm not done yet!" Rin warned, "If you don't back off, I'll make you!"

The officers continued their pursuit, expertly weaving through the obstacles on the track as they managed to keep pace with Rin's accelerating bike.

"You asked for it." Rin muttered, slamming down another card.

"I activate the Quick-Play Magic, Synthphonist Synchronization! Once this card is activated, I immediately Synchro Summon 1 Synthphonist Monster using monsters I control, and if I do, all monsters used in the Synchro Summon are treated as Tuners!" she stretched her hand towards her monsters, glaring down at her opponents as she did. "I tune the Level two Synthphonist Snare Drummer with the Level six Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy and Synchro Summon!"

Together, Prodigy and Snare Drummer morphed into a column of eight concentric green rings which connected together and began spinning together in opposite directions until they looked like a sphere of swirling green light. As they span through the air, the air swirled around the spinning rings, which began to glow with bright gold and white light as Rin commenced her summoning chant:

"Incorporeal spirits of flesh, metal, and music, by the supreme inspiriation of the great master, become one in concert to strike fire in the hearts of man and lift his soul to a higher plane of knowledge! Strike at speeds beyond the speed of lightning and tear down the barriers concealing the secrets of your art! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Master of all musical arts! Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso!"

In a storm of cold wind and electricity, the sphere of spinning rings exploded in a single harmonic blast of multiple musical instruments. Ascending straight into the sky at lightning-fast speeds, Rin's new monster left an arc of electricity through the air as it looped around before landing right behind Rin's bike, staring down at the opposition. Rin's new monster was dressed in an elegant green, white, and orange dress with sheets of metal, wiring, circuitry, humming computer disks, and mechanical instruments woven into the fabric. Her hair was a silky golden brown tied up into a bun with a long ponytail hanging down to her middle back. A silver tiara with a large rounded glass visor rested on top of her head, covering her red eyes with the glass visor. On the center of her forehead, a large computer chip blinked with blue, green, yellow, and red lights while subtle lines of circuitry ran from the chip, down her cheeks, through her neck, and into her bosom. Two mechanical Sousaphones curled around her slender waist and over her broad shoulders, bells facing forward like a pair of large cannons. Attached to her shoulder blades, a pair of large mechanical harps unfolded like pairs of wings before electricity began sparkling through the strings. The front of her dress was patterned like the keys of a piano, with small silver bells sewn along the edges of the collar. Over her large hips, a semi-circle of mechanical drums hummed with energy while mechanical drumsticks beat out a steady rhythm. Over her left arm, a large mechanical hybrid flute and clarinet stuck out like a built-in arm cannon, while her right arm bore a large mechanical shield shaped like a cello. In her right arm, she held a large mechanized cross between a maestro baton, drumstick, and violin string, which shone with fluorescent green light while crackling with sparks of lightning. A holographic indicator appeared below Rin's monster and showed an ATK of 3000, while the score indicator showed her Speed Counters rise to seven.

"Synthphonist Prodigy's effect activates!" Rin continued, "I special Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer in attack position and increase my Speed Counters to eight!"

Snare Drummer rose from a black portal before posing between Virtuoso and Oboist.

"And now my Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso's effect activates!" Rin declared, "Once per turn, during either player's turn, I can reduce the attack and defense of all monsters my opponent controls by five-hundred for each tuner used in its Synchro Summon! And since both Synthphonist Prodigy and Snare Drummer were treated as Tuners, that means all of your monsters lose one-thousand attack! GO! Explosive timbre!

The bells and strings of Virtuoso's instruments glowed with electricity before unleashing a massive concentrated blast of harmonized sound at all of Security's monsters, driving back the bikes while lowering the ATK of all Goyo Defenders to 0 and all Goyo Chasers to 900.

"I next activate the second effect of Synthphonist Rehearsal!" Rin explained, pulling two cards from her graveyard and shuffling one of them into the deck while placing the other one in her Extra Deck. By shuffling the Synthphonist Rehearsal into my deck and the Synthphonist Prodigy into my Extra Deck, Synthphonist Orchestra gains one Synth Counter and my Synthphonist Virtuoso gains the effects of the Synthphonist Prodigy I shuffled into the deck, meaning it can now attack twice! GO! GRAND HARMONIC FUSILLADE!"

Twiriling her glowing baton into the air, Virtuoso let out a little yell before leveling her baton at her opponents and shooting two streams of concentrated sound and electricity from the bells of her instruments at two Goyo Chasers. As their monsters were blasted to oblivion, two more Security Officers were blown back as their Life Points each dropped to 1900.

Yuzu looked over at the swarm of bikes. Despite the fury of Rin's attacks, Security continued forward undaunted, as if they were nothing but robots programed to track them down.

"They're still coming." Yuzu groaned.

"Sorry Yuzu." Rin apologized, swerving to avoid a large organ pipe. "There's only one other thing I can do right now. If they don't take the hint after that, I'll have to finish them off next turn."

She extended her hand towards her Synchro Monster before placing the last card in her hand on her Duel Disk. "Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso allows me to Normal Summon up to two Synthphonist Monsters in addition to my Normal Summon or Set, but monsters summoned this way cannot attack. I use Virtuoso's effect now to Normal Summon Synthphonist Trumpetist from my hand and the Synthphonist Snare Drummer on my field."

As Snare Drummer began to transform till her Snare Drum had split into four segements and her fingers had each sprouted a metallic drumstick, Synthphonist Trumpetist descended to Rin's field through a blue portal. Trumpetist had a head of short sandy auburn hair, and wore green and brown hunter clothing with a short green hood pulled over her head and a large mechanical bow and quiver slung over her back. Her left arm was covered in a mechanical sling that looped over her neck while her right arm and hand were each covered in a long green sleeve and large brown glove. Her left eye was robotic and elongated into a miniature telescope with a trumpet shaped bell holding up a blinking robotic green eye at the end. A holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1800.

"I now activate Snare Drummers effect! By declaring a Level of three, all my Synthphonist Monsters become the declared Level! Go! Synthphonist Snare Drummer!" Rin ordered.

Over the hoods of Snare Drummer's individual Snare Drums, a holographic computer screen appeared. Wildly drumming her fingers through the air, Snare Drummer simultaneously typed away at the computer screen and beat out a rapid rhythm on her drums before holographic indicators showed the Levels of all of Rin's monsters change to three.

Slamming down on the accelerator, Rin raised her hands into the air and continued with her turn.

"I Tune my Level three Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso with my Level three Trumpetist, and my Level three Snare Drummer and Synchro Summon!"

Flying into the air, Rin's Virtuoso and Trumpetist each morphed into a column of three green rings before enveloping Snare Drummer in their light. Snare Drummer slowly faded away, leaving behind three solitary spheres of white light, which clustered together like the nucleus of an atom before the six rings of green light began spinning against each other in a sphere of wind, sound, and green light.

"Ascending past all obstacles, overcoming all flaws and weaknesses! By the strength of your resolve, fly forward at twice the speed of light and lay hold on your greatest dreams! Become the mediator between spiritual and sensual and astound the world with your opulent melody! SYNCHRO SHOKAN!" Rin chanted, slamming her bike onto a ramp and jumping into the air as she raised her hands above her head, "The awe inspiring composer! Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel!"

Yuzu was momentarily blinded by the intense shower of lightning that burst from the center of the sphere of spinning rings and wind. In another blast of sound, Rin's new Synchro Monster rapidly pieroutted through the air like a lightning fast top before coming to a stop behind Rin's bike, scattering gusts of wind as she did. Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's massive mane of smooth, clean, and elegant hair was a curly orange and white with mechanical bows and bells tying up the back into a curly ponytail while two more bell-trimmed bows on the sides of her head tied off her hair into a pair of sidetails that cascaded over her bosom like a pair of orange-cream waterfalls. Tiny robotic lights blinked against her forehead, nose, and cheeks like freckles, while her ears were covered with two robotic caps with curled forward facing ear-trumpets attached to the caps. Her eyes were a brilliant golden color, and her smile was genuinely warm. Similar to Prodigy and Virtuoso, her dress was large and elegant, with black and white checkerboard patterns, Lilac sleeves, silver and gold bells trimming the edges, and various mechanical parts and circuitry seamlessly weaving themselves into her figure like bits of elegant jewelry. A pair of massive hybrid mechanical piano and harpsichord instrumetns stuck out of her back like wings, while dozens of miniature trumpets, clarinets, flutes, piccolos, oboes, bassoons, trombones, tubas, and other wind instruments curled around her hips, back, and arms into a veritable wall of instruments that rested behind her back. The front of each of her arms was covered in the mechanical strings of violins and cellos, and a pair of mechanical harps rested against the sides of her dress, with the top of the harps attached to the top of her hips. Curtsying to the pursuing force of Security Officers, she grinned as a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 3300 while the score board showed Rin's Speed Counters rise to nine.

"Synthphonist Trumpetist's effect!" Rin declared as a ghostly after image of Synthphonist Trumpetist appeared over her head. "If it is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon of a Synthphonist Monster, I can inflict four-hundred damage to my opponent for each material used in that Synchro Monster's Synchro Summon. With three materials, that's twelve-hundred damge! GO! Brass Arrows!"

The ghostly image of Synthphonist Trumpetist began crackling with electricity. Removing the mechanized bow from her back, the cast over her left arm opened up to reveal a prosphetic arm with trumpet keys and fingers curled over a large trumpet bell. Slapping the bow onto her right arm, the bow and arm merged together into a hybrid arm, trumpet and compact bow. Taking out a group of three metallic arrows, she loaded each one into the bell of her trumpet arm before pulling back the string of the bow and letting it loose, sending a blast of trumpet music and electricity at all of Rin's opponents. The four Security officers who hadn't been damaged, groaned as their Life Points dropped to 2800, while the three officers with 3500 Life Points had theirs dropped to 2300, and the last two with 1900 Life Points had theirs reduced to 700. Yet despite this, they continued their pursuit, seemingly unfazed by the damage.

"Why aren't they falling back!?" Yuzu gasped, stunned by their resolve.

"They don't have any sense of self preservation!" Rin growled. "We'll have to beat them if we want them off our backs."

"Let me go!" Yuzu groaned, struggling against the chains, "I can help!"

"You're still badly injured." Rin shouted back, "Just stay there. I promise you I'll handle this!" She leaned forward. "Since Synthphonist Virtuoso left the field, its effect activates! I can Special Summon one Level six or lower Synthphonist monster from my graveyard. With this effect, I Special Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer from my graveyard in defense position!"

Snare Drummer appeared to Rin's field once more, a holographic indicator showing a defense of 300 while the score counter showed Rin's Speed Counters at ten.

"Next," she continued, "I use my regular Normal Summon to Normal Summon Synthphonist Oboist!"

Synthphonist Oboist's Oboes unfolded from her back before generating an electric shield in front of herself and Rin's other monsters.

Rin hung her head down in resignation. "Sorry I couldn't get us away from them this turn." She apologized before pressing a button on her Duel Disk and brining up a holographic screen showing Speed World Mach 2. "I'll put my Speed Counters to good use now. By reducing my speed counters by six, I am allowed to draw one card from my deck." Her bike began to dramatically decelerate as she tore a card from the top of her deck. "Because the card drawn was drawn by the effect of Speed World Mach 2, I don't earn a Speed Counter." She explained before setting the card she had just drawn face-down. "I set one card face down and activate another effect of Speed World Mach 2. By removing two Speed Counters from my card, I can increase my Life Points by 500. I activate this effect twice to increase my Life Points by 1000. Turn end."

As Rin's Speed Counters dropped to zero and her Life Points rose to 3000, her bike rapidly lost momentum until she was only about a meter in front of the pack of Duel Chasers. One of the Duel Chasers with a label, DC-294, pulled forward and its rider, a thin man with a crooked nose, yanked a card from his deck.

"My turn!" DC-294 declared. "I activate the Magic Card, Level Limit Area B! With this card's effect, all Level four and higher monsters are forced into defense position! Restrain her monsters now!" he roared, extending his hand forward.

The instant DC-294's Spell Card appeared to the field, an aura of red light glowed around each Security officer's Goyo Chaser, Rin's Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, and Synthphonist Bassoonist, until each of those monsters were brought unwillingly down to their knees. Holographic indicators showed each Goyo Chaser having a defense of 1000, Marvel having a defense of 3300, and Oboist having a defense of 1800.

"Seal off the Effects of her Field Spells!" Roger ordered the officer from behind his desk, "And make sure no news agencies cover this duel!" he shouted to a group of surveillance officers.

"I next Normal Summon the Level four monster, Road Blocker!" DC-294 continued. "With Level Limit Area B's effect, the monster is switched to Defense mode. Furthermore, while Road Blocker in on the field, the effects of your Field Magic Cards are negated, other monsters I control cannot be targeted or destroyed by Magic or Trap Card effects, and if a monster I control attacks, you cannot activate Spell or Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step!"

Directly in front of Rin, A large wall with an eye painted in its center rose up from the track, stopping any of Rin's attempts to accelerate past the monster. A holographic indicator showed a defense of 2000.

"Great…" Rin panted, "…and I don't think I even have enough energy to phase through that thing!"

"Turn end." DC-294 declared, smiling confidently as he pulled back and let a more obese officer with the label, DC-578, on his bike pull forward.

"My turn!" he declared, "I tribute Road Blocker in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 2 with its own effect!"

The monster in front of Rin's bike began bulking up in thickness before deploying a set of walls on either side and a barrier of tire shredders in front of itself. A holographic indicator showed a defense of 3000.

"I next set one card face-down and end my turn!" DC-578 declared, setting down a copy of Gravity Bind. "With this upgrade, now you cannot even attack our other monsters thanks to Road Blocker 2's effect!"

Rin glared angrily at the officer, while shielding Yuzu protectively with one of her arms as some Officers looked like they would make a grab for her.

"My turn!" an officer with a goatee and a bike with the label DC-190 declared as he yanked a card from the top of his deck. "I add to our defenses by tributing Road Blocker 2 in order to Special Summon Road Blocker 3 from my hand with its own effect!"

Road Blocker 3 underwent a final transformation as its top expanded into a pyramidal cap with three painted eyes staring eerily down at Rin while a holographic indicator appeared to show a defense of 3500.

"I next completely lock you down by activating Goyo Checkpoint and equipping one of my Goyo Defender with Ring of Magnetism!" he continued, slapping down two more cards. An image of Goyo Checkpoint appeared to his field, while a ring appeared on one of Goyo Defender's hands. "Road Blocker 3's effect makes it so it is the only monster you can target with attacks, but with Ring of magnetism making it so you can only attack Goyo Defender for attacks, you cannot attack at all! With this I end my turn!" he laughed as if victory was already assured.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FREAKING UNDERWORLD ARE YOU IDIOTS SMILING ABOUT!?" A harsh female voice called from overhead. Whipping their heads around, Rin, Yuzu, and all nine arrest Corps Officers swerved out of the way as a pair of motorbikes sped off the edge of an overhead trackway and slammed down onto the trackway where they were dueling. On one bike that looked like an old Duel Chaser retrofitted with metal spikes, larger tires, and a bigger engine, a tough-looking woman who appeared to be in about her sixties, wearing a black Security helmet with horns on the side and a black security outfit with blood-red spikes on the shoulders, arms, and knees, bared her teeth at Rin and the surrounding Security officers. Her hair and eyes were a deep gray and her face was marked with multiple scars. Riding along next to her in an equally intimidating spike-covered bike with a ram skull on the front, a boy about the same age as Rin, with short blue hair, a small grey headband, a freckled face, green eyes, a black leather jacket, and black leather pants kept pace with the elderly lady.

From the corner of her eye, Yuzu saw Rin briefly glance at the two riders before her eyes suddenly widened with shock and she let out a surprised gasp. Turning her head away and keeping her face pointing forwards away from the gaze of the riders, Rin began speaking to them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" the elderly lady barked. "What's a young girl like you doing making deals with the Earthbound!"

Yuzu saw Rin grip the handles of her bike. "W-what do you know about the Earthbound?" she asked.

"We know they're bad news." the boy explained. "I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, stop what you're doing right now. Whatever the Earthbound are offering you, it just isn't worth it. If you let us, we can free you from your curse and help your spirit find rest."

"Of course…" the woman growled, "…if you're bent on causing trouble, we can always just beat the crap out of you and send your spirit back on its way to the afterlife."

"Please…" Rin begged, sounding desperate, "…I don't want to fight you! I don't want to hurt you! This doesn't concern you! So just… just leave!"

"We're not the one's that are getting hurt!" the woman growled. "I've taken on disciples like you before! Ever heard of Sergey Volkov?"

"W-why are you interested in us!?" Rin stammered, still keeping her face hidden.

"We're the Phoenix Guard." The boy proclaimed holding up his right arm. Over the portion of his arm just beneath the wrist, a crimson Yin-Yang mark blazed to life. "And we've sworn an oath to protect everyone in all dimensions from the threat of the Earthbound, including you."

"Even if you don't want our help." The woman agreed, holding up her own arm. Over her right upper arm, a crimson mark shaped like a pair of dragon wings blazed through her sleeve.

"Who are these people!?" Roger roared. "Swiping through his computer screen, he zoomed in on the two interlopers.

"Hey Roger!" Roger suddenly heard the woman bark as she addressed one of the Security Officers. "If you're listening to us right now, tell your goons to back off before they get themselves killed!"

Roger pushed a button on his desk. "Who are you!?" he shouted as the Officer's bike projected his voice onto the dueling field.

"Emma Grayson." The woman barked, "Officer, Emma Grayson… or at least… I used to be. Remember me?"

Roger stroked his chin, trying to see if he could recall an officer with her name.

"Of course you don't." the woman snarled. "I was there when we were capturing Sergey Volkov. I was the one who told you to lock that miserable creature in the deepest darkest cell you could find."

Roger suddenly remembered her. She had been an officer with a great deal of experience. After she helped to capture Sergey, she had confronted him face-to-face about how to deal with the infamous duelist crusher. After ignoring her pleas and deciding to send Sergey off to the Underground, she had stormed off and resigned from her post the next day. What was she doing now?

"It was bad enough when you sent Sergey to the underground." Grayson rumbled, "But now I come to find out that you not only let Sergey get away with rampaging through the underground, but you've decided to make that freak a participant in the Friendship Cup!? What the heck are you trying to do!?"

"What concern is it of yours?" Roger asked. "You are not a part of Security anymore. Leave the security work to Security. If you do anything more, you and that boy… uhm…"

"Kyosuke…" the boy replied, "…Kyosuke Kiryu."

Roger blinked, "That marshall from that run-down village, Crashtown?"

"It's Satisfaction Town now." The boy replied, "And no, I'm not that guy. But I won't let his legacy go to waste."

"Regardless of Kiryu's… legacy," Roger replied, "if the two of you don't leave immediately, you will be guilty of obstructing Security."

"Obstruct my foot!" Grayson snapped. "We're the only guys in this duel who know how to protect the city from this kind of threat. These scrubs couldn't take on an Earthbound Disciple if it had its hands and feet hog-tied together! Believe me, we're the only way this Disciple's ever going to get arrested, and when we arrest it, we're sure as heck not gonna let it duel ever again! So order your Security to leave before they get in OUR way and end up getting us all killed!"

Roger considered Emma's words. He certainly did NOT like Emma taking matters into her own hands and potentially getting in his way, but she did help take down Sergey Volkov back when she worked with Security. Perhaps he could make an exception for her, just this once.

"Officer Grayson…" Roger began.

"Don't you try and sweet-talk me!" Emma snapped.

"No need to get upset." Roger smoothly replied, "I merely wished to call you by your previous title for nostalgia's sake. And speaking of the past, I've considered your plea, and I am willing to let you work alongside my Security. After all, you DO have some experience with this particular situation."

"You'll only get these people killed!" Emma snarled. "Back off and let us do our job!"

"You will work with Security or against them." Roger curtly replied. "Final offer."

"FINE!" Emma growled. "Come on Kiryu! Just like we've practiced!"

"Watch me dad!" Kiryu called to the heavens as he drew five cards from the top of his deck. "I promise to make you proud!"

"Please…" Rin begged once again, "DON'T!"

"ORE NO TURN!" Emma called, drawing her opening hand.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: None, Synchro Dimension Civilian / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kiryu Kyosuke / Orignal concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Security's Monsters

Road Blocker/ WIND/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated. Other monsters you control cannot be targeted or destroyed by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap cards. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step.

Road Blocker 2/ WIND/ Level 5/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 3000/ You can Special Summon this card by tributing 1 "Road Blocker" you control. The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated. Other monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot target any monsters you control for attacks except this one.

Road Blocker 3/ WIND/ Level 7/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 3500/ Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by tributing 1 "Road Blocker 2" you control. Cannot be destroyed by battle. The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated, also, your opponent cannot activate Field Spell Cards. Other monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards. Monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot target any monsters you control for attacks except this one.

Security's Spells

Goyo Checkpoint/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, your opponent must pay 1000 LP to declare an attack.

Security's Traps

Goyo Punishment/ Trap/ Normal/ If you take damage while you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the damage you took.

Rin's Monsters

Synthphonist Flutist/ WIND/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, during either player's turn, if the level of 1 or more of your monsters changes due to a card effect, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Synthphonist Oboist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1800/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be destroyed by battle. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster declares an attack, negate the attack, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Snare Drummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 300/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-3: The levels of all monsters you control become the declared level until the end of this turn.

Synthphonist Violinist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate the activation of that Spell/Trap Card, and if you do, shuffle that card into the Deck. Then, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Trumpetist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1200/ If this card is used as a Material for the Synchro Summon of a "Synthphonist" Monster, you can activate this effect. Infict 400 damage to your opponent's LP for each material used in that monster's Synchro Summon. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Monsters you control gain ATK equal to their Level X 100.

Rin's Extra Deck

Sonic Synthphonist Adept/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1600/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target a number of cards in either player's graveyard, up to the number of "Synthphonist" Tuners used in this card's Synchro Summon: Shuffle those targets into the deck, and if you do, "Synthphonist" monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each card returned until the End-Phase. If this card is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy/ WIND/ Level 6/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

This card can attack once per Battle-Phase for each Tuner used as a Synchro Material for its Synchro Summon. Once per turn, you can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can target 1 Gemini Monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon it.

Hypersonic Synthphonist Virtuoso/ WIND/ Level 8/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 1 Synchro Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can decrease the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls by 500 for each Tuner used in this card's Synchro Summon. You can Normal Summon 2 "Synthphonist" monsters in addition to your Normal Summon/Set but monsters Normal Summoned with this effect cannot attack. If this card is removed from the field, you can target 1 Level 6 or lower monster in your graveyard: Special Summon it.

Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel/ WIND/ Level 9/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3300/ DEF 3300/ _Effects unrevealed._

Rin's Spells

Gemini Storm/ Spell/ Normal/ Tribute 1 Gemini Monster you control that is treated as an Effect Monster: Destroy all monsters on the field whose ATK is lower than the ATK of the tributed monster, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP for each monster destroyed with this effect. (You cannot conduct your Battle-Phase the turn you activate this effect).

Speed World Mach 2/ Spell/ Turbo Field/ The Player who reaches Checkpoint 1 first takes the first turn. You can activate 1 other Field Spell Card in addition to this card. Cannot be destroyed by card effects. (This effect remains even if this card's effects are negated). Each time a player draws a card(s) or Special Summons a monster(s), (other than with the effects of this card), that player places one of his/her own Speed Counters on this card (Max. 12). (The Player who goes first cannot place more than 4 Speed Counters on this card for their first turn). If a player takes damage, that player loses 1 of his/her Speed Counters for every 1000 Points of Damage he/she took. During either player's turn, you can remove a number of your own Speed Counters from this card to activate 1 of the following effects based on the number of Speed Counters removed. 1+: Increase the ATK or DEF of 1 monster you control by 100 for each Speed Counter removed for this effect. 2: Increase your LP by 500. 4: Halve the damage you take from 1 battle or card effect. 6: Draw 1 card. 8: Destroy 1 card on the field. 10: Negate the activation of a card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. 12: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your Hand, Deck, Graveyard, or Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions.

(I dare anyone to create this card in Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker and attempt to read the text WITHOUT a microscope.)

Synthphonist Orchestra/ Spell/ Field/ You can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Each time a card(s) is returned to the Deck, place 1 "Synth" counter on this card. Once per turn, you can remove any number of "Synth" counters from this card: Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck whose Level is equal to the number of counters removed. If this card would be destroyed, you can remove 1 "Synth" counter from this card instead.

Synthphonist Tuning/ Spell/ Normal/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Synthphonist" Tuner monster: Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck to your Hand. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Immediately after this effect resolves, Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Tuning" once per turn).

Synthphonist Resonance/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Normal Summon all face-up "Synthphonist" Gemini Monsters you control. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your Hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Resonance" once per turn).

Synthphonist Harmony/ Spell/ Normal/ Declare a Level from 1 to 4: The Levels of all face-up "Synthphonist" monsters you control become the declared Level until the end of this turn. You can shuffle this card from your graveyard into the deck: Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Harmony" once per turn).

Synthphonist Rehearsal/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Special Summon 1 "Sonic Synthphonist" Monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring the summoning conditions. That monster's effects are negated and it cannot attack. Also, shuffle it into the Extra Deck during the End-Phase. You can shuffle this card and 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster from your graveyard into the deck to target 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster you control: This turn, that Target gains the effect of the "Synthphonist" monster shuffled into the Extra Deck with effect. (This is a Quick Effect). (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Rehearsal" once per turn).

Synthphonist Synchronization/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Synchro Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster using monsters you control. (Monsters used as Materials for this Synchro Summon are treated as Tuners. You cannot Special Summon other monsters from the Extra Deck except Synchro Monsters. You can only activate 1 "Synthphonist Synchronization" per turn).


	11. Special Update 2

More Thank You's

Hello once again readers! I honestly didn't think I would be making another one of these update chapters so soon after the last one, but I have received so many more contributions, that it felt wrong to not take a moment to thank you all once again. There are just SO MANY characters that you all have submitted, and it gives me immense joy to get to know them, write about them, and make plans for them. To put the hearts of many of you at ease, know that there is not a single character any of you have submitted that has been rejected. ALL of the characters submitted thus far WILL be included in "Signs of Renewal." To this I give a sincere and heartfelt HIP HIP HOORAY! More on some of your frequently asked questions/concerns at the end of this update, but first, let's get into the acknowledgements. (Names of contributors will be listed in alphabetical order, so sorry, Zzelmo Zzippo, you will always be listed last.)

AngeLight952: Thank you very much for the very detailed and creative deck. I have taken the liberty of creating a very special character for the deck. PM me if you would like some information on Adeel Haddad. Until then, thank you very much for reading, liking, following, and reviewing my work. It's a true pleasure to get to know you.

CorinnetheAnime: Where do I begin? You my friend deserve an entire chapter devoted to the amazing work you do for me, and all of it entirely volunteer work for that matter! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart of proofreading my chapters. I have learned a lot from you and have seen significant improvement in my writing thanks to you. As for the character you sent me, I appreciate the level of trust it shows when you are willing to risk me using a character from one of your own wonderful original works. To everyone reading this chapter, once you are finished here, READ CORINNETHEANIME'S "VOICE OF FREEDOM!" (Okay her story's not in caps-lock, it's just "Voice of Freedom.") Seriously everyone! This story is GREAT! And this is not the only wonderful story she has created! If you ever want to see two "Signs of Renewal" characters duke it out in a duel, check out "Arc V Duels Who Would Win?" and send her a request. She really does an amazing job. And this is not counting the many, many, many amazing one-shots she does! Like her, follow her, read her stories, and send her a multitude of GLOWING reviews! To all you Phoenix Guards, THAT'S AN ORDER! To all you Earthbound Disciples, DO IT OR DIE! To all you Academia Soldiers, GLORIA ON THE ACADEMIA AND CORINNETHEANIME! Thank you very much Corinne.

Epsilon Tarantula: I absolutely love your characters. I love them all to death. They are so diverse, creative, spunky, conniving… I don't even know how to continue! Rest assured, they will be given justice! I may not know all the series you are referencing, but I will do my best to do a little research, look some things up, and represent your characters and your decks as accurately as possible! Stay tuned and don't fret. The Phoenix Guard will NOT fall so easily to the Dark Signers.

FanOfKings: Once again, thank you very much for the upgrades to Yugo's deck. And I am loving the character you sent me. You sent me that character just in time for me to incorporate him into this last chapter. I was thrilled to find another fan that was an avid lover of the Crash Town arc from Yu-Gi-Oh 5 D's. For all of you wondering about the original Kyosuke Kiryu, there will be more information given about him in upcoming chapters! Believe me, he plays an important role in the history and lore of "Signs of Renewal." As for Kyosuke Kiryu II, give this guy your support. He may not be the original Kyosuke Kiryu, but believe me, the one guy who is most keenly aware of this fact is Kyosuke Kiryu II. He's got big shoes to fill, and not a whole lot of time to do it!

Ghost83: I sincerely hope you are not tortured from the wait. Believe me, the person who is most agitated by the long wait time for the appearance of your character is myself. It frustrates me that I have to tell you to keep waiting, probably for months, but trust me, I TRULY love your character AND his deck! (Okay spoiler alert everyone, the character is male, PM Ghost83 if you want any more spoilers). I have put a lot of thought into how he will factor into the story, and trust me, he will play a MAJOR role in the events to come. Until them, I truly hope you continue enjoying the chapters. Stay patient and stay awesome my friend.

Greninja: Let your heart be at ease Greninja. Every single one of your characters has been accepted and WILL play a role in "Signs of Renewal." I hope you enjoyed the brief introduction to Gin Tami. Believe me, she will be playing a much bigger role in the chapters to come. She has A LOT of motivation to do so. I admit I have not seen "Fullmetal Alchemist," (which might be considered heresy in the Anime community,) but I have looked up Jean Havoc and I will be trying my best to accurately depict the personalities of each of your characters. Thank you once again for all of your contribution and for accurately following the submission format. It makes my work much easier and more enjoyable. Stay tuned for more of your characters to make an appearance VERY soon.

kaploblast: Thank you very much for the amazing deck you sent me. There are TONS of wonderful cards for me to work with. I have taken the liberty of creating the original character for this deck. PM me if you want some information on Semal Haddad. (Yes, he is Adeel Haddad's brother). And one more question to you and Shimmering-Sky. Is it okay if I ship your two characters together? You'll see why I'm wanting to do this when they come out and their individual decks are revealed, but I wanted to get you guys' thoughts on this. Until then, kaploblast, thank you very much for your submission. In particular, your submission will help me expand upon a little bit of Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V Reira-related history which is woefully unexplored.

Kurogane Fang: Once again, thank you very much for your detailed submissions. Like Ghost83, I have to ask for your patience when waiting for these characters to appear. But trust me, BOTH of them WILL appear and play major roles in the story, especially a particular Academia character. Thank you for your creative work and your dedication to making your submissions as neat, clear, and detailed as possible. I appreciate it when I can easily process a person's submission. Stay awesome and stay tuned for more epic chapters from "Signs of Renewal."

Nox Descious: It's always fun to read your posts. I love being able to joke around and laugh with you between chapters and updates. And look, I know you want to see giant Jibakushin rampaging through the city, but this is "Signs of Renewal," not "Godzilla." The Earthbound Gods will appear… in time… when it's right. Until then, stay tuned for the appearance of your amazing character! Not going to spoil anything for you, but in not too many chapters, we will be seeing the debut of some VERY intriguing Academia Agents.

Shimmering-Sky: I love Natsumi. I love her to death. I love her so much. I REALLY want to write about Natsumi, and her sister, Miku! Her deck is awesome, her character is awesome! SHE IS JUST AWESOME! As for your concern about creating a Mary Sue, don't worry! This character can't be anything OTHER than well-rounded, adorable, fun-loving, AMAZING, and someone I think EVERY fan can root for. Stay tuned everyone, this character will be making her debut very soon.

Solphage: The wait time for your character won't be quite as long as either Ghost83's wait time or KuroganeFangs, but it will be a little while. Please be rest assured that this is NOT because I don't absolutely adore the character NOR because I do not think your idea for a video game deck was absolute GENIUS! Also, a similar question for you and Greninja. Is it okay if I ship Solphage's character with Gin Tami? One thing you all will learn about me is that I am crazy when it comes to shipping characters together and writing about sincere friendly and intimate (not necessarily in the sexual sense, but in the sense of just being very emotionally close) relationships.

Once again, if I have missed ANYONE in this list, PLEASE let me know! I appreciate ALL of you guys' contributions to this story!

Now onto addressing some frequently asked questions and concerns. I want to make this Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon clear, if the debut of some characters comes before the debut of other characters, it DOES NOT mean that I like those characters MORE than others, NOR that I like those characters LESS than others. As far as when characters make their debut, I simply weave them into points in the plot where it would make the most sense for that character to appear, based on the background info of the character. Some characters, unfortunately, make more sense to appear later on in the story than others. FanOfKings's character, for example, was submitted just in time for me to incorporate him into a duel where it would certainly have made the most sense for this character to appear, AND where it would have contributed greatly to the character development of both Kiryu and Rin. (You guys will see why next chapter). Ghost83's character, on the other hand, simply needs to wait for certain events to transpire before he can be in the right place at the right time to make his debut. Nevertheless, I am itching, just itching, to write about ALL of your characters, and to create duels with those characters, etc. It's aggravating knowing that I can't just stop time and devote my existence to typing the entire series in one afternoon, but know that I remain absolutely stoked to use all of your characters in the story.

As an analogy for what wait times might feel like, I would think of this series as like your typical abridged series in terms of length. Some abridgers are faster than others, but just about everyone will agree that one has to stay with a channel for a long time before they see the end of the series. "Signs of Renewal" is going to be epic, both in terms of awesomeness and length. I would say that with just about 9 chapters under the belt, we are about 10% finished with the story. So there is A LOT to come. Lots of character development, duels, etc. If there ever comes a time when I can't accept any of your contributions, I WILL LET YOU KNOW! I will send a PM to your account OR a Special Update in case you are are a guest who I can't PM, giving detailed info on why the character and/or deck cannot be used. I have NOT ever had to do this yet, nor do I hope I will EVER have to do this!

On another related note, I wish to give a fair warning to my readers. Because of the nature of the conflict of "Signs of Renewal," expect for there to be character deaths. I think most of you knew this was coming, so I wish to address a few concerns. For one, if one of your wonderful characters suffers a death or injury in "Signs of Renewal," please understand, this DOES NOT mean I don't LOVE your character. Honestly it brings me to tears sometimes thinking that some of these characters will die or get severely injured. Whatever happens to any of these characters, please know that I respect your contributions. Each and every one of you have shown me an immense level of trust when you willingly gave me your own ideas for me to use in the story. It would be blatantly cruel and ethically wrong for me to treat your contributions callously by not giving them the respect they deserve! So I make you this promise! Each and every one of your characters will be given the justice they deserve! If you submit to me a heroic character, I will make that character heroic! If you submit to me a scumbag character, by golly I will make that character a disreputable scumbag! Let there be no confusion or misunderstanding, I love and appreciate you guys' contributions as much as I appreciate YOU! And that is a lot of appreciation! If I could, I would speak to each of you face-to-face (hopefully not in a creepy way) and thank you for your trust and support! Since I realistically cannot, I hope that this update and thank-you chapter has clearly expressed my gratitude for all of your support. And to all of you readers who haven't submitted a character, know that I ABSOLUTELY appreciate you just for reading my story! If you don't submit anything for the story, that DOESN'T mean I don't appreciate all of your support. It is my sincere hope that EVERYONE who reads "Signs of Renewal" will be thoroughly entertained, whether by reading about and seeing your AWESOME character in action, or just by reading and enjoying each chapter. THANK YOU EVERYONE! One more time. THANK YOU EVERYONE! You all make writing this fanfiction well worth the effort.

Sneak Peek of next chapter:

Part 1: Chapter 10 – Not Prepared to Handle This

Shinji had been silent for the rest of the time after Mita had spoken briefly with him. As they walked towards the forboding elevator entrance leading to the depths of the underground, Shinji contemplated what the officer had said to him.

"If you really want to help the Commons, you will come with us."

What had she meant by that? Why was Security of all people interested in helping the Commons? They were the ones who were oppressing the Commons under the orders of the Tops. Was this some weird psychological trick? Just a way to cleverly manipulate him into being quiet and submissive?

Together, they entered the small elevator before the male officer, Santiago, pressed the button to go down. Once the doors had closed and they began the slow descent, the two officers looked at each other before nodding their heads. Letting go of Shinji, Shinji was surprised to see the dimly lit elevator suddenly become illuminated with white light, before a small heron-shaped mark materialized in the air in front of them.

Gasping with shock, Shinji jumped back against the wall of the elevator. "What the heck's going on here!" he shouted at the officers.

The officers turned their backs to him and began removing their helmets. Blazing through their heavy armor, Shinji saw the same white heron mark glowing against their backs.

Until next time, this is Donjusticia wishing he knew how to animate so he could create a mini-cartoon series featuring these characters!


	12. Part 1: Chapter 10

Part 1: Chapter 10 – Not Prepared to Handle This 

Shinji had been silent for the rest of the time after Mita had spoken briefly with him. As they walked towards the foreboding elevator entrance leading to the depths of the underground, Shinji contemplated the words the officer had spoken to him.

"If you really want to help the Commons, you will come with us."

What had she meant by that? Why was Security of all people interested in helping the Commons? They were the ones who were oppressing the Commons under the orders of the Tops. Was this some weird psychological trick, a way to cleverly manipulate him into being quiet and submissive?

Together, they entered the small elevator before the male officer, Santiago, pressed the button to go down. Once the doors had closed and they began the slow descent, the two officers looked at each other before nodding their heads. Letting go of Shinji, Shinji was surprised to see the dimly lit elevator suddenly become illuminated with white light, before a small heron-shaped mark materialized in the air in front of them.

Gasping with shock, Shinji jumped back against the wall of the elevator. "What the heck's going on here?!" He shouted at the officers.

The officers turned their backs to him and began removing their helmets. Blazing through their heavy armor, Shinji noticed the same white heron mark glowing against their backs.

"It's nice to finally get out of these things." Mita sighed, popping a few muscles on her back and shoulders as she stretched out, letting her red ponytail fall over the back of her neck.

"You're sure you did it right?" Santiago asked, twisting his neck around as he removed his own helmet.

"Relax, Geuvarra," Mita replied, rolling her eyes. "I practiced a couple times and Ruri helped me out with this one."

Shinji had no idea on what was going on.

"Practice…Ruri…" He shook his head, unable to make any sense of it. "…I don't care if you're officers!" He yelled. "If you two don't tell me what's going on…right now…I'll…!"

"Listen, kid." Santiago snapped. "There's not a whole lot you could do against us, even if you weren't handcuffed. We've only got a couple of minutes to talk with each other in private before we reach the underground, so if you want to stop Roger and his regime, I suggest you shut your trap and pay attention!"

"What are you talking about!?" Shinji sputtered in disbelief.

"This mark we created," Mita pointed at the heron mark hovering in the air, "…is currently masking this conversation and every one of our actions. If Roger is watching us or listening to us, he'll only get feed of us standing around while quietly waiting to reach the bottom."

"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT!" Shinji snarled. "Why is Security interested i-?"

"JUST SHUT UP AND WE'LL TELL YOU!" Mita roared, three times louder than Shinji, making him shut his mouth like a clam and back up against the wall. Mita smirked at Shinji's response. "See, we can shout too."

"Thank you, Mita." Santiago replied, pushing her to the side. "It's always a pleasure to hear your shrill voice."

"Hey… was that sarcasm?" Mita whined. "Because I'm pretty sure that was pure sarcasm."

"It was one-hundred percent heartfelt." Santiago replied dryly. "Anyway," he turned to Shinji, "before we get any more interruptions, you should know that you and the Commons are not the only ones interested in change. You're right about something, Shinji: this city is a mess, and it is in desperate need of fixing. But we are not going to fix this city for the better if a bunch of rabble-rousing Commons mass together and start venting their hatred against the Tops and Security. Contrary to what you might believe, they are not your enemies."

Shinji stared back at Santiago with skepticism. "And what makes you think I'd believe that?"

"I know you're smarter than how you're acting," Mita replied, looking down at Shinji with a mixture of disapproval and pity, "but you've got so much anger that's been bundled up inside, that you refuse to see the reality of the situation. So you're just creating a quick and easy villain you can hate…a.k.a. the Tops and Security…without considering every aspect of the problem."

"Really?" Shinji sneered, disgusted by Mita's condescending, oh-so-smarter-than-thou police-officer tone. "Because last time I checked, I think I had it pretty well figured out. Commons like me get oppressed by Tops who send Security out to do their bidding!"

"And where do you think Security comes from?" Mita asked, sounding like a school teacher who was slowly losing her patience. "You think we just spawn from police stations, ready made in our suits and ready to arrest people the Tops don't like?" She waved around her hands, indicating both herself and Santiago. "I came from a family of twenty people who all had to work at something just so we could eat every week! Heck! You should see Santiago's house! He lives with his family, extended family, and their extended family! You can't imagine how much of a blessing it was to his home when he successfully became a Security Officer who could provide a decent income for them!"

"Of course I could have settled down as a share-cropper." Santiago shrugged.

"But then you wouldn't have met me." Mita quipped, punching Santiago in the shoulder.

"So what!?" Shinji protested, throwing his hands into the air, "Are you saying that every single member of Security is a Common? Why should I care about that even if it were true!? It would only mean that you people betrayed us, and are now nothing but dogs for the Tops, just like Jack Atlas…and Yuya!" He clenched his fists and glared at them. "I'm making no deals with Tops dogs who've sold their souls for riches!"

Mita burst out laughing at Shinji's comment. Even Santiago nearly let out a laugh as a huge smile crept over his handsome face.

"You think we're rich!?" Mita guffawed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Santiago gives EVERYTHING he earns to his family's gas and grocery bills! Do you have ANY idea how much he's given up!? He could have been one of the best… no…THE BEST D-Wheeler in the freaking world! You hear me!? THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD! He seriously could have smacked Jack Atlas on his posh rear end, and he certainly could have beaten an insensitive scrub like you!"

"Maybe not Jack Atlas." Santiago mumbled, looking a little uncomfortable.

"YOU ARE THE FREAKING BEST D-WHEELER IN HISTORY, MR. ACCEL SYNCHRO, DELTA ACCEL SYNCHRO…whatever the heck other Accel Synchro stuff you figured out!" Mita roared. "I've seen you arrest an entire gang of delinquent duelists by yourself, so don't you be selling yourself short!"

She advanced on Shinji, towering over him with her immense height. "We're people too, Shinji! People with hopes and dreams! Fact of the matter is, most of us have had to make sacrifices. Most of us have been tied down. I would have loved to become an Olympic swimmer, or a voice actress, or maybe even an artist, but with the income I'm earning right now…that's just not happening!"

"And yet somehow you managed to find just enough cash to punch all that metal jewelry into your face." Santiago smirked.

"Point being," Mita continued, ignoring Santiago's comment, "that you've got the wrong idea about who we are! How can you expect to be a champion of the people, if you don't even know the people you're fighting for?"

"I do know who I'm fighting for!" Shinji roared back. "I have Crow, and Damon, and Tony, and Amanda, and Frank, and Tanner, all those people! They've been oppressed for too long by people like you, and I'm going to fight for these people my way! I'm not going to fight against the Tops by selling my soul to traitors like you!"

"And what do you know about the Tops?" Santiago interrogated, stepping forward. "Do you have any idea how much oppression they're going to and have already faced?"

Shinji opened his mouth, staring blankly at Santiago with an utterly confused expression on his face. "Oppression? Tops?" He gaped. "What nonsense is this!?"

"What do you know about directive Alekhine's Gun?" Mita asked, folding her arms.

"Should I really care about it?" Shinji snarled.

"It refers to a chess move," Mita explained, brushing off Shinji's outburst, "a chess move designed to put pressure on the opposing player by stacking two rooks in front of a Queen in a straight line."

"And how does this…?" Shinji began before Mita cut him off.

"Directive Alekhine's Gun is designed to do the same thing: it's designed to place overwhelming pressure on a powerful threat by recruiting every able-bodied individual as a city defender. You've already seen this directive in action earlier today. Roger already has control over almost one hundred percent of City's Security, and now he's using them to forcefully recruit every last person he can into his own personal army, including the Tops."

Shinji stared at Mita and Santiago in disbelief. "Why would the Chief of Public Security be conscripting Tops? Doesn't he work for them?"

"That changed just yesterday," Santiago replied, "though you wouldn't know about it with the way Roger has handled the media." He rubbed his forehead. "I still find it hard to believe myself, but somehow Roger managed to plant a device that allows him to control a person's mind in the brains of every single Security officer."

"I'll bet he did it during that stupid mandatory physical examination." Mita growled bitterly. "I can't believe I let them put me under so they could, quote on quote, 'run some tests.'"

"Once it became clear that his position was threatened by the Executive Council," Santiago continued, "he moved quickly. Literally overnight, every last one of us became his slaves. In a matter of minutes, he managed to overrun the Executive Council and every other party that stood in his way, and gain absolute control over the government. Now that a new threat has challenged his power, it looks like he's not going to rest until he has control over the hearts and minds of every last citizen."

Shinji's ears perked up, hatred gradually giving way to curiosity. "What threat are you talking about? Was it me when I made that speech? Or is someone else standing up to Roger?"

"That's what we're here to talk to you about." Mita replied. "Make no mistake, Shinji. The rebellion that you spoke of, a bunch of Commons rising up and putting a boot to the face of the Tops, that wouldn't have solved anything. If anything, it would have made Roger's work even easier once the Tops practically begged him to become a dictator in order to gain protection from an unruly mob."

She stepped forward. "But we've met someone who can do more than offer up symbolic resistance. She not only has the power to crush Roger and free this city from his regime, but a plan to replace this regime with a better government."

"What government?" Shinji asked, looking up at Mita with a mixture of curiosity and incredulity. "Who is she?"

Mita smiled. "You'd never believe it, but she's a fourteen-year-old girl named Ruri Kurosaki."

Shinji blinked, wondering where he had heard the name before. Suddenly, in a flash of recognition, Shinji was able to connect the name, "Kurosaki," to the Xyz-using duelist who had mercilessly crushed the duelist, Dennis Macfield.

"Shun's sister?" Shinji gasped. "You're following Shun's sister!? How!? Why!?"

He didn't know where to begin. Wasn't she captured, according to Shun and Dennis's story? How did she end up here? Why would anybody follow her?

Santiago seemed to understand some of Shinji's questions. "I was hesitant myself." He explained, turning around to show Shinji the mark on his back, "but ever since I joined her cause in order to bring order back to this city, I've been sharing in her thoughts. She has big plans for us. Plans which, if they were successfully carried out, could mean us building a city where there were no Tops, no Commons, and no need for Security! It's hard to describe, but...now that I've begun working with her, it's almost like my…faith in her is increasing."

He turned back around to face Shinji, standing proudly at his full height. "I made an oath to defend this city against any domestic threat, including my superiors. And with Ruri's leadership, I know I can do just that!"

Shinji stared back at Santiago and Mita, a calculating look coming over his face. "So where am I placed into this? Why are you so interested in me?"

"Your voice can be a powerful asset in bringing about true change." Mita explained. "You've already shown your leadership skills during your duels in the Friendship Cup. Ruri wishes to extend to you the offer to become a leader in the revolution, only this time, it's going to be a true revolution, not just a violent purge against the Tops. If you join us, Ruri and her supporters can give you the power to overthrow Roger before he permanently cements his control over the city. You'll become a hero, and you, Crow, Damon Lopez, Tony Simmons, Frank, Amanda, Tanner, and millions more Tops and Commons will be free to build a better city."

Shinji carefully considered their words, glancing at the elevator. He could see that they had nearly reached the bottom.

"And what makes you think I can trust ANYTHING you two have said?" Shinji growled.

"We figured you'd say that." Mita shrugged.

Santiago stepped forward, pulling a pair of cards from his pocket and handing them to Shinji. Cautiously, Shinji took them from Santiago and examined them, eyes widening with confusion as he did. The first card looked like a fairly normal Insect-Type monster, but its label read, "Dark Tuner," something that Shinji wasn't familiar with.

The second card was a deep black like an Xyz Monster, but instead of black-and-gold Stars on the left side of the card, it had a set of ten dark blue stars on the left side and a label reading, "Dark Synchro" over the card text.

"Earthbound Disciple Geo Ah-Muzen-Cab?" Shinji asked, staring at the card in growing perplexity. Reading through the effect, he let out an involuntary gasp. The card was powerful…very powerful.

"We'll be arriving at the labor facility soon." Santiago sighed. "Some of Ruri's representatives will be coming to free the Commons in the Underground Labor Facility before Roger manages to recruit you all into his army. Perhaps you'll be convinced when you see them in action.

"That," he pointed to the two cards Shinji had been given, "is a special gift for you. Should you join our cause, both those cards will bond with you and become an instrument for bringing about revolution."

"We're here." Mita warned, putting on her helmet.

"Which means we're gone." Santiago sighed, slamming down his own helmet while indicating Shinji ought to hide his cards.

Just as they came to a stop, Shinji pocketed his cards while Santiago erased the mark in the air before the marks on each of their backs rapidly faded away. Giving Shinji a rough shove, they forced the still confused boy into the facility.

"Report to registration at once." Santiago growled in a robotic voice, indicating a line of shabbily-dressed laborers. Nodding his head, Shinji obediently began shambling towards the line of dispirited workers as Mita and Santiago exited the facility up the elevator shaft.

Strangely, while Shinji could feel the immense atmosphere of despair and defeat from the inhabitants of the facility, he felt strangely confident as he felt the two cards resting inside his pocket.

"Take heart, everyone," he whispered, clenching his fist with determination. "You will all soon be free!"

…

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" Emma's bike announced as a surge of electricity coursed through Emma's body, making the old woman grimace as her Life Points dropped to 2000.

"You okay?" Kiryu called, looking concerned.

"I'm fine, Junior!" Emma snapped, yanking a card from her hand. "Nothing like a little electric shock to get the old pacemaker going! And speaking of heart attacks, I'd like to see you keep your composure after this, little lady! I start by activating the magic card, Styx Riders!"

A holographic magic card appeared to Emma's field as the gang of duelists dodged around the obstacles on the track-way. On the picture of the magic card, a swarm of demonic motorcyclists who looked like a cross between police officers and biker gangsters rode along a raging black river flowing across a flaming landscape that looked exactly like Hell.

"Here's how it works, in case you've never heard of it!" Emma sneered, "For the rest of this turn, I can't attack with monsters whose Levels are higher than five, but you, on the other hand, don't get to activate cards or effects in response to the activation or effects of any of my Stygian cards!"

"Stygian?" Rin asked.

"And I just keep getting reminded of how old I am." Emma frowned. "Yes little lady, Stygian! The cards we used to use before all this Goyo stuff became mainstream." She sighed before taking a card from her deck and placing it in the graveyard. "Its second effect allows me to send one Stygian monster from my deck to the graveyard in order to Special Summon a Stygian monster from my hand! I send the Level four monster, Stygian Street Patrol to the graveyard for this effect, so you can say hello to this loose cannon!" she laughed, slapping a card onto her bike. "You have the right to remain silent… PERMANANTLY! Send her back into the ground where she belongs! Stygian Gun Slinger!"

Roaring through the opening of a blue portal, a demonic police officer riding a flaming black motorbike raced onto the track-way, kicking up asphalt and firing a pair of revolvers into the air while laughing like a maniac. The demon had a bright red afro and handle-bar mustache, wore a pair of thick sunglasses, and had a pair of ram horns curling over the sides of his head. Cocking his pistols at Rin, the demon smiled confidently as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 800.

Level Limit Area B began glowing with orange light the second Emma's monster was summoned. In an instant, the same orange aura of light surrounded Stygian Gun Slinger, forcing him into defense position while a holographic indicator showed a DEF of 1900.

"Stupid Magic Card." Emma muttered. "I can't believe Security's still using it! That thing helped more criminals get away than it allowed us to capture!"

"It's still your turn." Kiryu reminded Emma, pulling up alongside her bike.

"Quiet Junior, I was getting to that!" Emma coughed.

"My name's not Junior." Kiryu grumbled, pulling back a little ways.

"It is when I'm pissed!" Emma snapped. "Now then… where was I… oh yeah! Stygian Gun Slinger's effect still activates! Since it was summoned, I can Special Summon one Level four or lower Fiend-Type Monster from my hand, but I can only use this effect once per turn! So come on out! Let's double our fire-power with a second Stygian Gun Slinger in defense mode!"

A second biker joined Emma, riding alongside her and her other Stygian Gun Slinger in a V-shaped formation.

"But don't even think I'm close to done yet, missy!" Emma roared, "I next banish the Stygian Street Patrol in my graveyard, in order to Special Summon the Level one monster, Stygian Tracker!"

A scrawny demon riding a smaller bike appeared to Emma's field. Its helmet looked like an oversized skull with a blinking police light on top and a pair of glowing eyes that shone like spot-lights. On the front of its bike, a large light shone like a flashlight while the rear of the bike sported antennae and radio equipment. Leveling a high-tech pistol with a laser targeting system, the demon snarled at Rin while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 600.

"Stygian Tracker doubles any effect damage you take!" Emma explained, "And since you can't negate any of my Stygian Monster's effects thanks to Styx Riders, you're about to take a whole lot of damage unless you pull over, release the hostage you have at the back of your bike, and prey to whatever gods you believe in that your soul will find rest!"

"Emma!" Rin called back, sounding like she was in deep agony.

"What was that!?" Emma barked. "Are you surrendering!? Pull over and make a complete stop right now if you are!"

"Emma, Kiryu… I-…" from her position, Yuzu noticed a tear drop drip from Rin's chin. Keeping her face hidden from the new contestants, Rin clenched both her fists and continued to address them, not slowing down despite Emma's warning.

"Look… Emma…" Rin began, "…you're making a mistake. I don't want to hurt you or anyone! Especially not you or Kiryu!"

Kiryu looked over at the Earthbound rider. There was something strange about her. Something in what she was saying. It was almost like she… knew them.

"If you really don't want to hurt anyone then pull over!" Emma shouted. "Show me you're not just another mindless demon I have to put down!"

Yuzu saw light come from Rin's marks. Throwing back her head, Rin suddenly let out a condescending laugh.

"Sorry, darling…" Rin snickered. Yuzu's eyes widened when she heard her voice. She could still hear Rin speaking, but there was a second voice that had synchronized with Rin's own voice, one that sounded more suave and male. "…but we can't be ending the duel just yet! What sort of ending would that make! No…" she laughed some more, "…such a fabulous duel deserves a fabulous conclusion! And what a treat it is to duel against servants of my best friend, Quetzalcoatl! Why my dear, it would be absolutely rude to not give you fine duelists the glorious ending you deserve! So no… Emma dear. Let's not ruin the beauty of this moment with such a BORING conclusion!"

Emma's face darkened. "That's not the voice of someone who's free from possession." She growled. "You leave me no choice, demon! Get out of her soul or I'll make you leave!"

Rin gave a violent cough in response, head almost slamming against the hood of her bike as she did. "Stop it… Yene…" Rin weakly groaned in her normal voice. "Just help me… protect Yuzu… for now."

"You leave me no choice." Emma sighed, stretching her hand towards her monsters. "I activate Stygian Gun Slinger's effect! Once per turn, I can change the Level of one Level five or lower Fiend-Type monster I control to one in order to inflict damage to my opponent equal to the difference between its new Level and original Level times one-hundred! I reduce Stygian Gun Slinger's own Level to one in order to inflict three-hundred damage to you! And with Stygian Tracker on the field, that damage is doubled! Go! Roulette Rogue!"

"Hang on Yuzu!" Rin called as Stygian Gun Slinger loaded a round of bullets into his revolvers before spinning the cartridge around and leveling both weapons at Rin. Rearing up on her back wheel, Rin zoomed forward, before spinning the body of the bike around, shielding herself from the hailstorm of bullets that poured from Stygian Gun Slinger's pistols as the gang of bikes zoomed past her. Slamming her front wheel back onto the ground, Rin pressed down on the accelerator, looped around, and managed to retake the lead as her Life Points dropped to 2400.

As Rin passed by Kiryu, Kiryu's eyes suddenly widened when he caught a brief glimpse of her face. He stared down at the biker's bike, trying to identify who she was, but he couldn't place any familiar names or faces. And yet… Kiryu had the sinking feeling that he somehow knew her.

"I activate the effect of my second Gun Slinger!" Emma declared, "I reduce its Level to one in order to inflict six-hundred more damage to your life points! Roulette Rogue!"

Rin let out a war cry as she once again pulled a wheelie in order to shield herself and her passenger from the bullets. As her Life Points dropped to 1800 from Gun Slinger's furious onslaught, she once again looped around and passed by Kiryu's bike. Kiryu was ready for her this time, and took a good hard look at the face beneath the helmet. Time seemed to slow down as he recognized her… a girl he would sometimes see when he visited Yugo at the orphanage.

"No!" he gasped, "Rin?"

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted when he noticed he was nearing a large Organ Pipe. Swerving to the left, he nearly ran into Emma's monsters as he swerved to avoid the obstacle.

"Hey! Watch it!" Emma scolded, moving her own bike to the left to avoid a collision.

"I'm sorry!" Kiryu gasped, steadying his bike.

"Just watch the road and I'll take care of the rest!" Emma ordered, pulling another card from her hand. "Now that I've changed the Levels of my monsters, it's time for me to execute my real plan! Level Limit Area B prevents any Level four or higher monsters from attacking, but Level three monsters are free to have at it! I Normal Summon the Tuner Monster, Stygian Security from my hand!"

Through a blue portal, a small reptilian demon with a pair of bat wings, a police light on its head, and a megaphone in its hand appeared to Emma's field. Holographic indicators showed an ATK of 100 and a Level of one.

Emma extended her hand towards her monsters. "I tune the Level one Stygian Security to my two Level one Stygian Gun Slingers and Synchro Summon!" Roaring forward, Emma's two Stygian Gun Slingers raced forward while Stygian Security zipped past them before morphing into a single green ring of light. Enveloping the two Stygian Gun Slingers in its light, the two monsters faded away into an orange outline of themselves before transforming into a pair of white spheres while Emma began her chant:

"Lone rider of the lawless hell, take justice into your own hands and become a hero for the defenseless! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Ride into battle! Level three! Stygian Street Vigilante!"

In an explosion of dynamite, Emma's monster soared through the air before landing on the lane in a sleek, cherry-red-and-black motorbike with feminine pink highlights, wicked metal spikes protruding from the body and wheel rims, and red-hot chains wrapped around the coal-black tires. The rider of the bike was a female demon with a pair of long goat horns protruding from her forehead, fiery red hair flowing from the right side of her head while the left side of her head was shaved and covered in tattoos, a black bandana around her nose, chin, and mouth, spikey black leather armor, and a crimson red demon tail. Whipping out a long chain with a spike at the end, she began twirling the weapon above her head like a lasso while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1300.

"Just like we practiced Kiryu!" Emma called. "I now activate Street Vigilante's effect, I can discard any number of Fiend-Type monsters from my hand in order to increase its ATK by 200 for each monster discarded with this effect! Let's do this, Kiryu!"

"Mom, there's something that…" Kiryu protested.

"Focus on the duel!" Emma interrupted. "Don't let the Earthbound get into your head! The only way to help this girl out is to get rid of whatever spirit is possessing her, even if it means killing her! It's what your father, Kiryu Senior, would have done for her!"

Kiryu looked over at Emma and back at Rin before looking down at his cards, the cards his hero… no… his father, Kiryu, had given him. He'd had no future as an orphan boy living in the slums until the legendary duelist and Marshall of Satisfaction Town had saved him and adopted him as his own. When he lost Kiryu, Emma and her husband, Enoch, were the ones who later took care of him. Even if that rider was really Rin, the last thing he could do now was let his family down! For the sake of his family, and for the sake of Rin, he had to stop whatever demon was possessing her!

Kiryu pulled three cards from his hand and displayed them to the other riders.

"I send the Fiend-Type monsters, Infernity Bishop, Infernity Avenger, and Infernity Sniper to my graveyard in order to increase Stygian Street Vigilante's attack power by six-hundred!"

Three monsters appeared to Kiryu's field before sinking into the graveyard. Infernity Bishop looked very much like a church clergyman, with a white beard, black and orange armor, a white apron, and a large book in his hand. Infernity Avenger looked like a miniature undead cowboy with two pistols in his hands and a large cowboy hat over his head. The third monster, Infernity Sniper, looked like a ghostly Mexican rifleman wearing a Dia de los Muertos mask over his face, a large black sombrero over his head, a semi-transparent grey-and-orange poncho, and several belts of sniper ammunition over his chest and shoulders. In his hands, he carried a large Sniper Rifle with a massive suppressor at the end.

"The rest of you worthless maggots better do the same!" Emma barked to the other Security officers, "My deck might be outdated, but I know Security still runs Stygian Security! So cough em up!"

From the control room, Roger considered Emma's demand. Deciding that Emma's victory against Rin would work to his advantage, he pressed a button on the control panel. "Do as she says." He ordered, "Assist ex-officer Grayson in powering up her monster, and prepare to take down both her and Kiryu after she defeats the Dark Signer."

"I send Stygian Security from my hand to the graveyard!" an Officer with the label, DC-468 declared.

"I send Battle Fader to the graveyard!" another officer labeled DC-467 joined in.

"Holding Legs." DC-289 contributed. Three other officers, DC-837, 237, and 019 each held up their own cards.

"Holding Arms."

"Stygian Street Patrol."

"Trap Eater."

Once each of them had made their contributions, Stygian Street Vigilante let loose a mighty roar as her ATK rose to 3100.

"With Road Blocker 3 on the field, you can't activate any Magic or Trap Cards when we attack. Go! Stygian Street Vigilante!" Emma ordered, "Attack her Synthphonist Snare Drummer!"

Stygian Street Vigilante began swinging her chain into the air before launching its spikey end towards Rin's petit monster.

"Synthphonist Oboist's effect!" Rin countered, holding out her hand. "If a monster declares an attack, I negate the attack and can then reduce the Level of one of my monsters by one!"

Leaping forward, Synthphonist Oboist projected an electric shield in front of herself and Snare Drummer, blasting back Street Vigilante's chains the moment they made contact and administering a mild electric shock to Emma's monster.

"Crap nugget on a biscuit with… ERG!" Emma growled, slamming her fist against her bike.

"I'll next use my monster's effect to reduce my Snare Drummer's level to one." Rin continued, ignoring Emma's frustration.

"Well I'm not done either, missy!" Emma barked, throwing down her last card. "I activate the continuous Magic Card, Pure Earth!"

A new magic card appeared to Emma's field. From its face, an immense amount of white light radiated outwards, nearly obscuring its picture, which depicted a crimson, dragon-shaped mark suspended in a pillar of light. As the Magic Card activated, both Rin and Yuzu began groaning with pain.

"Here's how it works." Emma explained. "I start by targeting my monster, Stygian Street Vigilante."

Street Vigilante began glowing with white light before the same crimson dragon-shaped mark depicted on the card appeared over her back.

"Now as long as my monster is on the field, if you would summon a monster with a negative Level, or Summon a Level ten or higher DARK monster, I can negate that summon and banish both that monster and Pure Earth! In addition, the player who summoned that monster has their Life Points halved! So go ahead and call in your Disciple! I'd just love to watch that thing burn!" She nodded her head to Kiryu. "She's all yours now. Remember your training, and like Jack says, DO NOT HESITATE!"

"I won't." Kiryu resolved, placing his hand on top of his deck. "BOKU NO TURN!" he declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck.

"INTRUSTION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

Kiryu quickly shrugged off the Life Point loss and proceeded with his turn.

"I'm sorry, Yugo." He silently prayed, "Please forgive me. I promise that whoever did this to your friend will pay!"

He quickly skimmed through the cards in his hand, a grim expression coming over his face. "I can't attack her with Oboist on the field." He thought to himself. "And any of the Level four or higher monsters I summon will be switched to defense mode thanks to Level Limit Area B. That means that the only way to end this is with effect damage."

"I activate the Magic Card, Infernity Deal!" he began, slapping down a spell card. "This card enables me to send one Infernity monster from my deck to the graveyard, in exchange for being allowed to draw one card, however, my entire hand will be sent to the graveyard during the End-Phase of this turn." A card popped out of Kiryu's deck, which he quickly transported to the graveyard. "I send the monster, Infernity Bomber, to my graveyard in order to draw one card!"

As Kiryu drew his card, a large zombie-like man with long hair, a moustache, barrels of gunpowder strapped to his shoulders, and bundles of TNT in each hand descended into his graveyard, giving out a slow, deep, and mischievous laugh as he did.

"I next set the card I just drew, and summon Infernity Necromancer from my hand!"

A ghostly, skeletal monster dressed in a ragged purple cape descended to Kiryu's field. Stretching out its bony arms, it pulled down its hood, revealing a skeletal face that looked like a Ram skull with green hair.

"Infernity Necromancer's effect switches it to defense position when it is Normal Summoned." Kiryu explained as Necromancer crossed its bony arms over its chest. A holographic indicator appeared to show a Level of three and a DEF of 2000.

"Next," Kiryu continued, jumping over an open hatchway, "Since I control an Infernity Monster, I can Special Summon the Level one Tuner monster, Infernity Ghost from my hand!"

Kicking up a cloud of dust, Infernity Ghost slowly materialized to Kiryu's field. In terms of appearance, the monster looked like a ghostly cowboy with a ragged hat and cape, torn shirts and jeans, and worn out cowboy boots. Its body had wasted away to a skeleton and its skull had a tomahawk sticking out of the cracked forehead. Inside its skull eyes, a pair of miniature candles illuminated the interior of its skull, giving it the appearance of a glowing jack-o-lantern. A holographic indicator showed an ATK of 0.

"Now to finish this!" Kiryu declared, extending his hand towards his monsters. "Since I have no cards in my hand, Infernity Necromancer's effect activates! So say hello to Infernity Sniper!"

Infernity Necromancer raised its hands to the air before throwing back its head and letting out a ghostly shriek. From the depths of a graveyard portal, Kiryu's Infernity Sniper rose to the field before tipping its hat to Rin.

"It's time to banish the demon possessing you!" Kiryu declared, "I tune my Level one Infernity ghost with my Level three Infernity Necromancer and my Level three Infernity Sniper!"

Infernity ghost pulled out a rotten harmonica and began playing a forlorn melody before morphing into a ring of green light. As the ring enveloped Kiryu's other monsters, the sound of the harmonica could still be heard playing in the background as Kiryu began his summoning chant:

"Ghost of the infinite void, uncloak yourself from mortal gaze and walk the earth once more! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Hit your mark from a mile away! Level seven! Infernity Des Sharpshooter!"

In silence, Kiryu's Synchro Monster descended to his field, holding a large black cowboy hat over his face while hefting a massive tri-pod-mounted sniper rifle over his back. His clothing constantly flickered from a ghostly dust gray to a night-sky black. Underneath his hat, Yuzu could make out the lower jaw of a skull, black hair with Indian feathers tied into the braids, and a hollow skull-eye that blazed with fiery light. Gently setting his tri-pod to the ground and covering himself in his cape, Infernity Des Sharpshooter eyed Rin through the scope of his Sniper Rifle before a holographic indicator appeared to show a DEF of 1500.

"Now to call in my second ace monster!" Kiryu declared. "I start by activating the effect of the Infernity Ghost in my graveyard! If I have no cards in my hand, I can banish this card from my graveyard in order to Special Summon one Infernity monster from my graveyard! Return to the field now!" Kiryu commanded, "Infernity Necromancer!"

Infernity Ghost briefly appeared to Kiryu's field before dissolving away in a fit of ghostly laughter as a graveyard portal opened up from the ground in front of Kiryu. From the depths of the portal, Infernity Necromancer rose to Kiryu's field in an aura of blood-red light.

"Next is Infernity Necromancer's effect!" Kiryu declared. "I use my monster to Special Summon Infernity Bishop from my graveyard!"

Infernity Bishop rose the field before holding out his hand towards Rin as if commanding her to depart.

"Third," Kiryu continued, "I activate the effect of my Infernity Des Sharp Shooter. In exchange for not being able to attack for this turn, I can target one Infernity Monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it! I choose to bring back the Level one Tuner monster, Infernity Avenger!"

Infernity Des Sharp Shooter pulled out a charm made entirely of bones and crow feathers. Throwing the charm to the ground, he opened a portal in the ground from which Infernity Avenger flipped out before grinning at Rin with a pair of soulless eyes.

"And last but not least," Kiryu declared, "I activate the effect of the Infernity Sniper in my graveyard! If it is in the graveyard while I have no cards in my hand, I can Special Summon it and inflict three-hundred damage to my opponent, but it's banished when it leaves the field. Return once more, Infernity Sniper!"

Infernity Sniper rose from the graveyard before posing next to Kiryu's four other monsters. Removing a single golden bullet from one of its belts, it quickly loaded its Sniper Rifle, aimed it at Rin, and shot at her before she could react.

Rin grimaced as the Bullet nearly knocked her off balance and reduced her Life Points to 1200.

"Rin!?" Yuzu screamed, struggling against her chains.

"I'm okay!" Rin barked, "You stay where you are and let me concentrate!"

"I tune my Level one Infernity Avenger with my Level four Infernity bishop and my Level three Infernity Sniper!" Kiryu declared, already moving on with his turn. Letting out a maniacal cackle, Infernity Avenger morphed into a single ring of green light before enveloping Kiryu's monsters as Kiryu began another summoning chant:

"Omniscient dragon of the ever-expanding void, bathe your fangs and claws in the vast emptiness, and smite your prey with the power of non-existence! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Materialize now! Level eight! Void Ogre Dragon!"

A deep black-and-red portal opened above Kiryu's bike before Kiryu's Synchro Monster descended to the field and assumed a kneeling position as Level Limit Area B forced it into defense position. Despite its defensive stance, Kiryu's dragon was still an intimidating sight to behold. Its smooth scales were a shiny blood-red crimson and it had large ruby spheres over its wrists, joints, legs, and chest. Its head was narrow and sported a pair of large ears while its feet and claws were enormous. A holographic indicator appeared and showed a DEF of 3000.

"Even if I can't attack with my monster, I can still activate its effects." Kiryu explained. "Once per turn, if I have no cards in my hand, I can negate the activation of an opponent's Spell or Trap Card and destroy it. So basically, whatever that face-down of yours is, it's useless to you now."

Rin laughed in response.

"He's a clever boy!" said Rin, talking to herself in her altered voice. "I must say that these duelists are MUCH more entertaining than those pitiful Security Officers,"

"Enough… Yene." Rin replied in her normal voice.

"Oh forgive me, darling." Rin chuckled in her altered voice, "I meant only to compliment the lad's top notch dueling skills." She laughed some more. "But don't worry… I'll leave the two of you alone for now."

"Who are you!?" Kiryu called, suddenly becoming very angry. "Why are you possessing her!?"

"It's still your move." Rin retorted in her normal voice. "Continue with your plays or end your turn."

Kiryu looked devastated. He seemed to hesitate as his arm hovered over his Duel Disk, seemingly unsure of what to do next.

"She's right, Kiryu!" Emma called. "We've gotta continue with our plays! We can't afford to let that demon inhabit her any longer! Don't let it get into your head! Whoever that girl was, she isn't the same person anymore! The only thing we can do now is free her from her bondage!"

A tear trickled down Kiryu's cheek as he clenched his fist with determination. "Yes…" he grimaced, "…I have to do this. I'm sorry… Rin… Yugo… Miss Kimura." Swiping away a tear with one hand, he extended his other hand towards his monsters.

"Infernity Des Sniper's effect activates!" he roared. "Once per turn, if I have no cards in my hand, I can banish one monster on my opponent's side of the field and inflict damage to my opponent's LP equal to its Level times one-hundred! I choose to target Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel in order to inflict eighteen-hundred damage with the combined effects of Infernity Des Sharpshooter and Stygian Tracker!"

Infernity Des Sniper loaded a bullet into his Sniper Rifle before leveling the barrel of the massive weapon at Rin's Kneeling Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel. Exhaling through his teeth, he stared through the scope while slowly squeezing down on the trigger.

Before he could fire, Rin had extended her hand towards her own monster.

"Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's effect!" she declared, "Once per turn, during either player's turn, I can negate the effects of one card on the field for each Tuner used in my monster's Synchro Summon until the end of the turn! Since two tuners were used in the Synchro Summon of Marvel, I choose to negate the effects of Infernity Des Sharpshooter and Stygian Tracker! Go Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

Spreading out her hands, the lights on Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's face lit-up before a holographic screen materialized over her face. Sweeping through the screen with her eyes, she aligned a pair of holographic targets at Infernity Des Sharp Shooter and Stygian tracker before letting out a rapid burst of harmonized sound from her instruments, and knocking back both Kiryu and Emma's monsters.

"Nani!?" Kiryu exclaimed, as his effect was suddenly negated.

"The heck was that!?" Emma snarled, shaking out her ears. "You alright Kiryu!?" she barked.

"I'm fine!" Kiryu snapped, frustrated that he hadn't managed to stop the demon. What would Kiryu senior say to him if he saw him now?

"We sure won't be fine if we can't bring down that monster!" Emma barked.

"I'm on it!" Kiryu called back. There was nothing he could do now, but if all went well, he would be able to defeat Rin's monster with his face-down card.

"Turn end!" Kiryu called, looking over at Emma. "I'm sorry, mom. I let us both down."

"This duel aint over yet!" Emma countered. "If these bozos don't finish this girl off, then I sure as heck will on my next turn!"

"Take care of them." Roger ordered from behind his desk. "Once the rest of the Dark Signer's Life Points are eliminated, turn your attention to those two so-called Phoenix Guards."

"My turn!" an officer with the label, DC-468 declared. "I normal Summon Jutte Lord to the field, and use its effect to Special Summon Jutte Fighter to my field!"

A pair of monsters appeared to DC-468's field. The first one was a tall man with a painted face and a jutte in his hand. The second was a shorter man with glasses and a smaller jutte in his own hand.

"I next tune my Jutte Lord and my Jutte Fighter together in order to Synchro Summon Goyo Catapult in defense position!"

In a burst of white light, DC-468's monster landed onto the field with a heavy thud. Goyo Catapult was a broad warrior wearing thick blue, robotic armor, a helmet with a visor, an arm cannon, and a second large cannon strapped to his back. Letting out a mighty grunt, DC-468's monster leveled his cannon at Rin while Holographic indicators showed a DEF of 2800.

"Goyo Catapult's effect activates!" DC-468 declared. "I send the monster, Sasumata Guardna, from my hand to the graveyard, in order to inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points! And with Stygian Tracker on the field, that damage is doubled!"

"Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's effect!" Rin declared, I negate the effect of your Goyo Catapult and Void Ogre Dragon!"

"Not so fast!" Kiryu countered, extending his hand towards his trap card, "I activate my counter trap card, Infernity Barrier! If I have no cards in my hand and I control a face-up Infernity monster, then I can negate the activation of your monster's effect and destroy it!"

As Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel blasted a wave of sound and wind at Goyo Catapult and Void Ogre Dragon, A pair of shimmering force-fields appeared over the two monsters. The second Marvel's effect came in contact with the force fields, the waves of sound were blasted back and redirected towards Rin's own monster.

"Then I activate my own Counter Trap!" Rin declared, "Synthphonist Performance! If I control a Hypersonic Synthphonist monster on my side of the field, I can negate the activation of an opponent's card or effect, and shuffle that card into the deck! I choose to negate the activation of Infernity Barrier!"

Surging with electricity, the instruments on Marvels back seemed to expand in size as segments detached from the instruments and hovered in place before the piece all became connected with bridges of solid electricity. Letting loose a mighty blast of sound from her instruments, Marvel knocked back the sound waves from her own effect, sending them flying straight into Kiryu's own trap, and forcing him to shuffle the card into his deck.

"Not again!" Kiryu groaned.

"Synthphonist Marvel's effect resolves normally!" Rin continued, "Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

Leveling her instruments at Goyo Catapult and Void Ogre Dragon, Hypersonic Synthphonist smiled before blasting both monsters with a mixture of sound waves and electricity.

"Finally." Rin added, "I activate Synthphonist Performance's second effect. If this card is in the graveyard, I can banish it from the graveyard to set 1 Synthphonist Magic or Trap card from my deck, but that card cannot be activated this turn." Snagging a card from her deck, she proceeded to set it to her field.

"I set one card face down. Turn end." DC-468 growled.

"My turn!" an officer with the label, DC-467 declared. I summon the Level three Tuner monster, Tune Warrior, from my hand!"

A robotic monster with red armor, radio antennae on his head, and a pair of plug-in arms appeared to DC-467's field.

"I tune my Tune Warrior to Goyo Defender in order to Synchro Summon! Come forth! Goyo Catapult!"

A second Goyo Catapult appeared to the field in defense position.

"Goyo Catapult's effect!" DC-467 declared. "I send Kiribi Lady from my hand to the graveyard in order to inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

"Marvel effect!" Rin declared. "Negate the effects of Goyo Catapult and Stygian Tracker! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

DC-467 shielded his eyes as his monster's effect was negated. "I was counting on you doing that!" he sneered. "I now activate the Magic Card, Goyo Arrow, and equip it to Goyo Catapult!"

A small mini-gun appeared over Goyo Catapult's cannon arm before strapping itself over the robotic appendage.

"Since Marvel can only activate its effect once per turn, I am free to do this!" he declared, "I activate Goyo Arrow's effect to inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

"I activate my face-down!" Rin countered, "A second Synthphonist performance!"

As Rin's trap resolved, Marvel sent another blast of sound and electricity into DC-467's Goyo Arrow, blasting the mini-gun to dust and forcing the officer to return his card to the deck.

"Performance's second effect!" Rin declared, "I banish it from my graveyard in order to set another Synthphonist Spell or Trap Card from my deck!"

"Turn end!" DC-467 grumbled.

"My turn!" an officer with the label, DC-289 declared. "I equip my Goyo Defender with Goyo Arrow! Effect activate!"

"Synthphonic Shock and Awe!" Rin countered, "I negate the effect of your Goyo Arrow and Stygian Tracker!"

"Then I equip a second Goyo Arrow to my second Goyo Defender!" DC-289 snarled. "Effect activate!"

Rin ducked as a spray of bullets whizzed past her head, reducing her Life Points to 900.

"I next set three cards face-down and end my turn!" DC-289 concluded.

"My turn!" an officer with the label DC-837 declared. "I Normal Summon the Level four monster, Vigilante Zeni, from my hand!"

Through a blue portal, a monster similar in appearance to Jutte Knight, but with wilder black hair, and a coin strapped like an eye-patch over his eye, appeared to DC-837's field.

"I next activate the effect of Vigilante Zeni!" DC-837 continued. "I reduce its attack to 0 in order to Special Summon the Level three Tuner Monster, Vigilante Garter, from my hand!"

Next to Vigilante Zeni, a small robot with a white face, police lights, and small clamps appeared to the field.

"I tune these two monsters together to Synchro Summon! Come Forth! Level seven! Sniping Hazy Type 0!"

A large robotic warrior with green armor, a jutte in one hand, and a small wrist cannon connected to a long tube appeared to DC-837's field. Leveling its Cannon at Rin, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2400.

"I activate my monster's effect!" DC-837 declared. "By sending Assault Gundog from my hand to the graveyard, I can target and destroy one card you control and inflict four-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

"Three points to you!" Rin snarled, "I use Marvel's effect to negate Sniping Hazy Type 0 and Stygian Tracker's effect! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

"Counter trap!" DC-289 countered, "Solemn Judgment! By paying half my Life Points, I can negate your monster's effect and destroy it!" he grimaced as his 2300 Life Points were brought down to 1150. "Go! Solemn Judgment!"

"I activate my third and final Synthphonist Performance!" Rin countered, blasting DC-289's trap back into the deck. Lowering her instruments at Sniping Hazy and Stygian Tracker, Marvel let loose yet another storm of sound and electricity at the two monsters, negating both of their effects. "I will now banish Synthphonist Performance in order to set another Synthphonist Magic or Trap Card from my deck!"

"But it is as you said." Roger grinned. "That was your last Performance. Finish her off now." He ordered.

"I set one card face-down and end my turn!" DC-837 finished, setting down a copy of Destruct Potion.

"My Turn!" an officer with the label, DC-237 declared. "I will start by activating three Wave-Motion Cannons."

A trio of three massive green cannons, which looked vaguely like tea-pots, appeared to the officer's field.

"Whoa!" Kiryu involuntarily exclaimed. "Isn't that a little overkill?"

"It's not for her." Emma grimly replied. "They're already getting ready to betray us once the disciple is taken out."

"My Wave-Motion Cannons cannot be activated during this turn." DC-237 explained. "But this can. I equip my Goyo Defender with Goyo Arrow! Effect activate!"

"Good for you!" Rin snarled, "How about I just give you six-thousand points for effort and activate Marvel's effect… AGAIN! SYNTHPHONIC SHOCK AND AWE!"

Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel blasted DC-237's Goyo Arrow and Emma's now very frazzled Stygian Tracker with another volley from her instruments.

"Then I will activate a second Goyo Arrow!" DC-237 continued, "Effect activate!"

Rin let out a little yelp of agony as a spray of bullets grazed her shoulder, reducing her Life Points to 600.

"Turn end." DC-237 concluded.

An older looking officer with the Label, DC-019 rolled up.

"This is the last time you stop us." He declared, "My turn… draw!"

"Is that you, Officer Harrison!?" Emma gawked, "Earthbound Gods you sound awful!? What the heck did Roger do to you!?"

Ignoring Emma's comment, the officer continued with his move.

"I Normal Summon Vigilante Zeni, and use his effect to Special Summon Vigilante Garter! I next use these monsters to Synchro Summon! Come forth! Sniping Hazy Type 0!"

Another large robotic warrior appeared to the field before levelling its wrist cannon at Rin.

"I next send Pursuit Chaser from my hand to the graveyard in order to activate Sniping Hazy Type 0's effect!"

"Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's effect!" Rin declared, "I negate the effect of Sniping Hazy Type 0 and Void Ogre Dragon! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

DC-019 nearly fell off his bike as his monster was blasted by Marvel's effect.

"Trap activate!" DC-837 declared, "Destruct Potion! I destroy Sniping Hazy Type 0 in order to increase my Life Points by its attack!" he smiled as his Life Points rose from 2300 to 4700.

"At this time, Sniping Hazy Type 0's effect activates!" DC-019 declared. "If it is destroyed, I can Special Summon its Synchro Materials! Be revived! Vigilante Zeni and Garter!"

DC-019's monsters reappeared to his field through a pair of black portals.

"And now… since you've already used Marvel's effect, I tune Zeni and Garter together to re-summon Sniping Hazy Type 0! Come forth my monster!"

In a flash of light, a second copy of Sniping Hazy Type 0 appeared to his field.

"Effect activate!" DC-019 declared, "I send Gate Blocker from my hand to the graveyard in order to destroy your Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel and inflict eight-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

"Rin!" Yuzu shouted, struggling to get out of the chains so she could help.

"Continuous Trap activate!" Rin countered, "Synthphonist Ensemble! Since Void Ogre Dragon is out of commission, I can freely activate this trap without worrying about its effect. Furthermore, when successfully activated, I target one Synthphonist monster I control in order to Special Summon a Synthponist Monster from my deck whose Level is the same as the targeted monster! I target my Synthphonist Oboist in order to Special Summon Synthphonist Bassoonist from my deck!"

Through a portal of blue light, Synthphonist Bassoonist appeared to Rin's field, hefting a pair of large Bassoons on her back as she did.

"The monster summoned by this effect is treated as an effect monster, and gains its effects." Rin continued.

Sparkling with electricity, the bassoons on Synthphonist Bassoonist's back pointed forward like a pair of cannons before sprouting several antennae which sparkled with electricity. Her eyes began glowing with white light, and her metallic hands expanded until they displayed little holographic screens in their center.

"It doesn't matter." DC-019 coughed, "Sniping Hazy Type 0's effect resolves now, destroy her monster!"

"Synthphonist Bassoonist effect!" Rin countered, "If a monster I control is targeted by a card or effect, I can negate the effect and reduce Bassoonist's Level by one!"

Sniping Hazy Type 0 fired a stream of coins at Rin's Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel. In response, Synthphonist Bassoonist shot a stream of lightning from her two bassoons, which intercepted the coins and blew them to dust before they could hit Marvel. Once Bassoonist had taken care of things, a holographic indicator appeared and showed her Level drop to three.

"We're still not done yet." DC-019 coughed. "I activate the continuous Magic Card, Goyo Fine!" he hacked again as he slapped the card onto his Duel Disk. "Here's how it works… I begin by targeting your Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel. While this card is on the field and I control a Goyo Monster, during the End-Phase of each turn you can either tribute both this card and your monster, or pay five-hundred Life Points. So choose!"

Rin glared back at the officer. "There is no choice." She growled. "I pay five-hundred Life Points to keep my monster on the field."

She grimaced as her Life Points dropped to 100.

"With that…" she gasped, "…your turn is finally over."

"Turn end." DC-019 agreed. "Go ahead and do your turn. With the field we have, there isn't much you can do."

Rin didn't seem to hear him. She had placed her hand on top of her deck and paused as if deep in thought.

"Rin?" Yuzu asked, wondering if she had given up. Looking at the opposition, it didn't look good. Security had managed to completely lock them out of attacking between the effects of Road Blocker 3 and Ring of Magnetism. Even if Rin negated the effects of one or both of those cards, Level Limit Area B locked down her ability to attack with high-level monsters, and security still had Goyo Checkpoint forcing them to pay Life Points for every attack and plenty of other face-downs they didn't even know about. To make matters even worse, almost every player had a way to inflict effect damage to their Life Points, not to mention DC-019's Goyo Fine. Even if Rin managed to make it this turn, it was unlikely she would survive another round of assaults from the other players.

Rin, however, was barely even thinking about this.

"Please…" she begged internally, "…I don't want to hurt them… not like with the Obelisk Force."

" _This is war, darling._ " A voice in her head replied, " _Do you really think there will be no casualties? Do you think what you did to those Academia monsters was wrong?_ "

Rin grimaced in pain. "I understand that this is war." she agreed. "I accept that those soldiers had to be stopped… but… these people… Security can't control their actions… and… Emma and Kiryu… I know them!"

The voice seemed to consider her words.

" _Very well, darling._ " The voice replied, seemingly whispering in her ear. " _Let me share with you a little secret, one that far predates the existence of this very city. This duel that you created, this… conflict between friend and foe… it is governed by a set of ancient laws, laws with the power to summon and destroy even gods._ "

Rin's eyes widened as she felt power course from her marks and into her veins. She could feel that power right now. Somehow she knew that she had the potential to do just the things her spirit had said.

" _Among these ancient laws is the law of the victor._ " The voice continued, " _Put simply, it states that the fate of the loser shall be determined by the winner. While the Signers and Phoenix Guard will most certainly use this law to destroy us… in quite an ironic twist of fate… you could be the one to show mercy with this law!_ "

"Then it's… possible… to not kill them?" Rin panted, sweat beading on her forehead.

"Rin?" Yuzu asked again. Her counterpart had frozen, doing absolutely nothing as the time for their turn ticked away.

"Has she given up?" Roger contemplated, glancing back at the turn clock. If she didn't make a move soon, then she'd lose her turn and pretty much forfeit the duel at this point.

" _You value their lives, Rin._ " The spirit whispered, " _And I am not one to deny such… poetic… desires to spare their lives! Come, Rin. Let us not be in conflict with one another. I have made up my mind. Your desires, your hopes, your dreams, these are… beautiful to me. I wish to give you the ending you desire… nay… the ending you CRAVE with a burning passion! Together… we can accomplish everything your heart yearns to achieve!_ "

Rin wiped some tears from her eyes, feeling as if someone's strong and tender arms had enveloped her body in a warm embrace. "Then… you can help me? I won't have to hurt them?"

" _Pain is an integral part of human experience._ " The spirit replied. " _But yes. They shall be unharmed. It will all be according to your will._ "

Rin nodded her head in gratitude before glancing at the field. "First… I'll need to actually win. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

" _If you're thinking it's time to call in a disciple, then yes._ "

Rin grinned. "Exactly."

" _Wonderful!_ " the spirit gushed. " _It will be a true delight to lend you more of my powers. But which shall it be? Which servant can grant you your victory now?_ "

"I was thinking of making it quick." Rin replied, swerving to avoid some oncoming obstacles.

" _Geo Kelpie?_ " the spirit inquired.

"Geo Kelpie." Rin agreed.

The spirit let out a little chuckle. " _That's EXACTLY what I was thinking! But… how are you going to pull it off? You'll need a particular Dark Tuner if this is going to work._ "

Rin felt her power grow as it coursed from her veins. She had used a lot up when she had tried to save Yuzu, but she could feel it slowly returning. "Lend me your power… one more time!" she murmured with her eyes shut. "Let me fulfill my mission!"

" _As you desire!_ " the spirit exclaimed, slowly fading from Rin's mind. The second the voice faded away, Rin felt an immense surge of power build up within her body as her marks radiated intense green light. Even the green markings on her bike began glowing as her power grew.

"ORE-SAMA NO TURN!" She proclaimed in a godly voice that sounded like two individuals speaking rather than one. Lifting her hand from her deck, an aura of darkness built up over the palm of her hand before she placed her fingers on her deck. "Dark draw!"

In a violent gust of cold wind, Rin ripped a card from the top of her deck, smiling as she did.

"Our victory is at hand!" Rin proclaimed in her godly voice. "First… I activate the effect of Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel in order to negate the effects of your Road Blocker 3 and Pure Earth! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

Merging the instruments on her back together in a cluster of twin cannons, Marvel let loose a wave of sound and electricity which slammed against Road Blocker, causing the robotic wall to short circuit. Smoking slightly, the wall folded in on itself while detracting its spikes, till the road ahead of her was clear. Spinning around, Marvel next aimed her cannons at Emma's pure earth, letting loose a second volley of sound and electricity which caused the light of Emma's Spell Card to dim.

"Now that Road Blocker 3 is gone, the effects of our Field Spell Cards return!" Rin proclaimed. "I'll start by using Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's second effect! Once per turn, I can Special Summon 1 Level four or lower Synthphonist Monster from my hand or graveyard. So be revived! Synthphonist Flutist!"

Pirouetting onto the Duel Field, Rin's flutist rose from a graveyard portal before posing next to her other monsters. Above her head, the score counter showed her speed counters rise from zero to one. Roaring with delight, Rin slammed down on the accelerator, and sped forward

"Next!" Rin declared, "I activate the effect of my Synthphonist Orchestra! Once per turn, I can Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster! I choose to Normal Summon Synthphonist Snare Drummer!"

Sparking with electricity, Snare Drummer's drum expanded while her fingers sprouted a set of drum-sticks.

"Snare Drummer effect!" Rin proclaimed, "I change the Levels of my monsters to one!"

"Here it comes!" Emma warned. "It looks like she's going for another Synchro Summon!"

Typing out a command on her computerized Snare Drums, Synthphonist Snare Drummer, pressed one final key on her snare drums before holographic indicators showed the Levels of herself, flutist, oboist, bassoonist, and Marvel drop to one.

"Now it's time!" Rin gasped, seeming to burst with excitement as she extended her hand towards her monsters. "Since Pure Earth is gone, there is nothing that can stop me from doing this! I tribute my Synthphonist Oboist and Flutist in order to advance summon! Come forth! Level Eleven! Dark Tuner Chaos Charybdis!"

The entire track-way suddenly flooded with water, washing under the tires of Rin, Emma, Kiryu, and Security's bikes. In the space between Rin and the other pursuing vehicles, a circular set of demonic teeth rose from the depths of the water, roaring with the voice of a million sea-monsters. In the center of its mass of teeth, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

Rin turned her face towards her opponents, light blazing from her eyes, marks, and mouth till she looked like a jack-o-lantern.

"When Chaos Charybdis is successfully advance summoned, I can banish all Magic and Trap Cards my opponent controls!"

"What!?" Kiryu exclaimed, surprised she had a Dark Tuner that powerful.

"Stay focused!" Emma admonished. "We're not beaten yet!"

Sinking into the stream of water, Chaos Charybdis opened its demonic jaws even wider, creating a vast whirlpool which began sucking all of Security's Spell and Trap Cards into its maw.

"I banish Level Limit Area B, DC-578's face down, Goyo Checkpoint, Ring of Magnetism, Pure Earth, DC-468's face down card, four Goyo Arrow, DC-289's two face-down cards, three Wave-Motion Cannon, Goyo Fine, and DC-019's face down card for a total of seventeen Magic and Trap Cards!" Rin proclaimed with glee. "But that's only the beginning!" she laughed, "There's still so much more for me to do!"

"Rin?" Kiryu exclaimed, staring at Yugo's friend like she was a complete stranger. She had definitely never acted like this. She might have done some regular trash-talk during her duels against Yugo, but she had never acted like a deranged lunatic.

Rin extended her hand towards her monsters. "No more holding back! I Dark Tune my Level eleven Chaos Charybdis with my Level one Synthphonist Snare Drummer, and my Level one Synthphonist Bassoonist and Dark Synchro Summon!"

"Brace yourself!" Emma roared, "It's coming! Her disciple!"

With a final demonic roar, Chaos Charybdis exploded into a cluster of elven spheres of white light, creating a tidal wave, which engulfed the screaming bodies of Snare Drummer and Bassoonist. In front of Rin, the water blackened as a ring of nine pitch-black spheres of light crackled beneath the surface with a surge of black electricity. Throwing her hands into the air like a mad-woman, Rin began her summoning chant:

"From the depths of the abyss no light can break free! Rise up now from the shadowy depths to spread your shadow to the surface world! DARK SYNCHRO!" Rin thrust her hand towards her opponents as a pillar of darkness erupted from the depths of the water, spreading a wave of cold air as it did. "Level negative nine! Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie!"

From the depths of the pillar of darkness, Rin's new monster appeared to the field. Its long flowing hair was a dark black with tangled bits of green seaweed. Her eyes glowed with intense white light, while her mouth grinned with long jagged teeth that looked like an angler-fish's teeth. Her body was a deep blue color and was dotted with little orbs of light over its surface. She wore little clothing but a pair of crab shells over her breasts, and a golden net over her arms and shoulders. Her lower body was the tail of a large sea-serpent with massive purple fins and spike-tipped scales. Resting on a large, choral-covered chariot, she commanded a team of four sea-creatures that looked like a cross between a demonic horse with glowing red eyes and fish fangs, and the rear half of a large fish. All over her body, patterns of indigo lines glowed with ghostly light. Leveling a whip at her team of sea-creatures, the monster urged her steeds forward while a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2800.

Roger's eyes widened. "This is just like Sergey!" he gasped.

"Chaos Charybdis' effect activates!" Rin proclaimed, picking up speed as her Speed Counters rose to two, "If it is used as a Dark Synchro Material, I can increase the ATK of all monsters I control by three-hundred for each of my opponent's banished cards until the end of this turn! With seventeen banished Spell and Trap Cards, Stygian Street Patrol, Infernity Ghost, and Infernity Sniper, that makes a total of twenty banished cards for an attack boost of six-thousand!"

The eyes of Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel and Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie began glowing with black light as a dark aura of energy formed around their bodies and Geo Kelpie's ATK rose to 8800 while Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's ATK rose to 9300.

Kiryu gasped at the immense ATK increase.

"Keep focused!" Emma warned, "We can still win if we're careful!"

Kiryu looked back at Emma and nodded his head. "Right!" he agreed, bracing himself for the attack. If they played things right, he'd be able to win the duel.

"Geo Kelpie's effect now activates!" Rin continued, "Since it was Dark Synchro Summoned using three monsters as Material, I can Special Summon 1 Level -6 or higher monster from my Extra Deck or graveyard. Rise from the depths, Level -4, Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid!"

Flipping through the air like a dolphin, Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid landed to Rin's field before barring her shark teeth at Rin's opponents.

Rin laughed as her Speed Counters rose to three and she increased her velocity even more. "I now switch Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel to attack position and proceed to the Battle Phase! Go! Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel! Destroy Stygian Tracker!"

"Not happening!" Emma barked. "While Stygian Street Vigilante is on my field, the only monster you can target for attacks is her!"

"As if that matters." Rin laughed. "I'll instead attack your Stygian Street Vigilante! Go Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel! Soul powered harmonic wave!"

Placing her hands to her diaphragm, Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel rose from the ground before tossing back her head and letting loose an immense volley of intense harmonic sound, which sent ripples across the water and caused the entire track-way to vibrate. Despite the power of Marvel's attack, however, Stygian Street Vigilante bravely charged forward, holding a shield with a demon-face out in front of her.

"Stygian Street Vigilante's effect!" Emma barked, "If she would be destroyed, I can banish one Fiend-Type monster from my graveyard instead! I choose to banish one of my Stygian Gun Slingers!"

"You'll still take the damage." Rin retorted.

"Not if I can help it!" Kiryu countered. "I activate Infernity Deal's graveyard effect! If I have no cards in my hand, I can banish this card to negate one instance of effect or battle damage and change the damage to zero!"

With a mighty roar, Stygian Street Vigilante charged forward, catching Marvel's attack in her shield and racing forward, completely unscathed.

I still have another attack!" Rin countered. "Go my Geo Kelpie! Crush her Street Vigilante! Torrential Stampede!"

Barring down on Stygian Street Vigilante, Rin's monster cracked a whip, sending her steeds racing towards Emma's monster. In comparison to Rin's massive Dark Synchro Monster, Emma's monster looked like a guppy charging headlong into the jaws of a shark.

"It's over." Rin grinned. "You've lost."

"Not if I can help it!" Kiryu countered, extending his hand forward. "I activate another effect from my graveyard! Say hello to Infernity Bomber!"

A ghostly image of Kiryu's Infernity Bomber materialized to the field. Wearing a mischievous expression on his face, he lit a match against his moustache before lighting the sticks of dynamite in his hands.

"If you declare an attack against one of our monsters while this card is in my graveyard and I have no cards in my hand…" Kiryu explained, "…I can banish this card in order to increase the ATK of the attacked monster by the total ATK of all other Dark Monsters we control! With Stygian Tracker's six-hundred attack, Infernity Des Sharpshooter's twenty-four hundred attack, and Void Ogre Dragon's three-thousand attack, that's an attack boost of six-thousand! Enough to destroy your monster and your Life Points!"

"I can still increase her attack with Speed World Mach 2's effect." Rin countered.

"True, but even if you did…" Kiryu grimly replied, "…the battle would only end in a tie, meaning your monster would be destroyed while we could negate Vigilante's destruction."

"Then I have no choice but to do this!" Rin growled. "Since you activated a monster effect, I activate Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid's effect! Once per turn, if my opponent activates a monster effect, I can negate that effect and inflict damage to the owner's Life Points equal to the attack of the monster! Go! Geo Mermaid! Abyss Song!"

Breathing in through her gills, Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid let out an ear-splitting shriek which knocked back the ghostly form of Infernity Bomber before extinguishing the fuses on his Dynamite Sticks. Getting up from the ground, Infernity Bomber shook his fist at Geo Mermaid before noticing she was no longer standing in front of him. Looking around with a confused expression on his face, he was suddenly ambushed when Geo Mermaid leaped up from the water beneath him, before pulling a match from his pocket, dropping it into one of his gun-powder kegs, and rapidly leaping off his back. With a momentary expression of horror coming over his face, Infernity Bomber exploded in a raging inferno, which slammed against Kiryu and his bike while reducing his Life Points to 1200.

"Kiryu!" Emma called, voice cracking with concern.

"Your next!" Rin proclaimed, "The attack goes through! Even if you banish a monster now, you cannot save your Life Points! Go my servant! Torrential Stampede!"

"Mom!" Kiryu called, tears leaking from his eyes as he steadied his bike.

"Focus on the duel!" Emma ordered with all her might. "I might be out, but you'll still have a turn! You have to finish this, Kiryu! Don't let her hurt anyone else!"

Letting out a mighty war-cry, Stygian Street Vigilante flung her chain at Geo Kelpie, embedding it into the hide of one of her massive steeds. Pulling herself up from the bike, she escaped just in time as the rampaging steeds smashed her bike to scrap metal. Clambering onto one of the angry steed's back, she yanked her weapon from the hide of the creature and flung the end of her chain at Geo Kelpie. With a flash of one of her massive arms, Geo Kelpie caught Street Vigilante's chain in her hands before pulling the stunned demon warrior up to her face where she bit down on the head of Emma's monster.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Emma screamed, half from fury and half from fear as the rampaging steeds neared her bike. However, instead of trampling her like she expected, Rin ordered her monster to stop. In confusion, Emma looked up just in time to see Geo Kelpie fling out her whip and strike Emma in the chest, causing the woman to fly backwards as her Life Points were reduced to 0.

"Mom!" Kiryu screamed in agony, as he watched her nearly fall from her bike from the force of the attack. Fortunately, while it looked like the whip had left a cut in her chest, she managed to stay on her bike as it rapidly slowed down and came to a complete stop.

Kiryu sighed in relief, but his solace was only temporary.

"Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie's second effect activates!" Rin declared, extending her hands to her opponents. "If one of my opponent's takes Battle Damage, I can inflict effect damage to my opponent's Life Points, equal to the damage taken! Since Emma took fifty-seven hundred points of Battle-Damage, that means that the rest of you will take fifty-seven hundred points of effect damage! Go! Geo Kelpie! Torrential Wrath!"

Rearing up her fleet of steeds, Geo Kelpie let loose a demonic shriek before the front hooves of each of her monsters slammed into the water, letting loose a mighty tidal wave, which struck against Kiryu and all the other officers, reducing their Life Points to 0.

Rin zoomed away at break-neck speed as the duel concluded, disappearing from sight in a flash.

"WHAT INFORMATION HAVE YOU MANAGED TO GET ON HER!?" Roger roared. "WHO IS SHE!?"

"We have her information right here!" one of the surveillance officers hastily replied, sending a file to Roger's computer. "She's an orphan without a last name. Her given name is Rin. The last time she was seen, she had taken up residence in an orphanage run by a Miss Kimura." An image of a run-down building appeared on Roger's screen. In front of it, a friendly looking woman with brown hair, glasses, and a white apron stood behind a group of small children.

Roger grinned when he saw the image. "Send a team of officers to the orphanage right now. I believe that every single individual there could make a wonderful contribution to the defense of the city. Especially if they're defending against a familiar face!"

He turned to his computer, and pressed another button on the control panel. "How is our guest, Yuya doing?" he asked.

"We've managed to contain him." An officer replied. "He's putting up quite a struggle, but it's useless right now. Do you want us to plant the chip into his brain to quiet him down?"

"Unnecessary." Roger replied. "I'd prefer to have him coherent for now. He will act as my perfect leverage against a particular Dark Signer."

Despite the defeat he suffered, for the first time today, Roger felt like his plans were coming through.

He picked a black Queen from his chess board and twirled it around in his hand. "Now don't think I've forgotten about you, Ruri." He grinned. "I already have big plans for a very important person in your life. Not to give away any spoilers, but I'm afraid Shun will regrettably be losing his next duel!"

…

Kiryu let out a groan as he came to. Looking around, he found his bike a few feet away from him along with nine other bikes and their riders scattered about.

Shakily, Kiryu got back to his feet, surprised that he was alive, much less able to stand up. Wasting no time, he rushed over to a Security Officer and pressed his finger to the officer's neck. To his relief he felt a pulse, meaning that the officer had only been knocked out. Racing over to the other officers, he began feeling each of their necks, and discovered the same thing.

Kiryu took off his headband and rung it out, letting a trickle of sweat and sea-water splatter onto the soaking-wet track-way. "Why hadn't she just killed them like all the other disciples tried to? She was definitely possessed, and yet… somehow she seemed like she maintained a level of control. Could Rin still be in there? Was she still fighting against the control of the Earthbound?"

Kiryu was interrupted in his thoughts as Emma Grayson slowly pulled over next to him, clutching at her wounded chest as she did.

"Mom!" Kiryu gasped, relieved to see she was still, relatively, okay. Rushing over, he examined the wound on her chest. The whip had made a clean cut through the armor and into the skin, but the wound wasn't too deep, only slightly worse than a large paper-cut.

"I'm okay." Emma grunted, rubbing her chest. "Stupid thing just knocked the wind out of me. My own worn-out body did more damage than that thing did."

Kiryu sighed in relief before looking over at the officers. "Should we help them?"

"Are they alive?" Emma inquired.

"I checked their pulses, and their still breathing." Kiryu confirmed.

"Then we leave them where they lie." Emma replied. "They'll be fine. Roger will send a squad to pick them up eventually. We've got bigger problems to deal with."

Raising her mark up to her face, she began speaking into it.

"Kazama! Kazama! Where are you!" she barked, "This is Emma Grayson! Kiryu and I have just had an engagement with a powerful Earthbound Disciple!"

"Emma!" a male voice called from the mark. "What are you doing here!? I thought you and Kiryu were over in Crash Town fighting against the Gatling Ogres!"

"It's Satisfaction Town," Emma barked, "and Enoch, Buck, and Phoebe can handle that gang. I came here with Kiryu after I learned that Roger had allowed Sergey to participate in the Friendship Cup! I thought that was bad enough, but apparently there's something bigger going on here! There's a girl with a mark we've never seen before! A whale-shaped mark, not the usual spiral mark we keep getting from our good buddy, Yuu."

"You didn't get the news then!?" Kazama hastily asked.

"What news?" Emma called.

"I just received word from Jack Atlas." Kazama explained. "I didn't want to believe it, but I've spoken with Aki and apparently it's true."

"What's true!?" Emma snarled.

"Dark Signers." Kazama explained. "He's finally created new ones!" There was a long pause. "Don't tell me you were dueling this girl just now!"

"Well… what was I supposed to do!?" Emma sputtered, "On the off chance this crazy chick was a Dark Signer, did you expect me to just let her summon her god and watch the souls of thousands of people get offered as a sacrifice to that monster!?"

"I know you couldn't have known." Kazama replied. "But we can't be rushing into this! There's still a lot we don't know! We don't know how many Dark Signers there might be or how many disciples they've managed to recruit. We can't be risking any more Phoenix Guard until we've gathered our forces, we've lost too many already!"

"And where are our forces!?" Emma barked. "Where's Lizette? Where's Natsumi? Where's Stephan? Heck… where's that little kid, Jeremiah? Where are all these people!?"

"Aki is gathering everyone she can to the Nazca lines." Kazama explained. "She's already met Bakari there. Apparently he… what was the phrase he used… felt tremors in his own dimension and decided to visit the Nazca Lines in order to see if he could exorcise the spirits dwelling within them. As for Lizette, I sent her to find the other Phoenix Guards in this dimension so I could send them to the other dimensions and get help from our comrades in Xyz, Standard, and Fusion. She's already found Natsumi, and by a stroke of luck, she ran into a few of our other allies. Adeel and his brother, Semal, have come to this dimension from Standard, and Lydia and her friend, Joho, have come from Fusion. They'll be gathering at the Friendship Cup Stadium before I send them all off to the other dimensions to recruit our other allies."

"So that's it then!?" Emma roared, "We're just gonna sit around and wait for the others to show up while who knows how many Dark Signers run rampant through the city! Don't tell me that Jack Atlas actually agrees with this!"

"How tough was that disciple you fought?" Kazama asked, "As in… on a scale between the weekly occultist who doesn't know what the heck he's doing and Sergey Volkov, what was this girl's power level?"

Emma grimaced. "She was close to Sergey Volkov." She muttered, "But… I still don't think… darn it I HAD to stop her, Kazama!"

"It took sixty of us just to stop Sergey!" Kazama reminded Emma. "How do you think any one of us, with the exception of the Signers, is going to stand up to an actual Dark Signer!? You and Kiryu are lucky to be alive at all!"

"It's not about staying alive, Kazama!" Emma roared, "I've lived a good life! The last thing I want to do is waste it by letting a bunch of demon possessed humans destroy the world!"

"We don't even know the identity of the girl!" Kazama replied.

"Uhm… Mom?" Kiryu began.

"We hardly know anything!" Kazama continued.

"MOM!" Kiryu bellowed.

Emma pulled her face away from her mark and glared down at Kiryu. "Oh come on Kiryu!" she groaned, "Can't it wait!? I'm on the…" she flailed her arm around helplessly, "…thing! SO anyway!" she hollered back at her mark.

"I KNOW WHO SHE WAS!" Kiryu hollered.

"What!?" Emma and Kazama exclaimed in unison.

"That girl… I knew her." Kiryu weakly responded. "It's her, mom. That girl I introduced you to at the orphanage. She was Rin!"

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Santiago Guevara / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Mita Takeda / Original Concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kiryu Kyosuke / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Security's Monsters

Road Blocker 3/ WIND/ Level 7/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 3500/ Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by tributing 1 "Road Blocker 2" you control. Cannot be destroyed by battle. The effects of your opponent's Field Spell Cards are negated, also, your opponent cannot activate Field Spell Cards. Other monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards. Monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. If a monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot target any monsters you control for attacks except this one.

Security's Spell Cards

Goyo Checkpoint/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a face-up "Goyo" monster, your opponent must pay 1000 LP to declare an attack.

Goyo Fine/ Spell/ Continuous/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Goyo" monster. Target 1 monster your opponent controls. While that target is face-up on the field, your opponent must pay 500 LP during the End-Phase of each turn, unless he/she tributes that monster and this card instead with this effect instead.

Emma Grayson's Monsters

Stygian Gun Slinger/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1900/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Fiend-Type Monster from your hand. (You can only use this effect of "Stygian Gun Slinger" once per turn). Once per turn, you can target 1 Level 5 or lower Fiend-Type Monster you control: Change that target's Level to 1, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the difference between that monster's original Level and current Level X 100.

Stygian Tracker/ DARK/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 100/ Double any effect damage your opponent takes. If this card is destroyed by battle, you can Special Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your deck.

Emma's Extra Deck

Stygian Street Vigilante/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 800/ 1 Fiend-Type Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Your opponent cannot target monsters you control for attacks except this one. You can discard any number of Fiend-Type monsters from your hand: Increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each card discarded with this effect. If this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent's LP. If this card would be destroyed, you can banish 1 Fiend-Type monster from your graveyard instead.

Emma Grayson's Spells

Styx Riders/ Spell/ Normal/ For the rest of this turn, you cannot attack with monsters whose Levels are higher than 5, also, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation or effects of a "Stygian Card." Send 1 "Stygian" monster from your deck to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your hand.

Pure Earth/ Spell/ Continuous/ Target 1 monster you control: While that target is face-up on the field, if your opponent would summon a monster whose Level is -1 or lower, or would summon a DARK monster whose Level is 10 or higher, you can banish this card: Negate the summon of that monster, and if you do, banish it. Then, you can halve your opponent's LP.

Kiryu's Monsters

Infernity Ghost/ DARK/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If you control an "Infernity" monster, you can Special Summon this card, from your hand. If this card is in your graveyard while you have no cards in your hand, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Infernity" monsters from your graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Infernity Ghost" once per turn).

Infernity Sniper/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 1000/ If you have no cards in your hand, you can Special Summon this card from the graveyard, and If you do, inflict 300 damage to your opponent's LP. If summoned this way, banish this card when it leaves the field.

(Original concept by FanOfKings).

Infernity Bomber/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 2000/ / If this card battles a monster while you have no cards in your hand, destroy that monster and this card at the start of the Damage Step. If your opponent attacks a monster you control while this card is in your graveyard and you have no cards in your hand, you can banish this card from the graveyard: Increase the ATK of the monster being attacked by the Total ATK of all other DARK monsters you control until the end of the Damage Step.

Kiryu's Extra Deck

Infernity Des Sharpshooter/ DARK/ Level 7/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 1500/ 1 DARK Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Once per turn, if you have no cards in your hand, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls. Banish that monster and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the Level/Rank of that monster x 100. This card cannot attack during the same turn you activate this effect. During a turn in which this card did not attack, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Infernity" monster from your graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Infernity Des Sharpshooter" once per turn).

(Original Concept by FanOfKings. I hope you don't mind the buffs I gave to your original cards.)

Kiryu's Spells

Infernity Deal/ Spell/ Normal/ Send 1 "Infernity" monster from your deck to the graveyard: Draw 1 card, but discard you hand during the End-Phase of this turn. If you would take damage while this card is in your graveyard and you have no cards in your hand, you can banish this card: that damage becomes 0.

Rin's Monsters

Synthphonist Flutist/ WIND/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, during either player's turn, if the level of 1 or more of your monsters changes due to a card effect, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Synthphonist Oboist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1800/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be destroyed by battle. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster declares an attack, negate the attack, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Snare Drummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 300/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-3: The levels of all monsters you control become the declared level until the end of this turn.

Synthphonist Bassoonist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.

If a monster(s) you control is targeted by a card or effect, you can negate that effect, and if you do, you can reduce this card's level by 1 (Min. 1).

Dark Tuner Chaos Charybdis/ WATER/ Level 11/ Aqua/ Dark Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If this card is tribute summoned successfully, you can activate this effect: Banish all Spell/Trap Cards your opponent controls. If this card is used as a Dark Synchro Material for the Dark Synchro Summon of a Dark Synchro Monster, you can activate this effect: Increase the ATK of all monsters you control by 300 for each of your opponent's banished cards, until the end of this turn.

Rin's Extra Deck

Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel/ WIND/ Level 9/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3300/ DEF 3300/ 1 Synchro Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters

Monsters destroyed by battle with a "Synthphonist" monster are shuffled into the deck instead of being sent to the graveyard. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target cards on the field, up to the number of Tuners used in this card's Synchro Summon: Negate the effects of those Targets until the end of the turn. Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your hand or graveyard.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Mermaid/ WATER/ Level -4/ Fish/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ 1 monster with a Level – 1 Dark Tuner

Once per turn, if your opponent activates a monster effect, you can negate the activation of that effect, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the ATK of that monster. If a face-up monster you control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can banish that opponent's monster from the Graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of that monster X 200.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie/ WATER/ Level -9/ Sea Serpent/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 3000/ 1 or more monsters with a Level – 1 or more Dark Tuners

If this card was Dark Synchro Summoned using 3 or more monsters as Materials, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 Level -6 or higher monster from your Extra Deck or graveyard. If your opponent takes Battle-Damage, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the damage he/she took.

Rin's Spells

Speed World Mach 2/ Spell/ Turbo Field/ The Player who reaches Checkpoint 1 first takes the first turn. You can activate 1 other Field Spell Card in addition to this card. Cannot be destroyed by card effects. (This effect remains even if this card's effects are negated). Each time a player draws a card(s) or Special Summons a monster(s), (other than with the effects of this card), that player places one of his/her own Speed Counters on this card (Max. 12). (The Player who goes first cannot place more than 4 Speed Counters on this card for their first turn). If a player takes damage, that player loses 1 of his/her Speed Counters for every 1000 Points of Damage he/she took. During either player's turn, you can remove a number of your own Speed Counters from this card to activate 1 of the following effects based on the number of Speed Counters removed. 1+: Increase the ATK or DEF of 1 monster you control by 100 for each Speed Counter removed for this effect. 2: Increase your LP by 500. 4: Halve the damage you take from 1 battle or card effect. 6: Draw 1 card. 8: Destroy 1 card on the field. 10: Negate the activation of a card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. 12: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your Hand, Deck, Graveyard, or Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions.

(Still daring people to make this ridiculous card.)

Synthphonist Orchestra/ Spell/ Field/ You can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Each time a card(s) is returned to the Deck, place 1 "Synth" counter on this card. Once per turn, you can remove any number of "Synth" counters from this card: Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck whose Level is equal to the number of counters removed. If this card would be destroyed, you can remove 1 "Synth" counter from this card instead.

Rin's Traps

Synthphonist Ensemble/ Trap/ Continuous/ Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects. Target 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters you control: Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your hand, deck, or graveyard whose Level is equal to the total Level of the targeted monster(s). If the monster Special Summoned by this effect is a Gemini Monster, it is treated as an Effect Monster and gains its effects. If this card, or the monster summoned by this card's effect leaves the field, banish both this card and the monster summoned by this card's effect.

Synthphonist Performance/ Trap/ Counter/ Activate only if you control a "Hypersonic Synthphonist" Synchro Monster. Negate the activation of a card or effect, and if you do, shuffle that card into the deck. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Set 1 "Synthphonist" Spell/Trap Card from your deck to your Spell/Trap Card Zone, but that card cannot be activated this turn. (This is a Quick Effect. You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Performance" once per turn).


	13. Special Update 3

Weekly Update and Thank You

My beloved readers, thank you so much for your continued support. It is a true delight to entertain you, to read through your comments, and share your creativity to the world. I've decided to make these updates a weekly thing in order to keep you all up-to-date on the progress of the story and give myself the necessary time to thank you all for your contributions. So without further ado, let us get right to it. Before beginning, I would like to first give a general thank-you to ALL of my readers. It gives me true delight to know that this story is delighting you. Thank you AngeLight952, CorinnetheAnime, Epsilon Tarantula, FanOfKings, Ghost83, Greninja, kaploblast, Kurogane Fang, Nox Descious, Shimmering Sky, Solphage, and now MaesLawliet for each of your contributions. I love them all and promise to feature them in future chapters. Remember that if I haven't shown any of your characters yet, it doesn't mean I don't like them, and it doesn't mean I have forgotten about them. However, as I have received numerous messages concerning the appearances of certain characters, I wish to once again assure each of my contributors that I plan on featuring each of their contributions. There may be a wait time, similar to the wait time all Ruri fans suffered through, but one thing I wish to avoid is featuring a character just for the sake of featuring the character rather than because it would make sense to introduce that character at that given time in the story.

Nevertheless, I have recently received a wonderful idea from Greninja which I have taken the liberty of adapting into something a little bigger. It is my great delight to announce that in addition to each of these weekly updates featuring a progress report and thank you, I will be providing readers with an opportunity to get to know the original characters introduced in "Signs of Renewal" by hosting weekly Question and Answer segments for the characters! Here's how it will work:

Each reader can submit exactly ONE question to any character of their choice. This can be an original character contributed by the fans or any anime original character featured in "Signs of Renewal." I will compile your questions together, and then next week, you will get an answer directly from the mouth of the character you asked the question to. So without further ado, let's begin by listing the Original Characters who have appeared thus far in "Signs of Renewal." (Characters are listed in alphabetical order).

Name: Elizaveta Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active / Brief overview: Elezaveta is an Arrest Corps officer and Pyotr's sister. Initially distrustful of Ruri, she decided to join her cause in order to provide a future for her sick father.

Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active / Brief overview: A retired Security officer who took part in the arrest of Sergey Volkov.

Garret Kinsley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active / Brief overview: One of Ruri's disciples.

Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: None / Status: Active / Brief overview: A Tops civilian who recently witnessed the arrest of her father.

Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active / Brief overview: The adopted son of Kyosuke Kiryu, and later, of Emma and Enoch Grayson.

Mita Takeda / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active / Brief overview: One of Ruri's disciples.

Pyotr Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active / Brief overview: Joined Ruri as one of her disciples in order to build a better future for his family.

Santiago Guevarra / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown but presumably has Accel Synchro monsters / Status: Active / Brief overview: One of Ruri's disciples.

Most of these characters are my own original characters, but by next week, I hope to be introducing A LOT of your original characters. In the meantime, I hope you will all take advantage of the wonderful opportunity to get to know the characters that have been shown so far. If you have any questions about what to do for this, please PM me.

Now for a progress report. I was happy to be able to complete yet another chapter of "Signs of Renewal" this week. However, as you all may have suspected, with the return of the school year, you may be seeing a slow-down in new content. I will continue to post these weekly updates, but new chapters may not be submitted on a weekly basis as they have been in the past. I have no intention of quitting, but expect to see a slow-down of new content. Thank you all very much for your continued support. I know it can feel excruciatingly painful having to wait for your characters to make an appearance, but know that I am mindful of the wait, and I am constantly working to make each of their debuts the best they can be! If you need some therapy while you're waiting, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Until then, this is Donjusticia, comparing the blackness of the circles underneath my eyes to the darkness of space, and finding the night sky bright by comparison. ;)

And now, in order to comply with guidelines, here's a sneak peek of the upcoming chapter:

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Folktales

The professor rubbed the metal plate on his head as he scrolled through various recordings of Ruri and Rin staying in their towers, submitting to academia experiments in the labs, and occasionally, interacting with each other under close supervision. It was maddening to think that someone had managed to take both girls away from him and he needed to know everything that had led up to the incident.

Ruri and Rin had been escorted from their towers the night previous to the incident in order to take part in various tests whose success was contingent upon their interactions with one another. Selena had, of course, been unavailable for participation, but one of Leo's top agents, known simply as The Doctor, had assured him that a great deal of useful information would be gained from the experimentation.

Now, barely a day later, The Doctor and the girl's bodyguards, Apollo, and Diana, had all been destroyed, and Ruri and Rin had fled Academia.


	14. Special Update 4

Well everyone, it's been another wonderful week. I regret to inform everyone that I won't be able to post the next chapter tonight (as was anticipated) but I can assure everyone that the work continues. Stay tuned for an extra-long chapter that will feature MANY of the characters you have all contributed. But first… let's move on to the Thank-You section!

AngeLight952: Thank you once again for the deck you created. I very much like the details and work you put into it. Adeel will be making his appearance very soon so get hyped! If you have any more cards you would like to submit, feel free to do so at any time.

CorinnetheAnime: Thank you. Thank you. Gracias. Arigato. Merci. And many, many, many other ways you have helped me! Everyone, when you are done reading this update and bonus content, please PM CorinnetheAnime a thank you. She may not be able to respond today as she is on a trip, but she deserves quite a bit of praise. She is the one that helps edit each chapter so that you all don't have to be exposed to my horrendous grammar, she has contributed a ton of wonderful characters and cards to the story, and she recently helped me to avoid violating a certain guideline on . So thank you CorinnetheAnime. It has been one of my greatest delights making your acquaintance while publishing work on this website. Your characters will be making an appearance soon and will be VERY relevant to the plot. Stay tuned. And for the rest of you readers, if you want a sneak peek of what's coming, check out her story, "Voice of Freedom."

Epsilon Tarantula: Thank you for your patience and your MANY contributions. As you could probably tell from the last chapter, your characters from Standard will be appearing very soon. In the meantime, I hope you won't be disappointed by the fact that only Akato will be appearing in the next chapter. I offer you my condolences and hope this devastating news will not break your heart. Stay strong my friend, and know that I may only manage to blow up a few things and burn a few minor side characters. ;_;

FanOfKings: Well… how did you like Kiryu? I sincerely hope he made a good impression for his debut. And don't worry, I made sure not to kill him off for a reason. He will be doing MUCH more in the upcoming chapters. Stay tuned for more infernity awesomeness, and some interesting backstory on the original Kiryu.

Ghost83: Ok, Ghost83, you have been EXCEEDINGLY patient, and I have some good news for you, Elbert will be appearing soon. I won't say exactly when, since I don't know how much I'll be able to write with my schedule, but be rest assured, he WILL be making his debut. As soon as you hear some characters mention the Xyz Dimension, get fired up. I think you will like what I have planned for his introduction. At the most, I'm guessing it would be about four chapters from the next one that will be posted. Until then, please remember that I remain utterly stoked to write about your AWESOME character.

Greninja: Thank you so much for all the details you have given me about your characters, and for the recent consideration you showed after reading my profile page. I want to assure you that I will be using every single one of your characters in this fanfiction, and that I have recorded every detail you have sent me, down to their ace monsters, clothing, D-wheels, mannerisms, and martial arts, and that I WILL be using the info you sent me. Stay tuned, because the next chapter will feature Gin, Erika, AND Lilly. Lucy will have to wait a little bit longer, but she will be making an appearance soon. As for the decks of each character, I have completed the details for most of their cards. Lucy and Lilly will still be using their Thunder Avatars and Aqua Avatars, while Gin will be using a wonderful Ninja / Ninjitsu deck I have come up with for her, which includes both original cards such as Senior Silver Ninja, and a wide variety of Fan Cards such as the Tuner Monster, Ninja Kid, and one of her ace monsters, Silver Shadow Armor Ninja. Erika will be introducing us to the wonderful fan-made Lotus archetype, which will include plenty of wonderful Plant Synchro and Fusion monsters. In regards to the ace monsters you have submitted, I have kept the ATK, DEF, and effects of the monsters, but I have made some slight modifications to their names, as well as giving each monster a few extra effects just to make them stronger and more able to work together well with the decks of your other characters. Stay tuned for Earthbound Disciple Geo Lightning Dragon for Lucy, Earthbound Disciple Geo Cetus for Lilly, Earthbound Disciple Geo Qitou Ninja for Gin, and both Earthbound Disciple Geo Giao Long and Earthbound Disciple Geo Konohanasakuya-hime for Erika.

Kaploblast: Semal will be appearing very soon and you can bet that he will be dueling with the deck you sent me not too long afterwards. Stay tuned and stay awesome.

Kurogane Fang: As soon as you see characters enter the Xyz Dimension, get ready to see Fang. I am stoked to use the deck (or in his case… decks) you sent me for this guy. Expect Jorq to also be making an appearance not too long afterwards.

MaesLawliet: Nevan Bourne will be making an appearance in this upcoming chapter, and I have already chosen a Phoenix Guard rival for him. Get ready Shimmering-Sky, there is someone who doesn't like Natsumi!

Nox Descious: I can't tell you how much of a delight it is to chat with you. I absolutely treasure the fact that we can exchange jokes with each other on a regular basis. I am even more delighted to let you know that Friedrich will be appearing in this upcoming chapter. However, I have recently come across a little snag and I was wondering if you could help me with it. It's about Roger. You see… he will be featured prominently in this upcoming chapter, and I want to make sure he is as villainous as possible. He's already got quite a few villain clichés going for him, but I think there could be more. So here's the list of made so far of what he's already got, hopefully this will help us see what he is lacking.

1\. Uses a chessboard and treats people like chess pieces. Check!

2\. Has absolutely no regard for the welfare of his minions. Check!

3\. Is a coward that will never fight a fair battle. Check!

4\. Has a maniacal desire to rule the world. Check!

5\. Plays billiards using hamsters as the balls. Not canon, but… CHECK!

This is all looking pretty good so far, but there is still something missing. I was thinking he needed an eye patch over one eye, an evil laugh, and a fluffy white Persian cat on his lap. While he speaks to his victims, he slowly strokes the back of the cat while the cat glares at the victim with a hostile expression. I was thinking I could also throw in a tank of piranhas beneath his desk. If he doesn't like someone, he presses a button on his computer, and a hatch drops them in to be devoured for his enjoyment. What do you think? Have I got all the clichés? Or am I still missing something?

Shimmering-Sky: Natsumi will be appearing in this next chapter, and she will be adorable, funny, AND amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! I don't know why, but when I conceive of how Natsumi will act, I automatically start thinking of Mabel from "Gravity Falls." Please don't think this means she will be a carbon copy of this character! I just think Natsumi is just as adorable and lovable. If you have any concerns about the direction you fear I am taking this character, please PM me! I definitely want to accurately portray your character based on the info you sent me.

Solphage: Your character has been mentioned in the story and I can assure you that he will be making an appearance. A recent change to my outline may mean that his appearance will be a little bit later, but I promise you that I have not forgotten about him. He will be playing an EXCEEDINGLY important role in this story, especially where Gin Tami is concerned. Stay tuned and feel free to PM me should the wait time cause you to need any therapy sessions. I will be happy to help you out any way I can, or use Nox Descious's very kind and sympathetic character, Friedrich Hoffman, to give you a psychological adjustment. ;)

And now… let us move on to the next segment for this week. The first, character questions segment!

Question by Epsilon Tarantula:

To Emma Grayson: Is Satisfaction Town anything like the city? Heck, is the entire Synchro Dimension like the city with its Tops and Commons concept?

Emma Grayson: (Slaps her knee and begins laughing.) HA! Why do you think I don't live in that cruddy city? I may have served as an officer there, back when Security actually stood for something good, but I never let myself get tied down by their one-sided politics. If I found a Tops doing anything wrong, you can bet I would be there to put the hammer down on his gold-encrusted hide! I don't care about class, and neither does Satisfaction Town! We've got one rule over there, Mr. Hairy-Legs Tarantula, you work, you eat! You loaf around… you get nothing! Sure… some might consider Satisfaction down a run-down boondocks village, but it sure beats the endless slums of the city!

Kiryu: (Jumping in the conversation much to Emma's disapproval.) I'd like to point out that Satisfaction Town didn't use to be the (relatively) peaceful place it is now. Back when it was known as Crash Town, it was pretty much gang-ruled territory. People would get carted off into the mines and rival gangs would constantly be gunning each other down either with duel monsters or real guns. But after my adopted dad, Kiryu, got here, he pretty much cleaned the place up, and kept it safe from returning gangs and an influx of some very nasty Earthbound Disciples. If it weren't for his sacrifice, Satisfaction Town would probably be a cesspool of corrupt gangs and twisted Earthbound occultists.

Question by Greninja:

To Gin Tami: Are you ticked at Security for taking your father.

Gin Tami: (Bows respectfully to Greninja) Thank you very much for your concern, Greninja-San. I don't want to hate Security… but to be honest… I'm scared! My dad didn't do anything wrong! He's always been a good person! Sure… he may have occasionally looked down on the Commons… but he's also done good things for them! He built the Tami Public Library in one section of the city, and he gives tens of thousands to charity every year! I don't know why Security took him from us! He's the furthest from a criminal! Mom doesn't seem to know what is going on either! And what's even worse… while we were driving home… I saw packs of Security rounding up Commons who weren't even doing anything! My mother and the servants told me to look away… but I couldn't stop myself! I need to warn my friends, and I need to do something about this! I don't care what mom or the other servants say. I know this is wrong, and I know I can help change things!

So yes, Greninja, yes. I am very angry. I don't want my anger to control me, but I know that what Security is doing is wrong! I'm going to do whatever it takes to help the Commons and bring my father back!

Thank you very much for your patience and continued support everyone. And now, in compliance with community guidelines set by this website, the rest of this weekly update will be a small bit of bonus content! Most weekly updates will contain a little sneak-preview of an upcoming chapter, but for this week, I thought I would give you all a little scene of some new characters who will be making their own debut in the larger work fairly soon. This little bonus feature is entirely canon to "Sings of Renewal," so please enjoy and get ready to learn more about these individuals.

 **Fusion Dimension: 9:57 AM: Along the coasts of Academia**

While Academia roared with activity as legions of Obelisk Soldiers prepared for an assault on the Synchro Dimension, a lone figure stood off in the shadows on top of a tall wall, watching the activity with a smug look on his face. He wore an officer's uniform similar in appearance to the Obelisk Force's armor, but his suit was thicker and green in color with large, bony, skeletal plates over the chest, shoulders, and arms. His short hair was a sandy brown, and his eyes were a dull golden brown with pitch-black sclera. Over his chest, a large spiral-shaped mark burned with multi-colored light.

"Look at you…" he mocked, "…scrambling like ants getting ready for a picnic. What a shame you will all end up becoming the main course."

Glancing above his head, he noticed a patrol heading his direction. Smirking to himself, he leaped from his position with superhuman strength before spreading out his arms as he approached the ground. In a flash, the surrounding area suddenly darkened to a deep grey color before everyone and everything suddenly froze in their motion. Seemingly unaffected by the sudden stop in time, the figure gently descended onto the ground below before flexing both his arms and restoring color and movement to his environment.

"So useful…" he sighed to himself, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, "…it's a real shame I can't use it as much as I'd like without exhausting myself. Otherwise… I'd have burnt this stupid school to the ground long ago."

Walking briskly along the coasts of Academia, he stopped when he came across a segment of smooth cliff-rock. Holding out his hand, the mark on his chest glowed with intense multi-colored light before the segment of rock vanished away, revealing a hollow cave.

Stepping into the cave, the figure scanned the inside. It was just as messy as his partner had left it. Cans of discarded soda littered the floor, and thousands upon thousands of diagrams and scientific formulas written in charcoal and ash, littered the walls of the cave. Off to one shadowy corner of the cave, the figure spotted his partner, scribbling away at the wall while chowing down on a paper cup of Ramen noodles.

The figure shook his head. "I don't know why you bother eating. It's not like they're going to nourish you when you're dead. Besides, you can't even taste them."

"Ah tsk, tsk, tsk my good friend, Aaron Tarleton…" the figure chided from the corner of the room while scribbling down some additional formulas, "…did your mother not teach you anything? Why the most important thing in the world for any growing boy is to get their three square meals each and every day! I don't remember there being a caveat for when I became an undead disciple, so I figure it's my duty to live by every word of my saintly… now dead mother."

The man named Aaron smirked. "You really are a momma's boy, aren't you, Satoru."

"Ah contraire!" Satoru enthused, stepping into the light. Like Aaron, the sclera of his eyes were a pitch-black color, and he sported a large multi-colored spiral mark on his chest. His eyes were a bright green and his long and wild hair was a brilliant cyan. In the right corner of his mouth, he was sucking on a large fountain pen, while a ramen noodle hung over the left corner of his mouth so that a small trickle of ink and broth dribbled down his chin and onto his large white lab-coat. "I am a family man! Father, mother, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, cousins… especially my two cousins… so I am MORE than a momma's boy! I show deference to all my family relations! The whole package! There's nothing more important than family after all… don't you agree?"

Aaron smirked. "I hardly remember my family. I was taken from them at a very young age. However… if you really do care about your family that much, then I have some good news for you. I have been in contact with our master. He is pleased with the work we have performed.

"I should say that Yuu should be happy with what we've done!" Satoru exclaimed, fountain pen popping from his mouth and landing on the sandy floor of the cave. "I mean… we practically set all of his plans in motion! I ended up having to process… let me see…" he pulled out a stack of cards from his pocket, "…oh… only three Obelisk Soldiers? Well… at least I got Diana, Apollo, and the Doctor. Freaking hated that guy! Did you know he was one of the foremost who said my work was a crock! A CROCK! Oh well thanks Mr. Doctor! Let's see you come up with a way to convert organic life into a mass of life energy that can be stored in a card WITHOUT killing the organism! Freaking best moment of my life when I finally…"

"Focus Satoru," Aaron growled, "I have more to tell you."

"Well, say on, say on!" Satoru encouraged, "Don't let me interrupt you, your highness! I mean… it's not like I matter that much!"

"Yuu has been in contact with Isaac Abrams in Synchro." Aaron continued, ignoring Satoru's griping. "The Phoenix Guard is marshalling their forces as we speak and Academia seems to have already sent an agent." He paused before continuing, waiting till he had Satoru's undivided attention. "You're going to like this, Satoru. Both of your cousins are in Synchro."

Satoru stared at Aaron when he heard the news, eyes widening with shock and surprise. Leaping into the air, he began whooping at the top of his lungs, dancing a jig as his excitement and happiness rose.

"Both my cousins in Synchro!?" he whooped, "This is… this is amazing, Aaron! Do you know how long it has been since I've seen their chubby little faces!? Do you know how happy this makes me!?"

"Apparently too happy." Aaron muttered, annoyance steadily growing.

"I mean… I've been watching them ever since I died…" Satoru continued, rubbing his hands together, "…heck, I even brought Lydia back after she nearly… well… you know about her condition."

"Yes…" Aaron muttered, "...I seem to recall you mentioning it at least… oh… two-hundred and seventy five times already!"

"And what will Sora think of me?" Satoru rambled on, rubbing his hands together with growing excitement. "I was so proud to see how well he did in his classes, but I haven't been able to speak to either of them in so long… it's… it's… it's infuriating! Please tell me that Yuu told you I could speak to them! Please tell me! Even if it's a dirty rotten lie and I'm not really allowed to associate with them anymore! Actually… don't spare me… tell me straight up! Am I or am I not allowed to talk with them!?"

"You will of course be required to stay hidden." Aaron dryly replied. "But I'm certain that won't stop you from dropping some hints to your family. Have no fear, Satoru. Yuu has plans for both of your cousins. If you follow his orders, he intends to amply reward you for your loyalty."

"Oh… I'll be compliant." Satoru hastily reassured Aaron, "Yuu's orders are absolute after all… I am just… oh Aaron!" he exclaimed, "…you can't imagine how excited this makes me! After all this time… just to finally have some family to talk to! I doubt they remember me… but… but I never forgot about them!"

"I suggest you get packed." Aaron replied with a bored expression on his face. "And please… clean up this mess. The last thing we want is to leave behind a trail of evidence for Academia to find."

Satoru waved his hand dismissively over the mess. "Oh… this? This can be easily taken care of. Just a moment."

Holding out his arm, he pulled back his sleeve and pressed a button on a watch. From the corners of the room, Pieces of metal that glowed with orange light flew towards Satoru's arm before hovering in place and creating a large forward-facing sword-shaped Duel Disk composed of a jigsaw puzzle of metal pieces glowing with orange light as if they were on fire. Each piece hovered in place, with space in between each piece. Lighting up with golden circuitry, the disk seemed to activate before Satoru placed a card on the field.

"Come forth… Procesystem Adapter." Satoru commanded.

In the center of the room, a monster about the same height as Satoru appeared. Shape-wise, the monster looked like a large red-and-orange translucent bacteriophage with thick robotic legs, a white metal casing, and a large red robotic eye in the center. The monster seemed to be constantly glitching in and out of focus as its body frequently shifted from a clear image to an unfocused mess of pixels, to a fuzzy image of a young girl with black hair, and back to its normal image. Letting out robotic insect clicking, the monster stomped around the room before turning to face its master.

"Process my things." Sotoru commanded, indicating a set of suitcases, his cans of soda, and the wall drawings.

"Command confirmed." The monster clicked in a raspy robotic voice. Scanning through the room with its eye, it let loose a beam of concentrated orange energy which seemed to vaporize the objects in the room on contact. When all the cans, suitcases, and wall drawings had disappeared, Satoru's Duel Disk lit up and a stack of cards popped out. Brushing the cards off, Satoru stared as the image of the cards developed like bits of old film until one displayed a stack of cans, one displayed a set of suitcases, and a third displayed a set of Satoru's cave drawings.

"I'm done." Satoru proclaimed, putting the cards in his pocket. "What about you Aaron? Got anything you need to bring?"

"All I need is this." Aaron replied, setting a helmet over his face. Similar to the helmets worn by the Obelisk Force, his helmet bore a jewel in the center, but the jewel was pitch black in color and the helmet was shaped like a human skull with ram horns and gleaming red eyes.

"It's been a long time since I've worn my full uniform." Aaron sighed, flexing his arms and smiling as he gazed at his own experience. "But I've never felt better in it. It's time for the Dreadroot to rise again!"

"And it's time for the… uhm…" Satoru scratched his chin in thought, "… crazy… scientist… former Academia… guy… oh whatever! I can't top you. Why do you have to get the cool name!?"

Aaron smirked at his companion. "Because while you had a desk job, I was actually on the front lines serving Academia.

"It's a shame Academia didn't seem to appreciate what you did for them." Satoru smirked back.

"Yes…" Aaron sighed, "…that was the biggest mistake of their life. Now all they will get from me is a heartfelt epitaph as I watch their miserable school burn to the ground." He grinned to himself, relishing the idea of having a front-row seat when the action began. "But for now… let's meet our friends in Synchro."

"Yes…" Satoru agreed, rubbing his hands together with excitement. "…ooooh… I am just dying a second time with excitement!"


	15. Part 1: Chapter 11 Scene 1

**I have recently decided to make a little change in presenting the next chapter to my readers. Because of the immense size of this chapter, I have decided to break chapter 11 up into a series of shorter "scenes." This first one will feature an original character from Nox Descious. The next scene, which will be coming out very soon, will most likely feature original characters from Greninja, Solphage, and thetiger39. Thank you all very much for your support and patience. (And yes Greninja, I have recently received and archived your character. Expect her to make an appearance fairly soon, though I think I will have t make some slight changes to the cards if you don't mind. Thank you for your continued contributions). Without further ado, please enjoy Scene 1 of Chapter 11.**

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Escalation (Scene 1: Interviews)

The professor rubbed the metal plate on his head as he scrolled through various recordings of Ruri and Rin staying in their towers, submitting to academia experiments in the labs, and occasionally, interacting with each other under close supervision. It was maddening to think that someone had managed to take both girls away from him and he needed to know everything that had led up to the incident.

Ruri and Rin had been escorted from their towers the night previous to the incident in order to take part in various tests whose success was contingent upon their interactions with one another. Selena had, of course, been unavailable for participation, but one of Leo's top agents, known simply as, The Doctor, had assured him that a great deal of useful information would be gained from the experimentation.

Now, barely a day later, The Doctor, more than twenty Obelisk Soldiers, and the girls' bodyguards, Apollo and Diana, had all been destroyed, and Ruri and Rin had fled Academia. The worst part was that Leo's investigators had so far been unable to ascertain the identity of the perpetrators.

Leo stopped when he came to the recording of Rin's duel against the six Obelisk Soldiers. After Rin completed her transformation, he paused the recording and zoomed in on her arm, scratching the side of his head thoughtfully as he pondered the significance of the mark.

"Dark Signer." he breathed. It was clear to him that these were no mere disciples. He had suffered the displeasure of having to deal with their kind in the past, but all of those individuals were nothing compared to what Rin had become. They were nothing but remnants, a dwindling race struggling to hold on after the crippling defeat of their master. So how were there Dark Signers now?

"I thought the war ended twelve years ago." Leo muttered, tapping his finger against his throne. But much as the Professor wished that the war had been finished, there was the evidence against that theory, playing right before his eyes. Somehow… someway… a Dark Signer must have lived on. Somehow… someway… that Dark Signer had held on for long enough to find new vessels to carry on its legacy.

A new thought popped into Leo's head. "Why them? Why did it choose Ruri and Rin to be its successors?"

Leo closed his eyes and sighed. It was nearly a rhetorical question. He was nearly one-hundred percent certain he knew exactly why the girls had been chosen. And if his theory was correct, that meant that Yuzu, Selena, Yuri, and all the other children connected to the Arc Area Project, would be in grave danger.

"What about the girls?" Leo quietly asked himself. "Are they in agreement with the Dark Signer's plan, or are they being motivated by something else?"

Leo straightened himself in the chair and spoke a command to the holographic screen.

"File 10.3, Daichi Ishikuma and Rin, interview one." Leo commanded.

From the side of the screen, the requested file expanded into the center of the screen and began displaying a video of Rin sitting in a small white room in front of a large white table with her hands and feet cuffed with a set of solid vision cuffs. A pair of Obelisk guards stood behind her while her bodyguard, Apollo, stood off to the side with his Duel Disk at the ready. The room was brightly lit from a combination of the florescent ceiling lights and the prevailing white color of the room. As she usually did, Rin was looking exceedingly defiant. Her fists were clenched together and her feet had been firmly planted against the floor as if she were a coiled spring just waiting for the opportunity to burst out of her confinement and escape. Yet despite this outward display of building ferocity, Leo could see that she was very anxious and frightened. Her forehead and palms were visibly shining with sweat and her knees kept knocking together despite her efforts to stay still.

Presently, the door of the room opened and a new person walked in. He was a man, who looked to be in his early twenties, with tanned Asian skin, a smooth face, short black hair, thick horn-rimmed glasses over a set of intelligent thin-squinted blue eyes, and a small smooth nose. Against the whiteness of the room, the man looked like a humanoid blot of ink with a black bowler hat resting on his head, a large black trench coat draped over his person with small white notepads winking out of the pockets, and a pair of shiny black gloves over his hands. In one crooked arm, he carried a small black felt box while his other hand carried what looked like a small black Leprechaun crock full of gold coins. Rin nearly jumped from her chair at the sight of the man, which prompted a response from Apollo and the Obelisk guards who activated their Duel Disks.

Smiling brightly, the newcomer gestured to Apollo and the other guards to stop as he hung up his hat and took his seat opposite from Rin before setting his items down on the table. Pressing a button on his own pitch-black Duel Disk, the holographic cuffs on Rin's arms and legs vanished away, leaving Rin to stare at the man in astonishment and confusion.

"You are dismissed." The man said to the guards. "Your services will not be required until after Rin and I are finished here."

Obediently, the guards nodded their heads to the man before exiting the room. When they had all left, the man offered his gloved hand to Rin.

"It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Rin." The man began. "I am Doctor Daichi Ishikuma and I will be acting as both your mental therapist and guidance counselor throughout your stay in Academia."

Rin kept her hands on the table, refusing to even look at Daichi, much less touch him. When Daichi saw that he would not receive a handshake form Rin, he smiled before reaching for a crystal pitcher of water resting on the table and pouring some water into two small clear plastic glasses before offering one to Rin while keeping the other one for himself. Rin stared at the man and then back at the glass as if she'd been offered a bottle of arsenic.

"There's no need to worry about it being drugged." Daichi reassured Rin, taking a gentle sip from his own glass. "I know it can get hot in here, so I'm sure you must be very thirsty."

Rin kept her mouth shut, staring back at the man as if pondering whether she should try jumping him and making a run for it, or just sit still and offer no provocation.

Daichi smiled sympathetically at the young Synchro Duelist. "You have cause to be anxious, Rin. In the span of a few days you have been whisked away from your home, taken to a new home in a strange land, forced to endure hours of lectures on Academia protocol, and met dozens of strange people, some friendly, like Ruri, and others..." he smiled, "…well… I suppose few words are needed to describe Yuri." He took another sip from his glass before continuing.

"While I cannot agree with all the methods of my associates, I must inform you that I am regrettably just as bound by the edicts of Academia as you are, meaning that I am expected to complete certain objectives in order to further their cause. Nevertheless, I want you to be comfortable during this interview. It is counterproductive to my line of work if my clients suffer undue stress and anxiety. So if there is anything I can do to make this process or your stay in Academia more comfortable for you, please interrupt me at any time and I shall see what I can do within the boundaries Academia has set."

Rin glared at Daichi, gritting her teeth together and clenching her fists as if to say she didn't believe a word of what he was saying. Leaning across the table so that her face was nearly pressed against him, she stared into his eyes like a tiger about to pounce on its prey.

"What do you want with me!?" she hissed.

Daichi smiled gently back at Rin, completely unprovoked by her aggression.

"My goal for this interview is simple, Rin." He explained. "I wish to get to know you. Particularly, I would very much like to know what motivates you."

"Motivates me?" Rin asked, looking back at Daichi with confusion.

Daichi smiled enigmatically. "The behavior of every living organism is influenced by a unique set of reinforcers and punishers particular to the individual organism. You've encountered these in your daily life. They range from a boy frequently purchasing ice cream because he consistently receives a pleasant taste in his mouth, a reinforcer, to that same boy decreasing the frequency with which he avoids doing his homework in order to avoid an angry slap from his mother, a punisher. So to bring this back to you, Rin, I simply want to know what your reinforcers are. What motivates you to… say… ride a D-wheel? What do you hope to receive out of a good day's work? It's quite a lot to know, but I can assure you that if you help me get to know you, then it will make our work go a lot smoother."

Rin stared at Daichi in disbelief before falling back onto her chair and letting out a mixture of laughing and upset sobbing.

"And you… think… after all you've done… that I'm just gonna… tell you… how you can control me!?"

Daichi smiled sympathetically at Rin. "I never expected you to tell me anything right off the bat. I know you don't trust me yet, Rin, and I don't plan to convince you that I am someone you can trust within the span of this interview. But even if you don't wish to trust me, perhaps we can simply agree to help each other. The professor has given me the discretion to handle your adjustment into Academia life and granted me the authority to enact whatever changes need to be made in order for your stay to be as smooth and stress-free as possible. You can use me to your advantage, Rin, but only if you're cooperative."

"And what will you do if I'm not cooperative." Rin growled. "Torture me? Brainwash me?"

Daichi looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully before looking back down at Rin. "Academia has its own methods." He sighed, "Torture and other such crude behavior modification procedures being among them. Please understand that I am not trying to threaten you, Rin, but if my methods prove ineffective, then I cannot guarantee that such… barbarous methods will not be employed against you. I will not deny that those methods work when it comes to producing immediate results, but the cost on the patient's mental health is so extreme…" a pained expression came over his face, "…Rin, understand, it is not my goal to destroy you. On the contrary, if I can obtain your cooperation and learn about you without altering one iota of who you are, then I will consider my work done. The best way for you to keep your identity intact and for me to satisfy the professor's demands is with my method, positive reinforcement. For now, without going into a Behaviorism lecture, let's just say that as you help me, I will help you. And of course, for me to help you, I need to know what it is you want, you're positive reinforcers."

Rin glared back at Daichi, folding her arms over her chests. "And what's your positive reinforcement, Daichi?" Rin asked, angrily mimicking Daichi's manner of speaking. "Tell me… what exactly makes you tick!?"

Daichi let out a little laugh, smiling brightly as he did. "I am different from the other people in Academia. I desire nothing material such as money or luxury, and I don't have any interest in subjective constructs such as fame, prestige, or power. I am a scientist, meaning I search for the one thing science is concerned with. Truth. Such scientific truth is the end in and of itself for me, not the means to obtaining something lesser. The subject matter may change on occasion, but it is always the search for truth that drives me! And it is by establishing a positive and trustworthy relation with my clients that I can obtain this treasure while mutually fulfilling their needs and desires."

Rin stared at him as if not comprehending what he was saying.

"You are my positive reinforcement, Rin." Daichi clarified, "Every nugget of truth you reveal to me is a precious jewel without compare! Not because I need to USE it for anything, but because absolute objective truth is the principle I will willingly use all things to obtain!" he looked off into the distance, a mixture of excitement and remorse on his face. "Sadly…" he sighed, "…my associates seem to have forgotten that science is merely an intellectual process aimed at studying the world through observation and experiment. Certainly it is not a way to input knowledge into the making of the next super-weapon! No, Rin, knowledge is the end, in and of itself, and I would like for things to go smoothly between us in order to obtain this knowledge."

He pulled back the sleeve of his trench coat and glanced at a watch, frowning when he noticed the time. "Regretfully... not all of Academia shares my beliefs. They want results, Rin, results that will lead to the completion of the Arc Area Project." He leaned in closer to Rin, looking directly into her eyes. "It would be best for both of us if we helped them towards this goal." He insisted, "Otherwise... you might have to deal with my associate. Trust me, Rin. Most people prefer to deal with me."

Rin looked down at the floor, nervously twiddling her thumbs as the weight of Daichi's words sunk in. Eyes darting back and forth, Rin seemed to be weighing Daichi's proposal against what she knew. Seemingly coming to a decision, she clenched her fists together before looking up at Daichi, who was sitting patiently in his chair, neither moving nor making a sound.

"You can sweet talk me and offer me the world, but you can never get me to talk." Rin growled. "You're right about one thing. I don't trust you! So stop wasting time! Just throw me in your torture room, or brainwash me, or whatever you do! Because I will NEVER willingly tell you ANYTHING!"

Daichi smiled at Rin before opening the box and setting the pot of gold coins on the table. "Let us try my way first." He insisted. Lifting the contents from the box and setting them on the table, Rin gasped when she saw what one of the items were.

"My deck!?" she exclaimed, noticing Wind Witch – Winter Bell on top of the stack of cards.

"And my deck." Daichi enthused, pulling out a different stack of cards before getting up from his chair. Taking his chair and his deck in his hands, he swung around the table until he was standing behind Rin who was still sorting through the cards in her deck. Taking his seat adjacent to Rin, but a little behind her, he reached out and plucked a gold coin from the Leprechaun pot before slapping it down on the table in front of Rin who stared at it with confusion. Holding it up to the light, she could see that the coin was made from a durable plastic, like a token. Inscribed on the coin's face was the number, "5."

"Five points for your cooperation, Rin." Daichi congratulated shuffling his deck before placing it on the table.

"Points?" Rin asked, staring back at Daichi with confusion.

"Indeed." Daichi replied, adjusting his trench coat. "It's a little game I've set up for you. I find that it works quite well for individuals of your age group."

"How does it work?" Rin asked, curious despite her suspicions.

"That token…" Daichi explained, "…can be redeemed for certain prizes. Inside your tower, you will find a little coin slot on the wall that you can use to deposit your tokens so they can be stored in a virtual bank of points. The more you cooperate, the more tokens I will give you, and the more points you will earn."

Rin smirked at Daichi before chucking the token into the corner of the room. "And you really think I'd obey you just so I can earn your stupid points?"

Daichi made no move to retrieve the coin for Rin. Folding his arms, he instead stared back at her with his same calm and patient expression. "I do not know you all too well of course…" Daichi apologized, "…but as I get to know you, I will be putting some prizes into the system. The tokens are pretty universal for most of my clients, but the prizes vary depending on what the particular client enjoys. With the points you earn, you can purchase anything from a tasty snack, to special privileges such as catching an opera at Academia's theater."

Rin blinked at the mention of the theater. Did Academia really have that?

Daichi smiled back at her. "However, for now, I have input a particular prize I think you will enjoy. I know you have been separated from Ruri for most of your stay, but you two seem to have become quite close to each other. Which is understandable." He added thoughtfully. "So here's my proposition, Rin. Normally, you don't get to see her that often, but the Professor has graciously given me permission to allow you timed video chat privileges with your Xyz counterpart."

"Video privileges?" Rin asked, brightening up at the news despite her initial apprehension of Daichi. "You mean I can talk with her?"

"Talk with her, joke with her, make silly faces with her… anything you two wish to do." Daichi replied, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses on top of his nose. "One point equals twelve seconds of chat time, so five points are a full minute. Depending on how you behave, you could end up earning quite a lot of chat time with Ruri, in addition to whatever prizes and privileges you request."

"Like a circular saw to cut through my bars and escape?" Rin asked sarcastically.

"We'll see what the professor says." Daichi smirked.

"And what if I'm not cooperative?" Rin pressed. "Do I lose all these precious points?"

"Naturally, the professor has the final say regarding your privileges." Daichi explained. "However, it is not my method to punish my clients by taking away points. If you misbehave, you will simply not earn points, and that will be the end. On the other hand, not one act of cooperation will go unrewarded with an appropriate amount of points."

Rin seemed to be considering his words. Even if Rin didn't seem to be noticing it, the Professor could already see the effectiveness of his agent's methods. Although Rin didn't trust Daichi, she was already opening up to him.

"So what happens now?" Rin asked, eyeing Daichi as he held his deck.

"My methods are a little unorthodox for the scientific community," Daichi explained, "but I have found that duelists will often reveal a great deal about themselves through the way they duel. So that's what I propose, Rin. You and I will do a little duel against each other, and I'll throw in a little bonus if you win. If you beat me, I will give you one-hundred bonus points and let you leave this interview early. If you lose, I will still give you the bonus points, but I will need you to fill out a questionnaire before you go. Fair enough?"

Rin looked back at Daichi before placing her deck on the table. "Alright…" she agreed, "…that's actually something I can get behind. I'm definitely not going to let you win."

Daichi smiled back at Rin before placing his deck adjacent to hers and drawing his opening hand while still sitting behind her.

"DUEL!" Daichi and Rin proclaimed in unison. Immediately upon the duelists' declaration, the table lit up to reveal a game-board displaying the card zone's and each player's life points. Scanning through the game-board, Rin drew her opening hand and prepared her move.

"Aren't you going to sit on the other side?" Rin asked, hiding her own hand so Daichi couldn't see it.

"I have positioned myself so I can't see your hand." Daichi reassured Rin. "Don't focus on me. Instead, focus on the monsters I summon and ways you can overcome them. Now, if you don't mind, I will be taking the first turn."

Rin looked like she did mind, but she kept her mouth shut.

Scanning through the cards in his hand, Daichi plucked a single card from his hand and placed it onto the table so that it was facing directly in front of Rin.

"I summon the Level one monster, Psychic Ink Figure One." Daichi proclaimed. From his card, a holographic mass of black ink bubbled upwards before shaping itself into a cloudy black figure, which looked vaguely like a demonic black bat with cloudy wings. As Rin stared at the monster in confusion, the monster seemed to slowly shift its shape as if responding to Rin's gaze.

"Upon being normal summoned, my monster's effect activates." Daichi explained. "My opponent gets to add one monster from their deck to their hand and reveal it. So tell me, Rin…" Daichi whispered behind Rin's back, "…what do you see?"

Rin seemed taken aback by the monster. For several moments, she just stared at the shifting figure, seemingly unsure of what to do. Looking down at the board, she reviewed the stats of the monster which showed that Daichi's monster was a Level one DARK attribute Psychic Type monster with zero ATK and zero DEF. Hesitantly searching through the cards in her deck, she added one to her hand.

"I choose the Level three monster, Wind Witch – Ice Bell." Rin concluded, adding the monster to her hand.

From behind her, Daichi nodded his head in approval before scribbling a note down on a notepad and slapping a five point coin down on the table in front of Rin. While Rin stared at the coin, he extended his hand towards his monster.

"I activate Psychic Ink Figure One's effect. Since you added Wind Witch – Ice Bell to your hand, Psychic Ink Figure One's name, Attribute, Level, Type, attack, defense, and effect becomes the same as Wind Witch – Ice Bell."

Rin gasped in shock as Daichi's monster transformed in front of her, molding itself into an inky black replica of her Wind Witch monster.

"Its effect now activates." Daichi declared. "Since it was summoned this turn, I inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points."

Rin gritted her teeth as the inky black Wind Witch let out a giggle before blasting a torrent of holographic ink at her shirt, leaving a temporary stain before it faded away and her Life Points dropped to 3500.

"With that I end my turn." Daichi smiled.

"My turn…" Rin replied with a frown, "DRAW!" the second she had completed her draw, she was shocked once again when Daichi slammed another five point token in front of her. Rin glared at Daichi in frustration, wondering how often she was going to get interrupted.

"Please continue, Rin." Daichi encouraged. "You are doing exceedingly well."

"I haven't even done anything!" Rin snarled.

"I beg to differ." Daichi replied. "But please… don't let me interrupt you. Continue with your turn."

Rin looked away from Daichi and back down at her hand before glancing at Daichi's monster. As it was, it was an exact copy of Wind Witch – Ice Bell, down to its name and appearance. Rin inwardly breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't added one of her stronger monsters to her hand. If she had, Daichi certainly would have just used it to his advantage. Fortunately, Ice Bell could be dealt with easily.

"I activate the magic card, Wind Calling Bell Chime!" Rin declared activating her Magic Card. As the card's effect activated, the sound of rushing wind and ringing bells could be heard. The instant the Magic Card was set on the field, Daichi slammed another five point token in front of Rin.

Ignoring Daichi, Rin continued with her turn.

"I reveal one Wind Witch monster in my hand in order to Special Summon one monster from my deck with the same name as the revealed monster." Rin explained. "And since you let me add Wind Witch – Ice Bell to my hand, I will reveal this monster in order to Special Summon one more Wind Witch – Ice Bell from my deck."

Opposite from Daichi's inky replica, Rin's original colorful Wind Witch – Ice Bell zoomed onto the field, leaving behind a trail of frosty wind from the tail of her broomstick/bell hybrid. Tossing aside her blue hair, the diminutive witch giggled as she raised her crystal wand to the air. Not wasting a moment, Daichi gently slipped another five point token in front of Rin.

Rin paused momentarily to glance at the growing pile of coins, wondering how many she'd end up collecting.

"Next, I Normal Summon one more Wind Witch – Ice Bell from my hand."

Next to her blue-haired sister, a second Wind Witch – Ice Bell with green hair materialized. Just like before, the second Rin had completed her move, yet another five point coin was added to Rin's growing pile of coins.

It was clear what was going on by now. It appeared that any time Rin would make a move, Daichi would award her with five points. Whether or not she outwardly expressed pleasure from the reward seemed inconsequential. Despite her initial resistance, the professor could see that the procedure was causing Rin to do exactly what Daichi wanted as she revealed more and more about herself with each play.

"Each Ice Bell's effect activates!" Rin declared. If they are summoned, I can inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points!"

Zooming around the table on their broomsticks, each Ice Bell giggled as they unleashed a separate gust of cold wind directly at Daichi's face. Grinning with each blast, Daichi slapped two more coins in front of Rin before his Life Points dropped to 3000.

"Excellent Rin." Daichi complemented. "I can tell you really want that reward! It's only your first turn and already I am down by one-thousand points!"

"Don't congratulate me yet." Rin countered, "I'm just beginning!"

Tearing out another card from her hand, she continued her turn. "From my hand, I activate Wind Witch – Snow Bell's effect! If I control two WIND monsters on my side of the field, I can Special Summon this card from my hand!"

In another gust of cold wind, Rin's monster appeared to the field. At first, the monster looked like a miniature ball of snow before unfolding to reveal a long bell handle, elegant ice-blue patterns trimming a rounded bell, and a pair of angel wings on either side of the bell handle. With the appearance of the Tuner monster, Daichi slapped down another coin.

Rin didn't seem to be bothered by Daichi's continual reinforcement anymore. If anything, she seemed to be getting into the duel.

"Now, I tune my Level one Wind Witch – Snow Bell with my two Level three Wind Witch – Ice Bells in order to Synchro Summon!" Rin declared. On her command, Snow Bell flapped forward before morphing into a single green ring of light. Zipping forward on their broomsticks, the two Wind Witch – Ice Bells flew into the center of the ring, fading into a golden outline of themselves before completely disappearing and leaving behind a straight line of six spheres of white light. As the Synchro Summon neared its completion, Rin commenced her summon chant:

"Winds of winter, snow, and ice, become my power to blow everything away! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Come forth! Level seven! Wind Witch – Winter Bell!"

Blasting out of a horizontal column of light, Wind Witch – Winter Bell whooshed onto the duel field, leaving behind a gust of intensely cold wind wherever she went. Flying circles around Daichi's imitation Ice Bell, a holographic indicator appeared to show an ATK of 2400 while Daichi slapped another coin onto Rin's table.

"I will next activate the Continuous Magic Card, Midnight-Wind Bell Chime!" Rin declared, throwing down a Spell Card that depicted a group of shadowy witches gathering around a bell-shaped cauldron that was blasting out a tornado of icy wind on a dark moon-lit night. "While this card is face-up on my side of the field," Rin explained, "All WIND Monsters I control gain ATK equal to their Levels times one-hundred. So that means my Wind Witch – Winter Bell gains seven-hundred attack!"

Ringing her central bell, Wind Witch – Winter Bell began glowing with icy blue light as her ATK rose to 3100. Grinning, Daichi slapped another coin in front of Rin.

"Its effect now activates!" Rin declared, "I target the Ice Bell in my graveyard in order to give Winter Bell the same effect! Take 500 more damage!"

With another ring of her bell, Winter Bell sent a huge gust of icy wind into Daichi's face, lowering his Life Points to 2500 as he nearly laughed with glee while setting yet another coin in front of Rin.

"BATTLE!" Rin declared, "Wind Witch – Winter Bell, destroy that imitation Ice Bell! Winter Fury!"

Zipping through the air at sonic speeds, Winter Bell let loose a hailstorm of icicles, which tore Daichi's monster into fragmented droplets of ink before the droplets splattered onto the table and disappeared entirely. Clapping his hands with delight, Daichi congratulated Rin before slapping another coin in front of her while his life points dropped to 400.

"Midnight-Wind Bell Chime's second effect activates!" Rin declared as Daichi took the opportunity to set another coin on her table. "If a WIND Spellcaster-Type monster I control inflicts battle or effect damage to my opponent's Life Points, I can tribute Midnight-Wind Bell Chime in order to add one "Bell Chime" Magic or Trap card from my deck to my hand." She plucked a card from her deck and added it to her hand while Daichi slipped another coin in front of her.

"Finally…" Rin proclaimed, "… I will set one card face-down and end my turn." She glared at Daichi expectantly as he set another coin onto her table.

"Excellent, excellent!" Daichi congratulated Rin as he drew his card. "You are doing far better than even I expected! Why, in a matter of just one turn, you successfully lowered my Life Points to a mere four-hundred! You should pat yourself on the back! Why, I would wager that by the time you begin your next turn…"

"There won't be a next turn." Rin interrupted Daichi, staring at him with a look of contempt on her face.

Daichi seemed taken aback by her statement. "And why ever would there not be, Rin? I thought you were enjoying this?"

"I'm saying that this is the last turn." She explained. "I activate my face-down Continuous Trap Card Cemetery-Wind Bell Chime!"

Flipping her trap card face-up, Rin revealed a card with a depiction of a snow-covered cemetery with multiple wind-chimes ringing forlornly over several unmarked graves decorated with wreaths and bells.

"Once per turn, I can target one Wind Witch monster I control in order to Special Summon one other Wind Witch monster from my graveyard with a Level equal to or less than the level of the targeted Wind Witch monster I control. Targeting the Level seven Wind Witch – Winter Bell, I Special Summon the Level three, Wind Witch – Ice Bell!"

Rising form the ground in a whirlwind of icy air, Wind Witch – Ice Bell zoomed around the duel field on her broomstick before letting out another laugh and pointing her wand at Daichi.

"Her effect activates." Rin declared with an almost bored expression on her face. "You lose and I get to leave."

Letting out a blast of air from her wand, Ice Bell quickly blew away the rest of Daichi's Life Points while the ecstatic man clapped his hands with delight.

"I have lost indeed!" Daichi enthusiastically acknowledged, throwing down three more coins before adding another stack of twenty, five-point coins to Rin's enormous pile. Taking out a small pink purse, he scooped the entire pile of coins into the bag's opening before handing it to Rin. "You have more than earned the right to leave this interview early, Rin. Thank you for a productive first meeting."

Daichi quickly pressed a button beneath the table before gathering up his items and placing his hat back on his head. From the door, the two Obelisk guards and Apollo strolled into the room, ready to accompany Rin back to her tower.

"Unfortunately…" Daichi apologized, setting his deck back into the felt box, "…I'm afraid Academia will not allow you to keep your deck at this time, so I will need it back. But we'll be dueling each other quite a bit more in the future." Daichi reassured Rin with a smile.

With a look of great reluctance on her face, Rin proceeded to hand Daichi her deck before proceeding towards the exit with the other guards. Before she had left the room, she suddenly paused.

"Wait!" she asked, turning around and looking into the room. One of the Obelisk guards made a move like he was about to apprehend her, but he was quickly stopped when Daichi motioned for him to be at ease. Walking into the corner of the room, Rin knelt down and picked up the coin she had tossed into the corner before hastily stuffing it into the purse and walking out with her guards.

Leo stared at the holographic screen as the recording came to an end. True to his word, Daichi had dueled Rin quite a few more times over the course of her stay in Academia, successfully farming more information from her with each visit. Among the many conclusions Daichi had drawn on Rin's psychological profile, he had concluded that she had a tendency, despite her tomboyish attitude, to gravitate towards figures of authority, or as Daichi had put it, fatherly figures. It had made sense to Leo when he had first heard the report. She had been raised without any official family in a run-down orphanage. It only made sense that she would gravitate towards people who could fill the void, such as her previous close friend when she lived in the orphanage, or Daichi himself when she was forced to stay in Academia. Even Ruri at times seemed to become a sort of motherly figure for the scared Synchro girl. Reviewing the recording only cemented Leo's theory. Despite all her shows of independence, Rin was inwardly very vulnerable and dependent on others. She had cooperated with nearly every one of Daichi's directives during her interviews, despite the bits of token defiance she offered. With the right authority figure, she could easily be manipulated. Ruri, on the other hand, was a different story.

"File 10.4, Friedrich Hoffman and Ruri, Interview one." Leo commanded. Just like before, the computer pulled out a new file which expanded into the center of the holographic screen before displaying the recording.

This time, instead of a square white room, the screen was dominated by a colorful oval-shaped room, shaped vaguely like a chrysalis. The center of the room was furnished with an oval-shaped black table with a large black chair with head and arm restraints on one side, and a large couch on the other side. Sitting at the couch while sipping a hot cup of tea, a man in a pasty-white trench coat with purple highlights on the shoulders and arms seemed to be waiting for someone. His long shiny white hair was tied into a ponytail, which rested against his neck and back. His squinty eyes were similar to Daichi's, but his were a blood-red color and covered with a pair of clear half-moon spectacles. His skin was the same pasty-white as his hair and trench-coat, with a few blotches of discolored yellow patches giving him a somewhat sickly appearance. The wrinkles on his forehead suggested that he was around his late fifties or early sixties in age. Over his hands, he wore a set of purple gloves while his feet were clad in a set of purple rubber boots. At his side, a white fedora with a purple rim rested against the man. In the background of the room, the professor could hear Franz Schubert's, "Der Doppelganger," playing in the background.

To the left of the man, a door opened and a pair of Obelisk Force guards, Ruri, and Ruri's bodyguard, Diana, entered the room. While the guards were standing alert and at attention, Ruri looked like she had decided to shut down. She did not move unless a guard gave her shove forward, and she barely even looked up as she hung her head down and let her long hair cascade over her face.

"Strap her in." the man in the couch instructed, not even looking up as he took another meditative sip from his tea-cup and slowly tapped his finger to the rhythm of the music. The voice of the man was clear and deep with an ever-so-slight hint of a German accent.

"Yes Friedrich!" one of the guards saluted, taking a submissive Ruri by the arm. "Glory on the Academia!"

"Glory on the Academia." The man named Friedrich agreed with a nod of his head.

As the guards strapped Ruri in, using a set of restraints that completely locked in her legs and waist while permitting her upper body, head, and arms freedom of movement, Friedrich meditatively closed his eyes before joining his voice with the German singer.

"Da steht auch ein Meeeeeeeensch und starrt in die Höhe,  
Und riiiiiiiingt die Händeeeeeee, vor Schmeeeeeeeeeeeeerzensgewalt;  
Miiiiiiir graaaaaaaust es, wenn ich sein Antlitz seeeeeheeeeeeeee -  
Der Mond zeigt mir meine eeeeeeeeigne Gestaaaaaaaaaaaaalt!

Du Doppelgänger! du bleicher Geselle!  
Was äffst du nach mein Liebesleid,  
Das mich gequält auf dieser Stelleeeeeeeeee,  
So maaaaaaaaaaaanche Naaaaaaaaaacht, in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalter Zeit?"

The music began dying off as he pronounced the last note, slowly fading into a forlorn chord of music. When it had ended, he opened his eyes and motioned for the guards to leave the room. When they had all left, he locked his eyes on Ruri's face and began addressing her.

"You are of course aware of why you are here, Ruri?"

Ruri remained silent, keeping her eyes locked on the floor.

"And evidently you intend to show me the same behavior you showed Daichi." Friedrich mused, pulling out a stack of papers from a file, which was resting on the couch. "In case you really are unaware, let us review how you have behaved over the past seven days…" he cleared his throat before continuing while Ruri continued to look down on the ground without giving any response as if she were a comatose invalid.

"Daichi writes of your interviews with him, stating quote: 'Patient remained consistently unresponsive. When being interviewed, she would look down on the floor and act as if she heard nothing. When dueling, she would consistently refuse to make any move, and instead waste time until the time limit for her turn ran out. Subject would consistently make conscious moves to reject positive reinforcement such as by swiping away tokens, covering her ears when given praise, and…'" Friedrich snickered to himself, "'…spitting out primary reinforcers such as sugar water and cookies.'"

He threw the papers down on his table with a look of exceedingly great contempt on his face before looking back up at Ruri.

"Let me make one thing very clear, Ruri. You may have been able to get away with this when Daichi was your counselor, but I am not soft and fluffy like him. My associate may have been content to take his time with his behaviorism, but neither I nor Academia shares his patience. Whether or not you really are or are not listening to me right now, you will soon come to find that your current behavior is not tolerated. Not when we have specific objectives to fulfill and not a lot of time to fulfill them. Now then… as a demonstration… SIT UP AND LISTEN WHEN I'M SPEAKING TO YOU!" he commanded, pressing a command on the screen of his Duel Disk.

Ruri nearly jumped from her seat as a sudden electric surge coursed through her body. Letting out a yelp, she threw back her head before quickly locking eyes with Friedrich, panting slightly as the pain went away.

"You wet yourself." Friedrich commented nonchalantly, pulling a deck from his Duel Disk.

With a horrified expression on her face, Ruri looked down to see that the sudden electric shock had indeed caused her to lose control.

"But that is alright." Friedrich continued with an unconcerned expression on his face. "We'll clean up the mess when this session is done. For the moment, let that little experience remind you that I do not mess around. You have had your chance to be compliant when we showed you hospitality, but sadly, you took Academia's hospitality and spat it back in our face. Now you get to work with me." He showed the front of his Duel Disk to Ruri, indicating a list of settings on the screen.

"That little tickle…" he explained, "…was the setting at 20. As you can clearly see, the machine goes all the way up to 100. Naturally, the professor will not allow me to inflict lasting physical harm to you, so this ingenious little machine is designed to inflict maximum pain with minimum physical damage. Please keep in mind, Ruri, that if you show me the slightest resistance, fail to properly follow directives, or even fall below your normal intelligence and skill level, then I am perfectly within my power to inflict whatever amount of punishment I see fit. Do you understand? Please respond with a clearly enunciated 'Yes' or a clearly enunciated 'No.'"

"Y-y-yes." Ruri whispered, eyes trailing to the floor again.

"What?" Friedrich asked, finger approaching his Duel Disk.

"YES!" Ruri hastily replied, standing up straight and facing Friedrich before he could touch the screen.

Friedrich nodded his head in approval. "Good, Ruri, good. You're already learning." He seemed to relax in his chair, staring at Ruri for an uncomfortably long time, seemingly content with merely observing her while her fingers and eyes trembled and her legs squirmed from the uncomfortable hot wetness of her clothing. After a few moments, he leaned forward, crossing his gloved fingers together and resting his chin on top of them before addressing her again.

"Our methods may be uncomfortable for you, Ruri, but you should know that there is a very good reason for us employing them. We would not do what we did if it would not ultimately benefit both you and others." He calmly explained, looking deep into her eyes.

Ruri eyed him back, mouth opening as if she wanted to speak. However, when she had parted her lips just a little, her eyes suddenly darted to Friedrich's Duel Disk and she immediately stopped, clenching her lips together while she clenched her fists tighter and her fingers trembled more vigorously.

Friedrich smiled at the response Ruri was showing.

"I can tell you hate me, Ruri." He smiled, maintaining his pose. "You don't have to say anything to prove it. Elevated heart rate, adrenaline, all signs that your Id is taking control, demanding you to escape, telling you that the truth is right in front of you, that the Professor, The Academy, and yours truly, are villains who need to be destroyed."

Ruri shuddered at Friedrich's words, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth together as if he was causing her more physical pain with his voice than he did with the electric shock.

Friedrich leaned back with a relaxed expression on his face, pouring some more hot tea into his cup from a white porcelain kettle and dropping in a few cubes of sugar before taking a sip and continuing in his same gentle tone-of-voice. "While the Professor would come down here and argue that this is false and that his dream of the Arc Area Project is true, look at it the way I see this. Both beliefs could be true, or neither."

Ruri's head whipped around to face Friedrich. A confused expression coming over her face. Evidently, she had not expected to hear what Friedrich just said.

"There are only two realities of this world, Dear Ruri…" Friedrich explained, setting his cup down and looking deep into Ruri's eyes with the same calm expression over his face, "…the inability to escape from death, and the fact that humanity has no sense of truth, only beliefs. It is these conflicting beliefs that caused the war between dimensions, tragic, but necessary for discovery."

"What discovery?" Ruri moaned, tears almost trickling from her eyes. "What could possibly be worth killing us and destroying us?"

"You're very talkative all of a sudden." Friedrich smirked. "The discovery of what you ask? The discovery of whether or not it is possible for humanity to uncover a single universal truth. This is my calling, as well as yours, the greatest experiment humanity will ever undertake. So please, Dear Ruri, don't think of yourself as a prisoner, or even a guinea pig in this experiment. Think of yourself as a caterpillar, with your cell being your cocoon, and when my associate has completed his invention, and I have completed my work, you will be able to ascend and transform into a beautiful, beautiful butterfly."

Friedrich closed his eyes after finishing his speech, smiling softly as if enjoying the melody of gentle background music.

"I don't… I don't understand." Ruri hesitantly replied. "What do you mean by transform? What do you mean by ascend? And why am I so important to you!?"

Friedrich frowned, as if Ruri had just said something very unpleasant.

"Unfortunately…" he growled, "…the answers to those questions appear to be things you have studiously attempted to avoid. You have repeatedly failed to comply with our directives, show an ounce of effort in the work that needed to be done, or even share an inkling of our own curiosity. That, however, is going to change today. From now on, I will be your instructor as you complete your transformation." His face softened again as he meditatively began shuffling his deck. "It will be a painful process, transformations always are. But I will help you, dear Ruri. I will be here to offer guidance, prod you in the right direction, and lead you as we discover new realms of possibility together."

He opened a drawer beneath the table and pulled out a deck before handing it to Ruri.

"So take your deck, Ruri." He commanded. "You are no doubt familiar with this procedure. Despite our many disagreements, Daichi and I share the belief that dueling is indeed one of the best ways to discover new information about a duelist. So we will duel, just as you have done many times before. But I warn you, if you fail to show me the skill-level I expect from you and lose this duel, then I will have to punish you. The only way to escape punishment is to help me in my analysis of your abilities by demonstrating to me your full capabilities. We have a lot of wasted time to make up and not a whole lot of time to do it. Do you understand me?"

"Please…" Ruri begged, sweat beading on her face, "…don't do this… I never did anything to you… this isn't worth it… you know this is wrong!"

The rest of her speech was cut off with another electric shock that sent Ruri's head flying back against the cushy head-rest on the back of the chair as she screamed in agony.

When the shock had stopped and Ruri fell forward on her chair, Friedrich addressed her question as if nothing had happened.

"Right and wrong are moral concepts generated by humans. The prevailing moral opinions exist because the human factions who hold them are stronger, not because the moral opinions hold any more inherent truth than any other." He drew five cards from the top of his deck and motioned for Ruri to do the same. Hastily complying, Ruri drew her opening hand before Friedrich continued. "If you wish to impose your moral will upon me, then I suggest you overpower me, starting with this duel. However, since that is not likely going to happen, my dear Ruri, I will take the liberty of taking the first turn."

Ruri grimaced as Friedrich pulled a card from his hand, but she didn't say anything. Waving his hand over the black table, Friedrich caused a holographic display of a duel field to appear over the table's surface.

"Let us start by removing some extraneous neural pathways." Friedrich began, throwing down a Spell Card. "I activate the Magic Card, Synaptic Pruning. This card sends the top five cards from my deck to my graveyard. In addition, I can select one of the cards I sent to the graveyard with this effect, and place it on top of my deck." Tossing a stack of cards from the top of his deck into the graveyard, he skimmed through the cards in his graveyard before lazily placing one on top of his deck. "Using the effect of Synaptic Pruning, I set the Monster, Spirit of the Unconscious on top of my deck."

Ruri watched with an apprehensive expression on her face as if bracing for something unpleasant.

Friedrich took notice of Ruri's expression and smiled. "You are thinking…" he observed, "…that I am setting up to do something big. Why else would I send so many cards from my deck to the graveyard? Well, you'd be right, Ruri. I am indeed setting up for a big play. So watch and learn."

He placed a card on the table.

"I Normal Summon the Level four monster, Spirit of the Subconscious." He declared. From his card, a pool of dimly-lit cold water poured out from the picture before the tip of a white iceberg poked its way over the surface of the water. Rising into the air, the rest of the massive iceberg rose above the surface of the water, until Ruri was staring at a massive sheet of ice. Beneath the peak of the iceberg, the bottom half of the iceberg blackened before bursting open and releasing a small humanoid figure with an enlarged head, eight arms, and a body as black as the night sky. Letting out a loud primordial howl, the creature folded its arms and legs in a meditative pose before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

"I now activate its effect." Friedrich declared, stretching out his hand towards his diminutive monster. When Spirit of the Subconscious is Normal Summoned, I can tribute it to look at the top card of my deck and Special Summon one 'Force' monster from my deck, ignoring the summoning conditions, based on the card revealed."

Ruri widened her eyes as if realizing what Friedrich was about to do. Unfolding its arms, Spirit of the Subconscious seemed to fade away before the top card of Friedrich's deck began glowing with black light.

Friedrich smiled back at her as he revealed the top card of his deck. "It would seem you have figured it out. The top card of my deck is Spirit of the Unconscious, a monster card. Because of this, I am allowed to Special Summon the Level six monster, Ido the Supreme Magical Force, from my deck to my side of the field."

Skimming through his deck until he came across a particular card, Friedrich placed the card onto the table before shuffling his deck and returning it to its original position.

"Come forth!" he commanded, "The embodiment of the primordial savage instinct! Ido the Supreme Magical Force!"

Gasping in shock, Ruri watched as a massive monster began materializing above Friedrich's card. Appearance-wise, the monster looked vaguely like a large savage translucent dragon composed of transparent blue energy and an outline of white electricity. Crackling with energy, the monster began digging its ferocious claws into the table, baring its fangs, and roaring with fury as if it wanted to tear everyone and everything to pieces. Above the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2200.

"You are apparently impressed that I summoned such a high level monster without even needing to draw it or release other monsters for its Tribute Summon." Friedrich mused, observing Ruri's expression. "Well, get used to this. This is barely a beginning for me."

Plucking another card from his hand, he continued with his turn.

"I next discard the Level four monster, Spirit of the Conscious, from my hand in order to activate its effect." Friedrich calmly continued.

From the center of the table, another pool of clear water began bubbling into existence before the tip of the holographic iceberg poked itself above the surface of the water. Shining with intense bright light, the tip of the iceberg slowly became transparent before shattering and releasing a small humanoid monster with pale white skin, an enlarged humanoid head, a pair of black alien eyes, four pairs of arms, an emaciated body, and a pair of thin legs. Bringing its hands to the center of its chest, the diminutive creature created a sphere of white energy in the center of its hands, which looked vaguely like the pulsating surface of a brain.

"When it is discarded…" Friedrich explained, "…I am allowed to add one "Force" Monster from my deck to my hand. I choose the Level seven monster, Ego the Supreme Rational Force."

After adding the card to his hand, he continued with his turn.

"Now then, my current monster, Ido the Supreme Magical Force, prevents me from summoning monsters while it is face-up on the field. However, there is a simple way to get around its effect. Ego the Supreme Rational Force is entirely immune to each one of Ido's effects, in addition, if I control a face-up Ido the Supreme Magical Force, I can summon this monster from my hand without releasing any monsters!"

Ruri let out an audible gasp.

Friedrich calmly smiled at her before placing his monster on the table. "Reveal yourself now! The embodiment of the practical mind and the mediator between the animalistic and spiritualistic tendencies! Ego the Supreme Rational Force!"

Appearing to the right of Ido, Friedrich's new monster materialized onto the field. Unlike the dragon-shaped Ido the Supreme Magical Force, Ego the Supreme Rational Force took the vague shape of a large humanoid creature with long gorilla-like arms and two faces, one looking to the right and one looking to the left. Like Ido, Ego's translucent body seemed to be created from pure energy, but his body was a shade of red instead of Ido's blue. Stretching out its arms and puffing out its chest, the monster let out a low growl before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

"It's a shame I can't attack." Friedrich mused, "But that will come later. For now, I will set one card face down, and conclude my turn by activating the continuous magic card, Psychoanalysis."

Friedrich placed down one face down before revealing a magic card that depicted a female patient reclining on a couch while a therapist took notes as she spoke.

"The ball's in your court, Ruri." Friedrich instructed, "Show me your full power or there will be consequences."

Trembling, Ruri reached over and plucked a card from her deck.

"My turn… draw." She weakly replied. Closing her eyes, she barely even looked at the card she drew before whispering, "Turn end."

Immediately, Ruri was blasted back against her chair as Friedrich set the shock to forty.

"No, Ruri…" Friedrich growled, "…you do not get to end your turn like that. Don't think I'm an idiot! I know you don't have a bad hand! You're just trying to get this duel over with by letting me attack you directly next turn. Unfortunately for you, Ruri, getting out of this session is not going to be that simple. I need you to actually show effort. Satisfy me and I will let you go. Continue to show this impudence, and I will shock you until you pass out! Am I clear, Ruri!?"

Gritting her teeth, Ruri slammed a card onto the table.

"I Normal Summon Lyrical Luscinia –Cobalt Sparrow!" Ruri roared. Over the card, a small harpy-like monster with a humanoid body and face, bird wings instead of arms, bird feet, brown feathers, and a bird-head hood with pilot goggles over a female humanoid face materialized into existence. Quickly pulling two more cards from her hand, she continued with her plays.

"If I control a Cobalt Sparrow, I am allowed to Special Summon Sapphire Swallow and one other Lyrical Luscinia from my hand with Sapphire Swallow's effect! Come forth! Lyrical Luscinia – Sapphire Swallow and Lyrical Luscinia – Cobalt Sparrow!"

Next to Ruri's previous monster, two more harpy-like monsters appeared, one a second copy of Cobalt Sparrow, while the other was similar in appearance to Cobalt Sparrow but wore blue feathers and clothing reminiscent of an air-flight attendant.

"Cobalt Sparrow's effect activates!" Ruri continued. "Since she was Special Summoned, I get to add one other Cobalt Sparrow from my deck to my hand!" angrily tearing the card from her deck, she continued with her plays.

"I next activate the effect of the second Sapphire Swallow in my hand!" Ruri declared. "I Special Summon both Sapphire Swallow and the Cobalt Sparrow I added to my hand!"

Swarming the field, Ruri completely filled her Monster Zones with two more humanoid bird creatures. Scooping all the monsters up in one hand, she stacked them together before drawing a card from her Extra Deck and slamming it on top of her five monsters.

"I now overlay all five of my monsters in order to Xyz Summon!" she declared. Over her cards, a holographic image of an Xyz Portal swirled into existence before each of her monsters transformed into streams of green light and drained into the center of the singularity. Raising her hand to the air, she began a summoning chant, a look of utter rage and loathing darkening her face.

"Birds with beautiful wings, come and nobly shine on the battlefield! XYZ SHOKAN! Fly down! Rank one! Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale!"

Bursting forth from the portal in a swirl of blue and white feathers, Ruri's Xyz Monster gracefully twirled through the air before spreading out its wings while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

"Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale's monster effect activates!" Ruri declared, "For each of its overlay units, it gains one-hundred attack and can attack once!"

"Oh… so you can actually play this game." Friedrich smirked as the ATK of Ruri's monster rose to 500.

Ignoring him, Ruri continued with her plays.

"I next activate the Quick-Play Magic, Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Foraging. By detaching up to two Overlay Units from a Lyrical Luscinia monster I control, I am allowed to draw cards equal to the number of Overlay Units detached. I detach one Cobalt Sparrow and One Sapphire Swallow from Assembly Nightingale in order to draw two cards!"

Plucking the two cards from the top of her deck, she didn't waste a moment as she continued with her plays.

"Now, since I control a Lyrical Luscinia monster, I will activate the Continuous Magic Card, Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Screen! With this effect, if a Lyrical Luscinia Monster is Special Summoned, attacks, or activates its effect, my opponent cannot activate any cards or effects in response!"

"In that case, you force my hand, my dear Ruri." Friedrich replied with a smirk. "In response to the activation of your Spell Card, I activate the effect of Spirit of the Conscious from my graveyard! By banishing this monster while I control a 'Force' monster, I can destroy all monsters on the field and draw one card for each of my own 'Force' monsters destroyed with this effect!"

Rising from the graveyard, the ghostly image of Friedrich's alien like monster appeared before cackling like a maniac and exploding in a brilliant flash of light, which sent shockwaves ripping through the table.

"Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale's effect!" Ruri declared, "If it would be destroyed, I can detach one Overlay Unit from my monster instead!"

While Friedrich's monsters were torn asunder by the violence of the explosion, Assembly Nightingale quickly absorbed a green overlay unit into her chest before creating a sphere of white energy shielding that protected her from the blast.

"But now your monster only has a pitiful two-hundred attack." Friedrich sneered as he plucked two cards from the top of his deck and added them to his hand. "Sorry, my dear Ruri, but even if your monster can attack me directly twice, that's only a total of four-hundred damage. Hardly enough to even come close to destroying me."

"I'm not even close to done yet!" Ruri snarled, face becoming more feral-looking by the second.

"Battle!" she declared stretching her hand towards Friedrich. "Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale, direct attack!"

Sending two gusts of wind at Friedrich with two flaps of her wings, Assembly Nightingale managed to lower Friedrich's Life Points to 3600.

"So you're not done yet, hmm?" Friedrich asked, a look of deep skepticism coming over his face. "I'll admit I'm not COMPLETELY disappointed by your efforts, but I fail to see what more you can do this turn."

"This…" Ruri angrily replied, throwing down another card. "…I activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Formation! If I inflict battle-damage with a Lyrical Luscinia Xyz Monster, I can Xyz Summon 1 Lyrical Luscinia Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck using appropriate Lyrical Luscinia cards from among the cards on my side of the field, hand, graveyard, or attached to my monsters as Overlay Units as the materials!

In response to the activation of your Magic Card, I discard Spirit of the Unconscious from my hand!" Friedrich declared. Dropping a card into his graveyard. Over the table, a lone iceberg rose from the depths of a pool of black water before the entire mass of ice darkened and a creature rose from the depths of the water beneath the sheet of ice. Once it rose to the field, the iceberg and pool of water vanished away. Straining her eyes, Ruri could only barely make out Friedrich's monster, which was almost completely invisible. However, as it moved it left behind a slight distortion in the air, which gave away its shape. Like the other monsters, Spirit of the Unconscious possessed a large alien head, four pairs of arms, and thin spindly legs. Unlike the other two monsters, however, it made absolutely no sound as it seemed to look at Ruri before descending into a graveyard portal.

"Its effect now applies." Friedrich coolly explained, taking a sip of tea. "While it is in the graveyard, I can apply certain effects based on the "Force" monsters on my side of the field or in the graveyard. Since I control Ido the Supreme Magical Force, any damage I take is halved while any damage you take is doubled. So I suppose I will be taking a little damage this turn from your attacks, but it won't matter too much."

"Everything matters!" Ruri countered. "Even the people you think are weak and worthless! And I'll prove that!"

Throwing down a single card in her hand, she scooped up the three monsters in her graveyard and plucked one Overlay Unit from her Xyz Monster before stacking them all together and placing another card from her Extra Deck on top of the monster.

"Using the one Sapphire Swallow and two Cobalt Sparrows in my graveyard, the one Sapphire Swallow attached to Assembly Nightingale as an Overlay Unit, and the Lyrical Luscinia – Zircon Warbler in my hand, I construct the Overlay Network!"

Above a swirling Xyz Portal, two Cobalt Sparrows and two Sapphire Swallows appeared before being joined by another humanoid bird woman with green feathers, shiny goggles over her eyes, a smooth crash-helmet over her head, and a sleek flight-suit connecting her bird wings and legs together with a pair of leather air-flaps that looked like a flying squirrel's membranes. Transforming into a five new streams of green light, a second Assembly Nightingale appeared to Ruri's field.

"Come forth!" Ruri commanded, "Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale!"

Joining her sister, Assembly Nightingale unfolded her wings and prepared to strike back at Friedrich.

"Zircon Warbler's effect activates!" Ruri declared. "If she is used as an Xyz Material, the monster Xyz Summoned gains this effect: It cannot be targeted by my opponent's card effect and any damage it inflicts is doubled!"

Friedrich raised an eyebrow as if he were mildly impressed. "Intriguing…" He muttered, "…but it hardly makes a difference. I will still have life points when this is done."

"We'll see about that!" Ruri snarled, "It is still my Battle-Phase! Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale, attack Friedrich directly with the first attack!"

Violently beating her wings, Assembly Nightingale sent a strong gust of wind directly into Friedrich's face, lowering his Life Points to 3100.

"THE SECOND!" Ruri commanded, pointing her finger at Friedrich.

Friedrich frowned as his Life Points dropped to 2600.

"THE THIRD!"

Friedrich took a sip of tea as his Life dropped to 2100.

"THE FOURTH!" Ruri roared, seemingly upset that Friedrich didn't seem to mind.

Friedrich scribbled a note on a clip-board as his Life dropped to 1600.

"THE FIFTH!"

Friedrich barely blinked as his life dropped to 1100. Panting angrily, Ruri hung her head down, seemingly upset that she hadn't been able to beat Friedrich, but looking somewhat satisfied over managing to knock Friedrich's Life Points down as much as she did.

Friedrich looked completely unimpressed. Brushing off his shoulder, he extended his hand towards his graveyard.

"Before you end your turn, I activate the effect of the Spirit of the Unconscious in my graveyard. Once per turn, during either player's turn, if I have a copy of Ego the Supreme Rational Force in my graveyard, I can look at the top card of your deck and place it on either the top or bottom of your deck."

Reaching over, he snagged a card from Ruri's deck, much to her annoyance, and glared at it, a haughty grin coming over his face as he placed it on top of her deck.

"That card will be quite useless to you, Ruri." He snickered. "As a matter of fact, it will end up helping me a lot more than it will you."

"It doesn't matter." Ruri countered.

"AHHH! But I thought everything mattered, Ruri!" Friedrich exclaimed, an expression of mock disbelief coming over his face.

Ruri looked away, frustration twisting her features as Friedrich skillfully used her own words against her. "What I mean is…" Ruri hissed, "…that even if you somehow use the top card to your advantage, I'll be able to beat you next turn. You have no monsters while I have two. Even if you try and destroy them, I can just protect them, and then, I can attack you directly."

"So I take it you end your turn then?" Friedrich inquired.

"Yes…" Ruri muttered. "…turn end."

"Then I suppose I'll finish this." Friedrich declared, plucking a card from the top of his deck. "Unfortunately for you, Ruri, I will now have to teach you the consequences of failure."

"It's not over!" Ruri snapped.

"It is, Ruri." Friedrich growled. "Despite your petulant rage, I'm afraid your dueling was just as pathetic as ever. No wonder Yuri was able to overpower you so easily." A smile crept over his features. "No wonder Heartland was so easily destroyed."

Were it not for the restraints, Ruri would have almost certainly pounced on Friedrich and attacked him with everything she had.

Friedrich only smiled at her pitiful resistance. "My turn." He declared. He extended his hand to his graveyard and pulled out Ido and Ego before setting them on the field.

"Because both Ido and Ego were destroyed by card effects, their effects each activate during the Standby-Phase of the next turn. Ido Special Summons himself and destroys all other monsters on my side of the field. Fortunately, since Ego is entirely immune to the effects of Ido, I am also allowed to activate his effect, Special Summoning himself from the graveyard and increasing my Life Points by 1000."

Ruri grimaced as Friedrich spread out his arms like a performer before graciously accepting the boost to his Life Points, which had now risen to 2100.

"And now that that's done…" Friedrich continued, "…the effect of my Psychoanalysis kicks in. When one or more 'Force' monsters are Special Summoned to my side of the field from the graveyard, I can force you to reveal the top card of your deck and apply a certain effect depending on the card revealed. So please reveal the Magic Card, One-for-One, my dear Ruri."

Angrily, Ruri revealed the top card of her deck, showing it to be exactly the card Friedrich had declared.

"Since it was a magic card that was revealed…" Friedrich continued, "…I get to activate this effect. I can select one 'Force' monster I control and gain Life Points equal to its attack power. I choose my twenty-five hundred attack Ego the Supreme Rational Force, in order to completely replenish my Life Points with more to spare."

Mouth gaping open with shock, Ruri watched helplessly as Friedrich closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet air as his Life Points rose to 4600. Eyes snapping back open, he continued with his turn.

"Naturally, it would be an utter waste of time if I merely replenished my Life Points." Friedrich explained, flipping over his face-down card. "So, in regards to your monsters so-called defense, I think I will activate this, the Trap Card, Schizophrenia."

Over the table, a holographic image of Friedrich's trap card appeared. The picture depicted a man clutching his head while screaming. Over his head, fragmented images of distorted faces seemed to laugh and cry at the man as his forehead nearly split in two.

"Its effect is as follows." Friedrich continued, extending his hand towards the table. "If I control a 'Force' monster, this card negates the effects of all monsters on the field and halves their attack and defense points."

"Nani!?" Ruri exclaimed as an electrical shockwave blasted from the holographic image of Friedrich's Trap Card. Upon making contact with Ruri's forehead, Ruri was forced to cover her ears as the sound of intense screaming and laughing filled her ears. Distorted images and faces flooded the air above the table, and through the sea of random images, Ruri could see both her monsters, and Friedrich's monsters writhing on the floor in agony as they clutched their heads with their arms. As they suffered, the ATK of each of Ruri's monsters dropped to 0 while Ido's ATK dropped to 1100 and Ego's ATK dropped to 1250.

"With this, I'm afraid you're already finished, Ruri." Friedrich proclaimed, calmly leaning forward as if completely unbothered by the effects of his Trap Card. "If you recall correctly, Spirit of the Unconscious doubles any damage you take, so even if my monster's attack power is halved, you will take damage equal to their original attack when I destroy each of your zero attack power monsters."

Ruri's mouth hung open, seemingly unable to believe that her strategy had been so easily overcome.

Friedrich smiled at her shock. "However, I don't wish to end the duel this way. I need to thoroughly teach you that this kind of mediocrity will not be tolerated from you. To do that…" he pulled a card from his hand, "…I need to make you suffer."

"Please…" Ruri begged, eyes beginning to water as she eyed Friedrich's Duel Disk.

"I already told you…" Friedrich replied with a look of the deepest contempt on his face, "…if you really wanted to stop me, you should have overpowered me. The right to define human morality rests with those who can wield the most force, and I shall demonstrate the kind of force that takes now!"

Throwing down the last card in his hand, he continued with his turn.

"Since I control the monsters, Ido the Supreme Magical Force, and Ego the Supreme Rational Force, I am allowed to Special Summon the Level eight monster, Superego the Supreme Existential Force from my hand! Like, Ego, it is completely unaffected by Ido's effects, and thus, free to cross the boundaries Ido sets! Come forth! The great moral force of humanity! The ideal creature! Superego the Supreme Existential Force!"

In a burst of light, Friedrich's third monster appeared to his field. Ruri blinked in surprise when she saw it. Despite having the same translucent energy bodies of both Ido and Ego, Superego strangely more closely resembled Ruri's Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale. The monster was yellow in color, with a tall humanoid body, headless torso with a lone halo above the neck, and a pair of outstretched angel wings instead of arms. Soaring above the two other monsters, a holographic indicator appeared beneath Superego's feet, revealing an ATK of 2800.

"Battle!" Friedrich spat, "Ido the Supreme Magical Force, destroy Ruri's first Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale!"

Roaring with the ferocity of a lion, Ido pounced on Ruri's monster, tearing the struggling and screaming bird-woman to shreds as it savagely ripped off her wings one by one with its sharp fangs before mauling her face and chest. Ruri looked away from the horrific sight, but was suddenly thrown back against her chair when an electric shock surged through her body as her Life Points dropped to 1800.

"Oh, and I believe I forgot to mention." Friedrich calmly explained. "Each time you lose Life Points, I will administer a shock equal to the amount you lost divided by one-hundred. Since you just lost twenty-two hundred, that's a shock of twenty-two."

Ruri gasped when the shock went away, tears leaking down her cheeks as she nearly fell out of her chair.

"Unfortunately, we're not done yet." Friedrich coldly continued. "Ego, the Supreme Rational Force, attack her second Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale!"

Friedrich's two-faced monster charged forward, raising its gorilla fists into the air to pound Ruri's weakened monster into feathers when it suddenly stopped, fists inches away from smiting Assembly Nightingale. Both Ruri and Assembly Nightingale looked on in confusion as the ghostly monster slowly backed away.

"From my graveyard." Friedrich explained, "I activate the effect of my Impulse Control magic card, which I milled when I first activated Synaptic Pruning. By banishing this card when one of my own 'Force' monsters declares an attack, I can negate my monster's attack in order to increase the attack power of each monster I control by the current attack power of that 'Force' monster."

Crackling with energy, all three of Friedrich's monsters began glowing with light as Ido's ATK rose to 2350, Ego's rose to 2500, and Superego's rose to 4050. Ruri's eyes suddenly widened with fear as she looked down at Friedrich's monsters and back up at his Duel Disk.

"It would seem you have figured it out." Friedrich smirked. "You're about to receive quite the lesson when Superego destroys your monster." He extended his hand forward. "Superego, if you would oblige me, I'm weary of looking at her weak monster."

"WAIT!" Ruri screamed, shielding her face with her hands.

Too late, with a mighty flap of his wings, Superego sent a surge of yellow energy straight into Ruri's last monster, obliterating her monster into tiny feathery bits before Ruri let out an ear-splitting shriek of agony as Friedrich administered an Electric shock of 81.

Friedrich took a sip of tea as Ruri fell forward before convulsing and nearly vomiting on the floor as she wretched from the pain of the shock. Quivering, she began loudly bawling, fluid streaming from her eyes and nose as she gave in to her physical and emotional pain.

"Pathetic." Friedrich commented, setting his tea cup down. "I almost wonder why the professor invests so much in you when you could be far more useful as a garden fertilizer if we were to shoot and bury you. But I suppose you are so filled with self-importance that you'd like to think you were at the center of the multiverse."

"It's over…" Ruri bawled. "…you won! I'm nothing! I can't beat you! That was my best! I couldn't do anything else!"

Friedrich sent another electric shock through Ruri, silencing her the second it passed, save for a bit of involuntary whimpering and hiccupping.

"I'll decide when you have really done everything you can do, my dear Ruri." Friedrich yawned. "Frankly, I believe you are holding out on me. Let's move on to the next duel."

"WHAT!?" Ruri screamed, struggling to yank herself out of the chair.

"You lost, Ruri, and that is unacceptable." Friedrich explained. "Did you really think this session would just end after you lost? No, Ruri, I'm not here just to play a game, take a few notes, and send you on your way. I'm here to make a breakthrough! So until you actually overpower me and defeat me in a duel, you are sitting right in that chair and dueling as much as I want."

"I told you!" Ruri begged, "I did my best in the last duel! I'm not holding back! There's nothing more I can do! Why do you want me!? What do you want from me!?"

"You're hiding something, Ruri." Friedrich growled as he shuffled his deck and slammed it back down on the table. "I'm about to find out what it is, whether you like it or not!"

"I'M WORTHLESS TO YOU!" Ruri screamed, "DO YOU HEAR ME!? I WAS NEVER A GOOD DUELIST! THERE WAS NEVER ANYTHING SPECIAL ABOUT ME! I'M JUST A STUPID GIRL WHO COULDN'T EVEN DEFEND HERSELF AGAINST YOU!"

The rest of her ravings were immediately silenced with another electric shock from Friedrich, who continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

"Shuffle your deck, my dear Ruri." Friedrich instructed with a sadistic smile on his face. "We're going to be doing a lot more duels today. So I suggest you strap yourself in, get comfortable, and enjoy a nice bit of Franz Schubert's 'Die Forelle' with me."

Pressing a button on his Duel Disk, the aforementioned song began playing in the background. Silently conducting his plays after he and Ruri each drew their opening hands, Friedrich joined his rich voice with the singer, merrily singing along as if unaware of the horrific torture he was performing.

"In einem Bächlein helle,  
Da schoss in froher Eil'…"  
Ruri summoned an Xyz Monster and set two cards face-down.

"…Die launische Forelle  
Vorueber wie ein Pfeil."

Friedrich activated Twin Twisters, destroying both of her face-down cards before summoning all three of his Force monsters.

"Ich stand an dem Gestade  
Und sah in süsser Ruh'…"

Ruri's eyes widened in shock as Friedrich effortlessly negated her monster's effect with Forbidden Chalice.

"Des muntern Fishleins Bade  
Im klaren Bächlein zu."

Friedrich's monsters tore through Ruri's monster before attacking her directly.

"Des muntern Fishleins Bade  
Im klaren Bächlein zu."

Ruri screamed in agony as her Life Points dropped to 0 again.

"Ein Fischer mit der Rute  
Wohl an dem Ufer stand,"  
Ruri hastily summoned her Xyz monster yet again.

"Und sah's mit kaltem Blute  
Wie sich das Fischlein wand."  
"ATTACK HIM DIRECTLY!" Ruri roared.

"So lang dem Wasser helle  
So dacht' ich, nicht gebricht,"  
Ruri fell right into Friedrich's trap, losing her monster and leaving herself wide open for an attack.

"So fängt er die Forelle  
Mit seiner Angel nicht."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" Ruri screamed as Friedrich coolly prepared to attack her.

"So fängt er die Forelle  
Mit seiner Angel nicht."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ruri screamed as more electricity coursed through her body after she lost once again.

"Doch endlich ward dem Diebe  
Die Zeit zu lang."

Friedrich opened up the next duel with a nearly unbreakable board, causing Ruri to gasp in astonishment.

"Er macht das Bächlein tückisch trübe,  
Und eh' ich es gedacht!"

Helplessly, Ruri could only place a monster face-down before setting a few cards in her Spell/Trap Card Zones.

"So zuckte seine Rute  
Das Fischlein zappelt dran,"

"YUUGO SHOKAN!" Friedrich quickly proclaimed, fusing his three monsters together. Yelping in fear, Ruri covered her face as Friedrich's Fusion Monster towered above her, head reaching the ceiling despite the table scaling down the size of the monsters.

"Und ich mit regem Blute  
Sah die Betrog'ne an."

Effortlessly, the monster blew through Ruri's defenses, before Friedrich stunned Ruri by summoning all his other monsters from the graveyard and having each of them attack her directly.

"Und ich mit regem Blute  
Sah die Betrog'ne an."

Ruri let out her loudest scream yet as she was shocked harder than she had ever been previously shocked. Meanwhile, in the background, the upbeat song repeated itself, looping like it was part of an endless cycle of defeat and punishment.

"In einem Bächlein helle,  
Da schoss in froher Eil'…!"

Friedrich belted out the song as if it were his very heart and soul.

"…Die launische Forelle  
Vorueber wie ein Pfeil!"

"LET ME GO!" Ruri wept as she was subjected to yet another duel.

"Ich stand an dem Gestade  
Und sah in süsser Ruh'…!"

Friedrich mercilessly pounded her monsters to the ground, after a few electric shocks convinced her to summon them.

"Des muntern Fishleins Bade  
Im klaren Bächlein zu!"

Ruri tried with all her might to rip herself from the chair, but she was incapacitated as yet another surge of electricity sent her head slamming back against the head-rest yet again.

Leo fast forwarded through three more hours of non-stop dueling, resuming after a Slifer Red Student entered the room to serve Friedrich a bowl of trout soup. The music was still blaring obnoxiously in the background of the room. Motioning for the student to leave, Friedrich continued his plays, enjoying the soup and music as he continued to counter every one of Ruri's strategies with ease.

Ruri was a wreck. Her hands were trembling and her face made her look like she hadn't slept for an entire week as her eyes twitched and her lips quivered. Evidently she had thought that Friedrich would slow down when his meal was brought in. Eyeing Friedrich as he took another spoonful of soup, she nervously ventured to ask a question.

"M-may I please use the restroom?"

"Already going to wet your pants again? Then by all means, don't let me stop you." Friedrich replied, not even looking at her as he took a bite of soup before ordering his monster to attack. Screaming in agony as the attack caused her Life Points to drop to 0 yet again, she angrily back-handed her deck, sending the cards scattering on the floor the moment the shock had ended.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" she screamed again, tears flooding down her cheeks.

Friedrich replied by sending another wave of electricity through her, holding it for a while instead of immediately releasing her like he had the previous times.

"I want for you to win!" Friedrich snarled, watching as Ruri nearly fell from her chair as he shut off the current. "I need for you to achieve your true potential! Stop holding back! Unleash your latent abilities! Become the Uber Mensch!"

Leo closed his eyes. Friedrich was only being partially honest with Ruri. True, he and the other Academia higher-ups would have had a field day if Friedrich's first interview with Ruri had actually triggered an awakening incident. But neither he nor Friedrich had expected Ruri to accomplish that or even manage to beat Friedrich in a single duel. No. Friedrich's true goal in the interview was to break Ruri down. Everything from incessantly beating her in duel after duel, to shocking her, to not letting her leave until she was forced to wet her pants was designed to humiliate her and destroy any ounce of rebelliousness within her. He did not enjoy one bit of Ruri or Rin's suffering, but he had accepted a long time ago that such things needed to be done. He had learned a long time ago that even the most hardened leaders rarely enjoyed the cruel work necessary to make progress. But that was the true test of strength. It was seeing if one could go the distance and do all that needed to be done without letting one's own conscious hold oneself back. He had given his life for his work, and he was determined to let nothing hold him back from completing Revival Zero.

Leo fast-forwarded through two more hours to the end of the video.

Friedrich was about to begin yet another duel when a message, which suddenly appeared on his Duel Disk, stopped him.

"You're lucky, Ruri." He sighed. "It appears the professor believes you have had enough for today."

Ruri didn't even seem to hear him, she seemed to have almost completely withdrawn, only this time, it was not out of a deliberate and rebellious desire to ignore Friedrich.

A pair of Obelisk Guards and Ruri's bodyguard entered the room, getting ready to escort her out. Undoing her bindings and lifting her out of the chair, the guards watched as Ruri managed to take a shaky step forward before falling over, giving everyone a full view of her accident.

The two guards busted a gut laughing while Diana took a step back, looking absolutely disgusted. Smiling, Friedrich let the two guards have their fill of laughter before they finally stood back at attention, lifted Ruri off the ground, and helped her out of the room.

"Until tomorrow." Friedrich smiled, waving Ruri away. "Until tomorrow, my little trout."

Leo flicked the screen away with a wave of his hand once the video had ended and pressed his fingers to his head in a meditative pose. Out of the two of them, Ruri had suffered the most at Academia. If either of them wanted revenge against the Fusion Dimension, it would most certainly be Ruri leading the charge. Even with Friedrich's treatment, she had continued to find ways to rebel, and her rebellion had only encouraged Rin to find her own ways to show defiance. Rin would be the most loud and outspoken, but Ruri would become the mastermind behind their schemes, secretly finding ways to communicate with one another in order to disrupt the progress of the Arc Area Project. And yet through it all, they only ever managed to hurt themselves. The full force of Academia discipline had been brought down on each of their heads over time. Through their fruitless rebellions and continuous suffering, they had both become victims. Victims full of hate. Victims the Earthbound could easily exploit for their own ends.

Leo leaned forward, pondering the events of yesterday when he was suddenly interrupted by a pair of voices approaching his throne.

"I fail to comprehend your analysis on truth and knowledge." Friedrich's voice droned to his companion. "They border on irrelevance. What is the point of hoarding and learning vast amounts of knowledge if it is never put to good use towards a goal or cause? You can never truly discover new sources of knowledge if you do not use the knowledge you already have for grand ambitions. Only by fulfilling our grand ambitions can we truly understand the knowledge around us and ascend to a higher state of humanity."

"And what is this higher state of humanity you wish to achieve?" the voice of Daichi replied. "What even is meant by 'higher?' I can tell you that it is merely an immaterial and subjective opinion. Fame, money, power, technological advancement, these are things that, when properly applied, can be put to good use, but are they the end in and of themselves? No. They cannot compare with the immutable immortality of concrete and inalterable facts, or what I properly call, scientific truth. For these things are not subject to the mere opinions of any given group of humans. 'Two plus two equals four' shall always hold true regardless of the prevailing opinion while the subjective statement, 'Humanity has ascended to a higher plane of existence,' can be held as truth one minute, and discounted as vain rambling the next minute. It is only by…"

Friedrich cut his companion off as they neared Leo's throne. Closing his mouth, Daichi removed his hat and knelt before Leo before Friedrich did the same.

"Glory on the Academia!" they proclaimed in unison, putting their fists to their shoulders.

"Speak." Leo commanded, leaning back against his throne.

Looking at each other, they both seemed to hesitate before Daichi rose to his feet first and began addressing the professor.

"We have a report… and a special request." Daichi explained, looking directly into the Professor's eyes.

"What report?" Leo inquired.

This time Friedrich spoke.

"We have been analyzing the scenes of the incident last night. Naturally, we were curious. The Doctor was my and Daichi's instructor. His loss was…"

"Regrettable." Daichi supplied.

"Devastating." Friedrich countered. "His work was unparalleled."

"Truly, it was a marvel." Daichi agreed, pushing up his glasses.

"The creation of an entirely new symbiotic organism. The ability to shape beliefs… such a creation would have been…"

"Revolutionary." Daichi finished.

"Indeed." Friedrich nodded.

"What have you come to report?" The professor repeated, maintaining his calm despite his annoyance at his two agents straying from the topic.

Daichi bowed his head respectfully before throwing a group of cards at the professor's feet. Picking them up, the professor examined them. They were a group of three fusion cards with a number of curious properties. When he tilted the cards to one side, they displayed the screaming pictures of Apollo, Diana, and The Doctor. But when he tilted them slightly to the other side, the picture changed to an image of strange looking androids with floating robotic parts and bodies that vaguely resembled viruses. Instead of being blank, each card had a title and a description like any regular Fusion Monster card. One word in the title, however, linked the cards together into the same category: "Procesystem."

"We found what happened to them." Daichi explained, indicating the cards.

"They appear to have been carded." Friedrich agreed.

"Though the process appears to be far more advanced than any of our current technologies." Daichi added.

"But we analyzed the cards and found that they did indeed contain traces of human life energy. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to reverse the change and bring them back." Friedrich finished.

"Is that all you have to report?" the professor asked.

Friedrich and Daichi looked at each other with a look of hesitation coming over their faces.

"There was one other thing." Daichi hesitantly continued. "Most of our security systems were thoroughly overrun the night of the incident, so it was impossible for us to get any feed on the perpetrators, but… it appears the perpetrator… left us a message… as if… the person or persons wanted us to find out who did it."

"What message?" Leo pressed, leaning forward in his throne.

"A small code containing a message was inserted into our system." Friedrich explained. "It is… juvenile."

"What do you mean, juvenile?" Leo interrogated, finding it harder and harder to stay composed. "What message?"  
Friedrich frowned at Daichi, who straightened himself out before facing the professor.

"It reads… 'JK not dead LOL #PROCESSWORX.'" Daichi replied.

The professor exhaled through his nose, clenching his gloved fist ever so slightly.

"Satoru." He breathed, a look of frustration and regret creeping over his features.

"Sorry?" Friedrich asked, stepping forward. "Does this mean anything to you?"

The professor opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on his agents before addressing them again.

"What was your request?"

Daichi gave a small bow to the professor.

"We understand you have plans to go after Ruri and Rin."

"Correct." Leo replied. "It is my intention to retrieve them both."

"And who, may I ask, are you intending to send?" Friedrich interrogated, a haughty expression coming over his face.

"You forget your place, Friedrich." The Professor admonished. "You do not need to know the details of every one of my plans."

"I…" Friedrich began before Daichi cut him off.

"What we mean to say is… we have been examining the tapes of Ruri and Rin's recent… transformation."

A massive smile crept over Friedrich's face. "Indeed… and for the first time in a long while, my associate and I have come to an agreement regarding a hypothesis on what transpired."

"We believe that the stress of nearly dying has caused Ruri and Rin to experience 'The Awakening,' which we theorized to be a possible stage of the counterparts' metamorphosis." Daichi contributed, "We believe…"

"I am uninterested in your theories." Leo growled, silencing Daichi. "I am already aware of what is going on. Believe me, you would not understand it. If this is all you have come to talk to me about, I suggest you return to your work with the other students."

Friedrich took a bold step forward. "No, professor, this is not all we have come to talk about."

"Then finish." The Professor instructed. "And be quick. I have many more things to do."

"We believe we are best suited to capturing Ruri and Rin, and we request to be sent to the Synchro Dimension with the invasion force." Friedrich summarized, standing at attention when he had finished.

The professor looked back and forth between the Friedrich and Daichi. True, they were both excellent duelists, both of them equal in skill. But what did they have to offer that the Horakhty Agents couldn't provide.

Daichi seemed to understand what the Professor was thinking.

"This is not a matter of brute dueling prowess." He explained. "This is a matter of us knowing Ruri and Rin better than almost anyone else in Academia. If you will send us with the invasion force, we believe we can provide just the insight the main force needs to both track down the two girls and capture them with minimal loss."

The professor leaned back, stroking the metal plate on his head as he considered Friedrich and Daichi's offer.

"Very well." He replied. "You will be placed under the command of one of my top dueling agents. You will be sworn to the utmost secrecy and will follow each of your superior officer's orders with exactness." He pressed a few buttons on the holographic screen before continuing.

"Lieutenant Martell will give you the briefing on the mission. At 1800 hours, you will meet in this room where you will be placed under the command of your superior officer. Understood?"

Friedrich and Daichi gave the professor a salute.

"Glory on the Academia!" they proclaimed in unison.

"Glory on the Academia." The professor agreed.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Daichi Ishikuma / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Psychic Ink / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

Name: Friedrich Hoffman / Orignal concept by: Nox Descious / Deck: Force / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Rin's Spells

Midnight-Wind Bell Chimes/ Spell/ Continuous/ Increase the ATK of all WIND monsters you control by 100 X their respective Levels. If a WIND Spellcaster-Type monster you control inflicts battle or effect damage to your opponent's Life Points, you can tribute this card: Add one "Bell Chime" Spell/Trap card from your deck to your hand.

Rin's Traps

Cemetery-Wind Bell Chimes/ Trap/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can target one "Wind Witch" monster you control: Special Summon one "Wind Witch" monster from your graveyard with a Level equal to or less than the level of the targeted "Wind Witch" monster. If this card is destroyed, destroy all monsters summoned with this card's effect.

Ruri's Monsters

Lyrical Luscinia – Zircon Warbler/ WIND/ Level 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 300/ If this card is in your graveyard, you can banish this card: Add 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from your deck to your hand, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from your hand or graveyard. A Winged-Beast Type Xyz Monster Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, it cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. Also, double any battle damage your opponent takes from battles involving that monster.

Ruri's Spells

Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Foraging/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Detach up to two Xyz Materials from a "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz monster you control: Draw cards equal to the number of Materials detached for this effect.

Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Screen/ Spell/ Continuous/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz Monster. If a "Lyrical Luscinia" Monster is Special Summoned, attacks, or activates its effect, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects in response to the Special Summon, attack, or activation of that monster's effects.

Lyrical Luscinia – Bird Formation/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ If you inflict battle-damage with a "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz Monster, you can activate this card. Xyz Summon 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck using appropriate "Lyrical Luscinia" cards from among the cards on your side of the field, hand, graveyard, or attached to your monsters as Xyz Materials as the Xyz Materials.

Daichi's monsters

Psychic Ink Fig. 1/ DARK/ Level 1/ Psychic/ ATK ?/ DEF ?/ When this card is Normal Summoned, your opponent adds 1 monster from his/her deck to his/her hand and reveals it: This card's Name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, DEF, and effects each become the same as the revealed monster's respective Name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, DEF, and effects.

Friedrich's monsters

Spirit of the Conscious/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 "Force" monster from your deck to your hand. During either player's turn, if this card is in your graveyard while you control a "Force" monster, you can banish this card: Destroy all monsters on the field, and if you do, draw 1 card for each "Force" monster destroyed with this effect.

Spirit of the Unconscious/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ During either player's turn, if this card is in on your side of the field or in your hand, you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard. While this card is in your graveyard, apply the following effects depending on the monsters on your side of the field or in your graveyard:

Ido the Supreme Magical Force: Any damage you take is halved. Also, double any damage your opponent takes.

Ego the Supreme Rational Force: Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can look at the top card of your opponent's deck: Place that card on either the top or bottom of your opponent's deck.

Superego the Supreme Existential Force: Once per turn, during either player's turn, if a card or effect is activated, you can make that effect become: Destroy 1 "Force" monster on the field.

Spirit of the Subconscious/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If you would take damage while you control a "Force" Monster, you can banish this card from your Graveyard: Change that damage to 0. When this card is Normal Summoned, you can tribute this card: Reveal the Top Card of your deck, and if you do, apply one of the following effects depending on the type of card revealed. You cannot conduct your Battle-Phase during the turn you use this effect.  
1\. Monster: Special Summon one Id, The Supreme Magical Force from your deck.  
2\. Spell: Special Summon one Ego, The Supreme Rational Force from your deck.  
3\. Trap: Special Summon one Super Ego, The Supreme Existential Force from your deck.

(Original Concept by Nox Descious.)

Ego the Supreme Rational Force/ DARK/ Level 7/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 2500/ DEF 800/ This card is unaffected by the effects of "Ido the Supreme Magical Force". If you control a face-up "Ido the Supreme Magical Force", you can Special Summon this card from your hand. You can only control 1 "Ego the Supreme Rational Force". If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon this card during the next turn's Standby Phase, and if you do, gain 1000 LP.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Super Ego the Supreme Existential Force/ DARK/ Level 8/ Fiend/ ATK 2800/ DEF 800/ This card is unaffected by the effects of "Ido the Supreme Magical Force". If you control a face-up "Ido the Supreme Magical Force" and a face up "Ego the Supreme Rational Force", you can Special Summon this card from your hand. You can only control 1 "Super Ego the Supreme Existential Force". If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon this card during the next turn's Standby Phase, and if you do, all "Force" monsters you control gain 1000 ATK.

(Original Concept by Nox Descious).

Friedrich's Spells

Synaptic Pruning/ Spell/ Normal/ Send the top 5 cards from your deck to the graveyard. (Card effects which activate from the graveyard are not activated at this time). Afterwards, select 1 card from your graveyard and place that card on top of your deck. (You can only activate 1 "Synaptic Pruning" per turn).

Psychoanalysis/ Spell/ Continuous/ During either player's turn, when a monster is destroyed by battle, you can treat that monster as if it was destroyed by a card effect. Once per turn, When a "Force" Monster(s) is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, your opponent reveals the top card of their deck. Then apply one of the following effects depending on the type of card.  
1\. Monster: Send it to the Graveyard and inflict damage to your opponent equal to half its ATK.  
2\. Spell: Place that card on the bottom of the deck. Then, gain LP equal to the ATK of 1 "Force" Monster you control.  
3\. Trap: Place that card on the bottom of the deck. Then, both players draw 1 card.  
(Original Concept by Nox Descious).

Impulse Control/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ If a "Force" monster you control activates its effect, negate the activation of that effect, and if you do, that monster is unaffected by other card effects other than its own and this card's effects. If this card is in your graveyard when a "Force" monster you control declares an attack, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Negate that attack, and if you do, monsters you control gain ATK equal to the ATK of the monster whose attack was negated.

Friedrich's Traps

Schizophrenia/ Trap/ Normal/ If you control a face up "Force" monster(s), halve the ATK and DEF of all monsters on the field, also, negate the effects of those monsters.


	16. Part 1: Chapter 11 Scene 2

**Welcome back everyone to another short scene. This one will feature characters submitted by Greninja. And don't worry everyone else. Your characters will be coming soon. Honestly I debated on whether or not to break this chapter up this way or submit it all at once, but I eventually decided that it would be better to give you, my readers, periodic smaller chapters rather than have you all wait a long time for one ridiculously long chapter that jumped around introducing many different characters. The next scene following this one will feature more characters from Greninja, along with characters from Solphage and TheTiger39. (Please don't kill me ShimmeringSky! I promise your character, Corinnetheanime's characters, Angelight952's characters, and Kaploblast's characters will also be coming soon! As for you, Ghost83, I promise I have not forgotten about you! Expect to see your character not too terribly long after you see ShimmeringSky and Corinnetheanime's characters.) Thank you all for your continued support, and let me know whether or not you guys like or dislike this current format. Do you like the steady stream of smaller chapters, or would you prefer it if I just took my time to write a larger chapter. Whatever your opinion is, I hope you will enjoy this chapter.**

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Escalation (Scene 2: A Warrior Emerges)

Gin Tami had always known the city could be a dangerous and ugly place, but she had never thought the horrors that the Commons faced on a daily basis would rear their ugly heads at herself and her family. Her position as a child of a highly respected Tops family had seemingly guaranteed a life of eternal luxury and safety.

And yet, here she was. Her father, an upstanding citizen, had been arrested by the same Security force that was supposed to protect them, and now, she and her mother had been practically locked up in their home, awaiting for a representative of the Public Security Bureau to come in and take over their lives with some directives that apparently came from the highest levels of government. Looking back on the events, none of it made sense to Gin. Her family had done nothing wrong. They had always complied with all of the laws. What's more, they had been genuinely good people. Gin's own dad had built numerous public facilities for the Commons such as the Tami Public Library, Tami Community College, and Tami General Hospital. So why was Security after them?

Things had looked even worse as she had been driven home. Even though her mother tried to shield her eyes, Gin still caught glimpses of Security swarming the city, rounding people up, and capturing them with large solid vision nets like the Commons were schools of helpless fish.

Despite the disapproval of her mother, and many other neighboring Tops her family associated with, Gin had always held a soft spot for the Commons. Her father had allowed her to patronize some of their facilities, such as the dojo of her martial arts master, and she had made some good friends during her visits.

"Oh no!" she whispered out loud to herself as she thought of her friends. Locking the door to her large room, she quickly ran over to an elegant computer console before touching its screen to activate the holographic display.

"Call Lilly Hoshi!" she commanded in a clear tone of voice.

"Calling… Lilly Hoshi." The computer responded in a female monotone. Nervously, Gin hopped back and forth from foot to foot as the console's face was dominated by the loading screen.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Gin begged as the computer continued its attempts to make a connection. Suddenly she got a response.

"Hey man!" Lilly's distinctive voice called from the other end. On the top right of the screen, a picture of Lilly appeared, showing a young thirteen-year-old girl with bobbed navy-blue hair, sky blue eyes, a large yellow tear-drop shaped criminal mark running down her left cheek, and a white choker with a silver cross charm around her neck.

"Lilly!" Gin called, relieved to hear her voice, "I need to talk with you! Security's…"

"I'm either busting someone's chops in a duel or napping on the couch…" the message continued, causing Gin to realize with horror that she had only reached the answering machine on Lilly's Duel Disk. "…so if you REALLY need to talk with me… TOUGH! LILLY OUT!"

"PICK UP!" Gin screamed at the screen, tears almost coming to her eyes. Security couldn't take Lilly! They couldn't! She had to warn her!

But Lilly didn't pick up. Instead, the answering machine began listing Gin's options in an obnoxious monotone voice. Angrily swiping the screen away, Gin gave the computer a new command.

"CALL ERIKA HAVOC!" she shouted, desperation growing.

"Calling… Erika Havoc." The computer replied. As the loading screen appeared once more, Gin nervously paced back and forth, anxiety growing as she contemplated her Common friends out there with Security running rampant. It was bad enough thinking of the crowds of people Security had already captured, but it became even worse when she thought that her friends might be among them.

"Gin!?" A young voice called from the other end. Jumping with relief at hearing a voice that was most definitely not part of an answering machine, Gin spun around to face the screen as an image of a girl her same age with short shaggy blonde hair, hazel eyes, a slightly upturned nose, freckles, and cherry-red makeup appeared on the upper right.

"Erika!" Gin called back. "Listen, I need to talk to you! Are you okay!? Have you seen what's going on!?"

"I've seen it." Erika hastily replied. "Don't worry, I'm okay. I've managed to evade Security. How are you holding up?"

"Where are you!?" Gin asked, relieved that at least one of her friends were okay. "Maybe I can send you some help!"

"Don't worry about me!" Erika replied. "I've already told you, I've received special training. This isn't the first battle I've been through. This isn't even close to one of the worst battles I've been involved with. I know how to take care of myself. But how are you doing!? Has Security visited you too!?"

Gin paused, tears coming to her eyes as she thought about what happened to her father.

"They took my dad." She whimpered. "They just… took him! I don't know why! He's never done anything wrong! He's always obeyed the law. But then… these officers just surrounded us, and said we had to… contribute to the city, so dad tried to give them some money 'cause he's never heard of the law before, and then… then…"

Gin couldn't take it anymore, nearly collapsing on her knees, she began loudly weeping, fear and sorrow overcoming her.

"Listen Gin…" Erika sighed on the other end. "…do you remember when I told you about where I come from?"

Gin blinked, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You said that… that you came from an awful place. An awful place full of bad people."

"Yes." Erika replied from the other end. "Listen to me… you have to understand… I think I know what is really going on here… I've seen it before… back where I came from."

"What do you mean?" Gin begged. "What's going on!? Why did they take my father!?"

"This is not about him breaking the law." Erika explained. "This is conscription. Security is forcing everyone they can into joining their own army, and I think I know why."

"Army!" Gin gasped, "Why do they need an army!?"

"Remember when I told you about the place I came from? How they forced us to attack other people?"

"Yes." Gin replied.

"Well I think they're finally coming here." Erika replied. "That's why Security's so panicked. Roger came from the same place. Somehow, I think he knows we're about to be hit, and hit hard. So he's doing exactly what… exactly what my old school did."

"What do we do!?" Gin asked, hands trembling. Erika had never gone into details about where she came from, but whenever she had spoken about the place, she had made it very clear that it was a very awful place full of very nasty people.

"Listen Gin." Erika hastily whispered, "I don't think I have a lot of time here… Security is making a thorough sweep of the area. But listen… if you're home, that's good. You're still a Tops girl, and you're still very young. I don't think they'll conscript you like they did your dad. If you just stay were you are, you might be able to survive."

"But what about Lilly!?" Gin screamed, "Or Lucy!? They're not safe! What if Security or the bad men come after them!"

"Just stay where you are, Gin!" Erika pleaded. "I promise… I'll do whatever I can to protect them… but I need you to stay where you… oh no!"

"Erika!" Gin screamed.

"I have to go!" Erika panicked. "They've seen me! Stay where you are! Stay safe! I promise you, I'll be fine! I'll save the others! Just stay where it's safe!"

"Call end." The computer declared, swiping away the image of Erika.

Gin just stared at the screen, unable to believe what she had heard. It was a nightmare! It was unreal! How could anything that was happening today actually be happening!

Gin quickly ran out of her room and onto a small balcony overlooking the city. From the height of her parent's mansion, things still looked utterly peaceful. The incessant sounds of helicopters, traffic, and police sirens seemed hardly different from any other day. But she knew today wasn't normal. Her friends were out there, in grave danger, and even if her mansion made her feel a little safe now, she knew she really wasn't. Something told her that despite what Erika had said, neither she nor any of her friends would be fine if she didn't do anything. She had to take action, she had to do something if either her family or friends were going to be safe.

She ran back to her room and started punching a code into a keypad resting over a large walk-in wardrobe. After punching in the right code, the doors of the wardrobe opened and she entered a spacious room stuffed with clothing and accessories. Stepping onto a circular platform, a holographic display screen appeared in front of Gin's face, displaying several clothing options.

"Riding outfit Number Three, Gin Tami!" Gin commanded.

"Selection approved." A male robotic voice answered. To the left of Gin, a robotic arm sprang forward, holding up a small leather riding outfit with black, grey, and silver stripes, and a number of leaf patterns decorating the front, back, sleeves, and legs. "Would you like to try on another outfit?"

"Yes." Gin replied. "Give me Riding Outfit Number Three, Lilly Hoshi, Riding Outfit Number Three, Lucy Hoshi, and Riding Outfit Number Three, Erika Havoc!"

Three more robotic arms sprang forward. The first carried a riding outfit with blue, navy blue, and sky blue patterns and a large picture of a swirling white whirlpool on the back. The second arm carried a slightly larger riding outfit that was a fiery red in color, with streaks of yellow and orange patterns, which made the suit look like it was on fire. Finally, the third arm carried a riding outfit the same size as Gin's riding outfit, but this one was beige in color, with several red, white, and blue lotus flowers decorating the body, legs, and sleeves of the outfit. Scooping the outfits of her friends into her arms, Gin deposited them all into a small duffel bag before picking up her own riding outfit and slipping into it.

"Violence is wrong." Gin thought to herself, zipping up her outfit before putting on a pair of silver gloves. "But I was taught by my sensei and Mr. Fujimoto to defend myself and others. Mom, Dad, Lilly, Lucy, Erika, I don't care what any of you say. I'm not letting any of you get hurt!"

Once she had finished changing, she ran out of her wardrobe with the duffel bag slung over her shoulders and began rifling through her draws, tearing out stacks of numerous Duel Monster Cards, which she began depositing into a separate pocket of the duffel bag.

"They'll need these…" she thought to herself, "...and these… heck… it's probably best to just bring everything."

She dumped the rest of the cards into the duffel bag before opening up another drawer and pulling out a small sleek silver duel disk shaped like an elegant four-pointed shuriken blade. Slotting a deck into the deck holder, she adjusted the bag over her shoulders before opening the door to exit her bedroom.

Standing outside, as if waiting for her to leave, was a tall man in a butler suit. His shoulders and arms were broad and well-sculpted, and his grey face was hard and rough, as if it had been unskillfully chiseled from marble. His long smooth hair was an iron grey, but his eyes were a bright yellow, like points of light reflecting off a sword.

Gin backed away when she saw the man.

"Oh uhm… Fujimoto San…" Gin hastily bowed to her family's butler, "…I was… uhm… going out for a… ride."

The man named Fujimoto crossed his arms, not moving from where he stood.

"And does your mother know about this, Miss Tami?" he asked.

"Uhm… yes…" Gin hastily replied, "…so… uhm… if you could just…"

The man shook his head. "Miss Tami… you can trust me. I am not an enemy to either you or your family, but please tell me the truth. I might be able to help you if I know what's really going on."

"Please!" Gin begged, "I'm not… I'm not… I really need to go!"

"Gin…" Fujimoto replied, face softening, "…I am your friend. I know you and your mother are very upset right now, but if you are planning on doing what I think you're planning on doing, then I'm afraid I will have to stop you."

"I'm not…" Gin protested.

"The truth, Gin." Fujimoto instructed. "Please. I'm not asking as your mother's servant, but as your friend and sparring partner. Please tell me what is going on."

Gin tightened her grip on her bag before looking directly into Fujimoto's bright eyes.

"They took my dad…" she began, "…and now my friends are in danger. Please… I've been trained by you and sensei. I know I can help them. I HAVE to help them! Pease, let me go."

"You're determined to help your friends…" Fujimoto asked, face hardening. "…even with Security out in full force?"

Gin looked into Fujimoto's eyes, fingers trembling as she debated whether to answer "yes" or "no" to Fujimoto's question. Finally, thinking of her friend's faces, she planted her foot firmly into the ground before replying, "Yes!"

Fujimoto closed his eyes as if contemplating Gin's words. Suddenly, without warning, he threw back his right arm and activated a Duel Disk, similar in design to Gin's, but with six blades each given a different color, one yellow, one red, one blue, one green, one brown, and one purple. Spinning around, the blades whipped out in front of Fujimoto's arm before a black energy field connected the blades into a V-shaped duel field.

"And what will you do…" Fujimoto asked, assuming a battle stance, "…when Security summons their monsters?" Drawing an opening hand, he quickly slammed down a card. "Come Forth! The Six Samurai – Irou!"

Directly in front of Gin, a circular mark appeared on the ground before Fujimoto's monster appeared in a puff of smoke. The monster was a forlorn looking samurai who held a large sheathed katana over his shoulder, and wore dark black-and-purple body armor with a ragged tunic and futuristic purple circuitry over the left shoulder and breastplate. Posing in front of Gin, the monster held out his hand while a holographic indicator appeared to show an ATK of 1700.

"Turn end!" Fujimoto declared, posing before inviting Gin to come at him with a wave of his hand.

Gin assumed her own Battle Stance, activating her own Duel Disk, which span around just like Fujimoto's before the four blades whipped out in front of her arm and became connected with a grey V-shaped energy field.

"If they do that!" Gin declared, "Then I would fight back! Draw!" she declared, yanking a card from her deck.

"I Normal Summon the Level one Tuner Monster, Ninja Kid!" she declared, throwing down a card.

In a puff of smoke, a small ninja wearing deep black clothing, and a small red belt appeared to Gin's field. Pulling out a small bamboo staff, the ninja twirled the weapon around before pointing it at Irou with a high-pitched defiant "Ha!" In front Gin's monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 100.

"When Ninja Kid is Normal Summoned…" Gin continued, "…I can Special Summon any number of Ninja Kid from my hand or deck, and all my Ninja Kid gain five-hundred attack points for each 'Ninja' monster I control! Come forth! Two more Ninja Kid!"

Flipping onto the field, two more diminutive Ninja's joined Gin's original monster, each one pulling out their own staffs before pointing them at Irou while a holographic indicator showed all three of Gin's monsters with a boosted ATK of 1600.

"Good, Gin." Fujimoto nodded, "But even if you have three monsters on your field, it's not enough to defeat Irou, and Security's monsters will be even stronger!"

"They can't beat me if they can't touch me!" Gin countered. "I set two cards face down. Turn end!" she declared.

"My move! Draw!" Fujimoto declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck. "It's time to show you how Security will fight! I summon the Tuner Monster, Shien's Squire!"

Next to Irou, a diminutive monkey-like soldier in samurai armor swung onto the field before leveling a spear at Gin's monsters.

"Next, I activate the Magic Card, Asceticism of the Six Samurai! With this card, I can target my Irou in order to Special Summon a Six Samurai monster from my deck with a different name but equal attack! Come forth! Legendary Six Samurai – Enishi!"

Another circular mark appeared, and a samurai in thick green armor appeared before unsheathing a large shiny katana while a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1700.

"Since I control two 'Six Samurai monsters,' I next Special Summon Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan from my hand!" Fujimoto continued, slapping down another card. Next to his two other Six Samurai monsters, a third samurai appeared, clothed in thick black armor with yellow highlights.

"Behold Gin!" Fujimoto declared, "This is a taste of Security's true power! I tune my Level one Shien's Squire with my Level four Irou in order to Synchro Summon!"

Letting out an ape-like yelp, Shien's Squire jumped up before morphing into a ring of green light, which encircled Irou, causing the monster to fade into an orange outline of itself before disappearing entirely and leaving behind a trail of four white spheres.

"Legendary Samurai Warrior who inherits the blue flame of battle…" he chanted, "…become an unstoppable raging fire to burn my enemies away! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! ARAWAYO! LEGENDARY SIX SAMURAI – SHI EN!"

In a blinding flash of white light, Fujimoto's new Synchro Monster landed on the battlefield, unsheathing a massive katana before posing in front of his other monsters while a wall of purple-blue flame raged behind him. The monster wore thick samurai armor that was a deep crimson with gold highlights, an elegant helmet with a flame motif, and a pair of demonic-looking gold and black wings. Letting out a powerful battle cry, the monster pointed his sword at Gin's monsters before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

"My other monster's effects are applied!" Fujimoto declared. "Since I control a total of three 'Six Samurai' monsters with different names, Kizan's attack power rises to 2100 while Enishi's rises to 2200! With this, my monsters can overpower your monsters with ease!"

"I'm ready!" Gin declared, holding out her arms while she, Fujimoto, and their monsters circled each other, "My monsters won't be defeated in battle!"

"I have no need to battle them!" Fujimoto countered, throwing down a Spell Card, "You should know Security will never play on a level battlefield, and neither will I in this duel! I activate my magic card, Six Strike – Triple Impact! With this card, since I control three Six Samurai monsters with different names, I can destroy all monsters you control!"

"What!?" Gin exclaimed.

"Now do you understand?" Fujimoto asked, "I never intended to destroy your monsters one by one in battle! I intended to defeat you right here and now! Go my monsters! Triple Whirlwind!"

Crossing their katanas together, the three Samurai let out a loud battle-cry before jumping into the air and spinning towards Gin's monsters in a whirlwind of steel and armor. Evading the whirlwind of blades with a series of rapid circular motions, both Gin and her monsters kept their distance as Fujimoto's monsters made a concentrated effort to destroy all of them.

"Continuous Trap activate!" Gin declared, "Ninjitsu Art of Hazy Kusarigama! If I control a face-up 'Ninja' monster, then once per turn, if my opponent activates a Magic or Trap Card, I can negate the activation of that card and destroy it!"

"I expected that!" Fujimoto countered, "Shi En's effect activates! If my opponent activates a Magic or Trap Card, I can negate the activation of that Magic or Trap Card and destroy it! Go! Flaming Whirlwind!"

With a collective battle cry from the three Samurai, the whirlwind of flames burst into a column of blue flames which closed in on Gin and her three monsters with renewed vigor. Rolling out of the way of the flames, Gin spun forward before catching Fujimoto by surprise by placing her hand on his spine and keeping her body behind him as he tried to spin around to catch her.

"I chain another Continuous Trap!" Gin declared, "Legendary Martial Art – Baguazhang! While it is active, neither of us can destroy monsters by battle! In addition, if either of our monsters would be destroyed by a card effect, the controller can pay two-thousand Life Points instead! Go! Baguazhang evasion!"

Fujimoto's monsters unleashed a raging wall of fire from their tornado, which charged straight into Gin's three monsters. Rapidly spinning on their feet, all three of Gin's monsters managed to evade the attack and deflect flames away with their staffs as Gin's Life Points dropped to 2000.

"The battle continues!" Fujimoto countered, managing to get Gin off his back with an acrobatic back-flip. Landing on his feet, he extended his hand towards Gin. "Go! Six Samurai – Kizan, Enishi, Shi En! Each of you attack one of her Ninja Kid!"

"Baguazhang will protect them!" Gin countered.

"But not your Life Points!" Fujimoto declared. "Go! Kizan! Attack the first Ninja Kid!"

Charging forward, the black armored samurai nearly cleaved Gin's monster in two as it brought its blade down very close to Ninja Kid's head. However, with some quick foot-work, the first Ninja Kid managed to evade the blow before a shockwave from the attack knocked itself against Gin, who held out her wrists in a defensive stance as her Life Points dropped to 1500.

"Enishi! Attack the next Ninja Kid!"

With a mighty jump, the green armored samurai pounced forward, barely missing the second Ninja Kid as the youthful warrior managed to parry his sword with a well-placed block from his bamboo staff. Blocking another shockwave with her wrists, Gin managed to keep upright as the blast dropped her Life Points down to 900.

"With this, it is finished!" Fujimoto declared, "Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En! Attack the last Ninja Kid! Blue Flame Katana!"

Rapidly swinging his katana around with artful precision, Shi En generated a burst of blue flames along the blade of his sword before charging forward in a whirlwind of steel and fire.

"With this your Life Points are finished, Gin." Fujimoto sighed. "Sorry Miss Tami, but you are not yet ready to face Security."

"I'm not done yet!" she declared, pushing her Ninja Kid out of the way of the attack before slamming a card onto her Duel Disk. "I activate the effect of the Level three Ninja Sister from my hand! If a Ninja monster I control is attacked, I can Special Summon this card from my hand and force the attacking monster to do battle with her instead!"

Just as Shi En's attack nearly reached Gin, a taller female ninja with jade-green eyes appeared in front of Gin in a puff of black smoke before blocking Shi-En's attack with a pair of metal fans. As she cradled Shi En's flaming sword between her weapons while he struggled to bring his sword down on her head, a holographic indicator appeared next to Gin's monster and showed an ATK of 500.

"Shi En is still stronger, Gin." Fujimoto countered, "You still lose this duel!"

"Ninja Sister gains five-hundred attack for each 'Ninja' monster on the field!" Gin countered, "Making her attack equal to Shi En's! In addition, thanks to Baguazhang, neither of our monsters will be destroyed!"

Flipping around with her metal fans, Ninja sister managed to throw back Shi En's blade before kicking at his metal chest, sending the tall samurai warrior staggering backwards after her feet connected with his heavy armor. Gathering next to their respective masters, Gin and Fujimoto's monsters stood at attention before bowing to one another in respect.

"You have successfully defended yourself." Fujimoto congratulated Gin with a bow, but the battle is not yet done. "For my Main-Phase two, I set one card face-down. Finally, since Asceticism of the Six Samurai would destroy Enishi, I will use your Baguazhang Trap card to negate his destruction by paying 2000 Life points."

Fujimoto and Enishi bowed to each other in respect as Fujimoto's Life Points dropped to 2000.

"Turn end." Fujimoto declared with a respectful bow. "Your desire to protect your friends and your monsters is admirable, but I fear it may lead to your own destruction rather than their salvation should you recklessly charge in without consideration of your own safety."

"I don't care…" Gin panted, sweat beading on her forehead. "…I'm not going to stay home when I can help them. I'm not as weak as you think. I can fight. I can stop Security."

Fujimoto bowed his head thoughtfully. "It remains a noble goal, Gin, and yet I cannot stop feeling concerned for your welfare. Not because I believe you are weak, but because I know you might push yourself too hard when it comes to defending your friends. You will need help if you want to save both them and your father."

"Then come with me." Gin begged, prostrating herself at Fujimoto's feet. "Help me save them! If we work together then Security won't be able to stop us."

Fujimoto seemed to consider her words carefully before nodding his head and assuming a battle stance.

"First, show that you can defeat me, Gin." Fujimoto challenged. "If you can successfully overcome me, then I will gladly accompany you on your quest."

"What will mother say?" Gin asked, looking concerned.

"Naturally, your mother would never let you go." Fujimoto replied. "But I agree with you. This situation will only get worse if we do nothing, and I would be far more comfortable accompanying you on your mission as your protector rather than trying to keep you locked up until you escaped and ran off on your own."

"Thank you… Fujimoto-san." Gin replied, bowing in respect.

"I should really address you as Gin-Sama if you insist on using honorifics." Fujimoto replied with a smile. "It would be impolite if I addressed you familiarly while you continued to use proper decorum with me, a mere servant."

"No… please just call me Gin." Gin insisted, looking up into Fujimoto's eyes with a smile. It was funny, after her father was taken, she hadn't remembered feeling any happiness, but thanks to Fujimoto, she was beginning to feel a little hope for once.

"Then call me by my first name, Akio." Akio replied, assuming a stance and challenging Gin to attack him with a gesture from his outstretched hand.

"Alright… Akio." Gin replied, placing her fingers on her deck. "It's my turn… DRAW!"

"Come at me with everything you have!" Akio challenged.

"I will!" Gin replied. "I've been preparing for this! Let me show you why I did everything I could to protect my monsters!"

Stretching her hand towards her monsters, she proceeded with her turn.

"I tune my Level 1 Ninja Kid with my Level three Ninja Sister in order to Synchro Summon!"

Nodding her head, Ninja Sister knelt down and held out her hands before one of Gin's Ninja Kids ran forward, sprinting onto Ninja Sister's outstretched hand before Ninja Sister threw the young Ninja into the air with an upward thrust of her hand. Morphing into a ring of green light, Gin's tuner encompassed Ninja Sister in its light, causing Ninja Sister to disappear as she left behind a string of three white spheres.

"Casting a shadow on the moon-lit sky…" Gin chanted, "…the true warrior is silent as she supports her comrades in arms from the shadows! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level four! Moon Shadow Armor Ninja!"

Seemingly materializing from the shadowy corners of the room, Gin's new monster quietly slipped behind Gin, before holding her finger up to her mouth in a gesture of silence. Moon Shadow Armor Ninja was a female ninja clad in silvery armor with a wrapping of black rags and a silver moon-shaped brooch. Multiple Moon patterns decorated her helmet and armor while a large rope with a grappling hook at the end was wrapped around her back and shoulder. Over her face, she wore a feminine geisha mask with a black crescent moon in the center of the forehead. The second a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1900, Gin's monster suddenly vanished, leaving nothing behind but a brief after-image and a deathly silence.

"But I'm not done yet!" Gin declared, stretching her hand towards her next Ninja Kid. "I'm using the power of all my friends to stop you! I next tune my Level one Ninja Kid with my Level four Moon Shadow Armor Ninja in order to Synchro Summon again!"

From seemingly out of nowhere, Moon Shadow Armor Ninja descended from the ceiling before throwing another Ninja Kid into the air. As the two monsters synchronized with each other, Gin assumed a crane stance as she began another Summoning Chant:

"Rising with the strength of the sun, the valiant warrior knows that true power lies within the unity of his comrades! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level 5! Sun Shadow Armor Ninja!"

This time, in a blaze of golden light, Gin's new monster flipped onto the field, flexing his muscles as he let out a powerful battle-cry. The new ninja was clad in shiny crimson and gold armor with a bright white cape and sash. Multiple Sun accessories adorned his armor and a pair of massive katanas, which he hefted in both arms. Over his face, he wore a golden oni mask with a boar-hair moustache. Posing next to Gin's other monsters, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2300.

"Moon Shadow Armor Ninja's effect!" Gin declared, "If it is sent to the graveyard, I can pay four-hundred Life points to equip it from my graveyard to a Warrior-Type monster I control as an Equip Spell Card!"

As Gin's Life Points dropped to 500, Moon Shadow Armor Ninja suddenly appeared behind Sun Shadow Armor Ninja, encasing his body in silvery moon-decorated armor before stealthily vanishing.

"The monster equipped with Moon Shadow Armor Ninja gains five-hundred attack!" Gin declared, "In addition, if it would be destroyed, I can destroy Moon Shadow Armor Ninja instead!"

Glowing with silver light, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja assumed a battle stance as his ATK rose to 2800.

"You've exceeded Shi En's attack, but it's still not enough to beat me." Akio commented. "And it's certainly not enough to overcome Security!"

"That's why I said I'd be using all my friend's power!" Gin countered, extending her hand to her last Ninja Kid. "For my final Synchro Summon, I tune my last Level one Ninja Kid with my Level five Sun Shadow Armor Ninja!"

"But that will destroy the equipped Moon Shadow Armor Ninja." Akio commented. "What exactly are you planning?"

"You'll see…" Gin smiled as her two monsters began synchronizing together. "…Moon Shadow Armor Ninja's effect only works if it's activated the moment she's sent to the graveyard while on the field or equipped to a monster. So once I summon my new monster, I'll be able to use her effect again."

Clamping her hands together in a meditative pose she began a new summoning chant:

"When the warrior achieves balance between the light and the dark, the soul is purified and a new power is unleashed! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level six! Silver Shadow Armor Ninja!"

Rising from the ground in a column of pure silver light, Gin's new Synchro Monster seemed to carry the power of both the sun and the moon in its being as it unsheathed its elegant silver katana, sending powerful shockwaves through the field before it posed in front of Gin like a vigilant protector. The monster was sheathed in shiny silvery chrome armor with the image of the sun on his right shoulder, and an image of the moon on his left shoulder. His long grey hair billowed out over his back and legs in a long elegant ponytail while his eyes radiated with brilliant blue light. Running his finger along the smooth blade, the ninja held its index and middle finger out towards his opponents as if targeting them. Next to the calm ninja, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

"Moon Shadow Armor Ninja's effect activates!" Gin declared. "I pay 400 Life Points to equip it to Silver Shadow Armor Ninja!"

"Gin!" Akio called, looking concerned as her Life Points dropped to a measly 100.

"It's okay." Gin reassured her opponent. "I'm not giving up! Now that my monster is equipped to Silver Shadow Armor Ninja, my monster gains five-hundred attack!"

Appearing once more, Moon Shadow Armor Ninja draped a powerful suit of moon-decorated armor over Silver Shadow Armor Ninja's body as his ATK rose to 3000.

"Next…" Gin continued, "…once per turn, during either player's turn, if Sun Shadow Armor Ninja is in my graveyard, I can equip him to one Warrior-Type monster I control! I choose to equip him to Silver Shadow Armor Ninja!"

Appearing in a halo of light, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja materialized next to Silver Shadow Armor Ninja before bestowing his gift of armor to the silver-clad warrior. Blending with the suit of armor given to the ninja by Moon Shadow Armor Ninja, Silver Shadow Armor Ninja's apparel made the monster look twice as powerful. While the armor was smooth, sleek, and light in appearance, it looked strong and tough, the colors giving it the appearance of molten silver and gold. The moon crest and sun crest on each of his shoulders were now beautifully colored and each radiated their own aura of lunar and solar light. A cape with an underbelly as white as snow and a back as black as the starry night billowed out from behind the monster as it raised its katana to the air, blade radiating the light of the heavens themselves.

"When Sun Shadow Armor Ninja is equipped to a warrior monster, that monster can attack each monster my opponent controls, once each. In addition, if the equipped monster would be destroyed, I can destroy Sun Shadow Armor Ninja instead. Battle!" She declared, leaping onto her monster's shoulder before extending her hand towards Akio's monsters. "Attack each of his monsters! Cosmic Cycle Sword Strike!"

Putting his fingers to his forehead, the monster seemed to vanish along with Gin before they both materialized behind Akio's Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan.

"Not so fast!" Akio countered, catching the blade of Gin's monsters between his hands before it could strike his own monster. "I activate my trap card, Sakuretsu Armor! This destroys your attacking monster, so I'm afraid you'll have to give up one of your armors!"

"Silver Shadow Armor Ninja's effect!" Gin countered, "Each 'Ninja' monster I control cannot be destroyed once per turn! The battle continues!"

Ripping his sword from Akio's grasp, Silver Shadow Armor Ninja did a backflip, with Gin still firmly holding onto his back, before sprinting forward and meeting Kizan in battle. Swords crossing, they began battling, neither warrior giving an inch until Silver Shadow managed to knock Kizan's sword out of his hands with a well-timed swipe before knocking Kizan to the floor with a sweeping kick. Holding his wrists out protectively, Akio braced himself as a shockwave sent him flying backwards, reducing his Life Points to 1100.

"Baguazhang protects your monsters from destruction, but you'll still take the damage!" Gin declared, "Go, Silver Shadow Armor Ninja! Attack his Legendary Six Samurai – Enishi next!"

Expertly avoiding each one of Enishi's sword strikes, Silver Shadow managed to get behind Enishi and put his hand on the samurai's spine, making it nearly impossible for Enishi to hit him as he struggled to spin around and face his opponent. With a careful sweep of his legs, Silver Shadow knocked Enishi to the floor, sending another shockwave at Akio, which reduced his Life Points to 200.

"The final battle!" Gin declared, "Defeat Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En! Cosmic Cycle Sword Strike!"

Clashing their swords together, the two monsters matched each other blow by blow. Shi En let loose a kick in an effort to throw Silver Shadow off balance, but with a quick stomp, Silver Shadow pinned Shi En's foot to the floor. Flailing backwards, Shi En struggled to stay upright, but by simply removing his foot, Silver Shadow sent the Samurai falling to the floor.

Getting up from the floor, Akio and his monsters bowed to Gin as their team's Life Points dropped to 0.

"Just like your father." He mused. "Perhaps you are ready to fight against Security."

Gin dismounted from her monster before she and Silver Shadow bowed back to Akio.

"Thank you for giving me this chance." Gin replied in gratitude.

"Come, Gin." Akio instructed. "The true test is out there. If we are going to stand a chance against Security, we'll need to stay together. Are you ready to ride?"

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Baguazhang-Style Ninja/Ninjitsu / Allegiance: Her family and her friends Lilly, Lucy, and Erika / Status: Active

Name: Lilly Hoshi / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: none (Synchro Dimension Civilian) / Status: Unknown

Name: Erika Havoc / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Unknown (Last seen evading Security)

Name: Akio Fujimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Six Samurai / Allegiance: The Tami Family / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Gin's Monsters

Ninja Kid/ DARK/ Level 1/ Warrior/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 100/ If this card is normal summoned, you can Special Summon any number of "Ninja Kid" from your hand or deck to your side of the field in face-up ATK position. This card gains 500 ATK for each face-up "Ninja" monster you control. If this card destroys a monster by battle, you can banish this card: Special Summon 1 "Ninja" monster from your deck or graveyard in face-up attack position or face-down defense position.

Ninja Sister/ DARK/ Level 3/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 500/ If your opponent declares an attack while you control a face-up "Ninja" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, change the attack target to this card and proceed to damage calculation. Increase the ATK and DEF of this card by 500 for each "Ninja" monster you control. If a face-up "Ninja" or "Ninjitsu" card you control would be destroyed, you can send 1 "Ninjitsu" card from your side of the field or your hand to the graveyard instead.

Gin's Extra Deck

Moon Shadow Armor Ninja/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 600/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

You can Special Summon 1 Warrior-Type monster from your graveyard, and if you do, destroy this card. (You can only use this effect of "Moon Shadow Armor Ninja" once per turn). If this card is sent to the graveyard or you Special Summon a Warrior-Type Monster while this card is equipped to another Warrior-Type monster you control, you can pay 400 LP to target 1 Warrior-Type monster you control: Equip this monster from your graveyard to that target as an Equip Spell Card. The equipped monster gains 500 ATK and DEF. Also, if it would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.

Sun Shadow Armor Ninja/ LIGHT/ Level 5/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2300/ DEF 100/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

You can Special Summon 1 Warrior-Type monster from your hand, and if you do, destroy this card. (You can only use this effect of "Sun Shadow Armor Ninja" once per turn). Once per turn, during either player's turn, if this card is in the graveyard or you Special Summon a Warrior-Type Monster while this card is equipped to another Warrior-Type monster you control, you can equip this card to 1 Warrior-Type monster you control as an Equip Spell Card. The equipped monster can attack each monster your opponent controls, once each. Also, if it would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.

Silver Shadow Armor Ninja/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2500/ DEF 1200/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners

"Ninja" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn.

Gin's Traps

Ninjitsu Art of Hazy Kusarigama/ Trap/ Continuous/ Once per turn if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card while you control a face-up "Ninja" monster, you can negate the activation of that card and destroy it.

Trivia: The Kusarigama is a Japanese chain sickle favored by the Ninja.

Legendary Martial Art – Baguazhang/ Trap/ Continuous/ (This card is always treated as a "Ninjitsu" card). While you control a "Ninja" monster, monsters cannot be destroyed by battle. If a monster(s) would be destroyed by a card effect, the controller of that monster(s) can pay 2000 LP to activate this effect: This turn, monsters that player controls cannot be destroyed by card effects.

(Trivia: Baguazhang is a type of martial art that consists of continual circular movements in order to evade enemy attacks with the core philosophy being that a person who cannot be hit cannot be defeated. Because of this Martial Art's largely defensive style, it was used as a basis for Airbending in the television series, "Avatar the Last Airbender." Greninja felt this martial art would fit well with Gin's character, so I designed this card in order to enable Gin and her monsters to successfully achieve the ideal of defeating her opponent's without killing them).


	17. Part 1: Chapter 11 Scene 3

Well this has been a fast paced week. We've already introduced five new original characters and today, we're going to get to see another character! A special shout-out goes to thetiger39 for joining the team by contributing another original character who will be making her appearance fairly soon. Let's take a moment and see all the original characters who have been introduced thus far, in order of appearance.

Name: Yuu Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Presumably active

Name: Pyotr Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Elizaveta Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Garret Kinsley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Mita Takeda / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Santiago Guevara / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Baguazhang-style Ninja/Ninjitsu / Allegiance: Her family and friends Lilly, Lucy, and Erika / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Aaron Tarleton (The Dreadroot) / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Satoru Shishido / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Procesystem / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Daichi Ishikuma / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Psychic Ink / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

Name: Friedrich Hoffman / Original concept by: Nox Descious / Deck: Force / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

Name: Lilly Hoshi / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: none (Synchro Dimension Civilian) / Status: Unknown

Name: Erika Havoc / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Unknown (Last seen evading Security)

Name: Akio Fujimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Six Samurai / Allegiance: The Tami Family / Status: Active

Sixteen original characters and believe me, there will be MANY more. Part of the purpose of chapter eleven's various scenes will be to steadily introduce these characters. However, while this story may start feeling a little like "Game of Thrones" with multiple subplots running throughout the plot, it is most definitely my goal to make each of these subplots relevant to the main story and to tie them all together in the end. So don't worry if things might feel confusing at first. Each of these characters are not going to be thrown in just to be thrown in. These characters each have a purpose and will contribute to the overall story. Feel free to submit any questions you have to these characters, and they will get back to you in the next one or two chapters. I anticipate writing at most about three more scenes for chapter eleven after this update's little scene before finally completing this chapter and moving on to an epic chapter twelve. However, note that this is only a tentative schedule as there are many factors that may come into play such as school and work. Thank you all very much for your continued support and patience. Without further ado, please enjoy along with this update, this latest scene.

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Escalation (Scene 3: An Agent of Chaos)

"I'll save the others!" Erika hastily whispered as she pressed her face against the dirt of the ruined building she was hiding within, "Just stay where it's safe!"

Before Gin could protest, she quickly pressed the hang-up button on her shield-shaped duel disk. Holding her breath and keeping herself deathly still, she listened to the activity outside her hide-out.

"Did you see her!" an officer shouted to his companions as they searched through the ruined buildings.

"I lost track of her, but we'll find her!" another officer replied.

"Can't we move in the truck?" a third officer asked.

"Too much rubble." The first officer observed. "Don't worry, we won't need that thing to capture the rest of the Commons in this sector.

"That Jean-Michel-Monster!" Erika hissed, thinking of the events that had led up to this moment. She had hoped she could start a new life for herself in the Synchro Dimension, but it looked like the professor's words were right. No matter where she went, Academia would always be there, in one form or another.

Overhead, she could hear the sound of flapping wings and the shriek of demonic sounding monsters.

"Stygian Security." She thought to herself as her heart pounded against her chest. If she didn't move they would surely find her, but if she moved too quickly, then Security might find her anyway. She had to do this carefully.

Glancing over at her Duel Disk, she weighed her options. She could try carefully crawling towards an exit…

"ASSAULT GUNDOG SHOKAN!" A Security officer very near her position shouted, interrupting her thoughts. Holding deathly still, Erika suddenly heard the sound of sniffing and the clacking of ammo hitting against heavy armor. Not daring to move and give away her position, Erika waited, counting the seconds in her head in an effort to stay calm.

One…

"What are you smelling boy?"

Two…

"Hey guys! I think there might be something over here!"

Three…

"Let me see what my Gundog has to say."

Four…

Erika heard the officer's companions join him before summoning their own Gundogs.

Five…

"They're definitely smelling something."

Six…

They were going to find her.

Seven…

"Should we go in? It looks pretty dangerous. It might fall on top of us once we go in."

Eight…

Just a little longer.

Nine…

"Just send in the dogs, they can tear out whoever's hiding inside."

Ten…

They were going to find her!

Eleven…

"Assault Gundog! Fetch!"

Twelve…!

She had to do it now!

Thirteen…!

The dogs jumped into the building.

Fourteen…!

Heart rate accelerating!

Fifteen…!

Coming Closer!

Sixteen!

Do it now!

Seventeen!

But the intrusion penalty!

Eighteen!

"BARK! BARK!"

Nineteen!

The dogs began sprinting!

"LOTUS WARRIOR EFFECT!" Erika screamed, activating the blue sword-shaped field of her Duel Disk. "If I have no cards on my field I can summon this monster! LOTUS WARRIOR SHOKAN!"

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" The Duel Disk screamed, "TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

"LOOK! THERE SHE IS!" An officer shouted.

"Assault Gundog! Attack!" A second officer roared.

Erika broke into a sprint, fleeing the pursuing solid-vision hounds as they began opening fire on her position, spraying bullets into the ruined walls of the building.

"Counterattack!" Erika screamed, diving behind a slab of broken concrete. "Lotus Warrior!"

From up above, a female warrior clad in light body armor that looked like it was woven from red and white flowers descended from the top of the ceiling. Her hair was a silky black in color and decorated with multiple red and white lotuses while her eyes were an earthy green. Her lower face was covered with a plain black mask while her arms and legs were mostly bare save for a pair of flower-shaped shields over her wrists and a single lotus-decorated anklet over her left leg. Whipping out a thorny sword with lotus flowers growing along the hilt, she charged towards the pack of hounds, blocking their bullets with her shield before decapitating the head of one of the dogs with a furious swipe of her blade as a holographic indicator appeared next to her, showing an ATK of 1500.

As the other two hounds scattered, Erika and her monster sprinted out the exit-way of the building and onto an open churchyard surrounded by four ruined buildings.

"Assault Gundog's effect activates!" One of the officers shouted from a distance. "If it is destroyed, I can Special Summon two more from my deck! Come Forth! Two More Assault Gundogs!"

Erika was halted in her tracks as a pair of Assault Gundogs suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking her escape as the three Officers approached from behind, each with their own copy of Stygian Security, two with one copy of Assault Gundog, and the final one in the center with the two new copies of Assault Gundog and 3700 Life Points from Erika's recent attack.

"Turn end!" the officer in the center with 3700 LP declared. "In accordance with Directive Alekhine's Gun, you are hereby ordered to surrender and give mandatory volunteer service to the state as a citizen of the city!" The officer commanded as the pack of four dogs circled Erika and her monster.

Erika brushed her hair from her eyes and turned to face the officers.

"That's funny." She replied, "Because last time I checked, I was never technically a citizen of this place! My turn! Draw!"

Throwing down a card she continued her turn.

"I activate the Continuous magic card, Flower Arranging Art – Ikebana, and activate one of its effects! Once per turn, I can destroy one Plant-Type Monster I control in order to Special Summon that same plant from my graveyard in face-down defense position during the End-Phase of my turn! I choose to destroy Lotus Warrior!"

Jumping into the air, Erika's Lotus Warrior transformed into a cluster of petals which began blowing around the entire duel field in a beautiful whirlwind.

"You'd destroy your own monster just to set it face down?" One of the officers asked.

"No." Erika replied, "There's way more to my strategy than that! Since Lotus Warrior was destroyed, I can activate her effect! I Special Summon Red Lotus Monk from my deck!"

Clustering together, a new monster was formed from the petals of Lotus Warrior. Clad in sleeveless crimson robes with white flower patterns similar to a Buddhist monk's attire, the new monster acted like the pack of snarling hounds didn't bother her at all as she pulled out a reed flute and began playing a tranquil tune. Her hair was a deep crimson and tied into an elegant bun held together with a pair of leafy twigs and a single red lotus flower while her eyes were a deep coal black. In front of the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1500.

"Its effect now activates!" Erika declared. "If it is Special Summoned by the effect of a Plant-Type Monster, I can draw one card!"

Drawing a single card from her deck, Erika glanced through her hand before pulling out two cards, showing them to her opponents and extending her hand towards her Red Lotus Monk.

"Once per turn, Red Lotus Monk allows me to Fusion Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from my Extra Deck using appropriate Fusion Materials from my side of the field or my hand. With this effect, I fuse the Lotus Archer and the Lotus Huntress in my hand together in order to Fusion Summon!"

"Fusion Summon!?" one of the officers gasped.

"How does she know how to do that!?" another officer exclaimed.

"Call for back-ups!" the third officer hastily ordered, "This one might be from Academia!"

"Not anymore!" Erika snarled, raising her hands to the air. In front of her, Erika's Red Lotus Monk began playing on her flute, summoning two clouds of colorful flower petals from the ground which she seemed to shepherd into a single swirling cloud above her head as she continued playing her tune. Throwing her flute into the air, the reed instrument began rapidly spinning in the center of the cloud of petals before transforming into a swirling Fusion Portal and pulling the cluster of flower petals into the center as Erika began her Fusion Chant:

"Beautiful floral archer who pierces her opponent's hearts with deadly thorns, become one with the majestic floral huntress and become nature's servant! YUUGO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level four! Lotus Sword-Master!"

Bursting forth from a cloud of petals, Erika's new monster seemed to control gravity itself as it slowly descended from the sky and gently landed on the ground with the lightness of a flower petal. The new monster sported an elegant white dress that left her arms and legs bare and a strong metal breastplate made of crimson metal. Multiple red and white lotuses decorated her long honey-blonde hair, which cascaded down her back like an elegant waterfall. Unsheathing a long thorny sword from her side, she bared her teeth at her opponents before a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1800.

"Lotus Sword-Master's effect!" Erika declared, "My monster gains two-hundred attack power for each Plant-Type monster on my side of the field and in my graveyard! Since I currently have five total on my side of the field and in the graveyard, that's an attack boost of one-thousand!"

As the ATK of Erika's Fusion Monster rose to 2800, a whirlwind of flower petals began forming around her like a tornado.

"Battle!" Erika declared. "Attack the Stygian Security of the center officer! Lotus Thorn Technique!"

With a mighty battle cry, Lotus Sword Master quickly leaped forward in her whirlwind of flower petals before bisecting the miniscule demon with ease and bringing down the already wounded officer's Life Points to 1000.

"Stygian Security's effect!" the center officer groaned. "If it is destroyed by battle, I can Special Summon another Stygian Security from my deck! Come forth, in defense position, Stygian Security!"

As a new reptilian demon flew onto the officer's field, Erika continued her attack.

"Red Lotus Monk!" she ordered, "Destroy the center officer's Assault Gundog!"

Gathering a whirlwind of flower petals around her person as she played her flute, Erika's monster sent the tornado of petals straight into one of the center officer's snarling Assault Gundogs, blowing the monster away as his Life Points dropped to 700.

"Why are you picking on me!?" the center officer snarled.

"I set two cards face down and end my turn." Erika replied, ignoring the officer. "And at this time, My Magic Card's effect activates, Special Summoning my Lotus Warrior in face-down Defense position."

In a cluster of flower petals, Erika's first monster returned to the field as a face-down card while a holographic indicator showed Lotus Sword Master's ATK drop to 2600.

"Don't think you've won!" one of the officer's spat. "There's a reason we've been keeping these Stygian Security and Assault Gundogs on our field, and now you'll find out why! My turn… Draw!" Stretching his hand towards his monsters, he proceeded with his turn. "I tune my Level one Stygian Security with my Level four Assault Gundog in order to Synchro Summon! Come Forth! Level five! Goyo Recruiter!"

In a column of light, a pot-bellied Goyo monster in elegant robes with a banner depicting two crossed juttes appeared to the officer's field.

"You will serve the city!" The officer proclaimed. "Goyo Recruiter gains 200 ATK for each Goyo monster on our field, so now its attack power become 1800!"

Goyo recruiter sneered at Erika as it unsheathed a jutte and its attack power rose.

"Furthermore!" the officer continued, "Once per turn, I can add one 'Goyo' or 'Jutte' card from my deck to my hand! With this effect, I will add Jutte Lord from my deck to my hand before summoning it! Come forth! Jutte Lord!"

Jutte Lord appeared to the officer's field before raising its Jutte into the air.

"Its effect now activates!" the officer declared. "Come forth! Jutte Knight!"

Next to Jutte Lord, Jutte Knight appeared, assuming a crane stance.

"Goyo recruiter cannot attack the turn I use its effect." the officer explained. "But there are other monsters I can call to the battlefield! I tune my Level two Jutte Knight with my Level four Jutte Lord in order to Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level Six! Goyo Guardian!"

In a shining column of light, the officer's new Synchro monster rose from the ground before twirling a jutte connected to a rope above his head like a lasso. The monster towered over all other monsters on the field, looking like a cross between an imperial Edo-period police officer and a kabuki theater performer. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2800.

"With this, your Fusion Monster will now be ours!" the officer declared. "Go! Goyo Defender! Destroy her Lotus Sword Master!"

Roaring with a mighty battle-cry, the officer's massive monster pounded forward, bent on annihilating her monster.

Erika however, looked calm. Putting her hands together, she carefully breathed in through her nose before extending her hands towards one of her face-down cards.

"I activate my Continuous Trap Card." She calmly replied. "Legendary Martial Art – Tai Chi. While this card is active, if two monsters battle, the effects of those monsters are negated, furthermore, each monster on the field cannot be destroyed by battle once per turn, and the monster with lower attack power in any given battle between two monsters gains 1000 ATK!"

Calmly breathing in, Erika's monster assumed a solid stance as her ATK dropped to her original 1800. When Goyo Guardian was about to strike her with his jutte, she suddenly lunged forward, carefully maintaining balance, before pushing against Goyo Guardian's chest, knocking the monster back as her attack power suddenly matched his attack. As Goyo Guardian fell to the ground, the officer stared back at Erika in astonishment before angrily clenching his fists together.

"I set three cards face-down. Turn end!" he spat.

"My turn!" the middle officer declared. "Draw!"

"That little trick might work with your Fusion Monster, but your Tai Chi cannot protect your Life Points! I'll start by tuning Stygian Security with my Assault Gundog in order to Synchro Summon Goyo Recruiter!"

Calmly maintaining her stance, Erika remained vigilant as the officer repeated the last turn.

"Next I will Summon Jutte Lord and use his effect to Summon Jutte Knight in order to Synchro Summon another Goyo Guardian!"

Appearing next to the other monsters, Goyo Guardian rumbled onto the field, pointing his jutte at Erika's monster in a threatening pose.

"And now I will activate the effect of my Goyo recruiter! By making it so my monster cannot attack this turn, I can add the Equip Magic Card, Goyo Sasumata to my hand and equip it to my Goyo Guardian!"

Throwing away his jutte and rope, Goyo Guardian let out a low growl as a long U-blade tipped spear materialized in his hand.

"With this, my monster can attack your Life Points directly! Go! Goyo Guardian! Finish this duel!"

As Goyo Guardian charged forward with his massive spear, Erika calmly took another breath before whipping her hand towards her other face-down.

"I activate the Continuous Trap Card, Lotus Wall!" she declared. "Now, only the 'Lotus' monster I control with the highest attack power can be targeted for attacks! Furthermore, if it would be destroyed by battle or card effect, I can tribute one Plant-Type Monster I control instead!"

Before Goyo Guardian could touch Erika, Lotus Sword Master stepped out in front, jamming the charging Goyo Guardian's spear into the ground with a parry of her thorny blade. Growling in frustration as his Goyo Monster withdrew, the officer looked through the cards in his hand before letting out an angry yell and pointing to his companion.

"You'd better make sure you finish her off!" he yelled. "I set three cards face-down and end my turn!"

"My turn… Draw!" the officer declared. "I'll start by using my Stygian Security and Assault Gundog to Synchro Summon a final copy of Goyo Recruiter! Come forth! Goyo Recruiter!"

As the third copy of Goyo Recruiter appeared to the field, the officer threw down another card from his hand.

"Next, I will summon Jutte Lord, use its effect to summon Jutte Knight, tune them together, and summon my copy of Goyo Guardian! Come forth! Goyo Guardian!"

"We're almost done…" Erika thought to herself, as the third copy of Goyo Guardian appeared to the field, "…just a little longer and I can end this!"

"I will now use my Goyo Recruiter's effect in order to add the Equip Magic Card, Goyo Tsukubo, to my hand before equipping it to my Goyo Guardian!"

As the officer slammed the magic card onto his Duel Disk, A large T-shaped spear with spikey edges appeared in Goyo Guardian's hand.

"Goyo Tsukubo's effect increases the ATK of my Goyo Guardian by its Level X 100. In addition, if it attacks a monster with a lower level than itself, it can decrease the ATK and DEF of that monster by its Level X 100! With this, your Tai Chi cannot protect your Life Points! Go! Goyo Guardian! Attack Lotus Sword Master!"

As the two monsters clashed, Goyo Guardian's Tsukubo slamming against the edge of Lotus Sword Master's thorny blade, Erika braced herself as the final result of their card effects caused Sword Master to have 2400 ATK while Guardian's ATK rose to 3400. Planting her feet firmly in the ground, she managed to stay upright as a shockwave blasted her back and reduced her Life Points to 1000.

"I set two cards face down and activate Wave-Motion Cannon! Turn end!" The officer spat. "You can't win now!" he declared. "Each of us control two monsters with twenty-eight hundred attack power. Furthermore, on our next turn, Goyo Recruiter will be able to give us exactly the cards we need to counter your strategies. And even if you manage to survive that, my Wave-Motion Canon will finish you off once my next turn begins! Give up and surrender or we will unleash the full might of Security! This is your final warning!"

Erika smiled back at them, seemingly unbothered by the officer's ultimatum.

"Really? That's what you call a threat? I've heard way worse back where I come from."

Smiling at her field, she reviewed the stats of the duel. She had managed to do exactly what she needed to turn the duel around in her favor.

"My turn…" she began, "…dr-…"

Before she could continue, she and the other officers were suddenly violently thrown back as a raging column of fire descended from the sky and slammed into the ground, spreading red hot flames around the surrounding ruined buildings. Jumping up from the ground and assuming a defensive stance, Erika's heart suddenly began racing again as the sudden appearance of the strange anomaly shocked her already strained nerves.

"The devil!" One of the officer's called, getting up from the ground and staring at the anomaly in complete shock.

"You called me?" said a calm suave voice from the depths of the flaming tornado. Suddenly, a muscular hand appeared from the depths of the pillar of fire before swiping away the raging inferno with a lazy flick of the wrist. As the flames rapidly dissipated, a young man stepped out of the smoldering circle of fire left behind by the inferno before leaping onto the battlefield with cat-like agility. His blue hair was extremely long and messy with several spikey tips pointing upward like points of blue fire. The irises of his eyes were a deep red while his dark pupils almost looked like reptilian slits. Over his face, multiple blue fire marks decorated his dark-tanned skin. His attire made him look like a strange cross between a hobo and a caveman with a ragged dark-blue overcoat and black bear-skin fur cape worn over his shoulders, the bear paws tied together over his neck, and a red skin-tight muscle shirt over his well-toned chest, while his lower body was only barely covered with a simple pair of ragged grey trousers. Multiple flame-patterned tattoos covered the surface of his bare feet, and muscular arms and legs, while a large demon-wing shaped crimson-and-black Duel Disk that glinted in the sun like it was made of molten magma rested over his left arm. At the side of waist, he carried several leather pouches and a few rolled up scrolls of paper.

Looking down at the four duelists with a look of utter contempt, he lazily seemed to survey the battlefield before speaking again.

"And to think I traded Lydia and Joho for this…" he mused. "…but I suppose not every opponent can be entertaining."

Throwing back his arm he activated his Duel Disk, which projected a purple duel field which burned against the air like it was made of pure flame rather than solid vision.

"I'm bored…" he proclaimed, briskly strolling up to the duelists, "…and you shall serve as my entertainment. So please, try to make this interesting."

"Stand down!" one of the officers roared. "That's on order!"

"An order?" the man asked, a look of mock surprise coming over his face. "Well that's a funny thing. I don't really recall caring much for authority or its stupid orders."

"This is your last chance!" the officer in the center growled, "Stand down or we'll…"

The rest of the man's sentence was cut off as the approaching Duelist raised his hands into the air. As he did, his eyes and tattoos began glowing with fiery blue light before a raging wall of crimson and orange fire suddenly burst into existence around the perimeter of the Churchyard, igniting the surrounding buildings like matchsticks and enclosing the duelists in a wall of heat.

"Ore-Sama no turn…" the new duelist purred, a sadistic smile coming over his features as the fire rose into the air, "…draw."

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" The Duel Disk declared, "TWO-THOU-…"

The man's eyes suddenly began glowing again, and the Duel Disk's voice faded away. Adding his card to his hand, a holographic indicator appeared and showed the man's Life Points at 4000.

Erika's mouth gaped open in shock. Why hadn't his Life Points dropped?

Apparently, she was not the only one with that question.

"Why didn't you take the intrusion penalty!?" One of the officers asked as all three of them backed away, a look of fear on all three of their faces.

"Field Magic activate…" the man calmly continued, ignoring their question, "…Anarchy Agent Battlefield."

As the man threw down his Field Spell Card, his grin widened to reveal a set of fang-like teeth beneath his lips. Overhead, the sky suddenly darkened before lighting up with pale red and orange light as even more bonfires materialized around the battlefield, casting up a cloud of sparks and ashes. As the Field Spell Card took effect, from the duelist's perspective, the entire city looked like it had been blasted with a hailstorm of nuclear bombs before being left to burn.

"Beautiful…" the man murmured, closing his eyes before inhaling the burning air through his nose, "… truly this is a world worthy of creating!"

Even though the man hadn't done much yet, it took everything Erika had to remain calm and not let her nerves tear her apart until she became a nervous wreck like she had during her service for Academia. There was something wrong about him, and it wasn't just the weird display of pyrokinesis and his ability to avoid the intrusion penalty. She would have said the man was crazy, but even that didn't seem to cut it. There was something twisted and evil about him, something that would have made her want to immediately flee, were it not for her training and the wall of flames.

"Our battle can now begin in earnest!" the man proclaimed, opening his eyes and staring down each of his opponents. "May this be a conflict worthy of legend! One that can be passed down from generation to generation as they recount the epic struggle between Akato, and…" the man named Akato glanced over at his opponents, eyes hovering over the labels over the Security officer's uniforms, "…well… I suppose your names may not be worth remembering." He smirked. "But perhaps you will prove me wrong."

Throwing down a card he continued with his turn.

"I Normal Summon Anarchy Agent – Road Monk to my field!" he declared as a swirling vortex of flames burst from the ground next to him. From the bottom of the flames, a pitch-black motorcycle with flaming wheels, and red flame highlights roared onto the battlefield. Piloting the bike was a short individual wearing plain burlap monk robes over his body and a hood over his face. Over his back was strapped a cruel looking reaper scythe made of pitch-black metal that burned with dull orange flames. Circling the other duelists in his motorcycle, the monster let out a deep and slow demonic laugh before a holographic indicator appeared and showed a Level of three and an ATK of 800.

"Anarchy Agent Battlefield gains one Anarchy Counter whenever I summon an Anarchy Agent monster…" Akato explained as a single sphere of raging red fire materialized in the air above the duelists, "…furthermore, since Anarchy Agent – Road Monk was Normal Summoned while I controlled another face-up "Anarchy Agent" card, I get to add Anarchy Agent Ritual from my deck to my hand!"

Roaring between the four other duelists, Road Monk planted his scythe into the ground, causing a massive fissure to open up in the earth before a wall of flames billowed upwards from the depths of the earth, causing a card to fly up from the ground and into Akato's outstretched hand. Brushing the ash off the card, Akato continued with his turn.

"I next activate the Magic Card, Anarchy Agent Robbery! With this card, I draw two cards from my deck before sending one Anarchy Agent monster to the graveyard. However… if I cannot, I take seven-hundred damage."

"Draw all the cards you want!" one of the security officers barked. "It'll never be enough to defeat all of our monsters!"

Akato's head whipped around to face the man before his face broke into a maniacal grin, eyes seemingly bursting into flames as they glowed with demonic light. Backing away, the officer looked like he was about to faint.

"I accept your challenge!" Akato sneered, fingers curling like claws as he tore two cards from his deck and added them to his hand. "Let me show you just how much power I truly possess!"

Panting like a predator as his fingers feathered through the cards in his hand, he stopped when he came across a lone card in his hand. Plucking the card from his hand, he gingerly deposited it into the graveyard before looking back at his opponents.

"As per the effect of Anarchy Agent Robbery, I send the level four monster, Anarchy Agent Bomber to the graveyard. FURTHERMORE…" he suddenly shouted with excitement, pointing down at the ground in front of his feet before his voice softened just as suddenly, "…because Anarchy Agent Bomber was sent to the graveyard, its effect now activates." he paused to look at each of his opponents before continuing. "When it is sent to the graveyard while I control an Anarchy Agent monster, one of my opponent's cards is destroyed."

In front of him, the ground suddenly burst open as a pillar of fire rocketed out from the depths of the earth. Ascending from the fiery pit, a massive muscular monster with greasy black hair, a bloody hockey mask over its face, and massive bundles of TNT over its white chest crawled onto the field, howling like a maniac as it flailed its arms in the air and threatened to push down on a small plunger it held in its right hand.

Licking his lips, Akato surveyed the battlefield, scanning each of his opponent's cards with his eyes.

"I'd love to see her monster burn…" he mused to himself, "…but I ought to take care of her trap cards first. I'll save her monster's screams for later." Pointing his finger at Erika, he continued his turn.

"I have chosen what will burn first!" Akato proclaimed. "I shall first burn down your ideals before I burn down your bodies! Go! Anarchy Agent Bomber! Destroy Legendary Martial Art – Tai Chi!"

Letting out a maniacal blood-curdling scream, Anarchy Agent Bomber began running towards Erika at break-neck speed before making a dive at her Trap Card and pushing down on his plunger. Jumping on top of Erika as she shielded her face with her arms, Lotus Sword Master cradled Erika in her arms, protecting her from the blast as her Tai-Chi Trap Card was obliterated in an explosive inferno. Even with the duel using solid vision, Erika could swear that some of the flames that brushed past her face were real.

"You and your monster seem close to each other…" Akato commented with a sneer, "…it'll make it all more heart-wrenching when I finally take her from you. I next discard the monster, Anarchy Agent – Shadow Encoder, in order to add the Magic Card, Anarchy Agent Fusion to my hand."

"Fusion!?" Erika and the other duelists exclaimed in unison.

"Yes… Fusion." Akato purred, a look of condescension creeping over his face as he smirked at his opponents. "After all, there are many different summoning methods in this universe. Far more than the Synchro Summoning you are prone to using." His eyes trailed over to Erika's shield-shaped Duel Disk, "Although… it looks like some of you are already familiar with them." He added, smiling while slowly clapping his hands in congratulations.

He scanned through the cards in his hand before delicately removing one with his index and middle finger. "Keep my Fusion card in mind as I continue my turns, for soon I will unleash it." he calmly instructed, "But first… let's have fun with a different summoning technique. I reveal the level two monster, Anarchy Agent – Ally Marker in my hand in order to activate Shadow Encoder's second effect! I Special Summon it from the graveyard while changing its level to match Ally Marker's Level."

In front of Akato, a small fire roared to life. Unlike the previous fires, this one was composed more of thick black smoke than actual flame. From the depths of the smoke, a ghostly figure wrapped in ragged black gauze like a mummy rose into the air. Parts of its face were uncovered, revealing a set of coal-black eyes, and a gaping mouth with massive reptilian teeth. In one of its hands, it carried a coal-black book that burned with black flames and bore a red demon eye in the center. Beneath the floating monster, a holographic indicator appeared before displaying an ATK of 500 and a Level of two.

"Anarchy Agent Battlefield gains another Anarchy Counter. In addition, I will now activate Shadow Encoder's third effect!" Akato declared, pointing his finger towards his speeding Road Monk. Once per turn, I can reduce the Level of one of my monsters by up to three. I choose to use this effect now to reduce Road Monk's Level to one!"

Trailing smoke behind his ghostly form, Shadow Encoder sped towards Road Monk before opening his book and chanting in a demonic tongue. As he chanted, tendrils of gauze unwrapped themselves from his emaciated body before wrapping themselves around Road Monk's arms and waist. Screaming in pain, Road Monk struggled against the bindings as his Level dropped to one.

"With this, all is prepared." Akato purred as he pulled another card from his hand while the other duelists looked on with growing dread. "The agent of your demise comes forth now! From my hand, I activate the Ritual Magic Card, Anarchy Agent Ritual!"

Above the heads of the duelists, a flaming mark appeared in the air. The mark was composed of two A's made entirely of crimson flame, which were arranged so that they mirrored each other with their legs crossing to form a pair of X's on either side of the symbol. Between the bridges of the two A's, a reptilian eye adorned the center while the entire double "A" mark was enclosed in a circle of raging fire. Staring up at the demonic eye of the mark, Erika nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly saw the eye blink before staring directly at her as if the flaming mark were alive.

"Anarchy Agent Ritual is different from most Ritual Spell Cards in that the monster can be Ritual Summoned from the deck…" Akato explained as the flaming mark began surveying the battlefield, "…however, in order to Ritual Summon the desired monster, I have to ensure that the tributes exactly equal the level of the monster being Ritual Summoned. So since I wish to summon a Level six monster, I shall take the liberty of using my Level two Shadow Encoder, and my Level four Bomber!"

"But Bomber's in the grave!" one of the Officers exclaimed. "You can't tribute that card!"

Akato slowly turned his head towards the officer, giving him a toothy grin, "Limited as always." He mused, scraping at one of his teeth with a long fingernail. "It would seem you people think that a monster has no use when it is sent to the graveyard. On the contrary, monsters… and people… often are far more useful when they are dead, then when they are alive."

The officers looked back at Akato with a confused expression on their faces. Closing his eyes in a meditative expression, Akato took a deep breath before continuing. "Since I am about to Ritual Summon a monster, I can activate Anarchy Agent – Bomber's effect. I Special Summon it from the graveyard in order to use it as one of the tributes. However, the respective effects of Shadow Encoder and Bomber mean that both of these monsters will be banished once they are removed from the field."

Rising from a pillar of raging fire, Anarchy Agent – Bomber rose to the field before being joined by Shadow Encoder, who led the gigantic masked man underneath the burning eye of the Anarchy Agent Symbol. Glaring down at the two monsters, the two bridges of the double "A" symbol suddenly widened before revealing a set of flaming magma teeth encircling the demonic eye in the center of the symbol. Roaring with demonic furry, the double "A" symbol suddenly lunged at the two monsters, engulfing them in its flaming maw before exploding in a nuclear explosion of raging flame, which knocked back Erika and the three Security officers as Akato began a summoning chant:

"Agents who inspire fear, burn the resolve of the foolish authority to ashes and rise up as a malevolent burning demon created from pure horror! Gishiki Shokan! Terrorize them! Level six! Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon!"

Just as Erika and the officers managed to get up from the burning ground, they were immediately thrown down once more as an earsplitting demonic roar rent the air and a burning shockwave sent tremors through the battlefield as a demonic beast rose from the ground. Rather than normal flesh, the monster seemed to be entirely made of a mass of blazing bones, boiling and blistering skin, pulsating flaming organs, sinuous muscles composed of magma, and gigantic black eyes that looked like they were made of pure coal. Rather than keeping a single shape, the demonic beast's roiling body constantly changed form from a raging Cerberus, to a tentacle abomination, to a winged griffon, and back again to another flaming monstrosity more terrifying than the last. As the burning demon reared up on a set of hind legs, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2400.

"Anarchy Agent Battlefield's effect now activates!" Akato declared, face burning with malice and insanity in the light of his raging Ritual Monster. "It gains another Anarchy Counter for a total of three counters! And now that that's done, my Dread Demon's effect activates! The effects of every single card my opponent controls are negated until the end of this turn! In addition, during the turn this effect is activated, none of my opponent's set cards can be activated! GO MY DREAD DEMON! ANARCHY'S HORROR!"

Throwing back its burning head, Dread Demon's coal-black eyes began blazing with white-hot light as its roiling flesh, skin, organs, and bones twisted themselves into a set of gruesome burning tentacles that whipped forward before ensnaring each of Erika and the Officer's cards in their flaming coils. Erika watched in horror as both her Lotus Sword-Master and Red Lotus Monk began screaming in agony before momentarily bursting into flames and getting thrown back onto the ground, bodies smoldering as they struggled to get up from the ground after being severely injured by Dread Demon's effect. The monsters of the officers didn't seem to fare any better. In addition to suffering burn wounds, the ATK of all three of the officer's Goyo Recruiters had been reduced to their original 1600. Looking over at the Spell and Trap Cards on the field, Erika noticed several scorch marks decorating the surface of the cards while the pictures of the face-up cards had slightly dimmed.

"Well that was a good start…" Akato mused, "…but let's see if we can fan the flames a little more!" Raising his muscular right arm into the air, he pointed at the three globes of raging fire in the sky.

"By destroying my own Anarchy Agent Battlefield, I can activate its effect!" he declared, "I can draw one card before Ritual or Fusion Summoning any Anarchy Agent Monster from my hand, deck, or Extra Deck without using any tributes or materials, so long as the Level of the Anarchy Agent monster being summoned exactly equals the number of Anarchy Counters this card had when it was destroyed!"

Clustering together, the three spheres of fire merged into a single raging inferno before pouring onto the center of the field in a blazing pillar of fire. Drawing a card from his deck, Akato raised his hands into the air before beginning another summoning chant:

""Insanity of the prisoner, manifest in flames and drive all those who face you mad! Gishiki Shokan! Come forth! Level 3! Anarchy Agent - Asylum Prisoner!"

From the depths of the raging inferno, Erika could hear the sound of maniacal laughter as Akato's new Ritual Monster appeared. Looking upon the monster, Erika began to understand what Akato meant when he commanded his monster to drive others mad. The monster was a raving insane asylum patient with spikey flaming hair and a face completely disfigured with innumerable burn marks and lacerations. Shackled in a blood-red straight jacket, the monster wobbled from side to side as it ran around the burning battlefield, laughing maniacally in everyone's face before running to the nearest pile of rubble and aggressively beating its face against a slab of concrete. But the strangest aspect of the monster was the fact that it didn't seem to even belong to the physical world. The flaming monster was colored in shades of grey like an old black and white movie or security camera recording. Instead of holding its form, the monster seemed to flicker in and out of existence like a picture on a poorly paced reel of film. As it flickered and cackled like a maniac, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 700.

Akato bowed to his opponents after his monster appeared, closing his eyes and smiling as if experiencing the deepest satisfaction of his life.

"I thank you for your exceeding patience…" he murmured, eyes flickering open, "…and now your waiting shall be rewarded when I open your eyes to the fantastic future I shall bring to this and all worlds! Behold it now. I activate Anarchy Agent Fusion in order to fuse my newly summoned Anarchy Agent – Asylum Prisoner with the Anarchy Agent – Ally Marker in my hand!"

Above the head of Anarchy Agent – Asylum Prisoner, a flaming double "A" mark appeared in the air, identical to the previous one, save for the fact that it was rapidly spinning in the air. Opening its central mouth wide, it began sucking up the cackling Asylum Prisoner before Akato's Ally Marker also made its appearance. Ally Marker looked like a Goth punk with multiple prison tattoos over his face, shaved head, neck, and arms, black lipstick over his eyes and lips, and a spikey Mohawk of flaming hair. In the center of his forehead, a single red demonic eye scanned the field with a beam of red light like a flashlight before the monster was sucked into the center of the flaming whirlwind as Akato began his Fusion chant.

"Beings that bring forth the flames of discord! Agents who destroy order! Become one in the whirlpool of disharmony and unleash an infinite chaos! YUUGO SHOKAN! LEVEL NINE! ANARCHY AGENT – CYCLE REAPER!"

Exploding into a raging tornado of red-hot flame, the flaming whirlwind tore through the field, picking up debris before igniting the debris and sending them flying in random directions. From the top of the raging cyclone, Akato's new fusion monster appeared. Unsheathing a massive two-ended scythe made entirely from molten magma and flames, a burning skeleton sheathed in thick, flaming bone armor with a grinning dragon skull on the chest and multiple human skulls over the shoulders and arms, began laughing in a deep demonic voice before a pair of blue flames ignited in the center of its empty eye-sockets, creating a set of eyes. Traveling via its raging tornado, the monster rapidly spun its scythe around, creating additional whirlwinds of flaming tornados as it began igniting everything in its path. Over its pillar of fire, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2900.

"We'll resolve these effects in this order." Akato declared, holding up his index finger. "First, since Ally Marker was sent to the graveyard, its effect enables me to add one of my banished Anarchy Agent monsters to my hand, so I will return Shadow Encoder to my hand."

In a swirl of smoke, Akato's card rematerialized in his hand.

"The second effect!" Akato declared holding up his index and middle fingers. "Since Asylum Prisoner was used as a Fusion Material for a Fusion Summon, I get to return all of my banished monsters to my graveyard. So return! Anarchy Agent Bomber!"

Laughing insanely, the massive masked monster appeared to Akato's field before slowly descending into a black graveyard portal.

"The third effect!" Akato proclaimed, holding up his thumb, index, and middle fingers, "When Anarchy Agent – Cycle Reaper is Special Summoned, I can destroy one card my opponent controls! So destroy Lotus Barrier! Cycles of Flame!"

Opening its skull mouth impossibly wide, Cycle Reaper charged forward in his flaming tornado before vomiting out a stream of molten magma that spewed from his gullet like a fire-hose, vaporizing Erika's trap on contact.

"Finally…" Akato added, dropping his hand to his side before looking at Erika, "…since I've decided I really enjoy burning your cards, I will activate Anarchy Agent - Bomber's effect again. Since it was sent to the graveyard, I will use it to destroy your Flower Arranging Art Ikebana."

This time, when Akato's giant monster rose from the ground in a billowing bonfire, Erika and her monsters ran as fast as they could away from the location of the Spell Card, evading the shockwave and flames as Bomber obliterated the card in a suicidal run.

"Enjoy your last moments with your monsters." Akato purred, delicately plucking another card from his hand. "This final monster will finish this duel."

"How many monsters are you going to summon!?" one of the officers gawked.

"Well…" Akato mused, "… I could easily summon more monsters, but I don't need to for you. So you'll have to content yourself with… one of… my aces."

Akato gingerly placed the card on his Duel Disk. As he did, a circle of raging blue flames began bursting to life around his person.

"I activate a second Anarchy Agent Ritual…" he declared, "…sacrificing my Level one Anarchy Agent - Road Monk and my Level nine Anarchy Agent – Cycle Reaper!"

In an explosion of flames, the mark of the Anarchy Agents reappeared in the air before violently roaring and engulfing Cycle Reaper and Road Monk in its flaming maw. Watching his monsters get disintegrated into nothingness, Akato smiled and closed his eyes before raising his hands into the air. As he raised his hands to the air, the circle of flames around his body brightened in intensity while Akato's blue fire tattoo marks, his eyes, and his blue hair, began glowing like they had ignited with intense heat. Raising his powerful arms into the air, he commenced his summoning chant:

"The flames of anarchy that exist in all life! From the agents of chaos that spread this glory, burst from all directions, and begin the apocalypse! GISHIKI SHOKAN! BEHOLD THE HERALD OF THE NEW WORLD! LEVEL TEN! ANARCHY AGENT – ABSTRACT APOTHEOSIS!"

The explosion that billowed forth from the center of the Anarchy Agent mark was so massive and powerful, that as it blasted back the surrounding air, rubble, and duelists, Erika couldn't even hear anything but a dull ringing from her ears. Slowly rising up from the ground with her monsters, Erika was nearly blinded as she looked upon the raging form of Akato's new monster. The monster was utterly massive. Towering at least sixty meters in the air as a raging and swirling mass of chaotic flames, the monster's immense, slightly humanoid body, constantly melted and warped as segments of flame shaped themselves into roaring dragons, nine-headed serpents, lion heads, chimeras, giants, phoenixes, screaming skeletons, and all manner of other flaming abominations. The only thing that remained constant was the monsters face, a roaring demonic head with an impossibly wide flaming mouth, soulless burning eyes, and millions of jagged magma teeth lining a gullet that seemed to empty into a bottomless black void. Erika could only piece the rest of the monster's appearance together as the monster was so bright and hot that she couldn't look upon it for more than a second without being blinded. Screaming with agony, Erika suddenly clutched at her forehead as an endless stream of visions of continual fiery death and destruction played before her mind. Incapacitated by the parade of visions, she failed to take notice as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 3300.

"WHAT IS THAT THING!" one of the officers screamed in agony. Cracking her eyes open, Erika noticed the other officers writhing on the ground. Keeping her face to the hot ground, she made sure not too look up in order to avoid looking upon the monster again.

"I'm glad you asked." Akato replied, stepping out of his circle of flames while his marks, hair, and eyes continued to glow with unnatural blue light. "This beautiful creature is a type and shadow of things to come, as well as one of the many agents created for the purpose of bringing about the future it represents! It is an agent of death and destruction, a herald of true freedom, a beacon to every soul seeking something beyond the mundane world created by humanity's laws, an embodiment of chaos!"

He smiled as the officers struggled to comprehend his meaning.

"It has been a true delight fighting against you, but I'm afraid none of you have truly impressed me. You are not fit for the world I wish to create, so now you shall fulfill your purpose as my entertainment. Abstract Apotheosis's effect activates upon being Ritual Summoned, and Road Monk and Cycle Reaper's effect chains to the activation! First, once per turn, if my Cycle Reaper is in the graveyard because it was destroyed or sent there as a tribute for a Ritual Summon, it Special Summons itself from the graveyard!"

In a swirling tornado of flames, Cycle Reaper emerged from the graveyard, laughing with demonic glee as it twirled its flaming scythe in the air.

"With its Special Summon, its effect activates once again!" Akato declared with glee, "Destroy that Wave-Motion Cannon! Cycles of Flame!"

Throwing back its head with laughter, Cycle Reaper charged forward before unleashing another jet of magma at Wave-Motion Cannon, melting the weapon into a pool of liquid metal.

"Next, since Road Monk was sent to the graveyard while I controlled an Anarchy Agent card, I can draw one card!" Plucking a card from his deck, he continued his turn.

"And now the true inferno can ignite!" Akato proclaimed, stretching his hand towards Abstract Apotheosis. "When Abstract Apotheosis is Ritual Summoned, I can send all cards my opponent controls to the graveyard! BURN THEM ALL NOW, APOTHEOSIS! ANARCHY'S ARMAGEDDON!"

"NO!" Erika screamed, realizing that the monster's effect would destroy her own monsters. Looking into her Sword-Master's face, she was suddenly thrown back as a massive flaming dragon mouth suddenly snapped down on her monster's middle, lifting the screaming Fusion Monster into the air as it ignited in flames and blew her monster into bits of ash and sparks.

"And now you shall feel the effect of Apotheosis's continuous effect." Akato calmly continued, brushing some ash off of his hands. "Each time one or more cards is sent to the graveyard, my opponents take five-hundred damage. GO! RAGING CHAOS!"

This time, Erika dared to look at Akato's monster as it unleashed a wall of flames from a thousand demonic mouths that formed over its flaming body. Leaping to her feet, Erika managed to use her training to avoid and parry away some of the flames, but not without her hands getting burned as she swiped away a mass of flames that nearly hit her directly in the face as her Life Points dropped to 500. The other officers did not do as well. All three of them ran from the flames, but were caught in the storm, backs becoming charred as they were thrown onto the ground by the force of the blast.

"Battle…" Akato purred, a deep throaty growl adding itself to his voice. "…Anarchy Agent – Cycle Reaper, attack the first Security Officer with thirty-five hundred Life Points. REVOLVING SCYTHE FLAME!"

Charging forward, while spinning his scythe around in a raging whirlwind of magma and fire, Cycle Reaper slammed his weapon against the Security officer, opening a massive burning gash into his body and sending the poor man flying into the air before he crashed into a pile of rubble and his Life Points dropped to 600.

"Abstract Apotheosis…" Akato continued, "…attack the second Officer with thirty-five hundred Life Points! DEVOURING CHAOS FLAME!"

The second officer tried to crawl away, but was caught in a pillar of fire that billowed forth from the main mouth of Abstract Apotheosis, slamming the officer flat against the flaming ground and charring his body as his Life Points dropped to 200.

"I'll end the suffering of one of you right now." Akato promised, extending his hand towards Dread Demon. "Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon, finish off the officer with six-hundred Life Points. DREAD FLAME!"

Morphing and twisting into an abominable creature with the flaming mouth of a crocodile, the back of a burning porcupine, and the legs of a cheetah, Dread Demon charged forward before sprouting a pair of magma tentacles from its mouth and grabbing the screaming officer, pulling him into its gaping maw.

"Your boss called me…" Akato sneered, "…you're fired."

Letting out a final scream, the officer was burned to a pile of ash as Akato's monster unleashed a torrent of flame at the officer, reducing his body to smoldering cinders.

Erika and the remaining two officers gasped in horror at the scene, unable to believe what they had witnessed.

"His death foreshadows what is now coming to you." Akato declared, holding up a final card in his hand. "I activate the Ritual Magic Card, Anarchy Agent Defilement! With this card, I pay one-thousand Life Points in order to Ritual Summon an Anarchy Agent monster from my hand or deck by banishing the appropriate monsters from my graveyard… not that I actually need the monster to destroy you right now."

"W-what do you mean?" one of the officers whimpered.

Erika's began trembling. "He… he's going to kill us with Apotheosis's effect, just by sending his Ritual Magic Card to the graveyard once it resolves…"

"Smart girl." Akato congratulated, gazing back at Erika with what could have been passed as a genuinely warm smile. "It's a shame you weren't able to survive this turn. I might have kept you. You have probably heard this before, but you are quite beautiful."

Erika backed away, feeling horror from Akato's compliment rather than flattery.

"However…" Akato mused, "…I have never beheld anything more truly captivating and beautiful than the chaotic force of fire. BEHOLD! ANARCHY AGENT DEFILEMENT'S EFFECT ACTIVATES!"

Roaring with delight as segments of his body burst into blue flame before his Life Points dropped to 1000, Akato extended his arms to the air as the same Anarchy Agent symbol from before appeared in the air. This time, however, the symbol burned with dull black flames that billowed forth more smoke than fire.

"I banish Anarchy Agent – Road Monk and Bomber from my graveyard…" Akato declared as the monsters ascended from the graveyard before getting engulfed in the demonic mark's smoking maw, "…in order to Ritual Summon the Level seven Anarchy Agent – Mirror Phantom from my deck!"

Clenching his fists together, he began his summoning chant:

"The ghost that reflects order, display the darkness that lies within and unleash the flames of chaos! GISHIKI SHOKAN! LEVEL SEVEN, ANARCHY AGENT – MIRROR PHANTOM!"

Collapsing onto the ground in a smoking heap, the Anarchy Agent mark dissipated into a cloud of ash as the ground opened and Akato's new monster ascended from the depths of the earth. The monster was a hooded skeletal creature with lines of reflective magma glowing against its bones and regal clothing. Upon its back, two mirrors of black obsidian reflected the faces of Erika and the remaining officers before the images warped and depicted all three of them bursting into flames and dissolving into piles of ash. Over its chest, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2000.

"The effect is now resolved…" Akato sighed, "…and now my Ritual Card and all of you go to the grave. Abstract Apotheosis… finish them off."

Erika fell to her knees, still unable to believe what was happening. Closing her eyes as Apotheosis unleashed a new wall of flame at all of them, she prayed that she would be incinerated quickly.

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" a voice suddenly roared, "TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

Whipping her head around as the flames quickly approached, Erika caught a glimpse of four officers on motorcycles making a jump over one of the flaming buildings before one of them raised his hand into the air and a massive white heron-shaped mark exploded outward from his palm.

"MINERAL GUARDIAN – TUNGSTEN SHIELD'S EFFECT ACTIVATES!" one of the officers roared with a rich Russian accent. "IF DAMAGE WOULD BE INFLICTED, I CAN SPECIAL SUMMON THIS CARD FROM MY HAND TO NEGATE THE DAMAGE AND INCREASE ITS DEFENSE BY FIVE-HUNDRED! YOU WILL NOT HURT THEM!"

Suddenly, in front of Erika, a massive golem made entirely of tungsten landed on the ground in front of her, creating a massive crater in the ground before raising a massive rectangular shield in front of its face. Raising its other fist into the air, it caused a massive wall of tungsten to appear in front of the approaching wall of flames, blocking the inferno before it could touch the remaining officers. Behind the monster, a holographic indicator showed its defense rise from 2000 to 2500.

In astonishment, Erika got up from the ground to look at her saviors. They all wore the uniform of the Arrest Corps, but they had removed their masks, revealing one to be a bearded man with a dark face and eyes, a petit woman with short black hair and similar dark eyes, a buck-toothed man with a smaller face and bright cheerful eyes, and a tall thin man with short brown hair and green eyes. As they circled around the duel field, eyeing Akato with a threatening expression on each of their faces, Erika could see a large white heron mark glowing against the back of each of their suits. Looking up to the sky, she saw the same Heron mark, covering the entire duel field like a guardian angel in its light while simultaneously extinguishing the flames of the battlefield as it grew in size and brightness.

"Nevan! Garret!" the bearded man commanded, "Get the wounded out of here! Elizaveta and I will take care of this!"

"Aye aye, Pyotr!" Garret replied as he and the man named Nevan raced towards the wounded officers.

"Let's go!" Nevan roared, as he held a card into the air. "I discard the Level three monster, Graydle Putty, in order for me to activate its effect and instantly summon Graydle Eagle from my hand! Secure the wounded, Graydle Eagle!"

Above the man's head, an amorphous mass of grey clay-like slime appeared over his head before shaping and coloring itself into a golden winged eagle with a few discolored grey feathers and mushy slimy misshapen bird feet.

"Graydle, graydle, graydle, I made you out of clay…" Garret sang with the accent of a country hick as Nevan's monster raced towards the wounded officers, picking up one of them before depositing the wounded man into Nevan's outstretched arms.

"Now's not the time, Garret!" Nevan snapped as he carefully placed the officer on his bike while swerving to avoid a pile of burning rubble. "This is serious! We've got wounded! Take care of the other officer!"

"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Garret argued back, pulling out his own card, "Sheesh! It's not like I can't sing and rescue people at the same time."

"With the size of your brain, I wonder if you can do any two things at the same time." Nevan muttered, grimacing as the intrusion penalty caused his Life Points to drop to 2000.

"How 'bout this!" Garret countered, "I reveal the Quick-Play Magic card, Survivor Nest, in my hand in order to discard it and Special Summon one "Survivor" monster from my hand! Let's save some people! I summon Survivor Canine! GO FETCH!"

Through a blue portal, Garret's monster jumped onto the field before racing towards the wounded officer and picking him up in its mouth. Survivor Canine was a wild emaciated dog about twice the size of a tiger, with matted fur and large tusks like a saber-tooth tiger's. Racing towards his monster, Garret grabbed the officer out of the dog's mouth, before setting the officer onto his bike and racing towards Erika, hand outstretched as his Life Points dropped to 2000.

"Come on little darlin'!" Garret invited, "I'll get you somewhere safe!"

Rolling out of the way, Erika managed to avoid the officer as Garret zoomed past with a confused expression on his face.

"You need to come with us!" Nevan pleaded as he circled around to rescue Erika. "Trust us! We're not gonna hurt you!"

"GO WITH THEM!" Elizaveta barked as she and Pyotr circled their bikes around Akato and his monsters, keeping all of them away from Garret, Nevan, Erika, and the wounded officers as the flaming monstrosities raged at the tungsten wall, angrily attempting to break it apart while swiping at the two riders.

"I don't trust you!" Erika roared back, holding her disk up protectively. "And besides… I'm still dueling! I'm not running from this fight!"

Dodging Nevan as he attempted to scoop her up in his arms, Erika watched as Elizaveta approached her on her bike, looking down at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"Then let us help you." Elizaveta replied, revving up the engine of her bike before leaving Erika in order to continue helping her brother fend off the monsters.

"GET THE WOUNDED TO A HOSPITAL!" Pyotr roared as his monster swiped away a flaming tentacle from Dread Demon.

Complying with his orders, Garret and Nevan zipped away with their monsters, carrying the wounded safely away from the battlefield as Akato looked on with a look of amusement on his face.

"Well this is… interesting…" he snickered, "…I didn't know the Earthbound Disciples had decided to join the Gold Cross!"

"Leave this place now!" Pyotr growled. "Or we will make you!"

"Hmmmmmmmmm…" Akato pondered, eyes, hair, and marks dimming to their regular color. "…this would truly be interesting for me. I could use a real challenge after that pathetic showing from those officers." Stepping forward he held out his hands in a gesture of welcome. "I accept your challenge! I will stay right here, and you will attempt to remove me! If you can successfully hold out against me, I might even oblige you by leaving on my own!"

"You're not going to last past our first turn!" Elizaveta countered, crackling with black electricity as she gave Akato a menacing glare. "You have no idea what we are capable of!"

"On the contrary my dear…" Akato smirked, pulling out a small pile of cards from his pocket, "… I have faced your kind before and survived every single time. I must say…" he continued, "…waving the cards in front of his face, "… it's quite interesting to see your kind enter the final stage of your… evolution."

Elizaveta blinked at Akato, not understanding what he was saying.

"Hmmmmm… it would seem your master has not told you the fate that befalls all Earthbound Disciples the Earthbound Gods deem useless. But perhaps you'll figure it out in time." Akato muttered almost to himself.

"Enough of this!" Pyotr barked, spinning his Duel Chaser around to face Akato, "We'll be your opponents from now on! End your turn or surrender!"

"I never surrender…" Akato laughed, "… so let's have some fun! I might even go all-out against you!"

Extending his hand toward the graveyard, he continued his turn.

"I banish Anarchy Agent Defilement from my graveyard to activate its second effect!" he declared. "By returning the banished monsters, Anarchy Agent – Road Monk and Anarchy Agent - Bomber to my graveyard, I can Fusion Summon an Anarchy Agent monster using those monsters as the materials!"

Overhead, the smoking Anarchy Agent Symbol appeared before swirling into a smoky vortex as the ghostly forms of Bomber and Road Monk were pulled into the center and Akato began another fusion chant:

"Agents who cause minor tremors, combine together in the whirlpool of fear, and turn nothingness into a great terror! YUUGO SHOKAN! DESTROY THEM, LEVEL EIGHT, ANARCHY AGENT – NIGHTMARE BEAST!"

In a swirl of smoke and purple flame, Akato's new fusion monster appeared to the field as a dark indigo beast with a massive eyeless head that opened up into four gaping jaws like a flower petal. The rest of its emaciated body consisted of four legs, matted flaming purple fur, and a pair of gigantic flaming blue eyes over a pair of wings on its shoulders. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

"Apotheosis's effect activates." Akato continued, extending his hand towards his opponents. "Since the little girl wants to die here, I'll grant her that wish! Because both bomber and Road Monk were sent to the graveyard, Apotheosis inflicts damage to all of your Life Points! GO! RAGING CHAOS!"

"Tungsten Shield's continuous effect!" Pyotr declared. "So long as it's face-up on the field, any effect that would inflict damage to a player's Life Points can instead become an effect that increases Tungsten Shield's defense by five-hundred!"

Roaring with pride, Tungsten Shield hefted his shield as his DEF rose to 3000.

Akato smirked at this opponents. "Since Bomber was sent to my graveyard once again, its effect activates. I'll destroy your Tungsten Shield and then use Apotheosis's effect to damage you. Bomber, if you would."

"Tungsten Shield's effect!" Pyotr countered, "During the turn it is Special Summoned with its own effect, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects!"

Rising from the graveyard, Bomber began charging at the tungsten golem, but the golem quickly countered the demonic man by launching a wave of sharp tungsten spikes from his shield, knocking the plunger from Bomber's hand before impaling the creature through the forehead.

"Such a shame." Akato sighed with a lazy expression on his face, placing the last two cards in his hand on his Duel Disk. "I'll now end my turn by setting two cards face-down. Now show me your power!" he challenged, "If your master is capable of creating strong servants, perhaps I will lend my unique services to her cause!"

"We don't have a master!" Pyotr spat, drawing a card from his deck while circling the Duel Field on his Duel Chaser.

"Your loyalty to her is admirable…" Akato commented, "…but it's unnecessary. I already know of her. She is the one chosen by the shining master, the girl who bears the essence of two gods within her frame."

Elizaveta, Pyotr, and Erika all blinked at Akato in confusion.

"And apparently you are just as ignorant of her nature as you are of your own." Akato observed, scratching his chin. "I suppose your master has trust issues with her minions. That or she's just as woefully ignorant as you are!"

"My turn!" Pyotr snarled in reply, throwing down a card. "I activate the Continuous Magic Card, Mineral Quarry!" Next to his bike, a holographic image of a large quarry mining several precious minerals with an array of industrial equipment materialized into existence as Pyotr continued to tear up the dirt of the churchyard with his bike.

"Its effect is as follows." He explained. "Once per turn, I can excavate the top five cards of my deck in order to send all excavated Level two or lower Rock-Type monsters to my graveyard! Any other card excavated is banished!"

Akato crossed his arms, tapping his fingers against his elbow with a bored expression on his face. Meanwhile, Pyotr drew five cards from his deck before showing them to Akato.

"All five of the cards are Level two Rock-Type monsters!" he declared, "With the effect of Mineral Quarry, I send them all to my graveyard!"

In the center of the churchyard, a massive crater opened up before five rock golems were deposited into the center of the hole.

"Apotheosis effect." Akato murmured.

"Tungsten Shield effect!" Pyotr retorted, charging forward as his monster caught the flaming projectiles from Akato's monster in its shield and boosted its DEF to 3500.

"Next…" Pyotr continued, "… since I control a face-up Rock-Type monster on my field, I can Special Summon the Level two monster, Mineral Guardian – Pumice Brush from my hand!"

In a corner of the field, a miniature volcano rose up from the ground before blasting out a small monster from its core. Flipping onto the field, a diminutive golem made of porous grey stone appeared to the field before raising a small pumice rock over its rocky head while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 200.

"But he won't be staying long…" Pyotr declared, "… I next sacrifice Pumice Brush in order to Special Summon Mineral Guardian – Magnetite Dagger from my deck through Pumice's effect!"

As another card was sent to the graveyard, Apotheosis tried in vain to damage Pyotr once again, but the raging beast was once again met with frustration as its attack bounced off of Tungsten Shield before boosting the snickering golem's DEF to 4000.

Digging through the dirt, Pumice Brush hefted a massive hunk of earth onto the field before brushing at it with his pumice stone, polishing away the dirt and grime until a new monster made of shiny chrome metal appeared to Pyotr's field. Vanishing into golden dust after completing its work, Pumice Brush left the new metallic golem blinking in confusion as it flexed its arms and legs. The golem was made of multiple stones that stuck to each other like magnets. In its hand, a large magnetite dagger made of multiple thin pieces of the metallic rock glinted in the light of the sun. Above its head, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 900.

"Since Magnetite Dagger was Special Summoned, I can activate its effect!" Pyotr explained, "I Special Summon Mineral Guardian – Quartz Sword from my hand!"

Rising from the ground in a burst of earth and light, A majestic feminine golem made entirely from clear quartz rose to Pyotr's field before hefting a massive quartz sword above her attractive stony face. Assuming a battle-stance, Quartz Sword let out a small battle-cry as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1200.

"Its effect now activates!" Pyotr continued, removing a card from his deck before adding it to his Duel Disk. "If it is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon one Level two Rock-Type monster from my deck! Come forth! Mineral Guardian – Iron Fist!"

Plunging her quartz sword into the earth, Quartz Sword caused a gaping hole to open up in the earth before a massive iron golem emerged from the earth, waving a pair of massive fists with iron cestus over the fingers in the air. Roaring with fury, the monster pounded his fists into the ground before a holographic indicator appeared, showing an ATK of 1800, which quickly rose to 3000.

"Iron Fist gains 300 ATK for each Rock-Type monster I control!" Pyotr explained. "But that's not what you should be worried about! It's time to show you exactly how our so-called master has blessed us!"

"So you do admit it." Akato smirked. "Was there really any point in trying to hide it from me?"

"No." Pyotr admitted with a shrug, "But there is a point to this!" Holding up a card in his hand, he extended his hand towards Abstract Apotheosis, who was still raging against the durable wall of tungsten as it withstood its inferno of heat.

"I dark sacrifice your monster, Anarchy Agent - Abstract Apotheosis, and my monster, Mineral Guardian – Magnetite Dagger, in order to Dark Sacrifice Summon the Level negative six monster, Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi! Accept the offering forcefully taken and willingly given, and watch over my family with your protective magic! Arise! Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi!"

Letting out an involuntary angry snarl, Akato watched as a pair of massive clawed hands made of pure white energy rose up from the ground before grasping his Abstract Apotheosis and Pyotr's Magnetite Dagger, dragging them both underground before a massive alter appeared in the center of the field and a new monster appeared on top of the altar.

Glowing with golden light as the yellow decorative lines gleamed against its stone body, Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi slowly opened its rocky eyes before widening its lips into a warm smile. Geo Domovoi was a gnome-like stone statue expertly carved into the shape of a man with a mop of stone hair and a beard. In the center of its chest, a golden heart beat against its chest as it flexed its fingers and toes. Next to Geo Domovoi, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

"I'd forgotten how much I dislike that underhanded summoning technique you disciples enjoy using." Akato remarked, looking fairly irritated.

"If you enjoyed that, then you'll definitely enjoy this." Pyotr coldly replied, extending his hand towards his monster. "When Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi is successfully Dark Sacrifice Summoned, its effect banishes itself."

Smiling until dimples showed on its stone cheeks, the stone statue leaped off his altar, somersaulting in the air before vanishing in a flash of gold light.

"However…" Pyotr continued, "…while he is banished, I can activate one of his effects once per turn during either player's turn. One of those effects is a very handy effect that lets me select any monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it. So come forth! Mineral Guardian – Beryllium Ring!"

From the ground, a green hued golem with a violet ring of light on its back rose from Pyotr's graveyard before posing next to the other golems as a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 400.

"Now to finish you!" Pyotr boldly declared, extending his hand towards his monsters. "I tune my Level two Tuner Monster, Mineral Guardian – Quartz Sword with my Level two Iron Fist and my Level two Beryllium Ring in order to Synchro Summon!"

Putting her crystalline hands together over the hilt of her sword, Quartz Sword began ringing with noise and glowing with intense white light before morphing into two rings of light that flew upwards before descending and enclosing Iron Fist and Beryllium Ring in their light. As the monsters vanished away and became replaced with four spheres of white light, Pyotr clamped his hands together and began his summoning chant as he circled the battlefield.

"Faithful and unyielding guardians of stone, become purified in the fires of the earth to stand as a mighty sentinel for all time! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! COME FORTH! LEVEL SIX! ROCK SENTINEL IGNEOUS!"

In an explosion of volcanic magma, Pyotr's new Synchro Monster galloped onto the battlefield, riding a horse made entirely from obsidian rock and molten magma. Atop the horse, Rock Sentinel Igneous held on to a pair of fiery reigns while looking down on his opponents with the pride of a medieval knight. Rock Sentinel Igneous was composed entirely of black and white stone with pools of blazing liquid magma between the joints of his body. His sword was a massive slab of solid sharp obsidian glass that glinted in the sunlight, while his armor was made of solid granite.

"Each Mineral Guardian that is used in its Synchro Summon contributes an effect!" Pyotr declared, extending his hand towards his monster as it began galloping next to his bike. "First off, Iron Fist makes it so my monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn. Secondly, Quartz Sword inflicts five-hundred damage to your Life Points when the monster is first summoned, so say hello to some damage!"

Blazing with fire, Rock Sentinel Igneous, swung his sword through the air, sending shards of fiery obsidian into Akato's direction.

"Anarchy Agent – Mirror Phantom's effect!" Akato countered, as his monster dived in front of him, mirrors extending from its shoulders, "If I would take effect damage, I can make my opponent receive that damage instead!"

"Then I'll use Tungsten Shield's effect!" Pyotr retorted as the mirrors on Mirror Phantom's back sent the obsidian shards flying back into Pyotr's direction. "I change that effect to an effect that increases the defense of Tungsten Shield by five-hundred!"

Hopping in front of Pyotr's bike, Tungsten Shield caught the shards of obsidian in his shield before roaring with determination as his DEF rose to 4500. Not wasting a minute, Pyotr began charging towards Akato's army of flaming monsters with his Rock Sentinel Igneous courageously galloping by his side.

"Beryllium Ring's effect activates!" Pyotr declared, extending his hand towards Akato's monsters, "If it is used as a material for the summon of a Rock Sentinel monster, I can destroy one monster my opponent controls for each material used in that monster's summon! So I will use this effect to destroy your Cycle Reaper, Dread Demon, and Nightmare Beast!"

Urging its stony horse forward, Rock Sentinel Igneous prepared to cleave the flaming monsters to ribbons with its own fiery might.

"Trap activate!" Akato countered, "Anarchy Emblem! During the turn this effect is activated, my Anarchy Agent monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects!"

In front of Akato's monsters, a flaming barrier suddenly appeared, arresting Pyotr and Igneous's forward progress as they were forced to change directions to avoid slamming into the inferno. Looping around, Pyotr continued with his turn.

"Rock Sentinel Igneous's effect is applied, when it is Synchro Summoned successfully, I can banish any number of Rock-Type monsters from my graveyard in order to increase its Level by one for each monster bansihed! Furthermore, its attack power is equal to its Level times three-hundred! By banishing all nine Rock Guardian monsters from my graveyard, I will increase its Level to fifteen in order to raise its attack power to forty-five hundred!"

From the ground, a hurricane of pebbles of many different colors zoomed towards Rock Sentinel Igneous before embedding themselves in his skin, boosting his ATK to 4500.

"However…" Pyotr continued, pulling a card from his hand, "…I am well aware this attack power isn't enough to stop you, so I will activate this, the magic card, Yami no Kakubunretsu!"

In front of Pyotr a holographic image of the magic card appeared, the picture depicting the yellow dragon and demon of the Polymerization Spell Card getting ripped apart as an atom in the center of the picture split in a nuclear explosion of energy.

"The dark version of Fusion!" Akato exclaimed, looking genuinely surprised. "I was not expecting you to carry that card with you!"

"Its effect is as follows!" Pyotr declared, extending his hand towards Akato. "First off, no cards or effects can be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects. Furthermore, it begins by negating the effects of all cards my opponent controls!"

From the image of the card, a wave of darkness swept through the field, weakening Akato's monsters as their flames were nearly extinguished.

"Next…" Pyotr continued, "…after that is successfully done, I am allowed to Dark Fission summon one Dark Fission monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from my side of the field, hand, graveyard, or that are currently banished as the Dark Fission materials!"

"Dark Fission!?" Erika exclaimed, gawking at Pyotr's strange plays. She was aware that there were other Summoning techniques out there, but in all her travels she had never heard of anything like either the Dark Sacrifice or Dark Fission.

"Using my Rock Sentinel Igneous as the base material…" Pyotr continued, "…I next subtract the nine banished Rock Guardian monsters from the base material in order to Dark Fission summon!"

Erika was completely lost at this point. Mouth gaping open in stunned disbelief, she could only watch as Pyotr deposited his Synchro Monster into his graveyard before taking each of the monsters he had banished and shuffling them into his deck face-up. The Spell Card's effects on the field were even more extraordinary. Rock Sentinel Igneous slowly became grey and colorless before melting into a sphere of semi-transparent liquid with a gigantic multi-colored atom nucleus pulsating in the center of the mass of liquid. Materializing next to the sphere of liquid, the ghostly forms of Pyotr's golems slowly descended into the mass of liquid, each of them transforming into pairs of neutrons, which jammed themselves into the nucleus of the atom, increasing the compound's mass and instability. When the last pair of neutrons had jammed themselves into the nucleus of the atom, the atom and sphere of liquid suddenly exploded in a multi-colored nuclear explosion, scattering drops of liquid throughout the battlefield and throwing everyone back from the force of the explosion. Erika braced herself for the impact of the ground, but none came. Instead, suddenly stopping in mid-air, Erika looked around the battlefield with a stunned expression on her face as the droplets of liquid and falling debris suddenly halted in mid-air as if time itself had stopped. Then, without warning, Erika was suddenly pulled back onto her feet as the droplets of colorless liquid suddenly raced forward into the center of the multi-colored mushroom cloud, clustering together to shape themselves into a new monster as Pyotr threw down onto his Duel Disk a multi-colored card that glimmered with colorful lights like it was made of foil. In a manner similar to the soldiers of the Fusion Dimension clamping their hands together when performing a Fusion Chant, Pyotr pressed his hands together, only this time, while his left hand was balled into a fist, his right hand had the palm extended flat against the fist. Placing the fist of his left hand under the palm of his right hand, Pyotr began his summoning chant.

"Valiant Sentinel of flaming rock, imbibe the power of the guardians of stone, burst free from your previous form, and be reborn as a new dark power from the explosion of chaos! DARK FISSION! Become an unconquerable force of destruction and revolution! Level negative eight! Dark Matter Destroyer Golem!"

As the last droplets of liquid attached themselves to the forming monster, an explosion of multi-colored light billowed out from the center of the monster. Slowly gaining color, the monster stepped forward, looking solid and extremely powerful. Dark Matter Destroyer Golem towered over Pyotr's previous Synchro Monster, reaching nearly twice its height as it crackled with black energy and pounded forward with a mighty roar. Its humanoid body was strong and bulky, composed of multiple pitch-black stones, which crackled with black electricity and glowed against the air as if they were ready to explode. A massive black metallic trebuchet was mounted to its back, ready to be loaded with any stones from the monsters body. It's spherical head was bare of any features save for a single white eye that glowed like a spot-light while being encircled by several glowing white marks. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator displayed an ATK of 500.

"Dark Matter Destroyer Golem's effect activates!" Pyotr declared, extending his hand forward. "For each non-base material used in its Dark Fission Summon, it gains five-hundred attack, making it strong enough to destroy you with one blow!"

Erika had no idea what Pyotr was talking about. Still, it must have been a pretty good effect, because Dark Matter Destroyer Golem's ATK suddenly rose to 5000.

"Fortunately for me…" Akato declared, looking upon Pyotr's monster with a look of mixed approval and annoyance, "…Yami no Kakubunretsu's effect only lasts until the Dark Fission Summon is complete, meaning my monsters now regain their effects and I can freely activate cards and effects now."

"That won't work against Dark Matter Destroyer Golem!" Pyotr countered charging forward on his motorcycle with his massive rock monster following close behind. "When Dark Matter Destroyer Golem attacks, my opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step! BATTLE! DARK MATTER DESTROYER GOLEM, DESTROY HIS MIRROR PHANTOM AND THE REST OF HIS LIFE POINTS!"

Throwing back its spherical head as its central eye glowed with intense light, the monster let out a gravelly roar before thundering forward, massive stony hands extended forward like it was ready to grab Akato's monster and pull it into a bone-breaking hug.

"I must say… I'm already impressed." Akato replied as the monster charged forward. "Unfortunately, you made a fatal mistake, disciple! While my Mirror Phantom may have the lowest attack points out of my monsters, it was exactly the wrong monster to attack! Anarchy Agent – Mirror Phantom's continuous effect is applied! If it is attacked, my opponent takes any battle damage from that battle instead of me." Brushing some of his blue hair out of his face, he leered at Pyotr with a demonic expression coming over his features.

Flying forward like a ghost, Mirror Phantom shone its mirrors at Destroyer Golem's face just as Destroyer Golem was about to smash the monster to powder with his stony fists. Shielding his central eye with his hands, Pyotr's monster stumbled backwards, nearly falling over before Mirror Phantom blasted the giant rock monster with two beams of light from its mirrors.

"I'm afraid that's game, disciple." Akato laughed. "So much for you and your dark summoning methods! While they may be powerful, they cannot compete against pure skill!"

"Destroyer Golem has another effect!" Pyotr countered, extending his arms towards his monster, "If Destroyer Golem would be destroyed or I would take damage, I can send one face-up monster from my deck to the graveyard in order to negate that damage! GO! DARK MATTER BARRIER!"

Sending a face-up monster from his deck to the graveyard, Pyotr watched as Dark Matter Destroyer Golem conjured a field of black electrical energy around his stony body, deflecting Mirror Phantom's blast away from himself.

"Furthermore!" Pyotr continued, "Dark Matter Destroyer has another effect! If it battles, then after the battle, I can send any number of face-up monsters from my deck to the graveyard in order to inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points for each monster returned with this effect! I send the remaining eight face-up monsters from my deck to the graveyard in order to inflict four-thousand damage to your Life Points!"

Detaching a massive black boulder from his back, Destroyer Golem began crackling with intense black lightning as it loaded the bolder into the trebuchet on his back before firing the massive projectile at Akato.

"Have you forgotten already?" Akato smirked as the massive projectile flew towards him. "My Anarchy Agent – Mirror Phantom makes it so you take any effect damage, not me."

Momentarily disappearing, Akato's Mirror Phantom suddenly reappeared in front of Akato before stretching out its skeletal hands and creating an ethereal barrier that burned with the heat of magma. On contact with the barrier, the massive boulder bounced back towards Pyotr, who extended his hand towards the projectile in anticipation of it hitting him.

"I did not forget!" he replied. "There was another reason for sending those monsters to the graveyard! I activate Tungsten Shield's effect once more!"

Hopping forward, Tungsten Shield made a massive leap into the air, catching the black stone on his shield and breaking the rock into bits of black powder that sparkled with black electricity as his DEF rose to 5000.

"And what reason would that be?" Akato asked with a bored expression on his face.

"This…" Pyotr replied, slamming another card onto his Duel Disk. "I activate the quick-play magic card, Rock Cycle. By tributing one Rock-Type monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, I can Special Summon three Level two or lower Rock-Type monsters from my hand, deck, or graveyard before immediately using those cards to Synchro Summon or Xyz Summon an appropriate monster, or Fusion Summon a monster using this card's effect!"

Akato's face brightened at the play. "Interesting…" he exclaimed, "…you are willing to destroy one of your strongest monsters just so you can have another shot at beating me!"

Pyotr ignored him as he plucked two cards from his deck before pulling out one card from his graveyard.

"Using Rock Cycle's effect, I special summon the Level two monsters, Mineral Guardian – Iron Fist, Gold Tablet, and Aluminum Whip to my field! Come forth my monsters!"

Exploding into fragments of stone, Dark Matter Destroyer Golem fell to pieces before three new Golems took its place. Standing next to Iron Fist, Gold Tablet was a regal looking golem that looked like it had been carved from pure gold with expert hands. In each of its hands, it held an elegant gold tablet with writing carved on the face of each stone. Next to Gold Tablet, a diminutive feminine golem made of shiny aluminum whipped around a metallic cable made from pure flexible aluminum metal. Extending his hands towards his monsters, Pyotr continued his Battle-Phase.

"I overlay my Level two Mineral Guardian – Iron Fist, Gold Tablet, and Aluminum Whip in order to construct the overlay network!"

"An Xyz Summon, are you joking!" Akato exclaimed, a look of delight spreading over his features. "I must admit Pyotr, I can't yet decide whether you are more entertaining or more annoying to me."

Ignoring him as his three monsters drained into the Xyz Portal in a single stream of blue light from Gold Tablet and two streams of brownish orange light from Iron Fist and Aluminum Whip, Pyotr clamped his hands together and commenced his summoning chant:

"Noble protectors of the earth, stand together in layers of hardened might as you compress to form a new guardian who shall never be broken! XYZ SHOKAN! COME FORTH! RANK TWO! ROCK SENTINEL SEDIMENTARY!

Bursting forth from the Xyz singularity in a blast of multi-colored light, Pyotr's new monster stood proudly on the field as a lone statue of a medieval swordsman with a massive claymore grasped in his two hands. The sword of the monster was composed of multiple layers of differently colored rocks with the bottom flat blade of the sword holding the widest razor-thin layer and the top holding the smallest layer. Its armor was similarly patterned, with several segments cut away to reveal the multiple layers of sediments that had formed the creature. In addition to the multiple rocks that were compressed together to create the monster, The monster's joints were held together with hinges of liquid water, which stretched and dripped on the ground as the monster moved about.

"The effects of each monster used as an Xyz Material in this monster's summon now activate!" Pyotr declared. "In addition to Iron Fist making it unable to be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn, Gold Tablet enables me to draw one card while Aluminum Whip enables me to destroy one Magic or Trap Card on your side of the field for each material used in its summon!" Yanking a card from the top of his deck, he proceeded with his turn.

"Aluminum whip, destroy that face-down card!"

In response, I'll activate the face-down card!" Akato countered. "I activate Anarchy Void! By returning all of my banished Anarchy Agent cards to my graveyard, I can increase my life points by 500 for each card returned. "I return defilement in order to increase my Life Points by five-hundred!"

Eyes and tattoos glowing, Akato smiled as the effects of his trap caused his Life points to rise to 3500.

"That won't save you!" Pyotr countered. "My Rock Sentinel Sedimentary's effect activates! When it is Xyz Summoned, I can attach any number of Level two Rock-Type monsters in my graveyard to my monster as Xyz Materials! Furthermore, Sedimentary's original ATK becomes equal to the number of Xyz Materials attached to itself at the end of this effect's resolution!"

Extending its claymore into the air, Sedimentary roared with delight as the number of its Overlay Units rose to eleven, and its ATK rose to 3300.

"And that's not even the best part." Pyotr continued. "Rock Sentinel Sedimentary's second effect enables me to detach one or more materials from itself in order to increase its attack by three-hundred for each material detached. I will detach eleven materials in order to double its attack!"

Absorbing all eleven Xyz Materials into its claymore, Sedimentary roared as its ATK rose to 6600.

"Battle!" Pyotr roared. "Wipe out his remaining Life Points! Attack Dread Demon!"

Charging forward, the massive stone monster raised its sword into the air, preparing to cleave Akato's snarling monster in two.

"Anarchy Agent Emblem's second effect!" Akato countered. "If an Anarchy Agent monster I control would be destroyed by battle, I can banish this card from my graveyard in order to end your Battle-Phase!"

Just as Sedimentary was about to bring his sword down on Akato's beast, he was suddenly thrown back as a flaming barrier formed around the monster.

Pyotr glared at Akato with a look of contempt on his face.

"I set one card face down." He sighed. "Turn end. It's all up to you Elizaveta! Kick his butt!"

"With pleasure." Elizaveta replied, revving up the engines of her Duel Chaser as she ran circles around Akato and his monsters.

"My turn!" she declared, "Draw!"

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" her Duel Disk declared. "TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

Pulling out a card from her hand, Elizaveta ignored the loss of life points as she continued circling Akato and his monsters. "It's still not nearly as bad as what that girl's gone through, she muttered to herself."

"Let me help her out with that." Pyotr offered, extending his hand to the sky. "I activate Geo Domovoi's effect! Once per turn, I can increase the Life Points of one player by one thousand! I choose the little girl!"

"Thank you brother." Elizaveta grunted as she continued with her turn. "I'm sure she'd appreciate that."

Feeling a sudden warm tingling sensation come over her body, Erika was momentarily startled as her Life Points Suddenly rose to 1500. Looking around, she tried to find the source of the gift, but ended up finding nothing.

Meanwhile, Elizaveta continued with her turn.

"I'll begin by Normal Summoning the Level ten Dark Tuner monster, Dark Tuner Dark Energy Station, using its effect to summon itself without tributing!" she declared, throwing down a card.

Bursting onto the field in a bolt of black lightning, Elizaveta's monster appeared as a massive walking android with a single clear robotic eye in the center of a featureless black humanoid face. Humanoid in appearance, the monster was about ten meters tall, with massive bulky black hands, and large power stations growing out of its back. Crackling with black energy, the monster let loose a storm of black lightning as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of -3000.

"Negative three-thousand attack." Akato mused. "There's either a serious advantage to having that kind of low attack power or a serious design flaw in that card."

"We'll see whose cards are flawed in their design." Elizaveta countered pulling another card from her hand. "Since I control a face-up Thunder-Type monster on my side of the field, I can Special Summon the Level two Thunder-Type monster, Volthummer, from my hand!"

Zipping onto the battlefield, a miniscule hummingbird with feathery wings humming with electricity and clear eyes glowing with electric light, whizzed onto the field before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 500.

"Time to go for the big guns!" Elezavata declared, racing forward with her Volthummer at her side. "I Dark Tune my Level ten Dark Energy Station with my Level two Volthummer in order to Dark Synchro Summon!"

"You people are pulling out all the summoning techniques, aren't you." Akato commented, watching Elizaveta with interest.

Exploding in a blast of black electricity, Dark Energy Station collapsed into a crackling singularity of dark energy before Volthummer zipped into the center of the singularity, fading from existence as Elizaveta began her summoning chant:

"Free flying creature of infinite speed and power, ascend from the infinite darkness of the underworld from which only dark energy exists and strike down my enemies with the speed of lightning! DARK SYNCHRO! COME FORTH! LEVEL NEGATIVE EIGHT! EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO THUNDERBIRD!"

Bursting forth from the crackling singularity of dark lightning, Elizaveta's new monster appeared to the field as a massive white phoenix composed entirely of white and black electricity. Letting out a high-pitched shriek, Elizaveta's monster soared around the field at immense speeds, beatings its massive wings like a hummingbird while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of "?".

"Volthummer and Dark Energy Station's effects each activate!" Elizaveta declared. "First, if it is used as a Dark Synchro Material in a Dark Synchro Summon, I can Special Summon this card from my graveyard!"

Bursting from the ground, Elizaveta's giant robot rose back onto the field, sparkling with immense energy.

"Its effect is now applied!" Elizaveta declared. "While it is face-up on the field, the positive Levels of all my monsters are multiplied by negative one, while the negative attacks of all my monsters are multiplied by negative one!"

Eye glowing with light, Elizaveta's monster raised its fists into the air is its effect changed its Level to -10 and its ATK to 3000. Meanwhile, on Pyotr's field, Tungsten Shield began groaning with pain as his body momentarily turned transparent, revealing two white spheres within that slowly darkened to a black color before Pyotr's monster once again turned opaque and a holographic indicator showed a Level of -2.

"Next…" Elizaveta continued, jumping over a pile of rubble on her bike, "…my Volthummer's effect activates! If it is sent to the graveyard, I can Special Summon one Level four or lower Thunder-Type monster from my deck or graveyard! So come forth, my Level two Dark Tuner Dark Reverse monster, Dark Tuner Minus Surge!"

Materializing from a cluster of black electricity, Dark Tuner Minus Surge appeared next to Elizaveta as a small human-sized robot sheathed in sleek white armor that crackled with black electricity. Its face was a spherical plasma globe that jiggled with streams of purple energy out from its center and into the edges of its glass casing. Holding out a mechanical hand with electrical plug-ins at the end of each finger, the robot hummed with electrical noises as a holographic indicator displayed an ATK of -500 and a Level of two, which each quickly changed to an ATK of 500 and a Level of negative two respectively.

"With this I can finish you off with ease." Elizaveta declared, extending her hand up towards her roaring thunderbird. "Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird's effect makes it so its ATK is equal to the result of subtracting the total levels of all of my monsters from the total Levels of all of your monsters and multiplying the result by three-hundred! Thanks to Dark Energy Station I control the Level negative two Tungsten Shield, Level negative two Minus Surge, Level negative eight Thunderbird, and the Level negative ten Dark Energy Station for a total level of negative twenty-two. Subtract this from the total Levels of your Level nine, eight, seven, and six monster and you get a total Level of fifty-four, which, when multiplied by three-hundred, yields a result of sixteen-thousand two-hundred! More than enough to finish you off."

Barrel rolling through the air, Geo Thunderbird let out a shrill cry as it unleashed a storm of black lightning from its electric feathers and its ATK rose to enormous levels.

"Battle!" Elizaveta declared, "Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird can attack my opponent's Life Points directly! Negative Energy Thunder Storm!"

Soaring thousands of meters into the air in the blink of an eye, Geo Thunderbird came down on Akato like a bolt of lightning, opening its massive beak as if preparing to swallow him whole.

"Anarchy Void's second effect!" Akato declared, "If I would take battle damage, I can banish this card in order to negate that damage and inflict effect damage to your Life Points equal to the damage I would have taken! In addition, any further battle damage I take this turn is halved!"

"Pyotr!" Elizaveta barked, maintaining focus despite being stopped. "Use Tungsten's ability!"

"Tungsten Shield's effect!" Pyotr declared, "I negate the damage and increase its defense by five-hundred!"

Just as Geo Thunderbird was about to make contact with Akato, a flaming barrier formed around him, blasting the massive bird back and sending a wave of fire in Elizaveta, Pyotr, and Erika's direction. Hopping forward, Tungsten Shield caught the wall of fire in his shield before it could touch any of the duelists as his DEF rose to 5500.

"You're good." Elizaveta commented, "But I'm still not done! I next activate my Minus Surge's Dark Reverse effect! By flipping my monster into face-down attack position, I can target one monster on the field and multiply its attack by negative one! Go my monster! Dark Tune Down!"

Flipping down into an image of a face-down card in face-down attack position, an afterimage of Elizaveta's monster briefly appeared before unleashing a blast of black electricity into Akato's Cycle Reaper, throwing the flying grim reaper down and causing the monster to scream in pain as its ATK power fell to an unnaturally low -2900.

"What?" Erika gasped, falling to her knees in helpless confusion. She did not know if Pyotr and Elizaveta were just making things up on the fly or if dueling had really evolved to this point in such a short while, but either way, she had no idea of what was going on. Looking through the archives of her Duel Disk didn't help either. There was absolutely nothing on Dark Sacrifices, Dark Fissions, Dark Tuners, Dark Synchros, or Dark Reverses.

"Battle!" Elizaveta declared zooming towards Akato alongside her giant robot. "Dark Tuner Dark Energy Station, attack his Cycle Reaper! Infinite Negative Surge!"

Forming a massive ball of crackling black energy in its hands, the robot's eye glowed with light before launching the black sphere at Cycle Reaper, who screamed in panic as the lightning ball hit against his body, causing him to writhe in pain before exploding into a burst of flaming sparks.

Feeling the force of the attack, Akato barely managed to stay on his bare feet as the force of the lightning blast slammed against him, reducing his Life Points to 550.

"You're both good…" Akato groaned, barely maintaining a grin on his face as his body crackled with black electricity. "…it's been a very long time since anyone has managed to damage me this much, and you don't just have your number advantage to thank for it! You should be proud of yourself!"

"Save your flattery for later." Elizaveta growled. "I set three cards face down and end my turn."

"In response to that…" Akato groaned, maintain the same half-mad grin on his face, "…I will activate the effect of my Cycle Reaper, Special Summoning itself from the graveyard!"

In a tornado of fire, Akato's monster reappeared to the field, grinning madly like the recent battle never happened.

"Now it's my move…" Akato began, about to draw a card from his hand.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Elizaveta barked, stopping Akato in his tracks.

"How is it…?" Akato suddenly glanced at Erika before letting out a laugh. "…oh… that's right… I almost forgot all about her! Well go on little one! Let's see if you can top what these Earthbound Disciples have displayed!"

Truthfully, Erika had no idea what to do. Her mind had drawn a complete blank after watching all three of the duelists throw down powerful monsters like they were nothing, some of which were summoned using methods she had never even heard of! She felt like a minnow in a sea of rampaging sharks ramming against each other in a fight for dominance. What was even more disturbing to her was the fact that even with all of Elizaveta and Pyotr's power, Akato was still standing before them, threatening to burn them all to death if any of them lost.

Clenching her fists together, a new thought came into her head, strengthening her resolve.

That was right. Akato was still standing, and if he was allowed to stay, he would go after her friends. Lilly, Lucy, Gin… everyone she cared about would be in danger if she didn't stop him now. She had fought against Security when she had been outnumbered, she was not going to give up when a stronger opponent showed up.

"My turn…" Erika groaned, struggling against the pain of her burn wounds, "…DRAW!"

"Geo Domovoi's effect activates!" Pyotr declared. "Let me help you little girl! I increase your Life Points by one-thousand!"

Suddenly feeling her pain fading away, Erika quickly whipped her head upwards to see if she could find the source of the healing power and was astonished to see Pyotr's Geo Domovoi appear above her head before sprinkling some gold dust into her hair and increasing her Life Points to 2500. Winking one of its stony eyes, the monster faded away, leaving Erika with renewed strength and, if possible, growing trust in the Security officers.

"Thank you… Pyotr." She murmured looking at the cards in her hand. Face hardening with determination, she came up with a strategy. She had originally planned to use the monster in her hand to push for an aggressive counter-attack against Security, but now she'd have to use the monster for defensive purposes. Fortunately, the Trap Card she had in her hand would enable her to give both herself and the so-called Earthbound Disciples the support they needed to take Akato down.

"I set one monster and one card face down!" Erika declared, throwing down her two cards. "Turn end!"

Akato snorted at the move. "Well now that that's over with, now is it my turn?" He asked Elizaveta, a mock begging expression coming over his face.

"If you're not ready to run away like a coward." Elizaveta growled, staring down at Akato.

"I'm not the coward who's only willing to fight me with her boyfriend on her side." Akato sneered as he drew a card from his deck.

"Brother!" Pyotr snapped, a look of deep indignation coming over his face.

"Well that makes it much better." Akato dryly replied. "You're much braver for having your brother to protect you than you would be if he were your boyfriend."

"Speaking of protection…" Elizaveta countered, "…I activate my face-down card! Volt Barrier! Furthermore, I chain two Voltsurge to my Voltbarrier!"

Raising an eyebrow after drawing his card, Akato watched as Elizaveta revealed her three face downs. The first depicted Volthummer generating a massive wall of electricity with the beating of its tiny wings while the other two depicted a large electrical wolf howling with fury as its body absorbed a massive surge of electricity.

"Voltsurge's effect enables me to increase the Life Points of one player by the attack of one face-up Thunder-Type monster on my field." Elizaveta explained. "Targeting my fifteen-thousand attack power Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird, I will first increase the Life Points of myself to seventeen-thousand before increasing the Life Points of my brother to seventeen-thousand!"

Crackling with electricity, Geo Thunderbird flew over the two duelists before they and their bikes both began glowing with energy and their Life Points rose to 17,000.

"Furthermore!" Elizaveta continued, "Voltbarrier makes it so you cannot attack with monsters that have less attack power than the Thunder-Type monster I control with the highest attack power. So good luck even touching our life points anymore."

"Thank you for the luck, Elizaveta…" Akato replied, "…but I don't think I'll need it. First, my Anarchy Agent Ritual's effect activates from the graveyard. Since I just drew an Anarchy Agent card for my draw phase, I can reveal that card in order to add Anarchy Agent Ritual from my graveyard to my hand. So here's my Anarchy Agent Terrorism card." he continued, showing them a card depicting an army of Anarchy Agent Bombers suicide bombing a tall skyscraper before adding Anarchy Agent Ritual to his hand. "Next, since I used an Anarchy Agent Ritual monster as Fusion Material during my last turn, my Anarchy Agent Fusion enables me to shuffle itself into my deck during my Standby-Phase in order to draw one card."

Grin widening, he proceeded to shuffle his fusion card into the deck before adding another card from the top of his deck to his growing hand.

"I will now continue my turn by activating the Anarchy Agent Ritual I added to my hand! Watch closely disciples, I don't believe either of you had the pleasure of truly seeing my power in action!"

Craning their heads towards the sky, Pyotr, Elizaveta, and Erika watched as the Double "A" Anarchy Agent Symbol appeared just beneath the glowing white Heron Mark, acting as if it wanted to compete with the mark in its dominance.

"By tributing the Level six Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon…" Akato continued, eyes and marks glowing with energy, "…I can summon another Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon from my deck! Become renewed in the flames my monster!"

As the mark engulfed Dread Demon in its maw, Akato's eyes, marks, and hair began glowing with fiery blue light as he began his summoning chant.

"Agents who inspire fear, burn the resolve of the foolish authority to ashes and rise up as a malevolent burning demon created from pure horror! Gishiki Shokan! Terrorize them! Level six! Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon!"

"Oh no!" Erika nearly wept, remembering what happened last time Akato summoned the monster. While Pyotr braced himself for the attack as he continued racing around the battlefield on his duel chaser, Elizaveta paused as she watched the mark collapse and release the demonic creature. Looking at Akato and noticing his eyes and marks glowing, she scrutinized him with a look of suspicion on her face.

"You wield our same power…" she observed, "…but you are not one of us. What exactly are you?"

Akato laughed, a look of deep arrogance coming over his features as he turned towards Elizaveta.

"I am Akato…" he replied, eyes blazing with demonic blue light as his voice seemed to deepen to supernaturally low levels, "…and I am an agent of chaos!"

Blinking, Elizaveta stared at Akato in disbelief as he turned away from her before extending his hand towards the field.

"My monster's effect now activates!" he roared, "I negate the effects of all cards on my opponent's side of the field in addition to preventing them from activating their face-down cards!"

"What!" Pyotr exclaimed, a look of shock coming over his face. Noticing Dread Demon lunge towards him with a mass of writhing magma tentacles bursting from its back, Pyotr managed to dodge the rampage of the beast as its tentacles shot forward, scorching all of their monsters, Spell, and Trap cards in its coils while draining them of their power.

"Geo Thunderbird!" Elizaveta screamed, rushing to tend to her wounded monster as it fell from the sky in a massive broken heap. Tears almost coming to her eyes, Elizaveta acted as if her own body had been scorched.

"With this, your monsters now fade into weak husks of their former glory." Akato purred as he watched the attack and defense boosts of various monsters rapidly drop. "I'll discard the Anarchy Agent Shadow Encoder I had added to my hand on the previous turn in order to add the Quick-Play Magic Card, Anarchy Armageddon, to my hand. And now that that's done…" he continued, plucking a card from his deck and adding it to his hand before extending his hand to his large indigo Nightmare Beast, "…I can put my Nightmare Beast to good use. You see, this card has a very special effect that enables it to attack each monster my opponent controls once each. So between my Nightmare Beasts and other monsters, expect to receive quite a bit of damage."

Despite the rapid reversal created from Akato's expert plays, Elizaveta, Pyotr, and Erika each bravely braced themselves as Akato prepared his attacks.

"At least you'll go done in a blaze of glory… or was it a blaze of fire?" Akato sarcastically asked, smirking as he extended his hand towards his opponents. "Oh well… we'll find out soon enough. GO MY NIGHTMARE BEAST! SHOW THEM THE FACE OF TRUE HORROR! ANARCHY'S HUNGER!"

Charging forward, the massive indigo beast, opened its gaping jaws immeasurably wide, intent on swallowing Erika's face-down monster whole.

"You're an eyesore to me." Akato yawned. "Destroy that monster!"

Obediently the monster pounced on the face-down card with its two flaming paws, before chomping down with its gaping maw.

"Say goodbye to another… what?" Akato exclaimed, noticing his monster struggle. Rather than chomping down and swallowing the monster like he had expected, Nightmare Beast was shaking his head back and forth, seemingly fighting to keep his flaming jaws closed. Suddenly, bursting forth from his mouth, a beautiful black-haired woman in a white kimono with red flower patterns burst from the monsters mouth, landing in front of Erika before crossing her legs in a meditative position and play on a mandolin as if nothing had happened. The monster was very similar in appearance to Erika's Red Lotus monk. But her kimono covered her arms and legs, and her black hair was decorated with a single white lotus flower.

"My tuner monster, white Lotus Monk cannot be destroyed by battle." Erika explained, wiping some sweat from her brow as Akato's massive flaming monster rubbed its sore mouth with its flaming paws while whimpering in pain.

"Annoying weed." Akato snorted before extending his hand towards his monster. "Oh well, you've spared yourself for now, so I'll just have to turn my attention towards a pair of more interesting opponents. Nightmare Beast, attack Pyotr's Tungsten Shield!"

Opening its squid-like jaws wide and roaring with fury, Nightmare Beast pounced on the tungsten golem as it tried to run away before pinning the monster to the ground blowing fire at it until it finally melted into a puddle of molten rock.

"Nightmare Beast's effect activates!" Akato grinned. "Since it destroyed a monster by battle, it gains two-hundred attack!"

Roaring with savage delight, the flames on Nightmare Beast began burning with greater intensity as its ATK rose to 2700.

"Strip them of their hope!" Akato ordered, "Attack Geo Thunderbird!"

"NO!" Elizaveta roared, helplessly watching as the demonic beast suddenly grew a pair of flaming violet wings before leaping up to Thunderbird and catching the weakened electrical creature by the neck in its powerful jaws. Chomping down on Thunderbird's head, Nightmare Beast blew the monster to a shower of electrical sparks, some of which struck Elizaveta as her Life Points dropped to 14,300 and Nightmare Beast's ATK rose to 2900.

"Rock Sentinel Sedimentary!" Akato ordered, grinning with malicious glee as his monster bounded forward before opening its mouth and melting the defenseless warrior into a puddle of molten rock with a fiery blast from its gullet.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Pyotr screamed in pain and frustration as the flames struck his body, reducing his Life Points to 14,100 as Nightmare Beast's ATK rose to 3100.

"Minus Surge!" Akato ordered next.

Pouncing on the face-down attack position card, Nightmare Beast managed to swallow the little robot whole before turning around and nearly blasting Elizaveta off her bike as it hit her with 3600 Points of damage, knocking her Life Points down to 10,700 while its ATK rose to 3300.

"Power Station!" Akato roared, "Pointing at Elizaveta's last monster, which now had -3000 ATK and a Level of 10.

"DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER!" Pyotr roared, speeding in front of his sister's bike before extending his hand to the sky. "I activate another effect of Geo Domovoi! Once per turn, he can negate one attack!"

Appearing in front of the two siblings as the nightmarish monstrosity charged towards them, Domovoi created a shield of golden energy which sent the beast flying back the second it made contact with the barrier.

"You're only delaying." Akato laughed, pointing to his grinning Cycle Reaper. "Cycle Reaper, destroy Elizaveta's Dark Energy Station!"

Twirling his flaming scythe around at impossible speeds, Cycle Reaper charged forward, laughing with malicious glee as Elizaveta's unnaturally weak monster slowly backed away.

"I said no touching my sister!" Pyotr snarled, throwing a card from his hand onto the field. "I activate the effect of Mineral Guardian – Titanium Wall from my hand! If you select a face-up monster as an attack target, I can Special Summon this card from my hand in face-up attack position. Then, if the original attack target was a monster with a higher level than this card, this card cannot be destroyed by battle! In addition, you cannot select other monsters for attacks other than Titanium wall!"

Bursting from the ground, Pyotr's monster appeared to the field as a titanium golem hefting a large titanium wall in each of its stony hands. Leaping protectively in front of Elizaveta's Level ten monster as a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1000, it swiped away Cycle Reaper with a smack of its wall, but not before Cycle Reaper blasted the monster and Pyotr with a fiery blast from its maw, knocking Pyotr back and reducing his Life Points to 12,200.

"Dread Demon! Mirror Phantom!" Akato roared, marks, eyes, and hair glowing in intensity as his grin widened.

Charging forward, Akato's last two monsters slammed against Titanium Wall, knocking Pyotr's Life Points down to 9800 as he fended off the repeated attacks.

"With that I end my Battle-Phase." Akato snickered, pulling a card from his hand.

"What's so funny?" Pyotr groaned, pulling to a stop to recover from Akato's repeated attacks.

"Oh, just that my Battle-Phase, all things considered, really isn't over." Akato chuckled.

"How's that?" Elizaveta asked, zooming over to tend to her brother.

"This is how." Akato sneered, throwing down his card. "At the end of my Battle-Phase, I activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Anarchy Armageddon! With this card, I first destroy all monsters on the field!"

Appearing above everyone's heads, the double "A" Anarchy Agent symbol reappeared, only this time, it looked even more feral and demonic than before. Roaring with the sound of a thousand nuclear explosions, the symbol burst into a raging inferno, scattering red-hot flames everywhere as every single monster on the field was caught in the blast before getting vaporized into ashes.

This time, Elizaveta and Pyotr didn't manage to stay on their bikes. Gasping in horror, they managed to shield their faces before the force of the blast blew them onto their backs.

Ducking behind a durable rubble pile, which had survived throughout the entire fight, Erika managed to evade the force of the blast, but not without watching her White Lotus Monk scream in agony as she was burned alive.

"Now the effects of Dread Demon and Cycle Reaper both activate!" Akato grinned, licking the burning air with his tongue as he threw back his head and breathed in through his nose. "I Special Summon both of these monsters!"

Appearing to the field once more, Dread Demon and Cycle Reaper each appeared in their own pillars of fire before igniting the flames of their bodies with renewed vigor.

"We are nearly finished!" Akato proclaimed. "We are almost at the grand finale! I activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Anarchy Agent – Empowerment! With this card, I increase the ATK of all Anarchy Agent Monsters I control by the number of Anarchy Agent Monsters in my graveyard times five-hundred! With the monsters Road Monk, Bomber, Shadow Encoder, Ally Marker, Asylum Prisoner, Nightmare Beast, Mirror Phantom, Dread Demon, and Abstract Apotheosis all in my graveyard, that's an Attack increase of four-thousand five-hundred!"

Roaring with delight as the flames of their fires began turning blue as the heat intensified, Cycle Reaper and Dread Demon prepared to pounce. Next to Dread Demon, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 6900 while Cycle Reaper's indicator showed an ATK of 7400.

"Battle…" Akato whispered, barely able to contain his excitement. "…Anarchy Agent – Dread Demon attack Pyotr's Life Points!"

Morphing into massive gorilla-like monster with four arms and two dragon heads, Dread Demon charged forward, knocking Pyotr away from Elizaveta with one swipe of his flaming paw before nearly crushing Pyotr to death as he brought both of his arms down on Pyotr, only barely missing as Pyotr managed to roll safely away, Life Points dropping to 2900.

"Cycle Reaper, attack Elizaveta!" Akato next commanded, the blue hair on his head waving in the air as if it would burst into literal blue flames at any second.

Spinning his Scythe through the air, Cycle Reaper charged forward, nearly slicing Elizaveta in two as she barely managed to back flip away from the flaming blades, ducking behind piles of flimsy rubble as she did. Unleashing a tornado of fire, Cycle Reaper caught Elizaveta in the flames as her Life Points dropped to 3300.

"Now the curtain is about to fall on our little act!" Akato proudly proclaimed, throwing down a face-down. "I banish Anarchy Agent – Empowerment from my graveyard in order to set my banished Anarchy Agent Emblem to my field before setting the last card in my hand face-down and ending my turn."

Grinning with sadistic pleasure, Akato watched as Pyotr and Elizaveta struggled to get up.

"You're already finished." Akato grinned, a knowing expression coming over his face.

"Draw!" Pyotr gasped, before extending his hand to the sky.

"Geo Domovoi…" he commanded, "…protect the little girl. Increase her Life Points by one-thousand."

Mouth opening wide with shock, Erika stood still in stunned disbelief as Pyotr's Earthbound monster appeared once more to boost her Life Points to 3500.

"I've not… given up… yet…" Pyotr continued throwing down a card in his hand. "I activate the magic card… mineral industry… this card enables me to use… Level two Rock-Type monsters in my graveyard… as materials… for a Synchro, Fusion, or Xyz Summon."

"You know…" Akato smugly replied, "…I wasn't conjecturing when I stated you were already finished. I was stating it as fact. I activate my face-down Anarchy Agent Terrorism! With this card, I can negate the activation of your Spell Card and destroy it! Then, I can target one Anarchy Agent monster I control in order to inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to its attack! I choose Anarchy Agent – Cycle Reaper! With this you are finished! Thank you for one of the greatest struggles I have ever had in a long time!" Akato congratulated with a bow. "Truly, this battle shall not soon be forgotten!"

Spinning around in his tornado of blue flame, Cycle Reaper's fire began growing in size and intensity as he ballooned into a massive cyclone that rose infinitely into the sky before speeding towards Pyotr, Elizaveta, and Erika.

"Counter Trap!" Pyotr groaned, extending his hand towards his face down. "If I would take damage I can… I can…" his eyes widened in panic as his Trap Card didn't respond. "Why isn't this working!" he nearly screamed.

"If I target a level eight or higher Fusion Monster with my Trap Card, card effects which negate damage cannot be activated." Akato calmly explained, placing his hands behind his back. "Rest well my brave Earthbound Disciples. I am sending you off the best way I know how. In a blaze of true glory on the battlefield."

"COUNTER TRAP!" Erika suddenly roared from the other end. Whipping his head around, Akato was stunned to see Erika activate her face-down card, he had honestly nearly forgotten about her once again.

Facing against the raging cyclone of fire, Erika revealed her trap, which showed a picture of the fallen Lotus Sword-Master glowing with an aura of red and white light as a cluster of flower petals circled around her.

"Even if we can't negate the damage…" Erika explained, "…we can still survive it with my trap card, Lotus Aura! With this card, I banish every Plant Type monster in my graveyard in order to increase the Life Points of every player by eight-hundred for every card banished! With Lotus Warrior, Lotus Archer, Lotus Huntress, White Lotus Monk, Red Lotus Monk, and Lotus Sword-Master in my graveyard, that's a total increase of forty-eight hundred Life Points!"

"What!" Akato snapped, looking exceedingly miffed as Erika's trap resolved first, creating a massive wall of flower petals that clustered around herself, Elizaveta, and Pyotr as her Life Points rose to 8300, Pyotr's rose to 7700, Elizaveta's rose to 8100, and Akato's rose to 5350.

"MY EFFECT STILL ACTIVATES!" Akato roared, "Your healing will amount to nothing! GO! ETERNAL TERRORIST FLAMES!"

"BRING IT!" Elizaveta challenged running over to Erika to shield her in her arms as the flaming tornado approached.

"Thank you for saving my brother." She whispered in Erika's ear as all three of them were blown back by the force of the tornado.

Slamming against the ground, they barely managed to stay conscious as Erika's Life Points dropped to 900, Pyotr's dropped to 300, and Elizaveta's dropped to 700.

Surveying the battlefield with an angry expression on his face, Akato reviewed the stats of the duel. Face suddenly softening as a look of glee spread over his face, he suddenly threw back his head and began laughing with what sounded like genuine delight.

"THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST DUELS I'VE EVER HAD!" he roared with delight, "Your continual resistance! Your attempts to survive! I've not been holding back, and yet you have not only managed to nearly drive me into a corner, but overcome my best counterattacks! Your master ought to be greatly pleased!"

"Voltwolf effect!" Elizaveta snarled, getting up from the ground and silencing Akato's giddy laughter as he turned his head towards her before assuming a more serious expression. "If one or more players take effect damage, I can Special Summon this card from my hand and its attack becomes equal to the total effect damage inflicted!"

Throwing down her card, Akato shielded his eyes as a glowing wolf pounced onto the Duel Field, sparkling with unbelievably bright electricity as its ATK rose to 22,200.

"Next…" Elizaveta continued, "…since Voltwolf was summoned with its own effect, I can Special Summon a Thunder-Type monster with less attack than its current attack from my deck. So come forth in defense position, Level two, Voltworm!"

Wriggling onto the field, a massive translucent worm slithered forward, body crackling with electricity as a holographic indicator appeared and showed a defense of 900.

"Its effect is as follows…" Elizaveta groaned, "…If effect damage would be inflicted to any player's Life Points, I can negate the damage and instead increase its ATK and DEF by the amount of damage that would have been inflicted. With this… everything is set for our counterattack… once my brother ends his turn."

Akato looked down on the duelists, a smile of deep respect coming over his face. Shrugging his shoulders, he began clapping his hands together in sincere congratulations.

"Well done…" he calmly congratulated, all traces of sarcasm, condescension, and mockery gone from his voice. "…I had been eager to test the might of the new disciples and I have not been disappointed. Truly, this was a splendid duel. So good in fact, that I think I will spare your lives… all your lives." He added, looking down at Erika.

"This isn't over!" Elizaveta growled. "You don't get to walk away after murdering that man and nearly murdering those other people!"

"I have a message for your master if she is listening in on this conversation, which I am sure she is." Akato continued, ignoring Elizaveta. "I share your desire to tear down Roger's regime in this dimension and bring freedom to the people here. I know of your true nature and how you can unlock some of your… hidden powers. If you give me the leeway I demand, I can be a powerful ally in your army."

Erika stared back and forth from Akato to the two disciples, wondering what was going on. Presently, Elizaveta stepped forward, eyes suddenly glowing with white light.

"I don't make deals with murderers." Elizaveta boldly declared in a voice that sounded like two people speaking instead of one. Blinking her eyes as the white glow disappeared, Elizaveta glared at Akato.

"That's her answer." She snapped. "You heard it yourself, and I wholeheartedly agree with her!"

"Another time perhaps." Akato mused, extending his hand towards his last face-down trap.

"I activate my face-down Emblem…" he purred. "… as will be the future of this entire world, the field is now bathed in flames!"

Laughing as a wall of fire rose in front of him, the voice of Akato slowly faded away as Pyotr quickly ended his turn and Elizaveta drew her card.

"Voltwolf!" she ordered, "Attack his…"

Stopping mid-sentence as the flames dissipated, she dropped her Duel Disk to the side and deactivated it. Akato had disappeared.

Deactivating her own Duel Disk, Erika lunged towards Pyotr, grabbing his legs before he could leave.

"Eh?" Pyotr exclaimed as Erika clung to his leg like a toddler. "This is interesting. You were avoiding us like the plague before, and now you seem to think I'm Santa Clause."

"Please!" Erika begged, clinging even tighter to Pyotr's leg. "Tell me your secret! Who are you people!? How did you manage to become so powerful!?"

"We don't have time for that." Elizaveta admonished kneeling down to look into Erika's eyes. "Listen… you are still in danger. We may be able to act like this while the mark is up, but soon we'll be taking it down, and when we do, we will become the Arrest Corps again. You need to be far away somewhere safe when that happens."

"What do you mean!?" Erika exclaimed. "Why do you have to become Security!? Are you on our side!? Why can't you just fight against them now!?"

"We'll be freeing this city when the time is right." Pyotr reassured Erika, tenderly patting her on the back. "But now is not the time. For now, Elizaveta and I have to act like Security in order to infiltrate Roger's regime. But when the time comes, we WILL be freeing you and everyone Security has harmed."

"I can help you!" Erika begged, refusing to let go of Pyotr's leg. "I know things about Roger! I can fight! You saw me in the duel! You would have been defeated without me!"

Pyotr looked up at his sister. "She does have a point."

"But we can't, Pyotr." Elizaveta sighed. "We still have our mission, we have to…" Her head suddenly twitched as her eyes began glowing. "…okay," she replied, acting as if someone was speaking to her, "…listen Erika, I'll soon be speaking with the voice of the one who leads us… Erika…" she began, assuming her more powerful voice that sounded like two people speaking instead of one. "…I am truly proud of you. You are a pure hearted individual with the strength and courage of a lion. I promise to let you join your brethren and sisters in freeing this dimension, but not now. When you see that mark…" she pointed up to the large Heron Mark blazing above the battlefield, "…shining in the sky above the city, then know that it is time to seek me out. My disciples and I will be in full view, bearing the same marks you see now. Until that time comes, I wish you safety, and as a token of my gratitude for your courage, bequeath you with these two cards to serve as your guardians until the time you shall join us."

Holding out her hands, Elizaveta conjured a pair of swirling shadows which coalesced into a pair of cards, which she promptly handed to Erika.

"Earthbound Disciple Geo Giao Long… Earthbound Disciple Geo Konohanasakuya-hime." Erika murmured, staring at the cards in wonder. They were exceedingly beautiful creatures, and holding them in her hands, Erika could tell they were far more than trading cards, far more than even a template for a Solid Vision weapon. They were alive, and they were aware of her, just like Pyotr's Geo Domovoi.

"Go." Elizaveta instructed in her normal voice, eyes returning to normal as she gave Erika a quick hug before watching as Erika ran off with a determined expression on her face.

When Erika had made good distance from them, Pyotr and Elizaveta quickly put their helmets back on before mounting their bikes and riding off into the distance, marks in the air and on their backs vanishing away as they assumed the undesirable role of enforcers of Roger's regime.

From a ruined rooftop, a lone figure in a mask watched them ride away.

"Whoever made you Earthbound Disciples…" she murmured, clenching her fist in fury, "…she's going to pay when I get my hands on her! I will never forgive Security for murdering me!"

And leaping from the building, she began following the riders, a multi-colored spiral mark blazing against her chest as she did.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Erika Havoc / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Lotus / Allegiance: Her friends, leaning towards Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Akato / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Anarchy Agents / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active

Name: Pyotr Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Mineral Guardian / Rock Sentinel / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Elizaveta Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Volt / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Garret Kinsley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Survivor / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Neman Bourne / Original concept by: Maes Lawliet / Deck: Graydle / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Signs of Renewal Special Summoning Mechanics

You've waited a long time for some of these things, and now here they are, the rules and regulations of some new Dark Summoning Techniques in all their glory!

Dark Reverse:

As the antithesis of the Flip summon, this Dark Summoning technique can hardly even be described as a summoning technique, and instead merely a corrupted form of an inherent summoning mechanic already in existence. In a Dark Reverse Summon, a Dark Reverse monster that is already face-up can activate its Dark Reverse effect by flipping itself into face-down attack position. Upon being flipped faced down, the Dark Reverse effect is immediately activated. When being attacked, a face-down attack position monster is flipped back into face-up attack position and damage is calculated normally.

Dark Sacrifice Summoning:

The dark counterpart to tribute summoning. Lava Golem and Monarchs Storm Forth enthusiasts rejoice! This summoning mechanic is for you! While level five or higher monsters require the player to tribute one or more monsters in order to be summoned depending on their level, negative five or lower monsters require a somewhat different summoning mechanic, the Dark Sacrifice Summon. In this summoning technique, the required Dark Sacrifices are first made by dark sacrificing the required number of monsters on the opponent's side of the field before dark sacrificing the required number of monsters on the owner's side of the field. If the required number of dark sacrifices are made, the monster is successfully dark sacrifice summoned to the player's side of the field. Players can either choose to Dark Sacrifice Summon a monster in face-up attack position or face-down attack position. Only one Dark Sacrifice Summon can be performed per turn under normal circumstances, but players can still normal summon, set, or tribute summon a monster if they have performed a Dark Sacrifice Summon.

For Level -5 and -6 monsters, a Dark Sacrifice of one monster on the opponent's field and one monster on the owner's field is required unless otherwise specified by the card text.

For Level -7 and lower monsters, two Dark Sacrifices of monsters on the opponent's field and two monsters on the owner's field are required unless otherwise specified by the card text.

Alternate Dark Sacrifice Summon Techniques:

A player can choose to perform a partial Dark Sacrifice Summon by only Dark Sacrificing the required Dark Sacrifices on the opponent's field. If this is done, the monster is Dark Sacrifice Summoned to the opponent's field.

Alternately, if the opponent does not have the required number of monsters for a Dark Sacrifice Summon, the owner can choose to Dark Sacrifice two monsters they control for a level -5 or -6 monster, or four monsters they control for a level -7 or lower monster.

Dark Fission Summoning:

Like its normal counterpart, the Fusion Summoning technique, Dark Fission, while being an inherent game mechanic, requires a card effect in order for a Dark Fission summon to be initiated. Most Dark Fission Summons are performed with the use of the following Spell Card:

Yami no Kakubunretsu/ Spell/ Normal/ Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects. Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls. (This change lasts until the effects of this card resolve). Dark Fission Summon 1 Dark Fission Monster from your Extra Deck using cards from among the cards on your side of the field, hand, graveyard, or that are currently banished as Dark Fission Materials.

(Yami no Kakubunretsu ruling: Because this card first negates the effects of all cards the opponent controls, it is legal to activate this card while your opponent controls a face-up "Vanity's Emptiness" or similar card.)

Dark Fission Monsters, like Fusion Monsters, start in the Extra Deck. They possess a negative level like Dark Synchro monsters, but this Level is not normally important when determining the materials needed to Special Summon the monster. Instead, the required materials for the Dark Fission Summon are determined using the card text.

Example:

Generic Dark Fission Monster/ DARK/ Level -6/ Generic/ Dark Fission/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ Monster A – (one or more Monster B)

In the example above, the Dark Fission monster requires one copy of "Monster A" and one or more copies of "Monster B" in order to be successfully Dark Fission summoned. Here's where the mechanic begins to diverge from the familiar Fusion Summoning Technique. The first monster listed on the text of the Dark Fission Monster, in this case, "Monster A," is called the "Base Material." Like any normal Fusion Summon, the Base Material is sent to the graveyard unless otherwise specified in the card effect. However, monsters listed after the Base Material, in this case, "one or more Monster B," follow a different procedure when being used as Dark Fission Materials. Unless otherwise stated by the card effect, all Non-Base Dark Fission Materials are either shuffled into the Extra Deck face-down (if they are monsters that start the duel in the Extra Deck,) while all other Non-Base Dark Fission Materials are shuffled into the player's deck face-up. Face-up cards in any player's deck are common knowledge to all players. (I.e. an opponent can see which cards are face up in another player's deck.) In addition, if a face-up card in the deck is drawn, it is added to the hand like normal. (I.e. it is shuffled into the hand while remaining hidden to the opponent.) However, many Dark Fission monsters work to exploit the details of this mechanic.

Example 2:

Earthbound Disciple Geo Changeling/ WIND/ Level -7/ Spellcaster/ Dark Fission/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 0/ 1 Monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck – 1 Fairy-Type monster

If this card is Dark Fission Summoned successfully, you can banish this card's Base Material from your graveyard: This card gains ATK equal to the ATK of that banished card, and if it does, this card gains that card's effects. During either player's turn, you can banish 1 face-up card from your deck: Shuffle this card into the Extra Deck, and if you do, you can add 1 "Yami no Kakubunretsu" from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

For this scenario, we'll say that Player A has a face-up "Fairy Cheer Girl" on his/her side of the field and 1 "Little Fairy" in the graveyard. Player A activates "Yami no Kakubunretsu" in order to Dark Fission Summon the above monster. In this case, "Fairy Cheer Girl" is sent to the graveyard, while "Little Fairy," is shuffled face-up into the deck from the graveyard. Once that is done, "Earthbound Disciple Geo Changeling," is Dark Fission Summoned to the field, and "Yami no Kakubunretsu" resolves before going to the graveyard.

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Security's Extra Deck

Goyo Recruiter/ EARTH/ Level 5/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ This card gains 200 ATK for each "Goyo" monster you control and 300 ATK for each monster you control that is owned by your opponent. Once per turn, you can add 1 "Goyo" or "Jutte" card from any player's deck to your hand. (This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect).

Erika's Monsters

Red Lotus Monk/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1500/ DEF 300/ If this card is Special Summoned by the effect of a Plant-Type monster, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card. (You can only use this effect of "Red Lotus Monk" once per turn). Once per turn, you can activate this effect: Fusion Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field or your hand as Materials.

White Lotus Monk/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Plant/ Tuner/ Effect/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 Level 3 or Lower Plant-Type monster from your hand. Level 3 and Lower Plant-Type monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle with an opponent's attacking monster.

Lotus Warrior/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 900/ During either player's Battle-Phase, if you control no cards, you can Special Summon this card, from your hand. Increase the ATK of all Plant-Type monsters you control by 300 for each Plant-Type Monster you control. If this card is destroyed, by battle or card effect, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from your deck, but destroy that card during the End-Phase of this turn.

Lotus Archer/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 1800/ If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Inflict 300 damage to your opponent's LP for each Plant-Type Monster you control. If this card is destroyed, by battle or card effect, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from your hand, but destroy that card during the End-Phase of this turn.

Lotus Huntress/ EARTH/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1200/ If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Destroy 1 card on your opponent's side of the field. If this card is destroyed, by battle or card effect, you can activate this effect: Add 1 Plant-Type monster from your graveyard to your hand.

Erika's Extra Deck

Lotus Sword-Master/ FIRE/ Level 4/ Plant/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 600/ 2 Plant-Type Monsters

Increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each Plant-Type monster on your side of the field and graveyard. If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 2 Plant-Type Monsters from your graveyard.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Giao Long/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_

Trivia: Giao Long was a Taiwanese Dragon of rain.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Konohanasakuya-hime / _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_

Trivia: Konohanasakuya-hime is a Japanese goddess and symbol of life and rebirth.

Erika's Spells

Flower Arranging Art – Ikebana/ Spell/ Continuous/ Destroy this card if you do not control a face-up Plant-Type monster. You cannot summon monsters except Plant-Type monsters. Once per turn, you can activate one of the following effects:

1\. Target 1 Plant-Type monster you control: Special Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from your hand or graveyard whose Level is equal to the Level of the targeted monster.

2\. Destroy 1 Plant-Type monster you control: Special Summon that Plant-Type monster from your graveyard during the End-Phase of this turn in face-down defense position.

3\. Target any number of Plant-Type monsters you control and declare a level from 1 to 4: Change the Levels of those targets to the declared Level.

Erika's Traps

Lotus Wall/ Trap/ Continuous/ Any effect damage you take is halved. If your opponent declares an attack, the attack target must be the "Lotus" monster you control with the highest ATK. If a Plant-Type monster you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can tribute 1 other Plant-Type monster you control instead.

Lotus Aura/ Trap/ Counter/ Banish all Plant-Type monsters in your graveyard: Increase the LP of each player by 800 for each monster banished. Afterwards, you can target 1 Plant-Type monster you control: Increase the ATK of that monster by the total amount of LP you gained with this effect until the end of the Damage Step of the next battle in which that Target battles.

Legendary Martial Art – Tai Chi/ Trap/ Continuous/ (This card is always treated as a "Ninjitsu" card). Monsters cannot be destroyed by battle once per turn. If two monsters battle, the effects of those monsters are negated, also, the monster with lower original ATK than the monster it is battling gains 1000 ATK until the end of the Damage-Step. If you would take damage, you can destroy this card: Negate the damage, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the damage you would have taken.

Nevan's monsters

Graydle Putty/ WATER/ Level 3/ Aqua/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ During either player's turn, you can discard this card from your hand: Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower "Graydle" monster from your hand or graveyard.

Garret's monsters

Survivor Canine/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1400/ This card gains the effects of each face-up "Survivor" monster you control. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card.

Garret's Spells

Survivor Nest/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ During your opponent's turn, you can reveal this card and 1 "Survivor" monster in your hand: Discard this card, and if you do, Special Summon the revealed "Survivor" monster.

Pyotr's Monsters

Mineral Guardian – Tungsten Shield/ FIRE/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ If any player would take effect damage while this card is in your hand, you can Special Summon this card from your hand: Negate the damage and increase this card's DEF by 500. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects the turn it is summoned this way. Any time a player would take effect damage, you can change that effect to this effect: Increase the DEF of this card by 500. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, you take no damage while that monster is face-up on the field.

Mineral Guardian – Pumice Brush/ FIRE/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 200/ DEF 100/ If you control a Rock-Type monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. You can tribute this card: Special Summon one Level two Rock-Type monster from your deck. (You can only use each of these effects of "Mineral Guardian – Pumice Mallet" once per turn). A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, Special Summon 1 Level 2 Rock-Type monster from your deck.

Mineral Guardian – Magnetite Dagger / EARTH/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 900/ If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon one Level 2 Rock-Type monster from your hand. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, your opponent cannot target any monsters for attacks except that monster.

Mineral Guardian – Quartz Sword / EARTH/ Level 2/ Rock/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1200/ If this card is Special Summoned, Special Summon 1 Level 2 Rock-Type monster from your deck. (You can only use this effect of Mineral Guardian – Quartz Sword once per turn). A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP.

Mineral Guardian – Iron Fist/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 0/ Increase the ATK of this card by 300 for each Rock-Type monster you control. If this card attacks, it is changed to defense position at the end of the Damage-Step. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, once per turn it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.

Mineral Guardian – Beryllium Ring/ FIRE/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 400/ DEF 300/ If a rock-type monster is destroyed by your opponent's attacking monster or an opponent's card effect, you can Special Summon this card, from your hand. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, you can target monsters your opponent controls up to the number of Materials used in that monster's summon: Destroy them.

Mineral Guardian – Aluminum Whip / EARTH/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 400/ If this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 2 Rock-Type monster from your hand. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, you can target Spell/Trap Cards your opponent controls up to the number of Materials used in that monster's summon: Destroy them.

Mineral Guardian – Gold Tablet / WATER/ Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 1100/ You can tribute this card: Draw 1 card. (You can only use this effect of "Mineral Guardian – Gold Tablet" once per turn). A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, draw 1 card.

Mineral Guardian – Titanium Wall / FIRE / Level 2/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ If your opponent selects a face-up monster as an attack target, you can Special Summon this card from your hand in face-up ATK position. Change the attack target to this card, and then, if the original attack target was a monster with a higher level than this card, this card cannot be destroyed by battle, also, your opponent cannot select monsters as attack targets except this card. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned, it is unaffected by your opponent's card effects.

 _Other "Mineral Guardian" monsters used in this duel unrevealed_

Earthbound Construct Geo Domovoi/ EARTH/ Level -6/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If this card is successfully Dark Sacrifice Summoned, banish it. While this card is banished, you can activate one of the following effects once per turn during either player's turn:

1\. Special Summon 1 monster from your graveyard.

2\. Increase the LP of 1 player by 1000.

3\. If a monster declares an attack, you can negate that attack.

Trivia: According to Slavic Folklore, the Domovoi are benevolent house spirits who watch over the families of the homes in which they preside. Ancient Baltic and Slavic peoples kept idols of the Domovoi in their homes in order to obtain protection for their homes and families.

Pyotr's Extra Deck

Rock Sentinel Igneous/ FIRE/ Level 6/ Rock/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK ?/ DEF 2800/ 1 Rock-Type Tuner + 2 or more Rock-Type Non-Tuners

If this card is Synchro Summoned successfully, you can banish any number of Rock-Type monsters from your graveyard: Increase the Level of this card by 1 for each Rock-Type monster banished with this effect. This card's ATK is equal to its Level X 300. If this card destroys a monster by battle, increase the ATK of this card by the Level of that monster in the graveyard. If this card would be destroyed, you can reduce its Level by 3 instead.

Rock Sentinel Sedimentary/ WATER/ Rank 2/ Rock/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK ?/ DEF 2400/ 3 Level 2 Rock-Type monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, you can attach any number of Rock-Type monsters in your graveyard to this card as Xyz Material, and if you do, this card's original ATK becomes Equal to the number of Xyz Materials attached to itself at the end of this effect's resolution X 300. You can detach any number of Xyz Materials from this card: Increase the ATK of this card by 300. If this card destroys a monster by battle, attach that monster and any Xyz Materials attached to that monster to this card as Xyz Materials. If this card would be destroyed, detach 3 Xyz Materials from this card instead.

Dark Matter Destroyer Golem/ DARK/ Level -8/ Rock/ Dark Fission/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 3500/ 1 Rock-Type Xyz, Synchro, or Fusion Monster – 1 or more Rock-Type monsters

Increase the ATK of this card by 500 for each non-base Material used in its Dark Fission Summon. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. If this card battles, you can activate this effect immediately following the battle: Send 1 or more face-up monsters from your deck to the graveyard to inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP for each card sent. If this card would be destroyed or you would take damage, you can send 1 face-up monster from your deck to the graveyard instead.

Pyotr's Spells

Mineral Quarry/ Spell/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can excavate the top 5 cards of your deck: Send all excavated Level 2 or lower Rock-Type monsters to your graveyard and banish all other cards excavated by this effect. (Card effects which activate in the graveyard are not activated at this time. You can only control 1 "Mineral Quarry").

Mineral Industry/ Spell/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can target any number of Level 2 or lower Rock-Type monsters in your graveyard to, immediately after this effect resolves: Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon 1 Rock-Type monster from your Extra Deck using those cards as Materials.

Rock Cycle/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Tribute 1 Rock-Type Monster you control that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck: Special Summon from your hand, deck, or graveyard 3 Level 2 or lower Rock-Type monsters, and if you do, immediately after this effect resolves; Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon 1 Rock-Type monster from your Extra Deck using those cards as Materials.

Yami no Kakubunretsu/ Spell/ Normal/ Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects. Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls. (This change lasts until the effects of this card resolve). Dark Fission Summon 1 Dark Fission Monster from your Extra Deck using cards from among the cards on your side of the field, hand, graveyard, or that are currently banished as Dark Fission Materials.

Pyotr's Traps

 _Unrevealed Counter Trap_

Elizaveta's Monsters

Volthummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Thunder/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 300/ If you control a face-up Thunder-Type monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Thunder-Type monster from your deck or graveyard.

Voltwolf/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Thunder/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1500/ If one or more player's takes effect damage, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, this card's ATK becomes equal to the total damage inflicted. If this card is Special Summoned from your hand, you can Special Summon 1 Thunder-Type monster from your deck whose ATK is lower than the current ATK of this card on the field. (You can only use this effect of "Voltwolf" once per turn

Voltworm/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Thunder/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 900/ If any player takes effect damage, you can negate that damage, and if you do, increase the ATK and DEF of this card by the amount of damage negated. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard, you can Special Summon from your graveyard a number of Thunder-Type monster(s) from your graveyard whose total respective ATK and DEF is equal to or lower than the total respective ATK and DEF that this card had on the field.

Dark Tuner Minus Surge/ DARK/ Level 2/ Thunder/ Dark Tuner/ Dark Reverse/ Effect/ ATK -500/ DEF -1000/ Dark Reverse: Target 1 monster on the field: Multiply the ATK and DEF of that monster by -1. If you control no cards or a Thunder-Type monster, you can Special Summon this card, from your hand. (You can only use this effect of "Dark Tuner Minus Surge" once per turn). Once per turn, you can target 1 monster on the field: Multiply its Level by -1.

Dark Tuner Dark Energy Station/ DARK/ Level 10/ Thunder/ Dark Tuner/ Effect/ ATK -3000/ DEF -2500/ You can Normal Summon this card without tributing. If this card is used as a Material for a Dark Synchro Summon, you can Special Summon this card, and if you do, apply the following effects. Multiply the negative ATK and DEF of all monsters you control by -1, also, multiply the positive Levels of all monsters you control by -1.

Elizaveta's Extra Deck

Earthbound Disciple Geo Thunderbird/ DARK/ Level -8/ Thunder/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK ?/ DEF 0/ 1 or more Thunder-Type monsters – 1 Dark Tuner

When this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can activate this effect: Return all Spell/Trap Cards your opponent controls to the top of the deck in any order desired. This card can attack your opponent's LP directly. This card's ATK is equal to the value of subtracting the total Levels of all monsters you control from the total Levels of all monsters your opponent controls and multiplying the result by 300.

Elizaveta's Traps

Voltsurge/ Trap/ Normal/ Target 1 Thunder-Type monster you control: Increase the LP of 1 player by the ATK of that monster. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the graveyard, you can banish this card from the graveyard: Halve your LP, and if you do, double the ATK of 1 Thunder-Type monster you control.

Voltbarrier/ Trap/ Continuous/ Your opponent cannot attack with monsters who have less ATK than the ATK of the Thunder-Type monster you control with the highest ATK.

Akato's Monsters

Anarchy Agent - Asylum Prisoner/ FIRE/ Level 3/ Psychic/ Ritual/ Effect/ ATK 700/DEF 700  
This card must first be Ritual Summoned with an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Spell Card. You can discard this card: Add 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster from among the cards that are currently banished or in your graveyard to your hand, except for "Anarchy Agent - Asylum Prisoner". If this card is used in the Ritual Summon of an "Anarchy Agent" monster, shuffle 2 "Anarchy Agent" cards from your graveyard into your deck, and if you do, draw 1 card. If this card is used in the Fusion Summon of an "Anarchy Agent" monster, return all of your banished "Anarchy Agent" cards to your graveyard. This card cannot be destroyed in battle.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Bomber/ FIRE/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 1000/ If you would Ritual Summon an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Monster while this card is in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard and use it as one of the monsters needed to be tributed for the Ritual Summon, but banish it when it leaves the field. During the turn this card is sent to your graveyard, if you control a face-up "Anarchy Agent" monster, you can target 1 card your opponent controls: Destroy it.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Road Monk/ FIRE/ Level 3/ Spellcaster/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1200/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, add 1 "Anarchy Agent" card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can activate this effect if you control 1 "Anarchy Agent" card: Draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of "Anarchy Agent - Road Monk" once per turn.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Shadow Encoder/ FIRE/ Level 2/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 500/ You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 "Anarchy Agent" Spell/Trap card from your deck to your hand. You can reveal 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster from your hand: Special Summon this card from the graveyard and make its Level equal to the Level of the revealed monster, but banish this card when it leaves the field. Once per turn, you can increase or decrease the level of an "Anarchy Agent" monster in your hand or field by up to 3.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Ally Marker/ FIRE/ Level 2/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 400  
If you control an "Anarchy Agent" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can draw 1 card, and if that card is an "Anarchy Agent" card, you can draw an additional card. You can only activate this effect of "Anarchy Agent - Alley Marker" once per turn. If this card is sent to the graveyard, target 1 of your banished "Anarchy Agent" monsters, add it to your hand.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Dread Demon/ FIRE/ Level 6/ Fiend/ Ritual/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2200  
This card must first be Ritual Summoned via an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Spell Card. During the turn this monster is Special Summoned, negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls, also, your opponent cannot activate any set cards. (These changes last until the End Phase of this turn). Once per turn, if this card is destroyed, Special Summon this card from the graveyard.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Mirror Phantom/ FIRE/ Level 7/ Zombie/ Ritual/ Effect/ATK 2000/DEF 2000  
Must first be Ritual Summoned with an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Spell card. Cannot be destroyed by battle. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. As long as this card remains face-up on the field, any effect damage you would take is inflicted to your opponent instead. If you would take damage from a battle involving this card, your opponent takes that damage instead.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Abstract Apotheosis/ FIRE/ Level 10/ Pyro/ Ritual/ Effect/ATK 3300/DEF 2600/ This card must first be Ritual Summoned via an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Spell card. When this card is Ritual Summoned, send all cards your opponent controls to the graveyard. Each time a card(s) is sent to any player's graveyard, inflict 500 damage to your opponent. If this card is used in the Fusion Summon of an "Anarchy Agent" monster, during this turn's End Phase, Special Summon this card from the graveyard.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Akato's Extra Deck 

Anarchy Agent - Nightmare Beast/ FIRE/ Level 8/ Beast/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 2500/DEF 2100  
2 Level 4 or lower "Anarchy Agent" Monsters  
This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. Each time this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, this card gains 200 ATK. If this card would be used in the Ritual Summon of an "Anarchy Agent" monster, you can increase or decrease its level by up to 2.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Cycle Reaper/ FIRE/ Level 9/ Zombie/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 2900/ DEF 2200/ 1 "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Monster + 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster  
When this card is Special Summoned, destroy 1 card your opponent controls. (This effect cannot be negated). Once per turn, if this card is in your graveyard because it was destroyed by battle or card effect, or because it was sent there for the Ritual Summon of a monster, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard. You can only control 1 "Anarchy Agent - Cycle Reaper".  
(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Akato's Spells 

Anarchy Agent Robbery/ Spell/ Normal/ Draw 2 cards from your deck, then send 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster from your hand to the graveyard. If you cannot, take 700 damage. (This damage cannot be negated or decreased by a card effect). If you control an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual or Fusion Monster when this card is activated, your opponent sends a card from their hand to the graveyard instead. (You can only activate 1 "Anarchy Agent Robbery" per turn and only once per turn).

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent Fusion/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Fusion Summon 1 "Anarchy Agent" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck by sending from your side of the field or hand to the graveyard and/or by banishing from your graveyard monsters as Fusion Materials. If an "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Monster is used as Fusion Material, during your next Standby Phase, you can shuffle this card from your graveyard into your deck, and if you do, draw 1 card.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent Defilement/ Spell/ Ritual/ This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Monster from your hand, deck, or graveyard. Activate only if the only monsters in your graveyard are "Anarchy Agents". Pay 1000 Life Points: Banish from your graveyard, "Anarchy Agent" monsters, whose total Levels equal the Level of the "Anarchy Agent" Ritual Monster you are attempting to Ritual Summon. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Return 2 of your banished "Anarchy Agent" monsters to your graveyard, and if you do, Fusion Summon 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster from your Extra Deck that can be Fusion Summoned using those cards as materials.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent Ritual/ Spell/ Ritual/ This card can be used to Ritual Summon from your hand or deck, any 1 "Anarchy Agent" monster. You must also tribute "Anarchy Agent" monsters whose total Levels exactly equal the Level of the "Anarchy Agent" monster you are attempting to Ritual Summon. During your Draw Phase, if you drew an "Anarchy Agent" card, except for "Anarchy Agent Ritual", you can reveal that card: Add this card from your graveyard to your hand.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent Battlefield/ Spell/ Field/ During your opponent's End Phase, you can add 1 "Anarchy Agent" card from your deck or graveyard to the top of your deck. Each time an "Anarchy Agent" monster is summoned, this card gains 1 Anarchy Counter. You can destroy this card you control: Draw 1 card. During the turn this card is destroyed, select 1 "Anarchy Agent" Fusion or Ritual Monster in your deck or Extra Deck whose level is equal to or less than that of the number of Anarchy Counters on this card: Special Summon the selected monster, and treat that Special Summon as either a Fusion or Ritual Summon with an "Anarchy Agent" Spell card.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Akato's Traps

Anarchy Agent Terrorism/ Trap/ Counter/ If your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card while you control an "Anarchy Agent" monster, negate the activation of that Spell/Trap Card and destroy it. Then, if you control an "Anarchy Agent" Fusion Monster, target it and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's ATK, and if the targeted monster is Level 8 or higher, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects that would negate this damage.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent Emblem/ Trap/ Normal/ During the turn this card is activated, "Anarchy Agent" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. If an "Anarchy Agent" monster you control would be destroyed by battle, you can banish this card from your graveyard to end the Battle Phase. (You can only activate this effect of "Anarchy Agent Emblem" once per turn). 

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Anarchy Agent - Empowerment/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ During the turn this card is activated, either increase the ATK and DEF of all monster you control by the number of "Anarchy Agent" monster(s) in your graveyard X 500 or decrease the ATK and DEF of all monster your opponent controls by the number of "Anarchy Agent" monster(s) in your graveyard X 500 until the Standby-Phase of your next turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard, set 1 "Anarchy Agent" Spell/Trap card from among the cards in your graveyard or that is currently banished. You can only activate 1 "Anarchy Agent Empowerment" per turn.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Note: The original version of this card increased or decreased ATK and DEF by the total respective ATK and DEF of each Anarchy Agent monster sent to the graveyard during that turn. I nerfed this card slightly from the original. Honestly, the central reason behind the change was because it would have been hard for me to calculate the attack change, adding up the ATK of each of the monsters in my archive in an already VERY complex duel. I hope you don't mind this change or any of the other changes I have made to your VERY cool cards.)


	18. Special Update 5

Signs of Renewal Special Update 5

Hello again everyone. This is mostly just going to be another update and thank-you chapter with a bit of Ruri and Rin backstory. As usual, I am overwhelmed by the vast amount of support and contributions I have received from all of you, the readers. I cannot thank you guys enough for all you give to this series. It is a true delight to write this work for you with the knowledge that you all will find enjoyment from it. Let me make something clear before I go on. I GREATLY appreciate ALL of you for reading, reviewing, liking, following, and contributing to this work. With that said, let's continue to some specific acknowledgements.

(I never get tired of writing these thank-you acknowledgements. You guys really mean that much to me. If, however, any of you get sick and tired of the nearly weekly praise you receive, let me know and I'll stop writing these messages for you.)

AngeLight952: One more chapter, and then you'll see Adeel in action, and you can bet the cards you created will be displayed not too long afterwards. I'm excited to write about this character and his lovable seeing-eye dog companion, Fluffals. Thank you for the very many cards you've contributed. I have some big plans for the VERY creative cards you've contributed, ESPECIALLY Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf. Stay tuned.

CorinnetheAnime: Lydia and Joho are almost here. Just one more chapter, and then the next chapter will feature these two. Stay tuned for their appearance and for some questions I will have for you about a few minor details. I think you'll love the trials and adventures I have planned for the Shiunin siblings and their dear cousin, Satoru.

Epsilon Tarantula: Well, are you satisfied with Akato so far? I sincerely hope the last chapter met your expectations. I had a lot of fun figuring out Akato's plays and the designs for those amazing monsters. I'm pretty sure there are quite a few other fans who have come to love him. So stay tuned! He will be doing a lot more and in not too much time! Take your time with the other characters and their decks. Although we are approaching the time when they will make their appearance, I will give you a heads-up when we reach that point. Stay awesome and don't let your school work stress you out. I appreciate your continued support.

FanOfKings: Kiryu will be returning in just two chapters along with MANY more Phoenix Guard. I wouldn't worry about his first game being a loss. He's still alive, still kicking, and still determined to grow. I have faith that he will rise to become a valiant warrior and defender. Stay tuned and thank you for the amazing character and the amazing cards you have provided.

Ghost83: There are three more scenes for Chapter 11 and then we will have a little excursion into the Xyz Dimension where your character WILL be waiting. Stay tuned and thank you so much for being SO very patient throughout the excruciatingly painful wait.

Greninja: You have been a great and wonderful supporter. I absolutely adore your characters and intend to do them justice. How have you liked what I've done for Gin and Erika so far? Just wait, I have a revelation especially mind-blowingly interesting planned for Erika. So hold on to your seat! Thank you for your many and very detailed contributions. Next chapter will be featuring Lilly Hoshi so stay tuned!

Kaploblast: Two more chapters and then Semal will be appearing along with his brother. He's got an important role to play, especially in regards to a certain Earthbound Disciple who made her appearance last chapter. Thank you very much for your support! Stay tuned.

Kurogane Fang: Fang and Jorq will each be making their appearances very soon. Expect Jorq to have an especially important role in the upcoming war. It has been a true delight to get to know you! Stay tuned for some awesomeness from both your characters!

MaesLawliet: I'm glad you enjoyed Nevan Bourne's appearance, and don't worry. He'll be appearing again and he'll be doing a lot more in the future. Stay tuned and thank you for your contributions!

Nox Descious: Thank you for being a great friend (even if our stories are technically competing with each other!) For those of you readers who haven't already read Nox Descious's "The Ice Queen Cometh," CHECK IT OUT! It's an AMAZING alternate universe story featuring some of the best complex Yu-Gi-Oh antagonists ever, the Barian Emperors, and especially Queen Merag!

Shimmering-Sky: Two more chapters Shimmering-Sky. Two more chapters. Also, I will be reading your story. Stay tuned for a review, and more reviews, and more reviews. (Nox Descious will be able to give you a hint of what's coming. All I'll say is, expect to see a lot of kitty faces.)

Solphage: Next chapter my friend. Next chapter. Stay tuned and thank you for the suggestion. It's given birth to an amazing character who I have BIG plans for!

TheTiger39: GET PUMPED FOR A SHOW FEATURING LOTS OF CUTE AQUATIC MAMMALS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! WHOO! Thank you for your contribution. I appreciate the uniqueness of your character and the GREAT amount of detail you included in your submission! It makes my work so much easier when you do that! Stay awesome my friend and stay tuned!

This next week, I will mostly be working on my other fanfic, "Venom's Quest," so you guys may have to wait upwards of seven… long… agonizing… days… for the next chapter. Just please be gentle when you guys tar and feather me for the delay. All joking aside, A SINCERE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE… for everything you all have done. Writing this story would have been enjoyable just for writing it, but it would not have been nearly as enjoyable were it not for you guys! Everyone stay tuned for MUCH more "Signs of Renewal" in the future.

And now let's move on to the Character Question segment. Once again, everyone is free to submit questions they have to ANY characters featured in "Sings of Renewal." Here's a list of the OC's that have made an appearance thus far (excluding those three Academia soldiers who were dusted by Rin in the second chapter. If any of you REALLY want to ask those three any questions, just let me know and I'll see if I can patch through to them in the underworld):

Name: Yuu Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Presumably active

Name: Pyotr Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Mineral Guardian/Rock Sentinel / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Elizaveta Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Volt / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Garret Kinsley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Survivor/ Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Mita Takeda / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Santiago Guevara / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Formerly Goyo, now unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Baguazhang-style Ninja/Ninjitsu / Allegiance: Her family and friends Lilly, Lucy, and Erika / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Aaron Tarleton (The Dreadroot) / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Satoru Shishido / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Procesystem / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Daichi Ishikuma / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Psychic Ink / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

Name: Friedrich Hoffman / Original concept by: Nox Descious / Deck: Force / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active

Name: Lilly Hoshi / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: none (Synchro Dimension Civilian) / Status: Unknown

Name: Erika Havoc / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Unknown (Last seen evading Security)

Name: Akio Fujimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Six Samurai / Allegiance: The Tami Family / Status: Active

Name: Akato / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Anarchy Agents / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active

Unknown Disciple from the previous chapter / Original concept by: Shimmering-Sky / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active

And now for this week's question from Greninja!

Question: So you are from academia which means fusion dimension and you know how to fusion summon can you synchro summon as well? Also is there anyone else you think is also from another dimension?

Erika: *folds her arms and looks at the ground, nervously tapping her fingers against her sleeves* … I'd rather not talk about my time in Academia. It was… bad. But… yes… I do know how to Synchro Summon. I learned after I… well… after I got away. My friends helped teach me how to Synchro Summon and I've been incorporating the mechanic into my deck ever since. *starts brightening up, letting her arms fall to her side as she becomes more animated* Actually, I had this plan to use a Synchro monster to beat those Security guys. You see, using my Tuner Monster, White Lotus Monk, I was gonna…

 **REDACTED IN ORDER TO AVOID SPOILERS!**

... and that's how I was gonna beat them.

As for people from other dimensions… I came here, so I think it's a given that there are plenty of other people who have crossed over to this dimension. I don't know how many there are, but I know Roger is one of them. I… had a history with him. Nothing I want to go into details about right now though.

Thank you for your question Greninja. If any of you other readers have questions for any other characters appearing in "Signs of Renewal," please feel free to ask them.

And now, onto the short bit of backstory!

Signs of Renewal Special: "Thank You for Your Cooperation."

It had been a long day… a very long day, but now, hopefully, it would all be worth it.

After being subjected to so many more tests and examinations after Daichi's brief interview, Rin fully intended to take advantage of the reward she had received. Sure, Daichi's gift was probably just a way for him to manipulate her into thinking he was her friend, but time with Ruri was time with Ruri, no matter where that time came from.

Once the door to her tower had been securely sealed and Apollo had taken his position to perform his regular guard duties, Rin quickly strolled over to the computer terminal Daichi had described before inserting some of his tokens into the coin slot into the wall. Immediately, the adjacent computer terminal began displaying the number of virtual points in Rin's bank before displaying a set of options: Video Chat, Call Daichi, Make a Request, Games, Review, and Exit.

Pressing the Video Chat button, the computer displayed a dial giving Rin the ability to set the desired time for the Video Chat. Sliding her finger along the screen, Rin set the time to five minutes just to be safe.

Behind Rin, a large holographic projector began displaying an image of Ruri's room directly in front of Rin's bed. Sitting down on her bed, Rin positioned herself in front of the screen before calling out to her friend.

"Ruri! Ruri! Are you there!? It's me… Rin!"

From the back of the room, Rin could hear Ruri's feet padding across the floor of her tower. After a moment, Ruri's head appeared in the corner of the screen before the rest of her stood in front of Rin. It looked like she had just come from the shower. Her clothing had been replaced with some bath robes and her long undone hair was slightly shiny with moisture. Blinking with surprise and confusion, she nervously folded her arms before settling on her bed.

"Rin? What are you doing here?" she asked, voice slightly hoarse. Rin could tell she had had a rough day. Her fingers were nervously twitching and her eyes looked heavy and swollen, like she had recently cried… a lot. Rin didn't know what had happened with her, but she could immediately tell it had been much worse than anything she had suffered that day. The thought made Rin feel guilty.

"They gave me some privileges…" she nervously explained, "…I… I really wanted to speak with you. Uhm… how are you holding up?"

Rin immediately regretted asking the question. It was obvious just how well Ruri was doing. She flinched immediately after Rin asked the question and looked away, eyes closing as if tears would begin flowing out.

Folding her arms even more tightly together, Ruri eventually turned to her friend, an angry expression on her face, before snapping, "Why did they give you privileges!? What did you do for them!?"

Rin was shocked by the accusatory tone in Ruri's voice. She hadn't exactly expected the video chat to be casual friendly fun times, but she had at least hoped that she would be able to brighten Ruri's spirits a little, maybe offer her some hope and comfort… maybe receive some hope and comfort from her. The last thing she expected was an interrogation.

"Look, I did some tests!" she snapped back, voice sharper than what she had intended. She rubbed her hands together. "I… I was just asked to duel this person…"

"Daichi!?" Ruri snarled, looking even more inexplicably enraged.

"WHAT DOES IT MATTER!?" Rin hollered, eyes and mouth gaping open with shock as she stared back at her counterpart. "I just did a quick duel with that guy and hardly even spoke to him! It's not like I was revealing any sensitive information! I just… I just… I thought you would be happy to see me again!"

"DON'T YOU GET IT!?" Ruri roared back, slamming her fists against her bed, "HE'S USING YOU, RIN! DO YOU HONESTLY THINK DAICHI CARES ABOUT YOU!? DID YOU THINK HE GAVE YOU THOSE STUPID… THOSE STUPID… THOSE TOKENS BECAUSE HE'S NICE!?"

"I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" Rin snarled back, face turning red. This was not going at all how she had hoped it would.

"THEN WHY DID YOU TAKE THEM!?" Ruri screamed back, fear, pain, anger, and sorrow twisting her features. "CAN'T YOU SEE THIS IS JUST ANOTHER ONE OF DAICHI'S SICK SCHEMES TO GET US TO… TO… TO REVEAL SOMETHING ABOUT OURSEVES!? HE'S RECORDING THIS THING RIGHT NOW, AND YOU'RE HELPING HIM GATHER THE INFORMATION!"

"I'm not…" Rin protested, balling up her own fists with rage and shock, "…I'm not helping him… I'm trying to help you!?"

"THEN WHY WOULD YOU…" Ruri suddenly stopped, clamping her mouth shut as tears rolled down her cheeks. Evidently she had almost said something she REALLY didn't want to.

This time it was Rin's turn to take the offensive.

"GO AHEAD!" she snarled. "SAY IT! WHY WOULD I DO WHAT!? TELL ME!?"

"Forget…"

"TELL ME!?" Rin insisted, throwing a pillow through the holographic image of Ruri.

"Why would you betray me!?" Ruri moaned, head falling into her hands as her body convulsed with weeping.

Rin couldn't believe what Ruri had just said. How could she think that!? How could she think she would ever betray her!? Did she honestly think she was cozying up to Academia so she could receive some cushy privileges from them? Had she forgotten how she had stood up for her not too long after arriving at Academia?

Another question formed in her mind. Could Ruri be at all justified? Had Rin really sold them out?

Squeezing her eyes shut to hold back the tears, Rin leaped off her bed and ran to the computer terminal.

"I thought we could be together again." She called back to Ruri, struggling to keep her voice from sobbing, "I thought I could… help you… give you support… that you'd be happy to see me…" she clenched her fists together. "…my mistake!" she snarled, reaching over to end the call.

"WAIT!" Ruri hollered, frantically reaching out her holographic hand.

Rin's finger stopped, finger inches over the command to end the recording. For a few moments she just hovered there, wondering if she should really go back, or just teach Ruri a lesson and end the call, which, just a few seconds ago she had insisted was bad for both of them.

Rin was about to go with the latter option, when she made the mistake of looking back at Ruri. Ruri was in pain… so much pain. Looking into her face, Rin still didn't know what had happened to her, but she could tell that whatever it was, whether or not the call was being recorded for Academia's analysis, Ruri needed her now more than ever.

Rin slowly walked back to her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. How could she have been so selfish? Pushing back all the ugly enraged thoughts, Rin could see what was really going on. Ruri had been here longer than she had, and she knew Academia's methods better than she did. It may not have been tactful, but Ruri was trying to protect her.

And why should Rin expect her to be tactful after all she had been through. Rin had only been in Academia a few days, but the stress was already wearing on her. She had already lost weight, she had struggled sleeping, and she could hardly eat anything without feeling sick. Of course Ruri would have been upset to see Academia trying to cut open her mind and farm information from her like a surgeon with a cadaver. Ruri was not the enemy. Right now she was her friend. Scared, on edge, maybe a little unjustified in her accusations, but she was still her friend.

For a few moments they both stared at each other, eyes shimmering as they both shed a torrent of tears.

Finally, both of them blurted out in unison, "I'M SORRY! I…"

They both stopped.

"You don't have to be sorry!" Rin insisted, vigorously shaking her head. "You were right. I was being…"

"NO!" Ruri denied, shaking her head. "Everything I said… it was wrong. I shouldn't have said that! I know you'd never do anything like that! You've been one of the greatest friends I've ever met! I was just scared! I've been through… I've been through a lot…"

"You were right though!" Rin replied. "I shouldn't have done that! I shouldn't be helping Academia out! You were just trying to protect me! You were right! If I ever see Daichi again, I swear, I'm gonna throw all those stupid tokens in his face and not do ANYTHING he says! I promise you I'm not gonna betray you anymore!"

"Wait!" Ruri insisted, looking nervously around the room. With a subtle gesture of her eyes, she looked at Rin as if to say, "Listen to what I'm about to say. I think I have a plan."

"You… you should do what Daichi says." Ruri mumbled, nervously tugging at her hair.

"Wha-…" Rin began, shocked to hear those words from Ruri.

"Just listen!" Ruri insisted. "I… I resisted Daichi, and now… and now I regret it. I… I don't want you to go through the same things I've gone through."

"What did they do to you!?" Rin growled, cracking her knuckles.

"Just… just do as Daichi says… alright…" Ruri insisted, ignoring the question, "…I just… I just want what's best… for us."

"I'M NOT GOING TO SIT AROUND AND LET THEM TREAT ME LIKE PRINCESS WHILE THEY TORTURE YOU!" Rin roared, getting up from her bed. "Good lord I deserved for you to yell at me! I deserve to be yelled at a whole lot more! I've been an idiot! An absolute and complete idiot! I don't care what happens to me anymore! I swear to you, with my dying breath, I am gonna fight them and I am gonna break us out of here! I'm not gonna let you stay another minute here!"

"No!" Ruri protested, gesturing for Rin to calm down. "Just listen!"

"You don't have to apologize, Ruri!" Rin insisted, "And you don't have to protect me! You've got it all backwards! I should've been the one to protect you! I promise you! I promise you… I'm gonna…"

"No, please, listen!" Ruri repeated, eyes widening with urgency.

There the look was again, insisting that Ruri had figured something out. Realizing that there must have been more to what Ruri was saying, Rin quieted down and settled on her bed, listening intently to her friend.

Ruri nervously swallowed before continuing.

"I… I think it would be good for us if we interacted more." She explained. "I really want to talk with you more, and… and if you don't do what Daichi tells you to do then… then… then I might not… see you… anytime soon… again."

The gears in Rin's brain were turning. Finally, she understood what Ruri was saying. If she just went with her instincts and fought against her captors like a mother grizzly bear, she would just receive whatever treatment Ruri had received. She'd lose, and she'd be forbidden from speaking with Ruri ever again. But if she at least acted compliant, then she could use Daichi's system to her advantage. She and Ruri could do more than just chat with each other about idle topics. With the right planning, they could find ways to communicate other messages to each other. And if they could do that… they might just find a way to escape.

Looking into her Rin's face, Rin nodded her head, communicating to her counterpart that she understood her hidden message.

"You're right." She replied. "I… I really do want to be with you more. I think it would be good for us."

The spent the rest of the allotted time laying on their beds, chit-chatting about irrelevant things, though carefully omitting any details about their life before Academia, or any other items of personal info. When the recording ended and displayed the option of inserting more tokens for more time, Rin turned off the computer terminal and changed into her nightgown before going to bed, resolving to do whatever it took to secure more time with Ruri.

…

"Twenty-five points for filling out the questionnaire." Daichi congratulated with a smile, handing a stack of tokens to Rin, who nodded her head in gratitude before depositing them into her purse.

"I must say…" Daichi went on, shuffling his deck in preparation for another duel, "…you seem remarkably relaxed today. How did things go with Ruri?"

"It was nice." Rin replied vaguely, zipping up her purse before shuffling her own deck and drawing her opening her hand. "Actually… I… I was thinking about what you said to me before… about other prizes. I have a request I'd like to submit."

Daichi looked exceedingly pleased. "Name it!" he enthusiastically encouraged before slipping Rin another five point token for good measure.

Rin carefully exhaled through her mouth. "I want more than just a video chat. I was thinking, if I got enough points then we could hang out together in person over in the Academia gardens."

Daichi nodded his head in approval, adjusting his glasses as he wrote a note on his notepad.

"An excellent request!" Daichi congratulated, tossing another coin to Rin before Rin began her turn. "Thank you Rin. Thank you for your cooperation."


	19. EMERGENCY UPDATE!

UTTERLY IMPORTANT AND URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hello again my dearly beloved readers. I was not expecting this to happen or to be writing another update chapter so soon. Before I go on, don't worry, it's not bad news I bear, quite the opposite in fact, but this is going to likely bring about a change in my schedule regarding "Signs of Renewal" and my other fanfictions.

I have recently been given an utterly miraculous opportunity. Those of you who have read my profile page know that I am LDS (Latter Day Saint, not Leo Duel School) so I wish to take a moment to thank my Eternal Heavenly Father for the limitless goodness He has shown me. I thank Him from the bottom of my heart for His blessings and this true unadulterated miracle in my life.

I have recently been given the opportunity to become an English teacher for the Ute Tribe in Ft. Duchesne. If I am accepted into the program, it will mean that I will have a full-time job on top of my college education. It still utterly blows my mind that a lowly fanfic-writing dork like me would even be considered for this opportunity. While I cannot express what an immense blessing this is, I understand that you, my readers, may have to deal with some changes regarding the release time of new content.

I do not wish to slow down in my writing, but it would be ludicrous to think that my having a full-time job would do anything but slow down progress, and it would be ludicrously irresponsible for me to prioritize fan fiction over teaching. However, I believe you, my readers, and I can work together to keep "Signs of Renewal" chugging along with new content being released (hopefully a minimum of 1-2 chapters every month.)

I am opening up to the idea of Co-Writers. In particular, I am interested in people with skills writing duels. While I absolutely enjoy writing duels, this is one of the most time-consuming aspects of writing "Signs of Renewal." This is where you, my readers, can come in. Co-Writers I choose will be given the opportunity to craft certain duels between characters, and possibly, if it is absolutely necessary, provide suggestions for future plot details, character development arcs, etc. Another area where Co-Writers would GREATLY help would be in the area of helping to archive and develop OC characters and decks submitted by the fans. This is another aspect of the fanfic that is greatly time consuming. I enjoy every bit of the time, but if I can delegate the responsibility of say, creating some new fan-archetypes for an OC character, that would greatly alleviate some of the workload I face.

So how does one become a co-writer? I'm not too formal. I don't need people to stop by for an interview or answer a questionnaire, however, I am looking for people who have some experience writing fan fiction, particularly Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction. Currently, I am thinking of partnering with Corinnetheanime, Nox Descious, and/or Shimmering Sky, all of whom are wonderful authors who have written beautiful fan fiction you all should check out. If any of you wish to assist me in this work, please just send me a PM listing your strengths, weaknesses, and what you'd be willing to do as a co-writer. If I am unfamiliar with you, I will check out your profile page and give you a look-over to see if you meet the qualifications I expect (i.e. have written at least one fan fiction, and bonus, have written any number of Yu-Gi-Oh related fan fiction.) Please understand that unlike the OC submissions, I cannot and will not be accepting everyone's request. I may be able to delegate a lot of work to different people, but it would be unrealistic to have five people writing their own version of a duel between two characters. (Teamwork between two co-authors would be greatly appreciated, but I would need to receive just one version of the final product, not two versions from two co-authors.)

UPDATE! WE OFFICIALLY HAVE OUR THREE CO-WRITERS! EVERYBODY GIVE A WARM WELCOME AND YOUR PRAISE TO THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE "SIGNS OF RENEWAL" TEAM!

OFFICIAL "SOR" STORY EDITOR: CORINNETHEANIME

OFFICIAL "SOR" DECK CREATOR: EPSILON TARANTULA

OFFICIAL "SOR" DUEL CREATOR: NOX DESCIOUS

EVERYBODY GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR SUPPORT! YOU WILL BE SEEING THERE WORK VERY SOON!

Thank you everyone for your continued support. It is a true delight and honor to get to know all of you and write for your enjoyment. This is NOT an announcement that "Signs of Renewal" is dying. On the contrary, I think this will be a great opportunity to give this series just as much, if not more, diversity, variety, and flavor as all of your wonderful OCs have already given this series. I look forward to hearing back from all of you. Until then, in order to comply with community guidelines, please enjoy this short bonus content for "Signs of Renewal."

Signs of Renewal Bonus Content: Automated Replacements

"You want to make sure Shun does not win his match against Crow?" a voice on the intercom asked.

"Correct." Roger replied in the affirmative. "I have need of Ruri's brother if my plan is to succeed. I don't care what you have to do to make sure he is defeated. Redirect lanes, sabotage his bike, tear up his tires, hack his Duel Disk, but make sure he loses and that you bring him to me alive and… relatively unharmed."

"Affirmative sir." The voice on the other end replied. "I should be able to easily pull it off without the least suspicion of sabotage arising from the public."

"See that it's done." Roger ordered, wiping some sweat from his brow before pushing another button on his computer. On the screen, an image of an officer driving one of Security's Mobile Infantry Barracks and Riot Suppressor, or MIBARS, appeared.

"Report!" Roger ordered, "When can I expect Yuya to be here?"

"There was an explosion in sector IL-135." The officer apologized. "Three officers were caught in the blast. One has been killed, two are headed to the hospital with critical injuries. Unfortunately, the area has been roped off so we've had to take a detour."

"Stupid Security officers!" Roger thought to himself. "If his necessary brain control didn't make them into shambling incompetent zombies, then trusting in their human skills would make them rebel against him. It was a no-win situation, and yet, he had absolutely nothing he could replace them with!"

"You have five minutes to be here." Roger snarled. "I don't care how many miles you have to drive over the speed limit, I don't care what pedestrians you have to run over, just bring that boy over here before one of the Dark Signers intercepts you!"

"Confirmed." The officer replied, flooring the gas pedal of his vehicle.

Roger quickly ended the call and proceeded with the rest of his work. It was maddening how fast he had to keep switching from task to task just to keep things in order. He had never been a man to consider taking a break when there was work to be done, but if he managed to keep the Synchro dimension intact after the day was through, he seriously considered the possibility of leaving the dimension in the hands of one of his subordinates and taking a brief vacation.

That was of course, assuming any of his subordinates were worth anything! Much less capable of managing the city in his absence.

"Get me Sergey's therapist on the line!" Roger barked to one of his subordinates, who began quickly dialing up the man's number while Roger scrolled through some information regarding Rin. Despite their incompetence, his staff had managed to dig up some interesting details on Rin's past. In addition to the info they had uncovered on her orphanage, which was soon to receive a well overdue visit from Security, they had uncovered another detail that had left Roger in even greater spirits. Apparently, Rin and a participant in the Friendship Cup, Yugo, had grown up in the same orphanage together. Doing some extra digging, it looked like the two had become close friends. It seemed an act of divine providence that Yugo should be participating in the Friendship Cup, exactly where Roger had absolute power over the boy's fate.

"Chief!" the therapist's voice called from Roger's computer screen. Looking up, Roger noticed his therapist standing in front of the screen. Behind the man, a team of surgeons and engineers were working behind a curtain on what Roger was certain must have been Sergey.

"Report." Roger sternly ordered.

The therapist actually seemed to be relieved. "Things are going well sir." The therapist explained. The integration of the card's dark energy was a success! Better than a success! We've not only been able to keep Sergey alive and functioning throughout the modification process with the energy, but I've been able to use his ace monster's energy in order to power some extremely versatile pieces of bio cybernetic augmentations. We are right on schedule and we should have Sergey functioning beyond your specifications! If I am right, by the time we are finished, Sergey will be able to lift approximately one-hundred times his own body weight, or about twenty tons, run at speeds of over one-hundred and twenty miles per hour, and withstand the impact of-…"

"Good." Roger curtly replied, cutting off the therapist's ranting. "I need you to prepare three operating tables for some special guests who will be arriving at my headquarters later today. By next morning, I will need each of them to receive the same type of brain surgery Sergey received."

Any confidence the therapist had seemed to vanish away. "Y-yes sir." He nervously replied. "A-anything else?"

"Back to work doctor." Roger ordered. "You'd better make sure you maintain your current progress or, and let me be literal with this statement, there WILL be Hell to pay!"

Cutting the feed to the therapist's operating room, Roger next turned his attention to his engineer.

"Engineer, report!" Roger barked, when the Engineer's lab had shown up. However, instead of the engineer dutifully rushing up to give his report, something even more interesting caught Roger's attention.

The engineer was at one of his computers, furiously typing commands into the screen along with a team of other workers. In the center of the room, behind a massive wall of reinforced glass, a duel was in progress between a team of what looked like three humanoid androids and a smaller machine that was little more than a Duel Disk with an arm. While the five androids each controlled one copy of Ally of Justice Catastor, and one copy of Ally of Justice Decisive Armor, the Duel Disk controlled a single shadowy monster that towered over the other monsters while seemingly flickering in and out of existence.

"Attack!" the engineer ordered, "Contain Sergey's monster!"

"We can't!" one of the scientists panicked. "It's not responding to any of the machine's orders, and none of our monsters have managed to dent it!"

"I'm not accepting that excuse!" the rotund little man barked. "Alternate your strategies any way you have to, but make sure you-…"

The rest of the man's sentence was cut off as the monster suddenly flashed forward before tearing all the Ally of Justice monsters apart and immediately smashing to pieces each of the monster's robotic controllers.

"It's rebelling again!" a scientist panicked, furiously typing away at her computer.

With a mighty roar, the massive monster began beating at the glass with its colossal paws, sending tremors through the entire lab as it fought against its prison.

"SHUT IT DOWN!" the engineer ordered. "PURGE THE CHAMBER!"

"Confirmed!" one of the scientists acknowledged, slamming down on a red button.

Immediately, the entire glass chamber was flooded by a wall of raging hot flames that blew up from the ground like the engine of a rocket. When the flames died away, every bit of metal from the robots was completely gone along with everything else, save for a single lone black card, which floated back onto the ground, eerily looking like it had been completely undamaged by the flames.

As Roger thoughtfully looked on the scene, the Engineer quickly waddled up to the camera before nervously looking into it and addressing Roger.

"We… we… we are making… some progress, chief." He nervously explained. "Uhm… though we haven't managed to tame that creature to a level in which it is safe to use, we have, as you can see, found a safe way to test the card."

"You'd better hope you're making good progress…" Roger warned, "…I still need it usable by tonight."

"Understood sir." The engineer nodded, sweat pouring from his brow. "I'll get right back to work."

"What were those androids I saw?" Roger asked, a look of growing interest coming over his features.

"Oh… well…" the Engineer looked relieved, as if he was eager to share the info with the Chief of Security. "…you see… after you gave the order to draw energy from Sergey's ace monster, I am happy to report that the extraction process was a success. The energy that card emits is… beyond my scientific understanding, and yet, it has enabled my work to advance at ten times the rate! Among other things, especially Sergey's augmentations, it has provided a uniquely powerful energy source for an old project that had been mothballed for some time due to a lack of funding. But with this power source, I've been able to successfully resurrect an old project to create artificially-intelligent self-powered robotic Security androids and put them to work testing the Ace Monster without the need of risking human lives."

"Tell me about these… androids." Roger pressed. "How good are they?"

"Oh well…" the man began, "…back when the project, the G.H.O.S.T. project, short for Government Hierarchy Operated Special Teams, was first proposed, it was an initiative designed in order to create an artificially intelligent Security entity capable of gradually replacing the then unreliable teams of human Security enforcers. The G.H.O.S.T. drones are designed to analyze duels on multi-dimensional levels and adapt to any emergency situation they are confronted with without the drawbacks of human emotion, fatigue, etc. Theoretically, though it hasn't been extensively tested, one G.H.O.S.T. drone is capable of outperforming twenty well-trained Security officers. A standard team of three to five G.H.O.S.T.s would be capable of suppressing an entire mob without even one casualty. As I said before, the project was abandoned about a decade ago due to lack of funds and effective technology, especially in regards to an effective power source, but now with the energy from Sergey's card, that problem has been alleviated, and now I have been able to create just the sort of efficient machines the Executive Council first conceived of. Naturally, I thought they would be perfect for performing the task of subduing Sergey's ace monster."

"How many have you built?" Roger interrogated, the excitement in his voice rising despite his efforts to contain it.

"Well…" the Engineer hesitated, "…there are about five that are ready for service at the moment with about another dozen in production, but… well… one of the reasons I've been confining them to the task of taming Sergey's monster is because… I wouldn't say they are entirely ready… for official field work that is."

"What do you mean, you wouldn't say they are entirely ready?" Roger snapped, annoyed by the Engineer's waffling.

"Well… uhm… I'd need to run some more tests and…"

"Then let's test them." Roger ordered. "Dispatch the active ones to the field immediately. I believe I have a more important use for them if what you advertised about their capabilities is true. In the meantime, send orders to our production teams to halt work on the MIBARS and switch production to G.H.O.S.T. drones. Once any drone is complete, immediately dispatch it to the field to assist in the protection of the city. I could use some competent subordinates under my command for a change."

"Uhm…" the engineer began sweating even more vigorously, "…w-what about Sergey's ace monster? May I have some drones to continue research? I-I will need them to duel the creature."

"What's wrong with your staff?" Roger snapped, growing annoyed.

"Well… I-I can't use them! They'll get killed!"

"I suggest you use whatever man power you have." Roger coldly replied. "And for the sake of your wife and children, I would hope any human casualties that accumulate do not hinder your progress. Otherwise, I might have to arrange a special bring-your-family-to-work-day just for you. Understood?"

The man's face blanched with horror. Eyes bugging out of his sockets, he simply nodded his head, unable to even speak.

"Glad we have an understanding." Roger smiled. "Recalibrate the drones to the defense of this city. I do not want to hear you've wasted another of these investments on Sergey's monster. People are much cheaper than equipment and much more easily replaced, including you."

Leaving the engineer to gape at the screen like a fish dropped on the grill, Roger quickly shut down the feed before returning to his work.

"Whatever the cost…" he muttered to himself, "…WHATEVER THE COST! I will NOT let you have this city, Dark Signers! I would sooner destroy it than watch it fall into the hands of someone else!"


	20. Special Update 6

Signs of Renewal Update 6

Another week another update everyone. Before anyone panics, the next chapter is being worked on as you read this. For those of you who didn't get a chance to see the news announced in the last update chapter, here are the new members of the "Signs of Renewal," team who have volunteered to work as co-writers!

Official Editor-in-Chief: Corinnetheanime

Official Deck Designer: Epsilon Tarantula

Official Duel Choreographer: Nox Descious

Everybody PLEASE give a round of applause and thanks to each of these Fanfic authors. They are ALL very skilled writers and I HIGHLY recommend their fanfiction.

And now, at the risk of being repetitive, let's move on to the thank-you section of this chapter.

AngeLight952: I still need to get one more chapter done before Adeel. Thank you for your patience and don't worry, I have big plans for your deck and the character. Stay tuned.

CorinnetheAnime: First, such a big hug and thank-you for being willing to act as an editor for this story. You have been a wonderful friend to me very near the beginning of my time as a fanfic writer. I am happy to report that I have already created a LOT of thrilling match-ups for both Lydia and Joho as well as very important events for their development. Thank you for directing me to that drawing and for providing all those details on their characters. It helps a lot. Stay tuned. They're coming.

Epsilon Tarantula: Thank you very much for your work. Thanks to you, I have been able to get started on the next chapter's duel. You're a great friend and I can't wait to read your fanfic when it comes out. Stay awesome and stay tuned for the appearances of more of your characters and cards.

FanOfKings: Thanks for the upgrade to Kiryu's deck. You can bet Kiryu will be using that card in a moment of character development. He will need it when facing the challenges that will be coming along. Stay tuned for his reappearance!

Ghost83: This update is for you. Let's stop the wait and introduce everyone to your character.

Greninja: I have indeed archived Shin and WILL be including her in the story. Don't worry about that, but DO feel free to send me more of those details on her. The more I have the better! Stay tuned my friend! I promise to do ALL of your characters justice, or my profile name isn't literally Spanish for Sir Justice!

Kaploblast: I can't wait to show Natsumi and Semal together! Trust me, both you and Shimmering-Sky. Once you see these person's decks you will know that they were MADE for each other WITHOUT you two even knowing it!

Kurogane Fang: I have some very thrilling duels planned for Jorq and a moment of awesomeness planned for Fang in an upcoming chapter. Stay tuned for both of them.

Maes Lawliet: Nevan will be returning with Garret. Police work is never done, especially under Roger's regime.

Nox Descious: Thank you very much for volunteering. I haven't had to request anything from you yet, but there will be a few upcoming chapters which will need to feature A LOT of tiny duels, so expect some orders to come in soon. Also, I look forward with great eagerness to new content for BOTH your stories.

Shimmering-Sky: Maybe I really am just as cruel as Yuri, but I regret to say that I STILL need to finish the next chapter before I write ALL about Natsumi. BUT BELIEVE ME! When I do write about Natsumi, I will be writing about her, and writing about her, and writing about her, and involving her, and developing her, and exploring her past, and exploring her character, and shipping her, and evolving her, and, and, and, AND! So yes, I am EAGER to write about Natsumi and all her eccentricities. Thank you very much for directing me to "Code-V: Rebirth." It was quite helpful AND an excellent read. I await eagerly the next chapter and highly recommend this cross-over fanfiction to ALL you readers. She is a great writer and a great friend.

Scorchgid: Thank you very much for your contribution. It warms my heart to know that you would be willing to share your ideas with me. One slight roadblock I have run into, because of the way this website is set up, the PM server censors Url's to other web pages, so unfortunately, this website has garbled up the links you sent me. If you could either type down those Url's with space between each letter so they aren't censored (example: : / / . c o m) OR just send me typed up versions of your cards, then I can include your archetype in the story. I look forward to hearing more from you AND I look forward to introducing your Satellite archetype to the story. Thank you once again for your contribution.

Solphage: Jeremiah will be appearing soon… very soon. And believe me, I have thought A LOT on how he will play a role in the upcoming chapters, especially in relation to Gin Tami. He will be necessary in the upcoming battles.

TheTiger39: Please give a big thank-you to Epsilon Tarantula for working so hard to make the Aquaperformer archetype come together. Thanks to his work, I am happy to report that the next chapter is coming along smoothly and should be out in the next few days or so. Stay tuned, attend a "Sea World" show to anticipate what's coming, and continue being the amazing person you are. I truly appreciate your contribution. Neya will face a lot of challenges, but she will play an important role.

And now, on to Character Questions!

This first one is from Epsilon Tarantula and is addressed to Akato.

Question: Given that three of your cards are based off of anime characters, has anyone brought this up before you incinerated them into oblivion? What reactions were the most outlandish if any?

Akato: Well, if there's one thing that I absolutely relish more than anything in my duels, it would be those absolutely priceless reactions I get from my opponents. Even the relatively worthless clods who can't even make it past my first turn often make up for wasting my time with a well performed groveling. I'm partial to a nice, "PLEASE! NO! STOP!" but the classic, "NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" or "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS! HAVE MERCY!" are not without their own aesthetic beauty.

Mmmm… as for people commenting on the Anime references… that's a good question. Certainly I think I few of those fools have noticed the references, but I haven't had anyone muster through their panic to provide some clever quip on the resemblance. Not that that matters too much. I have a way of getting EXACLTY the reactions I want from my opponents.

You see… humans are like firewood. Anyone can just burn them, but a true experts know exactly HOW to burn them. Some of them, deserve a nice slow burn. Just a bit that crawls up from their toes and up to their head in order to produce the best types of screams. Others, need to be just held up for a bit, to produce the best horrified expression, before quickly getting vaporized in front of the people who know them. I could share with you some of what I've learned, but I think Donjusticia would just censor it. I'll have to fix that.

Our second question is from Greninja and is addressed to Gin Tami

Question: By the way Gin where is Lily Hoshi at the moment if you know?

Gin Tami: I don't know! That's why Akio and I are going out! To look for her!

Akio: Are you ready Gin?

Gin Tami: ( _Turning to Akio_ ) One second! I'm answering a fan's question! ( _Turning back to Greninja_ ) Sorry Greninja, I've gotta go. Akio and I are going to be out in the city. Hopefully, we'll be able to find Lilly before she gets into too much trouble. Then again… this is Lilly we are talking about.

Thank you everyone for your continued support. And Greninja, your question creates a perfect transition for my announcement that Lilly WILL in fact be making an appearance in the next chapter, so stay tuned for that! For now, Ghost83, please enjoy the first glimpse of your character! FINALLY!

Signs of Renewal Extra: I will!

Chaos, absolute chaos. That was what Elbert's world had turned into.

Nobody could have known of the horrific invasion that was now taking place. Nobody could have predicted it, planned for it, or prepared for it. And now, it seemed like nobody could stop it.

Days. That's all it took. Days before Heartland was reduced to a smoldering pile of rubble, before half its citizens were turned into cards, and before even more waves of invading soldiers had moved on to other cities.

It had just been a regular day for Elbert. He had gone to class, stayed after for a little while to wait for his friend, and the two of them had just stood around and talked together about trivial things until her brother and other friend had showed up to walk her home. There was nothing weird about that day. No foreboding omen, no dark cloud in the sky, nothing to suggest that the world was about to transform into a living hell.

That's exactly what the world became when they showed up. At first, people could only look on in shock and surprised when massive pillars of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the city and swarms of uniformed men and women appeared. It had looked like a weird magic show or some kind of showy display from the holographic generators. Then people had started disappearing. Then buildings had started exploding. Then people just began to register that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't all just a show.

By then it was too late. With no official military, heartland was brought to its knees. The few who could fight loosely organized themselves into a makeshift resistance force, gathering up as many civilians as they could while trying desperately to fight against the overwhelming might of the new enemy, now known as Academia. In days, there were suddenly foot and water shortages, injuries, disease, and day after day… death.

It had all been a blur when Elbert first say the explosions from the distant refuge of his home. His first thought had been, "What's happening!? That's next to R-'s house! Oh god! I have to save R-!"

Then he started to run, towards the danger while everyone else was fleeing away. People were slamming against him, clawing him out of their way, knocking him down, trampling him, doing anything to get away from the destruction. But he had fought on, he had thrown them off him, slammed back against them like a football player, clawed back at them, punched them, trampled them, anything to make sure she was safe!

When he reached her home, it was in ruins. Soldiers were going through the wreckage, tearing the place apart, looking for something.

That's when he saw them, informed men in masks with weaponized Duel Disks.

…

…

…

"I summon Sylvan Princessprout!"

…

"SYLVAN PRINCESSPRITE! OREA THE SYLVAN HIGH ARBITER!"

…

"Antique Gear Hound Dog! Hound Flame! Turn end!"

…

"Hound Flame!"

"Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog! Turn End!"

…

"Hound Flame!"

"Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!

"Antique Gear Chaos Factory!"

"Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog!"

"YUUGO SHOKAN!"

"ANTIQUE GEAR CHAOS GIANT!"

…

That's when he knew it was over. Orea was lifted into the air. The giant machine first slowly tore off one wing before slamming it against a nearby building and then ripping off the other wing. Elbert could still see the look in its robotic eye. It had looked right at him, cold, impassive, merciless, and murderous. Then it had thrown back the arm holding his struggling monster, winding up like a baseball pitcher, before throwing his monster right at him.

As the projectile came racing towards him, the only thoughts that came to his mind were, "Where is she!? Oh god where is she!? Please let her be safe! Please let R- be safe!"

…

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

…

"OOP Arts Quipu Net!"

…

"WHAT!"

…

"If a monster is destroyed, I special summon this card in order to reduce damage to zero and immediately end the Battle Phase. Next, I can Summon another OOP Arts monster from my hand. Come forth! OOP Arts Winged Sphinx!"

…

"Turn end!"

…

Elbert blearily looked to his left, just barely registering the elegantly clothed red-haired boy with deep green eyes, a kind expression on his face, and a glowing red mark on his arm.

…

"With my two Level Five Monsters, I construct the Overlay Network!"

…

"Come forth! Rank 5! OOP Arts Heracleion!"

…

What looked like a massive city with a ring of large Egyptian tablets hovering around the perimeter like a flotation ring had appeared.

…

I normal Summon OOP Arts Gordian Knott and use its effect to Summon OOP Arts Colossal Head!

…

"Overlay!"

…

"Come Forth! Rank 4! OOP Arts Urkesh!"

…

A new floating city appeared, this one looked older and more ruined than the previous one. Despite its ruined appearance however, the city was supported in the air with an array of surrounding floating monoliths bearing cuneiform writing, which connected the ruined city to themselves with multiple thick chains.

…

"Colossal Head effect! I change Antique Gear Chaos giant to defense position!"

…

It was gone. It was suddenly gone! In place of the massive giant was a single small face-down card.

"OOP Arts Urkesh effect! I detach 1 material to increase the ATK of all OOP Arts monsters by the difference in ATK between the face-up monsters I control and the face-up monsters my opponent controls until the end of this turn!"

…

They only controlled Antique Gear Chaos Giant. With it face-down, the total ATK of their monsters might as well have been zero. Elbert looked at the Stats for each monster. Heracleion had 2200 ATK while Urkesh had 1800 ATK. Both of them would be gaining 4000 ATK. The Obelisk force didn't look happy about it.

…

"NANI!?"

…

"OOP Arts Heracleion effect! If the total ATK of all OOP Arts monsters is higher than the ATK of all monsters my opponent controls, I can detach one overly unit to destroy all Spell/Trap cards my opponent controls, and destroy monsters my opponent controls up to the number of Spell/Trap Cards destroyed with this effect!"

…

R.I.P. Antique Gear Chaos Factory.

…

R.I.P. the set Chaos Giant.

…

"Direct attack!"

…

Urkesh generated a massive sphere of plasma energy over the center of the city before firing it at one of the Obelisk Force soldiers. Heracleion sprouted four obelisks before generating bolts of electricity between the tips of the obelisks and forming a massive pyramidal mass of electric energy. With a single massive electrical blast from the electric pyramid, another Obelisk Soldier was sent flying.

…

"AAAAAAAGH!"

…

Two down, just one to go.

…

"I set one card and end my turn!"

…

"Intrusion Penalty! Two-thousand Life points!"

…

Another squadron of three Obelisk Soldiers joined the fight.

…

"Antique Gear Fortress Activate! Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

…

"Continuous Trap Activate! OOP Arts Ossuary! Once per turn, I can send 1 OOP Arts monster from my deck to the graveyard! I send OOP Arts Sun Chariot from my deck to the graveyard!"

…

"Hound Flame!"

…

"OOP Arts Sun Chariot negates all my opponent's effect damage while it is in the graveyard and I control an OOP Arts Monster. Furthermore, you can only select OOP Arts monsters as attack targets and OOP Arts Xyz Monsters cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn!"

…

"Turn end!"

…

"Yuugo Shokan! Come forth! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon activate! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog attack OOP Arts Urkesh!"

…

Elbert could only watch helplessly as the person who saved him lost 1400 Life Points, reducing his Life to 600.

…

"Turn end!"

…

"YUUGO SHOKAN! Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Effect activate!"

…

His Life Points dropped to 550. His companion's dropped to just 300.

…

"BATTLE! ULTIMATE HOUND DOG ATTACK!"

…

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

…

"You weren't going to let yourself have all the fun, were you Michael?"

…

A new stranger. He wore similar elegant clothing, wilder red-and-blonde hair, a more rascally expression on his face, and a similar glowing red mark on his own arm.

…

"Gimmick Puppet Manipulator Activate! I Special Summon this card from my hand to end my opponent's Battle Phase!"

…

A strange humanoid mannequin with a blank face and six skeletal arms appeared over the heads of the soldiers before shooting strings from its fingers and controlling Ultimate Hound Dog like a puppet as its robotic limbs were ensnared by Manipulator's bindings.

…

"Turn end!"

…

"Gimmick Puppet Scissor Arms Shokan!"

…

Elbert recoiled as a nightmarish monster made from a mess of humanoid mannequins and a pair of scissor blades appeared.

…

"I send Gimmick Puppet Twister from my deck to the graveyard!"

…

An even more hideous monstrosity briefly appeared before descending into the graveyard. It looked like nothing more than a crossbar with grotesque clawed hands made up of black-and-white mannequins coming down from the ends of the crossbar instead of strings.

…

"Junk Puppet activate! I Special Summon Twister and use its effect to Summon another Gimmick Puppet Monster from my deck! I summon Gimmick Puppet Necro Doll!"

…

A coffin appeared and opened up. Inside was a macabre doll designed like the corpse of a young girl.

…

"OVERLAY! COME FORTH! RANK EIGHT! GIMMICK PUPPET EXECUTIONER!"

…

A massive puppet emerged from the Xyz Portal. Its massive head was covered with a black burlap sack while it wielded two massive axes with a set of three twisted arms.

…

"SCISSOR ARMS, MANIPULATOR, OVERLAY! COME FORTH! RANK FOUR! GIMMICK PUPPET DOLL-MAKER!"

…

A puppet that looked like a small girl doll with a beautiful white dress and a cute pink bow in her long blonde hair appeared. In one delicate hand it carried a pair of scissors while the other hand carried a bottle of glue. Crooked beneath one of its arms was a patchwork teddy-bear.

…

"Doll-Maker effect! I detach one Xyz Material to treat all monsters my opponent controls as Xyz Monsters!"

…

Doll-Maker let out a little giggle as it began affixing a set of crossbars to the Obelisk Soldier's Ultimate Hound Dog and Hound Dog before lifting the two flailing robotic dogs into the air.

…

"Gimmick Puppet Executioner's effect! I detach an Overlay Unit to destroy all other Xyz Monsters on the field and inflict 500 Damage to each monster destroyed with this effect!"

…

R.I.P. Hound Dog, Ultimate Hound Dog, Princessprite, and Doll-Maker. All three of the intruding Obelisk force members lost their life points, while the last one was left with only 2000 Life Points.

…

"Gimmick Puppet Executioner! Direct attack!"

…

And just like that, despite the overwhelming odds against them, Elbert was saved by two brave individuals. They had introduced themselves as Thomas and Michael Arclight and told him they were leading a counteroffensive against the invaders under the leadership of their older brother, Christopher, and their father, Byron. Elbert had joined them after that, dedicating himself to defending Heartland while searching for R-, her brother, and any of her friends. Under the leadership of the Arclights, they were making headway against the invaders.

And then he came.

His subordinates referred to him as General Tarleton while most of the resistors fearfully referred to him as, The Dreadroot. Byron, Christopher, Thomas, and Michael all called him, The Butcher. Unlike most other Academia soldiers who would card their victims, General Tarleton took pleasure in brutally having his monsters tear his victims into bloody pieces, only carding them if they managed to survive till the end of his sadistic games. Many resistors had surrendered at the sight of Tarleton and his forces, hoping to meet a quick end after being carded, but he had only branded them as cowards and inflicted the utmost torture upon them before dumping the bloody stumps of their bodies into hastily dug shallow ditches. And now he and his forces had set their sights on the Arclight resistors.

…

"Xyz Scum is still Xyz Scum! No matter how skilled they get!" he had laughed in Christopher's face.

…

"Xyz Shokan! Come Forth! Rank 9! Canopy Star Dyson Net! Effect activate! I inflict damage to your Life Points equal to my monster's Attack and destroy all monsters you control whose ATK is lower than the damage you took!"

…

The Dreadroot suddenly didn't look as scary, getting blasted onto his rear end by the effect of Christopher's monster.

…

"BRAGH! FILTHY XYZ APE! YOU WILL NOT OVERPOWER ME! SOLDIERS! ASSEMBLE!"

…

In the ultimate act of cowardice, Tarleton had his soldiers intrude on the duel. That's when he and Thomas had intervened while Michael and Byron continued to hold off a different swarm of Tarleton's soldiers.

…

"Alsei the Sylvan High Protector!"

…

"Gimmick Puppet Executioner!"

…

The fighting continued, Tarleton managed to survive, but his soldiers were rapidly carded by the combined Fury of their assaults.

…

"YUUGO SHOKAN!" Tarleton roared.

…

Using the monsters from his fallen soldier's graveyards, Tarleton managed to Summon three Antique Gear Chaos Giants in one turn before equipping each of them with Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon.

…

"BATTLE!" he had roared.

…

Suddenly, their monsters were getting slaughtered. Christopher managed to negate two attacks from the rampaging giants with his monster's effect, but it was not enough to prevent them from continuing their assault. Soon, all of their monsters were destroyed. Miraculously, however, thanks to some quick counter-plays, they had managed to survive.

…

Or so they thought.

…

"QUICK-PLAY MAGIC! ANTIQUE GEAR CHAOS OVERLOAD!" Tarleton had roared. "I fuse my three Chaos Giants together to summon an Antique Gear Chaos monster with its original ATK doubled! COME FORTH! LEVEL 12! ULTIMATE ANTIQUE GEAR CHAOS ANACHRONISM DRAGON!"

…

An impossibly massive mechanized dragon had appeared. As it spread out its metallic wings, it tore through the sides of the surrounding skyscrapers.

…

"FALL TO YOUR DEFEAT, XYZ SCUM!" he had roared. "CHAOS ANACHRONISM DRAGON, DESTROY THEIR-…!"

…

Those were his last words, before the reckless viciousness of his assaults caused one of the nearby skyscrapers to collapse and fall right on top of him. A fitting bloody end to a man who had butchered so many.

He and the Arclights, however, were just as unlucky.

…

Elbert woke up from his dream with a start, gasping for breath as he took in his new surroundings.

It was a black endless void. No matter how long he looked at it, Elbert still couldn't shake the agonizing loneliness he felt. When he had first awakened in the forlorn world, he had cried out to anyone, everyone, wishing with all his heart that he could just see R- one last time.

He had failed her. He still didn't know if she had even managed to survive. He didn't know if any of his efforts had meant anything. The Arclights were dead, he was dead, and for all he knew, everyone in Heartland was now dead. He had torn out his hair, gnashed his teeth, cried out in immense agony, but nobody came, nobody heard him.

When that stage had passed, he had tried making bargains with no one in particular. He promised to do whatever was asked of him if he could just be given another chance. He promised he'd only visit her for a minute, just a minute, if he could only see her alive and well. He promised he would give everything to anyone if he could just be given that chance.

That's when he had come.

A man clothed in dark multi-colored robes had appeared to him in a brilliant flash of multi-colored light. His skin and hair were a pale white while his eyes were a deep black with blue irises. All over his body, primitive glowing drawings decorated his skin like fluorescent tattoos. He had introduced himself as Yuu Hashimoto, and told him that he had been watching him as he fought against Academia in Heartland. He told him of his disdain for Academia's invasion and his desire that such wars should be done away with. He told him that he had sensed his desire to see R- again, and that he had the power to help Elbert achieve that goal. All he needed Elbert to do was agree to serve the Earthbound.

Elbert had been shocked when he first met Yuu, but he had listened to his offer with eagerness. Still, the offer seemed so fantastic, it almost didn't seem like it could be true. Elbert had asked Yuu to give him some time to think about it, and Yuu had graciously agreed, instructing Elbert to simply call to him when he was ready to decide.

And now… here he was, his thoughts drifting back into his past, especially his past with her.

She had been a great friend to him. She had been a great friend to everyone, but they had known each other a long time. He had been a transfer student to Heartland from Germany due to his father's work in the military. He had been lonely six-year-old boy in the strange city and fearful to attend the local school when he could barely speak the language.

That's when he had met R-. She had walked right up to him and introduced herself before asking what his name was. When he nervously mumbled, Elbert Niemeyer, she had fiddled with her tongue before repeating back, "El-bird… Nigma!"

They had laughed about it together and the name stuck. But Elbert didn't mind the name. Over time, as their relationship grew, he actually preferred being called by his nickname. Eventually of course, R- learned how to pronounce his name correctly, but he had insisted that she still called him, Nigma.

She had always been there for him when he had struggled. She and her older brother helped him learn how to Xyz Summon, how to speak the language, and how to become a great duelist. When he had met another of her friends, they had become like brothers, constantly dueling against each other while aspiring to eventually reach the level where they could take on the infamous Kaito and his so-called invincible deck.

Did she miss him? Was she alright? Did she think of him like he thought of her? What was holding him back from accepting Yuu's offer and continuing his search for her? Was it the fear that she might be gone, or worse, had forgotten about him?

Elbert clenched his fists together in frustration. That was selfish of him. SELFISH! Who cared if she still cared about him or not!? She was still out there! She had to be! All of his sacrifices couldn't be in vain! She was alive, struggling, suffering, but alive! He needed to help her!

"YUU!" he called into the darkness. "I ACCEPT YOUR OFFER! I WILL DO ANYTHING! JUST LET ME SEE HER AGAIN! LET ME HELP HER!"

A gentle hand placed itself on Elbert's shoulder.

Spinning around in the empty void, Elbert looked to see Yuu standing behind him as if he hadn't left.

"Do you really want that… Elbert?" Yuu asked, studying Elbert with a calculating look.

Elbert looked into Yuu's black eyes with a determined expression on his face. "Yes! I want that! With all my heart! I will do anything for you if I can just see R- again!"

"It will be painful." Yuu warned. "You will be an outcast among men. You will only be a shadow of what you once were, neither a part of the living world nor a part of the world of the dead."

"I don't care!" Elbert retorted. "My pain doesn't matter! She's all that matters to me! Her safety! Her happiness!"

"You are really willing to go the distance?" Yuu interrogated, stepping forward. "You are really willing to give your all to me and to her?"

Elbert took a deep breath before looking Yuu in the eye and nodding. "Yes." He breathed. "I will place my soul in your service if I can only see her again. Please, give me the chance."

Yuu closed his eyes, seemingly contemplating Elbert's words. After a moment, he opened his eyes and nodded.

"I accept your conviction." He said. "I WILL help you see R- again. In exchange for your brief period of service to me, I will not only let you see R- one more time, but place you in HER service for as long as you shall exist."

Elbert's eyes widened. Blinking away tears, he gazed back into Yuu's eyes with wonder and surprise. "D-do you really mean it?" Elbert asked, wondering if it was all a dream.

"Do you want that?" Yuu asked, wiping a tear from Elbert's cheek.

Elbert vigorously shook his head in affirmation. Clasping Yuu's shoulders with his hands, he buried his head in Yuu's chest while Yuu softly embraced him.

"I will endure anything for her! I will walk alongside her, no matter what happens! Be it in sickness in health, we wandering wretches, or she become a queen while I become her loyal subject! I will stay by her when she's sad or angry, happy or shy, I will stand by her side for the rest of my existence!"

Yuu nodded his head in gratitude as he listened to Elbert's promise.

"Thank you… Elbert." He replied after a time. "Brace yourself. This… is going to hurt."

Gasping in shock, Elbert barely had time to react before Yuu clamped his hand over Elbert's chest, burning a multi-colored spiral shape mark into the center of Elbert's chest.

Suddenly, Elbert's appearance began to transform.

Slowly, his limbs and chest grew in size, becoming slightly more well-toned and muscly. His eyes blackened till the sclera were as dark as Yuu's. His clothing shifted its shape until he was wearing a dark brown cloak with a hood and multi-colored trimmings. When the transformation was complete, Elbert stood before Yuu, a confident and determined expression on his face.

"What do you wish for me to do… master?" Elbert asked, kneeling before Yuu.

Yuu walked towards Elbert, taking his hand in his own and lifting him off the ground before conjuring images of several people with a wave of his hand.

"You will return to your home." Yuu instructed. "Even as we speak, my plans to create a better world are in motion. Let your soul be at peace, Elbert. Soon, Academia will be reduced to ashes and in the place of the ruins of Heartland, a paradise will rise. However…" he indicated the images he had conjured, "…there are some problems I need you to take care of."

"Who are they?" Elbert asked, looking through the images. Among the many individuals there was a middle-aged green-haired woman dressed in greasy rags, a small boy with a pale face and long mane of dark black hair, a teenage boy almost completely encased in rags like a mummy, and many other men, women, and children of various ages, ethnicities, and sizes.

"You are not the only one I have spoken with." Yuu explained. "Many like you have wished to rise from the Underworld and reclaim their second chance at life. Unfortunately… over time… these disciples have become… unstable… defective. I can still issue orders to them, but they are unpredictable and more of a liability at this point than an asset. I have called my other disciples to gather in the Synchro Dimensions in order to further my plans. Unfortunately, these undesirables have also heard the call and have come shambling out of their holes in order to join the others. Right now, they are gathering spiritual energy, trying to reach the point when they can create a portal through which they can leave. I need you to eliminate them before they manage to do so."

Yuu noticed Elbert looking at the little boy with a hesitant expression on his face.

"Is there a problem?" Yuu asked.

"No… master." Elbert replied. "It's just… a lot of these people… they don't look like much of a threat. Can't we just… lock them up?"

Yuu slowly shook his head.

"Do not be deceived, Elbert. These people may look like decrepit wretches, but they each possess the strength of a god. Locking them up would be impossible. They would just break out of their prisons and continue doing what they did before. Killing people and absorbing their spiritual essence for their own use. Believe me, Elbert. Every one of these people you see before you are killers. They will not hesitate to kill again. Be on your guard when you face them."

Elbert looked nervous. "So these… disciples… they were just like me once… weren't they?"

Yuu nodded his head. "You can avoid their fate, Elbert. These people lost sight of their goals. They became confused and conflicted as the reality of their new existence came crashing upon them. Without a goal to drive them, they eventually grew mad. You have said you wished to see R- again. Keep that goal always in your mind as you fight these people and you will able to keep your mind in check as you face the inevitable deterioration our kind faces."

Elbert nodded his head in understanding. "And what about R-? If I defeat all of these people, do I get to see her?"

Yuu smiled softly. "Have no fear, Elbert. When the time is right, R- will come to you. That's a promise."

Elbert blinked in surprise. "So she is alive!" he exclaimed.

Yuu smiled.

"I suppose you could say that." He shrugged. "Be rest assured, I am watching her, and I WILL help you reunite with her. No go. Defeat these disciples before they hurt anyone else. End their suffering."

Elbert nodded his head before turning away from Yuu and walking away. As Yuu faded into the darkness, he pulled out a photograph from his pocket and gazed at it longingly.

"Please come quickly, R-. I WILL be waiting for you!"

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Name: Elbert Niemeyer / Original concept by: Ghost83 / Deck: Formerly Sylvan now Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: active

Name: Aaron Tarleton (The Dreadroot) / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gears / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Yuu Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unknown / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: active

FEATURED FAN CARDS

Obelisk Force's Spells

Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Antique Gear" Monster you control. While equipped with this card, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle and you take no battle damage from battles involving the equipped monster. Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by the equipped monster's level X 200.

Antique Gear Chaos Factory/ Spell/ Continuous/ During each of your Standby Phases, discard 1 "Polymerization" or "Fusion" Spell/Trap Card (except "Diffusion Wave Motion") or destroy this card. Once per turn, you can Fusion Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing Fusion Materials from your side of the field, hand, or Graveyard.

Michael Arclight's Monsters

OOP Arts Quipu Net/ EARTH/ Level 5/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 100/ If a monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can Special Summon this card from your hand during the Damage Step: Reduce any Battle Damage to 0, end the Battle-Phase of this turn (if currently in the Battle-Phase), and if you do, Special Summon 1 "OOP Arts" Monster from your hand.

Trivia: This card is based on the Quipu of Caral.

OOP Arts Sun Chariot/ LIGHT/ Level 6/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2400/ You can tribute 1 "OOP Arts" monster you control: Special Summon this card from you hand, and if you do, you can change the Level of 1 "OOP Arts" monster you control to 6. While this card is in your graveyard, you take no damage while you control an "OOP Arts" monster. Also, "OOP Arts" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn.

Trivia: This card is based on the Trundholm Sun Chariot.

Michael Arclight's Extra Deck

OOP Arts Urkesh/ LIGHT/ Rank 4/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1600/ 2 Level 4 "OOP Arts" monsters

Once per turn, if the Total ATK of all "OOP Arts" monsters you control is higher than the total ATK of all monsters your opponent controls, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card. Until the end of this turn, increase the ATK of all "OOP Arts" monsters you control by the difference between the total ATK of all "OOP Arts" monsters you control and the total ATK of all monsters your opponent controls.

OOP Arts Heracleion/ LIGHT/ Rank 5/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2200/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 5 Monsters

You can tribute 1 "OOP Arts" monster you control: Increase the ATK of this card by the ATK of the tribute monster until the End-Phase of this turn. If the total ATK of all OOP Arts monsters you control is higher than the ATK of all monsters your opponent controls, you can detach one Xyz Material from this card: Destroy all Spell/Trap cards your opponent controls, and if you do, destroy monsters your opponent controls up to the number of Spell/Trap Cards destroyed with this effect.

Michael Arclight's Traps

OOP Arts Ossuary/ Trap/ Continuous/ Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can send 1 "OOP Arts" monster from your deck to the graveyard. You can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "OOP Arts" monster from your graveyard.

Thomas Arclight's Monsters

Gimmick Puppet Manipulator/ DARK/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 800/ If an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can Special Summon this card from your hand to end the Battle-Phase. You cannot Special Summon monsters except "Gimmick Puppet" monsters. If this card is in the graveyard while you control a "Gimmick Puppet" monsters, you can banish this card from the graveyard to target 1 monster your opponent controls: Its effects are negated, also, it is treated as an Xyz Monster.

Gimmick Puppet Twister/ DARK/ Level 8/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 800/ You can banish 1 "Gimmick Puppet" monster from your graveyard: Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Gimmick Puppet" monster from your deck or graveyard.

Thomas Arclight's Extra Deck

Gimmick Puppet Executioner/ DARK/ Rank 8/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 3000/ 2 Level 8 "Gimmick Puppet" monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Destroy all other Xyz Monsters on the field, and if you do, inflict 500 Damage to your opponent's LP for each monster destroyed with this effect. Cannot be destroyed by battle except by battle with an Xyz Monster.

Gimmick Puppet Doll Maker/ DARK/ Rank 4/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 800/ 2 Level 4 monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: All monsters your opponent controls are treated as Xyz Monsters. If this card is destroyed, you can activate this effect: Special Summon up to 2 "Gimmick Puppet" monsters from your graveyard except "Gimmick Puppet Doll Maker".

Christopher Arclight's Extra Deck

Canopy Star Dyson Net/ LIGHT/ Rank 9/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2800/ 2 Level 9 monsters

Unaffected by your opponent's monster effects while it has Xyz Material. If an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Negate that attack. Once per turn, you can inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the ATK of this card, and if you do, destroy all monsters your opponent controls whose ATK is less than or equal to the Damage he/she took. This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect.

Aaron Tarleton's Extra Deck

Ultimate Antique Gear Chaos Anachronism Dragon/ DARK/ Level 12/ Machine/ Fusion/ Effect/ _Other stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_

Aaron Tarleton's Spells

Antique Gear Chaos Overload/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Fusion Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters from your side of the field, hand, or graveyard as the Fusion Materials, and if you do, activate this effect immediately after that monster is summoned: Double that monster's ATK. During the end phase of the turn this effect was activated, banish all cards on your side of the field and graveyard, and if you do, take damage equal to the number of cards banished with this effect X 500.


	21. Special Update 7

Signs of Renewal Update 7

Hello again everybody. As you might have surmised from the appearance of another update chapter with no official scene, I have been VERY busy this week. But do not panic! Nox Descious, Epsilon Tarantula, and Corinnetheanime will all attest to the fact that the next chapter IS being worked on, much of it with their help. The outline has been finished a long time ago and I have already written a number of pages for the chapter. Epsilon Tarantula has been helping me flesh out the new deck archetypes that will be introduced, Nox Descious has helped me immensely by creating a first draft of an important duel that will be taking place in the chapter, and Corinnetheanime has been helping to edit and provide some helpful tips on the chapter so far. I definitely don't want to rush this chapter and give you a half-baked, hot-off-the-press piece of garbage. Let your souls be at ease in the knowledge that I am not dead, sick, or giving up on this work.

However, in light of the fact that ANOTHER week has gone by since I haven't been able to post the chapter (making a total of two weeks) I thought I would make this update chapter a bit longer. To many of you who are still waiting for your OCs, REJOICE! This chapter will introduce LOTS of new characters. I'm looking at you Shimmering-Sky. Yes. You. For too long you have tormented the review section with your incessant NAGGING about Natsumi! You want Natsumi!? I'll give you Natsumi! I'll give you Natsumi until there's not enough RAM in your computer to store all the data on Natsumi! Then you'll be appeased. Right? RIGHT!? Love me… love me! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Okay, jokes aside, I am truly excited to introduce these characters. There will be a couple time jumps, but hopefully with my EXPERT TRANSITION SKILLS, it shouldn't be too confusing to read. Without further ado, THANK YOU TIME!

AngeLight952: ADEEL'S HERE! Thank you for the Canine deck you submitted. It's time to see them in action!

CorinnetheAnime: LYDIA AND JOHO ARE HERE! Thank you for being willing to be a member of the "Signs of Renewal" team. It is a great honor to work alongside you. And really you amaze me with your efficiency! Thank you for all of your hard work and for the great information you gave about Lydia and Joho. I never knew you were such a great artist. Folks, I would highly recommend visiting CorinnetheAnime's Googledocs page on her profile page. She really knows her stuff, plus, you can see a picture of her original characters who will be featured in this chapter. Also, for those of you who haven't yet done so, please, please, PLEASE, check out CorinnetheAnime's "Voice of Freedom."

Now one more thing Corinne. I will write you any story, and I mean… ANY STORY… if you would create a piece of fan-art featuring the Dark Signer Bracelet Girls. Just PM if you have any questions. I would be SO TICKLED if you did that for me, and I am absolutely serious about writing ANYTHING you want in return!

(Certain restrictions apply. By "ANYTHING" Donjusticia would like to clarify that he does not nor ever will write anything M-rated such as a lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, banana, apple, grape, kumquat, or any of the pornographic fruit cocktails in between. But I know you would never ask for anything like that, so why am I even needing to write this addendum?)

Epsilon Tarantula: #TEAMSTEPHAN! Thank you very much for your continued work. You have submitted SO MUCH to this story in terms of characters AND cards. And your characters are all so unique, it is a true pleasure to write about them. I hope you enjoy this introduction to Stephan's Phoenix Guard team in Standard.

FanOfKings: KIRYU'S BACK! And thanks to your upgrade, he is better than before! Please enjoy his little duel and interaction with other members of the honorable Phoenix Guard.

Ghost83: Thank you very much for being such a nice friend. Elbert will be making further appearances as we continue. In the meantime, I am going to be showcasing your Omake's in future chapters, but not this one for reasons that might be clear once you read the end. Thank you for your work and patience. It is a delight to have a supporter like you.

Greninja: Lilly is coming soon and we will also soon be seeing a return of Gin. Lucy and Shin will be introduced at roughly the same time in Chapter 12 and Erika will continue fighting for her survival. Expect LOTS more action from all of these characters.

Kaploblast: SEMAL IS HERE! And he will be showcasing his deck! Please enjoy and tell me what you think of him at the end of this chapter.

Kurogane Fang: Chapter 12 is when we will be seeing Fang. I still have three scenes to do for chapter 11 so it will be a bit of a wait, but don't worry, the "Signs of Renewal" team will continue its work. In the meantime. ENJOY THE APPEARANCE OF JORQ!

Maes Lawliet: More Graydle goodness is coming. The gears in my head are already turning, thinking about all kinds of Graydle upgrades (personally I don't like the fact that the Graydles only have one Synchro monster.) If you have any cards you want to submit before Nevan's reappearance near the end of Chapter 11, let me know.

Nox Descious: Thank you so much for your work with the duel. It made my work a lot easier. Okay, is that out of the way now? Have I thanked you enough? Okay… now then… WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA CALLING MY WORK MEDIOCRE!? YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOUR WORK STILL HAS WAY MORE VIEWS, REVIEWS, AND FOLLOWERS THAN MINE THAT YOU'RE SOMEHOW BETTER THAN ME!? WELL I'LL SHOW YOU! ALL I NEED TO DO IS WRITE A FEW MORE CHAPTERS AND SOON "SIGNS OF RENEWAL" WILL BE THE MOST READ, REVIEWED, FOLLOWED, AND LIKED STORY IN THE WORLD! EVEN BETTER THAN "HARRY POTTER!" THE EARTHBOUND WILL ROLL THROUGH THE WORLD, CRUSHING ALL WHO OPPOSE THEM! DARK SIGNER RURI WILL CRUSH NUMBER 43 MANIPULATOR OF SOULS (who by all accounts is a really great villain in Nox Descious's wonderful work, "The Ice Queen Cometh") AND THEN I WILL RULE EXISTENCE AS ULTIMATE DARK SIGNER DON JUSTICIA! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!

Shimmering-Sky: This chapter is for you. Tell me what you think at the end.

Scorchgid: I have created a character according to your description on the website. Say hello to Katashi Yoshida and CONGRATULATIONS… he's a father! AND BIGGER NEWS, you're going to be seeing him AND his daughter in this chapter! Tell me what you think in a review.

Solphage: I have completed the outline of a duel that will be featuring Jeremiah and am working on the chapter in which he will appear. Stay tuned.

TheTiger39: Kuma is shaping up well and WILL be appearing very soon. Thank you for that contribution. I have taken some liberty with his cards but have kept the War Bear archetype and made sure to make his deck style fairly opposite of what Neya's is. Stay tuned to see BOTH of these characters in action.

Ultimate Black Ace: (Is it wrong that whenever I read your name I think of a "Mortal Kombat" announcer screaming your name like a combo? ULTIMATE BLACK ACE COMBO!) Regardless, PLEASE ENJOY THE APPEARANCE OF SUBARU AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!

And now, without further ado, BEHOLD THE APPEARANCE OF LITERALLY EIGHTEEN NEW CHARACTERS!

Signs of Renewal Extra: Gathering of the Phoenix Guard

 **Standard Dimension: 1 day before Shun's duel against Crow**

Fires, gas explosions, and multiple people in the hospital due to random animal attacks. That's what the Miami City News Agency had reported, but Nagasaki knew the truth. Even if the vast majority of humanity couldn't see them for what they were, the Earthbound and their servants had been waging a relentless war against humanity since the beginning of their existence. Almost thirteen years ago, they had killed her mother, and they had tried to destroy her father. If it hadn't been for their work, the Phoenix Guard's work, the Earthbound would have devastated all four dimensions a long time ago.

For the past three years, the Earthbound had been fairly quiet, with only a few occasional disturbances from some of their disciples and spiritual familiars. Over the past few weeks, however, the Earthbound had been growing steadily more restless as the frequency of their disturbances nearly tripled. She and her father, Katashi, had had to work overtime putting down several evil spirits while the headmaster, Stephan, and Katashi's fellow teacher, Subaru, of the school she attended, Phoenix Boarding School, had been on high alert trying to keep the new Phoenix Guard recruits safe from harm.

Now it was her turn to keep them safe as she offered them guidance on one of their first real missions against some Earthbound familiars. Subaru and Katashi were accompanying them, so it wasn't too dangerous, but they would still need to exercise caution. In order to succeed, they would have to be stealthy, precise, efficient, and alert.

In other words, exactly the opposite of what Ming, Alex, and Einer were being right now.

"OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!" Ming, An Asian girl with a crimson claw mark on her arm, long black hair with two jet-black side tails, brown eyes, a slim figure, a pair of black fingerless gloves, blue jeans, and a red hoodie exclaimed. "Are you guys excited!? 'Cause I'm excited! Do you know what this means!? 'Cause I know what this means! We've been on like… two missions so far!? And on all of those ones we didn't get to do anything but watch! But now we're actually going to popping some Earthbound ghost butt! Isn't this exciting!? I think it's exciting! Do you know what I'm gonna do!? I'll tell you what I'm gonna do! I'm gonna take that Earthbound spirit in my hands, pop it in the face, and say, 'See you in the underworld, beeeeaa***!'"

Alex, a quiet blonde-haired boy with a crimson heart mark on his right arm, light blue eyes, a medium build, a red sweatshirt, and black cargo pants, didn't look quite as energetic as Ming. He was staring at her as she continued her ranting with a half-hearted smile on his face as if to say, "Ming, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but could you please bring it down a notch?"

Compared to Ming, Alex wasn't acting nearly as foolishly, but he was being so casual on the mission! He had his hands in his pockets, was strolling briskly through the alleyway as if he didn't have a care in the world, and even worse, was kicking around glass bottles and pieces of trash, making almost as much noise as Ming's incessant chattering.

Einer, a taller boy with a crimson tail mark on his right arm, messy red hair, green eyes, a scrawny body, a green shirt, black leather jacket, and blue jeans, was acting the most serious out of the three. He had his Duel Disk, which was projecting a green V-shaped field, at the ready, and was proceeding through the alleyway with caution. It would have been reassuring to Nagasaki had she not also known of Einer's propensity to completely throw sense out the window and panic upon the first sighting of even the weakest Earthbound spirit. It wasn't so much that his fear was unjustified, it would have been foolish NOT to fear the Earthbound and proceed with the utmost caution. Sadly, his fear was more prone to make him a babbling cowering mess than a serious warrior capable of keeping his ego in check with his knowledge of the present dangers.

"Would you stop making all that noise!?" Einer snapped at the other two, sweat beading on his forehead as he looked at his mark, which was steadily pulsating with red light. "We're getting closer, I can feel them."

"Einer's right." Nagasaki agreed, turning towards the other three. She had short brown hair and deep purple eyes that had the tendency to make her look fairly tired, no matter how energetic and lively she actually was. She wore a thick zip-up white-and-brown jacket with long sleeves, which nearly completely covered the crimson Yin-Yang mark on her right arm. Were it not for her feminine voice, it would have been hard to tell if she was a boy or a girl even without the jacket covering her relatively flat chest. Indicating for the others to stop, she held up her right arm, closing her eyes as if she were sensing something while her mark steadily pulsated with brighter and brighter light.

Behind the four teenagers, two adult men were also examining the marks on their arms.

"Are you sensing them, Subaru?" Katashi, a tall man with Nagasaki's same brown hair and androgynous face asked, looking down at his own crimson Yin-Yang mark, which was glowing with only a very faint light. The man was garbed in a white trench coat that reflected the sunlight like a solar panel, and wide-brimmed grey hat which concealed much of his appearance. However, through the shadows, one could see that the man's right eye was the same color and shape as Nagasaki's, while the left eye shared the same shape but possessed midnight-black sclera instead of the normal white of a human eye. His skin was pale and gaunt, with hollow cheeks suggesting that he had not eaten enough. Against his back, a primitive-looking crimson snake shaped mark glowed against his skin like magma, despite all of his coverings, with the serpent's long coiled tail curling above his tailbone, the zig-zagging body wriggling up his back like a question mark, and the oval serpent head resting over his left shoulder blade.

"Relax, Katashi." Subaru, a tall thin man with grey eyes and a head of messy red hair similar to Einer's replied. He wore a black shirt with a bright blue vest, fingerless black gloves with red knuckles, and a pair of smoky-grey cargo pants. Over his right arm, a crimson foot mark glowed against his arm with much brighter light than Katashi's. "Your daughter and my cousin are right on the money, and if the Earthbound were trying to deceive us, I'd be able to sniff 'em out. We'll be right here, ready to step in if things go sour."

"You think things will go sour?" Katashi asked, looking concerned.

"I wouldn't have let the kids come if I really thought they'd be in danger." Subaru calmly replied, shuffling his deck before slotting it into his Duel Disk and activating his Duel Field, which glowed against the darkness like a bright blue flame. Alex, Einer, Ming, and Nagasaki will get the real life training they need, we'll exorcise some minor Earthbound spirits, go home, badda bing, badda boom. So just relax, and let the kids do their thing."

"We'll take it from here." Nagasaki called to Subaru and Katashi. "I'm ready to draw the Earthbound spirits out of hiding, you two just stay back and keep them from escaping."

"Wait… stay back? Are you sure!?" Subaru asked, suddenly looking very concerned. "I mean… Stephan sent us here to help you. You don't have to do this alone. In fact, it would be better if we were there in the front to make sure you three didn't get hurt!"

"Just relax and let the kids do their thing." Katashi shrugged, eyeing Subaru with his mismatched eyes.

"Okay… no!" Subaru exclaimed, steadily growing more frustrated. "I agreed to HELP them on this mission! Not watch them get thrown around by some godforsaken evil spirits while I do nothing but watch and offer instruction! That's it! Mission's over! Nagasaki, tell Alex, Einer, and Ming to-…"

"We're starting!" Nagasaki called, eyes glowing with red light as she held out her right arm. "Fallen spirits of the underworld, the power of the grand creator dragon compels you to reveal yourselves! Come out from the shadows and reveal your forms to us now!"

The Yin-Yang mark on Nagasaki's arm began expanding until the surrounding alleyway was bathed in its glow. Over half of the alleyway, where Nagasaki and the others stood, bright red-and-white light illuminated all five individuals in its glow while the other half of the alleyway, opposite from them, was bathed in thick black-and-red shadows. With the sound of enraged animalistic howling, the shadows began taking shape, slowly solidifying into various forms, which began charging towards Nagasaki and her teammates.

"Oh geez!" Einer exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his socks. "I thought this was supposed to be easy! Why are there so many of them!?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAH BABY!" Ming roared with delight, activating her own Duel Disk, which projected four rectangular gold-colored fields from its center like a cross, "LET'S KICK SOME-…"

Her enthusiasm was cut short when a massive grotesque black spider with eight blood-red eyes, dripping fangs, and crimson markings over its black body suddenly plopped onto the ground before scurrying towards her on its massive legs. Eyes bugging out of her head, Ming's jaw dropped as she slowly backed away.

"Spider's!?" she gulped. "Why the heck did it have to be spiders!?"

"The familiars take upon themselves appearances similar to the masters they serve." Nagasaki calmly explained as she activated her own chocolate brown duel field as she faced off against a massive green lizard, which flicked its tongue and snapped its reptilian jaws at her.

"I'd sure like to know who the heck this one serves!" Alex exclaimed as a strange creature that looked like a black tree with a large round base and spike at the bottom like a single carrot root, long arm-like branches, and a set of demonic hands at the end of each branch slowly floated towards him, blue marks glowing against its body as it roared with a deep demonic voice.

"I'll take the condor, orca, and hummingbird on the right if you take the giant and wolf on the left." Katashi offered, fixing the approaching spirits with a determined expression on his face.

"Okay, but once we take care of them, we help out the others, alright!?" Subaru grunted, briskly strolling up to a pair of spirits.

"Sounds good to me." Katashi agreed, leaping towards another trio of spirits with superhuman power as the mark on his back and his black eye glowed with demonic red light. "How are you doing Nagasaki?" he asked, as he began engaging the spirits.

"We're engaging them now." Nagaski replied, holding her ground as the green lizard familiar seemed to vomit out its monster rather than summon it with a Duel Disk. Looking up at the massive demonic lizard it had summoned, which was labeled "Shadow Komodo" she could see that it had an ATK of 3000, a Level of -7, and an effect to inflict damage to the opponent equal to half its own attack once per turn. Fortunately, in order to Special Summon the monster, the spirit had to pay 3000 of its own Life Points so now it only had 1000 left. Holding her ground, she dodged out of the way as the spirit's monster vomited a black substance at her, causing her Life Points to take a hit as they were reduced to 2500. "We should… be fine."

"WE ARE NOT FINE! WE ARE ANYTHING BUT FINE!" Einer shrieked as a pair of spirits, one a large hummingbird and the other, a large monkey, began attacking him with their own monsters. "D. D. Assailant! Attack that weird one on the left!"

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" Ming panicked, jumping up onto a nearby fire escape as a horde of five dog-sized spiders snapped at her from below. "Esoteric Diviner Onmyoji Seimei…!" she yelled, as the spiders began crawling towards her, "…attack that center spider, NOW!"

Next to her, a tall man in long flowing white robes, the tall black hat of a Japanese exorcist, and multiple charms and talismans hanging around his neck, wrists, and clothing, spread out his arms and conjured a barrier, blasting back the spiders before forming a golden ball of light between his hands and vaporizing one of the spiders with a single blast. With an insectile shriek, the spider spirit shot a cocoon from its abdomen, which exploded into another spider identical to the one that had just been destroyed.

"OH COME ON!" Ming whined, setting down a few cards in her Spell/Trap Card zone. "Stop freaking multiplying!"

"HOLORIDE MEGAPOD…" Alex called, from within the cockpit of a large vehicle with a compact spherical body in the center, four legs spreading out from the center body, and a single massive broad tire at the end of each leg. Within the cockpit, three other holograms of translucent individuals worked the controls of the vehicle while Alex steered. "…SUPPRESSION ROCKETS!"

Pressing a button, he a missile turret popped out from a hatch on the side of the vehicle's spherical body before launching a silo of rockets at the tree's monster, which looked like a massive humanoid mess of dry thorns. In a series of explosions, the tree spirit was completely concealed in a layer of smoke as its monster was obliterated into fiery splinters, which Alex's vehicle ran over under its massive tires. With a demonic roar, the tree spirit rose up from the smoke before grabbing the vehicle in its demonic tree-branch arms and throwing the massive hulk back several meters, flipping it on its back as Alex's Life Points dropped to 500. Fortunately, thanks to the vehicles design, Alex only had to spin the spherical body around before he was right-side-up again.

"That should have destroyed you!" Alex gawked, surprised that, despite his monster's massive attack power, the Spirit's Life Points had been completely untouched while he had taken the damage. What was more, a new thorn-like monster was sprouting from the ground, ready to attack him.

"We've got a long way to go." Nagasaki sighed, drawing a card from the top of her deck.

"I activate the continuous magic card, Aristotelian Element!" she declared, throwing down her magic card. "With this card, once per turn, I can target one monster on the field in order to treat it as if its attributes were simultaneously EARTH, FIRE, WATER, and WIND!"

The lizard spirit hissed at her, snapping its jaws as if ready to devour her on sight.

"Glad you understand." Nagasaki drily replied. "I next summon Element Valkyrie!"

Beneath Nagasaki's feet, a pool of water formed on the ground before her monster appeared in the air and began dancing on the water as if it were solid ground. Element Valkyrie was a female warrior with a flaming battle-staff in her hand, an iron helmet with wings on the side, metal body armor with a red swimsuit bottom over her waist, a blue cape surrounding her waist, and a pair of long boots and stockings over her legs. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed a Level of four and an ATK of 1500.

"Next…" Nagasaki continued, "…since I control an Element monster, I can Special Summon Element Module from my hand!"

Above her head, a metallic inverted pyramid with alchemic symbols for Fire, Water, Earth, and Air over each of its triangular faces appeared above her head before opening up and revealing a single white sphere of energy suspended in the air by a mechanical apparatus. Like the previous monster, a holographic indicator showed a Level of four and an ATK of 1500.

"With these monsters, I construct the Overlay Network!" Nagasaki continued, raising her arms into the air as Valkerie transformed into a stream of yellow light and Module transformed into a stream of purple light before each drained into the center of the large Overly Network singularity, which formed in front of her feet. As the network exploded in a blast of multi-colored light, she began her summoning chant:

"The power of Aristotle's elements! Rise forth in evolution and slash down the enemy in antiquity! XYZ SHOKAN! Arawayo! Element Chimera!"

From the ground, a massive chimeric beast with the body of a leopard and four heads, one of a flaming dragon, one of an ice-encased sea-serpent, one of a rock covered bear, and one of a shrieking eagle, rose up before bearing down on the Lizard Spirit's monster. Above the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2000.

"Aristotelian Element's effect activates!" Nagasaki declared. "Targeting my own Element Chimera, I treat it simultaneously as EARTH, FIRE, WATER, and WIND!"

Roaring with power, all four of her monster's heads began glowing with the colors of their respective elements. The dragon glowed with a fiery red-and-yellow light, the Sea Serpent glowed with icy blue-and-white light, the bear glowed with earthy brown-and-orange light, and the eagle glowed with translucent green light.

"Next…" Nagasaki continued, "…I detach Element Module from my monster in order to activate its effect! This turn, depending on the monster Attributes on the field, it gains certain effects! While the FIRE attribute is on the field, it gains 500 ATK. While the WATER attribute is on the field, control of my monster cannot switch and it cannot be banished! While the WIND attribute is on the field, my monster can attack twice per turn! Finally, while the EARTH attribute is on the field, my monster negates the effects of any monster it battles, including in the graveyard, also, it inflicts piercing Battle Damage!"

The Lizard Spirits monster roared at Nagasaki's monster, proudly displaying its superior 3000 ATK as Element Chimera's ATK rose to 2500.

"We're not done yet." Nagasaki retorted, eyes narrowing as her determination grew. "Since Element Module was sent to the graveyard, its effect activates! I can add 1 "Element" monster from my deck to my hand, and I choose Element Charger!"

Plucking a card from her deck and adding it to her hand, she extended her hand towards her monster.

"Battle!" she commanded, "Element Chimera, destroy Shadow Komodo!"

With a mighty roar, Element Chimera let loose a stream of Fire, Water, Boulders, and wind from its different mouths as Shadow Komodo shot a stream of black acid from its own gargantuan gaping mouth.

"Element Charger's effect!" Nagasaki declared, "If an Element monster I control battles, I can discard this card to activate the following effects until the end of the Battle-Phase based on the monster Attributes on the field! With the FIRE attribute, all my Element monsters gain 1000 ATK and DEF! With the WATER attribute, all my Element monsters are unaffected by my opponent's card effects! With the EARTH attribute, my Element monsters cannot be destroyed by battle! Finally, with the WIND attribute, I take no damage!"

Hissing with fury, the Lizard Spirit watched as a stone cube with four hollow faces each containing a sphere of fire, earth, water, and wind respectively, descended from the sky before firing a bolt of electricity into Nagasaki's monster, boosting its ATK power to 3500 as it battled Shadow Komodo. With renewed vigor, Nagasaki's monster tore the lizard monster in half with its elemental attacks, knocking the Lizard Spirit back as its Life Points dropped to 500.

"Continue with the second attack!" Nagasaki commanded. "ELEMENTAL COMBINATION!"

With a second blast from all four of its mouths, Element Chimera blasted away the rest of the Lizard Spirits Life Points. Holding up her crimson mark, Nagasaki began chanting to herself as if in prayer before the shadowy Lizard Spirit slowly dissolved away, fading from existence. Once that was done, she quickly leaped over to Einer's field before the spirits he was battling could begin their next turn.

"MY TURN!" she declared, "DRAW!"

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" her Duel Disk declared, "1250 LIFE POINTS!"

Grimmacing as the penalty caused her Life Points to become halved, she quickly turned her attention to Einer, who was struggling back onto his feet, a mere 100 Life Points left.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, steadying the tall boy on his feet.

"Do I… have to… answer!?" Einer growled, brushing some dust off his clothing.

"Still okay. Good." Nagasaki replied, turning her attention to Einer's opponents. He had actually done a pretty good job. One of them, the hummingbird, had been reduced to just 1000 Life Points while the monkey spirit had 4000 Life Points and a completely cleared away field. The hummingbird controlled a single monster that looked like a demonic skeletal bird with six pairs of bony wings. Looking at her Duel Disk, she saw that the monster was labeled Necro Flyer, had 1300 ATK, a Level of -9, couldn't be targeted or destroyed by card effects, couldn't be destroyed by battle while the controller had monsters in his/her graveyard, and could attack directly by banishing one monster from the graveyard. Einer, meanwhile, controlled D.D. Paladin, a tall knight wielding a pair of multi-colored two-handed swords in each hand while wearing thick red-and-chrome armor and a ragged brown cape over its shoulders. The monster had 1900 ATK and several useful abilities that would allow him to summon other D.D. monsters. Unfortunately, as he was, he wouldn't be able to begin his next turn before the hummingbird took out his Life Points with another direct attack.

"I should be able to take them both out." Said Nagasaki, looking down at the two spirits. Once I'm done here, I'll need you to help out Alex while I help out Ming."

"The Monkey's got Necro Gardna in its graveyard." Einer groaned. "But if you can take out the hummingbird, I'd REALLY appreciate not getting hit with another direct attack."

"Sounds good." Nagasaki replied. "I summon Element Dragon and activate Aristotelian Elements in order to change my Element Chimera's attribute to EARTH, FIRE, WATER, and WIND once again! With that done, I'll detach one Overaly Unit from Chimera in order to grant it its effects!"

Letting out a mighty roar, element Chimera opened its mouths wide as its ATK rose to 2500 once again. Meanwhile, Nagasaki's Element Dragon let out a roar from its beak as its own ATK rose to 2000 with its effect.

"Battle!" Nagasaki commanded, "Element Chimera, attack Necro Flyer!"

Letting out a mighty howl, the monkey spirit activated the effect of its Necro Guardna, which appeared from the graveyard and took Element Chimera's blast in place of Necro Flyer, shielding the hummingbird spirit from the damage.

"I still have an attack!" Nagasaki roared, "Element Chimera, one more attack!"

With a second elemental barrage from its mouths, Element Chimera obliterated the undead bird monstrosity before reducing the hummingbird's Life Points to 0.

"Element Dragon, direct attack!" Nagasaki ordered, pointing to the Monkey Spirit. With a blast of yellow energy from its draconic mouth, Element dragon knocked the monkey spirit back before reducing its Life Points to 2000.

"I'll set a card face down and end my turn." Nagasaki finished as the monkey staggered back to its shadowy feet. With a grin, the monkey summoned a single Level 4 monster, Necro Tentacles, with 1000 ATK before activating its effect, sending five cards from the top of its deck to the graveyard at the cost of not being able to activate any effects from the graveyard that turn. Then it ended its turn.

"It keeps doing that." Einer growled. "And then it just keeps messing with my plays by activating effects from the graveyard later on!"

"You'll have to figure this one out on your own." Nagasaki replied, looking through the cards in the monkey's graveyard. "It looks like it has three copies of Necro strangler in its graveyard. If you attack, it can banish any of them to increase its monster's attack by 1000 while reducing your monster's attack by 1000. The others aren't a threat this turn, but could be a threat if it gets another turn. So all you have to do now is nullify the threat of those stranglers."

"Got it." Einer replied, sweating as he yanked another card from his deck. "If I live through this, you owe me a milkshake!"

"Only if you're buying." Nagasaki replied, popping a stick of gum into her mouth.

"Kind of defeats the purpose, but oh well." Einer grunted, as he stretched his hand towards his monster. "I activate the effect of my D.D. Paladin! Once per turn, I can Special Summon one Level four or lower D.D. monster from my hand, so come on out, my Level three tuner monster D.D. Explorer!"

What looked like a cubic space probe with multiple cameras and robotic arms sticking out of its faces appeared to Einer's field through a multi-colored dimensional fissure that opened up in the sky above their heads. Hovering over his monster as it scanned the field with its cameras, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a DEF of 1800.

"When D.D. Explorer is Special Summoned." Einer explained, I can add up to two of my banished D.D. monsters to my hand. I choose two of my banished D.D. Crows!"

Appearing through two dimensional tears, a pair of cyborg crows with red robotic eyes flew down to Einer before condensing into a pair of cards which he caught in his hand.

"Next, I normal Summon my Level four monster D.D. Warrior Lady!"

A female warrior with blonde hair and black armor appeared to Einer's field, next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1500.

"Time for one of my aces!" Einer declared, I Tune my Level three D.D. Explorer with my Level four D.D. Warrior Lady in order to Synchro Summon! The war veteran that crossed the Dimensional Fissure, emerge from the space between dimensions and order the march to victory! Synchro Summon! Level 7, Ijigen Ku (Different Dimension Void) Fissure Scar General!"

In a pillar of light, Einer's new monster appeared to the field. Appearance wise, the monster looked just like D.D. Warrior Lady, save for the fact that she wore thicker armor and a black cape, rode a cyborg horse, and sported numerous scars over her body that pulsated with dark red light like the tear depicted in Dimensional Fissure. A holographic indicator appeared next to his monster, showing an ATK of 2500.

"I'll now activate the effects of both of my crows!" Einer declared. "By discarding both of these cards to the graveyard, I can banish two cards from your graveyard, so say goodbye to two Necro Stranglers!"

Howling in anger, the monkey could only watch as two writhing tentacles of undead flesh briefly appeared, only to be snatched away by Einer's crows before the crows disappeared through their own dimensional tears.

"But I'm not done banishing your cards yet!" Einer roared, "My D.D.V. Fissure Scar General can banish one card you control once per turn! So send that Necro Tentacle away! Dimensional Laceration!"

Slicing her sword through the air, Einer's monster caused a massive tear to open up in the air above the monkey's monster, which sucked the creature up into the dimensionless void on the other side, leaving the monkey wide open.

"Battle!" Einer declared, "D.D.V. Fissure Scar General, direct attack!"

Charging forward, Fissure Scar General prepared to cleave the monkey in two with its sword. Stretching out its hand, the monkey banished the last copy of Necro Strangler in its graveyard, which leaped out through a graveyard portal and slashed at Fissure Scar General, lowering the monster's ATK to 1500 before the warrior sliced the undead tentacle in two with a flick of her blade. Continuing with the attack, Fissure Scar General cut into the monkey's chest with her sword, reducing its Life Points to 500.

"D.D. Paladin, finish it off!" Einer ordered, watching as his knight charged forward before delivering the finishing blow. Raising his mark to the two fallen spirits, Einer began chanting under his breath until the spirits dissolved away.

"Wow…" Einer gasped, "…I'm… I'm happy. I am happy… to be alive. Can I get a hug?"

"Let's get to Ming and Alex first. We need to-…" Nagasaki began before Alex appeared behind her and patted her reassuringly on the back.

"We're you talking about me?" Alex asked with a gentle smile on his face.

Nagasaki pulled away from his hand. "Okay, but we still need to help-…"

"I DID IT! I FREAKING DID IT! FINALLY! WHOO!" Ming whooped at the top of her lungs, standing over the comatose body of the spider spirit. "SEE YOU IN THE UNDERWORD B-…"

"MING!" Nagasaki roared, exorcising the spirit with her own mark and sending Ming tumbling to the ground as the monster dissolved away. "THESE ARE CURSED SPIRITS! AT ONE TIME, THEY WERE HUMANS JUST LIKE US! THEY'RE NOT JUST BRAINLESS VIDEO GAME BOSSES! SHOW SOME RESPECT!"

"Okay… okay… fine." Ming grumbled, brushing some dirt from her hair. "But oh my gosh! Did you guys see me!? At first, I was having a lot of trouble, because that big spider thing just kept summoning a new monster every time I destroyed one, but then I thought, 'duh! I've like, got my monster's ability that I haven't been using the whole time!' So I just activated the ability and then I totally kicked its-…"

"How did you do, Einer?" Alex asked, ignoring Ming's recap.

Einer blushed. "I uhm… we should see if Subaru and Katashi need-…"

"OH MY GOSH!" Ming laughed, rolling around on the ground. "I like… saw the whole thing! You were totally getting your rear end handed to you by those spirits!"

"At least I wasn't running away from a bunch of little spiders!" Einer spat back.

"Well I beat mine!" Ming countered.

"I WAS FIGHTING TWO OF THEM!" Einer roared, "I SHOULD BE GETTING A MEDAL OF HONOR FOR-…"

"ENOUGH!" Nagasaki barked, bopping Einer and Ming over the head with her fists to shut them up. "Why don't you three watch how some real masters get things done?" she instructed, pointing at Subaru and Katashi, who were holding off their own separate swarms of spirits.

"FIRE KING HIGH AVATAR GARUNIX EFFECT!" Subaru roared as a massive phoenix rose from graveyard portal in a raging pillar of fire, "I DESTROY ALL OTHER MONSTERS ON THE FIELD!"

Roaring with fury, a massive blue giant and a blue wolf each backed away as each of their monsters were destroyed by Subaru's effect.

"NEXT!" Subaru declared, "My second Fire King High Avatar Garunix's effect activates along with the third one in my graveyard! Furthermore, thanks to my Continuous Trap Card, Rage of the Fire Kings, each time a Fire King monster is destroyed, you take damage equal to its Level X 100! With this you will each take sixteen-hundred damage. More than enough to take out each of your thirteen-hundred Life Points!"

Eyes gaping open in awe, Ming, Alex, and Einer, watched as Subaru's phoenixes exploded in a raging ball of fire, blowing back the earthbound spirits before rising again from the ashes and continuing in a seemingly endless cycle of destruction and rebirth. In seconds, Subaru had defeated both his opponents and exorcised them with a gentle command and wave of his mark.

Nagasaki smiled at her companion's stunned expressions. "Now check out my dad." She smirked, pointing to Katashi.

"Using the Magic Card, Fusion, I fuse the three Satellite Cannons in my hand!" Katashi declared as a Fusion Portal materialized behind him. As the portal appeared, the three spirits he was engaging, a condor, second hummingbird, and orca, backed away as the light from the portal touched them. Each of them had 4000 LP and a monster with 5000 ATK. Katashi, on the other hand, had no cards on his field and a measly 100 Life Points. Despite the overwhelming odds against him, however, Katashi seemed completely calm and resolved as he commenced his fusion chant:

"Majestic weapons forged in the blackness of space, combine as one to cast your celestial light upon the darkened planet below! YUUGO SHOKAN! Gather the power of the solar system itself! Level 8! Satellite Laser Balsam!"

As he completed his fusion chant, the portal behind him dissolved away, leaving nothing on his field.

"Huh?" Ming asked. "Where the heck is it?"

Glancing over at the group of teenagers, Katashi smiled before pushing a button on his Duel Disk.

Immediately, a holographic image of his monster appeared, showing an utterly massive space station suspended over the atmosphere of the planet. The station looked like it was at least 3000 feet high, with an array of massive rings and solar panels surrounding its cylindrical body. At its base, a trio of three massive futuristic laser cannons pointed towards the planet's surface while a central robotic eye lay between the three cannons. Next to the first hologram, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 0.

While Nagasaki nodded her head in admiration, the other three gawked at Katashi's play, unable to believe he had gone to all that trouble just to summon a monster with 0 ATK.

"I activate the Quick-Play Magic Card…" Katashi continued with a grin, "…Satellite Overcharge! In order to understand this card, you'll need to understand my Fusion Monster's effect. During each of my End-Phases, my monster gains three-thousand attack. However, whenever a Battle-Phase concludes in which my monster attacks, its attack power reverts to zero. Satellite Overcharge takes my Satellite's effect which activates at the End Phase and activates it three times in succession! However, my monster will be destroyed at the end of the Battle-Phase."

Jaws dropping in shock, Ming, Alex, and Einer watched as Katashi's monster rapidly gained 9000 ATK.

"Oh give it a rest." Subaru smirked, leisurely strolling up to the other teenagers. "This isn't even half of Katashi's real power. Save that expression for something REALLY epic."

"Satellite Laser Balsam can attack three times per Battle-Phase!" Katashi declared, stretching his hands towards the spirits. "With this you are finished! ORBITAL TRINITY ANNIHILATION CANNONS!"

From way up in the sky, a sudden flash of light appeared before three massive columns of pure energy descended on the spirit's monsters, vaporizing each one on contact as the laser columns swept across the duel field. Roaring in agony, the three spirits were blasted back against the wall of the alleyway, where they lay comatose.

Frowning, Katashi looked over at his dim mark and sighed before glancing at Subaru and nodding his head.

"No problem, my friend." Subaru replied before walking up to the three spirits and exorcising them all with his own mark. Once he had finished, he turned around and rushed back over to the other teenagers before looking them over to see if they had any wounds.

"Are you all okay!?" he asked, patting down Einer, Alex, and Ming, much to the three teenagers' chagrin.

"Yes… we're fine!" Einer grunted. "You don't need to worry about us. I mean, weren't you like… ten when you fought in the first war?"

"I was eleven." Subaru replied. "And that's exactly why I DO NOT want anyone else to have to go through what I did, least of all my snotty cousin."

"Well… all things considered." Nagasaki mumbled, brushing some dust from her hands. "I'd say this mission went well. All the spirits have been contained, no casualties, and just in time to get back to our evening school lessons."

There were audible groans from Ming, Alex, and Einer, which were quickly suppressed when they saw Katashi walking towards them with a stern expression on his face.

"Whelp…" Subaru smiled, adjusting his gloves, "…I'm with Nagasaki. Nothing like unwinding from a stressful mission with a few hours of boring lectures from Stephan."

"Are they really that boring?" a mellow voice asked from the other side of the alleyway.

"HEADMASTER STEPHAN!" Subaru exclaimed, eyes bugging out of his head as a fairly elderly man with glasses, a wrinkly forehead, a full head of grey hair, and a cane in his hand strolled towards them, a crimson dragon head mark blazing against the skin of his right arm. "I… I didn't know you would be here. I thought you'd be working on those Paradigm cards."

"Pendulum cards." Stephan calmly corrected, leaning on his cane. "Though a few of those are being created for my own Paradigm Shift cards. But those can wait. I admit, I was eager to see my students in action, and I'm not disappointed."

"Oh thank you headmaster!" Ming beamed, "It was nothing really. Those guys were-…"

"I'm not satisfied though." Stephan smirked, turning around and indicating for the others to follow him. "And so… as Subaru so eloquently put it, it looks like it's time for you all to get back to my very boring, though I hope exceedingly brilliant, lectures. My classroom at the Phoenix Boarding School. Thirty minutes. Don't be late."

Nagasaki sighed as she followed the others back to the school. True, the other students still had a lot to learn, but hopefully, with enough training and her guidance, they'd be able to become just the Phoenix Guards the world needed at the moment.

Ming, meanwhile, shook her head and sighed.

"Man…" she exclaimed, "…I can't wait to see what it's like to actually fight a disciple."

...

 **Standard Dimension: Eight hours before Shun's duel against Crow**

"LOOK OUT!" Semal called as the Earthbound Disciple they were fighting commanded one of her monsters to activate its ability. Letting loose a massive shockwave, the shadowy monster knocked Semal, and his older brother, Adeel, on their backs as their Life Points each dropped to 3500.

Getting up from the ground and brushing dust from his bald head, Adeel looked back at his brother with his milky white eyes with an expression on his face that seemed to say, "Really? The warning you're gonna call out to a blind guy is 'Look out?'"

"Oh… uhm… sorry…" Semal muttered, brushing some dirt out of his short and spikey blonde hair. "I… uhm… forgot you couldn't…"

"It's okay." Adeel replied reassuringly, presenting Semal with a dazzling smile from his pearly white teeth. "It doesn't bother me." Reaching out his hand, Adeel helped his younger brother off the ground.

Adeel was a tall and muscular individual with deep chocolate colored skin, a black jacket, grey pants, and a crimson mask-like dragon tail mark on his right arm. In his hand he held a leash that held a whimpering German Shepherd dog on the other end, his seeing eye dog, Fluffals.

Gently patting the dog's head, Adeel turned back around, facing the general direction of the disciple, a female woman with long messy jet-black hair, wide blue eyes with black sclera, and a multi-colored spiral mark blazing against her small chest. They had tried to reason with the frightened teenage girl earlier, but she had gone berserk immediately upon seeing them and forced them into a duel against her.

Truth be told, there was little chance of the girl even hearing what the two Phoenix Guardsmen had to say. Her mind was in utter turmoil, completely consumed with overwhelming rage and fear.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" she roared, clawing in agony at her face with her long chipped nails as her torment and rage increased by the second. "I WILL FIND HER AND WE'LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN!"

"YOU'RE CRAZY WOMAN!" Semal shouted back, wiping some dust out of his brown eyes. Like his brother, he had deep chocolate brown skin and a tall muscular build. His scalp, however, was covered in short spikey blonde hair, he wore a black hoodie, pair of dusty goggles around his neck, a torn pair of white jeans, and had a crimson dragon-claw mark blazing against the skin of his right arm. Semal immediately regretted calling the girl crazy as she quickly raised her hands above her head and activated her monster effect again, blasting both himself and his brother back again and reducing their Life Points to 3000.

"Okay! Semal…" Adeel grunted, picking himself off the sandy ground and feeling his chest, which was throbbing with pain. They had only just started, but already he could feel multiple deep bleeding lacerations against his chest and neck, and several searing burn wounds on his chin, neck, breast, and stomach. They needed to regain control of the situation and they needed to do so FAST! "…from now on, let ME do the talking! She's a war victim, just like us! She's probably got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She's not in her right mind. But pointing that out to her like that is NOT going to help anything!"

Semal groaned in response, slowly shaking the sand out of his hair as he cupped his own bleeding chest in his arms. Despite his wounds, however, Semal managed to get back up onto his feet. Perhaps it was the fact that the blows had been softened by the sandy landscape, or perhaps it was due to him and his brother's sheer grit and optimism, but either way, Semal could not say that he and Adeel were not unused to struggling through this kind of abuse. He and his brother had both been victims of a terrible ethnic cleansing war that had swept through their country, decimating the population and ravaging the countryside. They had both survived, but their parents had tragically been killed. Despite their afflictions, however, the two brothers had continued living, eventually being called as members of the Phoenix Guard through a miraculous encounter with one of its members, who was defending what remained of their country from the ravages of a dangerous disciple. Not too long after their induction into the Phoenix Guard, the two brothers would learn just how dangerous their world really was as they learned of the many Earthbound Disciples that had risen up as a horrific consequence of spirits wanting to obtain revenge after being horrifically murdered in the terrible war.

"HE'S PROMISED ME!" the disciple continued, tearing at her own hair in agony as she continued her ravings. Despite the power she was demonstrating in the duel, she didn't look focused. She was whipping her head around with a paranoid expression on her face while seemingly talking to herself more than the two brothers. "HE'S PROMISED ME WE'LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN! I KNOW WHAT I HAVE TO DO! I NEED TO GO TO SYNCHRO! SHE'S IN SYNCHRO! I HAVE TO GET TO SYNCHRO! JUST A LITTLE MORE! JUST A LITTLE MORE ENERGY! THEN I CAN DO IT! I CAN DO IT! I CAN CROSS THE BOUNDARY! I JUST NEED MORE TIME! PLEASE! WAIT FOR ME! PLEASE SISTER! WAIT FOR ME!"

"Please… you don't have to panic…" Adeel reasoned, holding out his hand in a gesture of peace while keeping a hand cupped over his bleeding chest. "…we're here to help you. We can help you right now, but we need you to calm down. Eh? Understand? We want to help you, and we can help you, but we can't help you unless you're calm."

"SHUT UP!" the girl hollered, suddenly whipping her head around to face Adeel, eyes glowing with intense blue light as she activated her monster's effect yet again.

Once again, Semal widened his eyes in shock as Adeel seemed to just stand there as if he was willing to take the blast head-on. If this kept up, he was going to get killed before his life points even reached zero! Charging forward like a football player, Semal slammed into his brother, tackling him out of the way of the blast while taking the full force of the disciple's fury on his back.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Semal roared, as the attack left a searing cauterized laceration wound with a blistering burn wound over his back. As his shirt caught on fire, Semal instinctively pushed off his brother and began rolling around in the sand, popping blisters on his back as he put out the flames.

"SEMAL!" Adeel called, hearing his brother's cries and smelling the smoky mixture of blood, sweat, roasted flesh, and blister fluid. Deciding that diplomacy would be fruitless at this point, he quickly leapt to his feet and faced the disciple, listening to the girl's ragged breathing, feeling the pulsations of her growing anger and dark energy, tasting the scent of tears, sweat, blood, old perfume, and dust on her skin, and sensing the presence of malignant dark spirits within her soul and extra deck with his dragon mark. She needed help, that was for certain, but perhaps it had to be tough love. Still, she was just a little girl, exorcising a disciple was never a light matter. True, there would be healing once the process was complete, but burning the darkness from a person's soul always involved pain, immeasurable pain. A pain that Adeel could only speculate about based on the shrill cries of the disciples, the fearsome pulsing of their skin and hearts, and the ragged breathing of their throats and lungs. It was always better, he knew, if the disciple willingly desired to be cleansed. He would give her one last chance to come to them willingly.

"This is your last warning."Adeel called, struggling to suppress his anger over the girl hurting his brother. "We can bring your soul rest and peace, but if you keep showing hostility, I will not hesitate to do EVERYTHING in my power to purge that dark spirit from your soul like the poison it is!"

"Stop talking to her." Semal groaned, struggling to pick himself up from the ground. "She's not gonna listen! We have to find cover!"

"If the earthbound are promising you your sister, they are only deceiving you." Adeel continued, ignoring his brother's voice. "They don't care about your family. They only want you as their slave. Even if your sister is alive, do you think she'll be at peace knowing that her sister is willing to murder others just so she can harvest their energy for her own use? Come, please. You can bring peace to yourself and your family if you just-…"

"YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND MY PAIN!" the girl roared, only hearing about half of what Adeel was saying as her growing rage and pain pushed against her chest and pounded against her head and eyes like a wild animal wanting to escape and tear up everything in sight. "I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY! THE SHINING MASTER TOLD ME ABOUT YOU! HE TOLD ME YOU'D TRY TO TAKE MY SISTER FROM ME! JUST LIKE THE LDS DID!"

Fluffals started whining. Against his leg, Adeel could feel his dog's skin and fur quivering and the great absence of exuberant, hot, and moist panting, all signs that his dog was very on edge. Fortunately, he could not smell blood, but he definitely didn't want to have to. He had to handle this delicately and be ready to immediately do as his brother instructed and run for cover if all else failed. If they could make it past the girl's first turn, they might stand a chance.

Sadly, at that moment, upon hearing what the girl had last said, Semal said something very tactless and stupid.

"The Mormons took your sister from you?" Semal gawked, looking at the girl with a look of absolute confusion.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the girl roared raising her hands into the air.

"COVER! NOW!" Adeel roared, scooping Fluffals into his arms before rolling with the whimpering dog behind a small slab of stone as the girl activated her monster's effect again. Reaching the stone just in time, Adeel heard the whistling of the air and felt the power of the shockwave against his neck and face as the audio function on his Duel Disk stated that his Life Points were at 2500.

"LEO DUEL SCHOOL!" the girl roared. "THEY TOOK HER FROM ME! THEY TOOK MY SISTER FROM ME! BUT I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE! I'M GONNA FIND THEM! I'M GONNA KILL THEM! I'LL KILL THEM ALL FOR TAKING MY SISTER AWAY FROM ME! THEN WE'LL BE TOGETHER! WE'LL BE TOGETHER FOREVER! I'LL NEVER LET ANYTHING HURT HIM AGAIN! SHE'LL BE HAPPY! I'LL BE LIKE A MOTHER TO HER! LIKE OUR MOTHER WAS! JUST LIKE OUR MOTHER WAS! I JUST NEED TO GET TO SYNCHRO! I NEED ENERGY! JUST A LITTLE MORE ENERGY! ENERGY! ENERGY! ENERGYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

"We're not gonna get through to her!" Semal called from a distant pile of rubble. "We have to take her down!"

"Agreed." Adeel admitted, stroking Fluffals head, as the dog nervously whined and panted against his chest, clouding the air under Adeel's nose with her hot moist doggy breath. "Just hold out for this turn. She can activate that monster effect once for each Magic Card she possesses, so between the five Continuous Magic Cards she has, the Field Magic, and her monster effect that lets it be treated as a Magic Card, that's a total of seven times, not enough to destroy us.

"Yeah… real comforting, Adeel!" Semal snarled.

"Just hold out!" Adeel called, "We have to stop her before she hurts anyone else!"

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MY PAIN!" The girl roared, feeling like she was about to burst with her rage and pain. She needed to release it! She NEEDED to release it! It would kill her if she didn't let it out! So she'd let it out! She'd let them take it! She'd let them take all of it! "I'LL SHOW IT TO YOU!" she screamed, clutching at the sides of her head in pain, "I'LL SHOW YOU ALL MY PAIN! ABSTRACTION MUSE GUERNICA, EFFECT ACTIVATE!"

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Adeel roared, clutching Fluffals to his chest as the girl continued her relentless attacks.

BOOM!

…

"Two-Thousand Life Points!"

…

"AGAIN!"

…

BOOM!

…

"One-thousand five hundred Life Points! Injuries detected! Recommend immediate cessation of current duel!"

…

"AGAIN!"

…

BOOM!

…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

"ADEEL!"

…

"One thousand Life Points! Minor fractures detected! Warning! User condition critical!

…

"AGAIN! AGAIN! SHOW THEM OUR PAIN! SHOW THEM THE TRUTH OF OUR PAIN!"

…

BOOM!

…

"STAY BACK, SEMAL! STAY UNDER COVER!"

…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Five hundred Life Points! Warning! User death imminent! Seek medical attention immediately!"

…

…

…

COUGH! COUGH!

Coughing up some blood, Adeel slammed his hand on the ground before wrenching his broken body up with all his rushing adrenaline and the energy from his mark. Feeling a set of rough hands clamp against his shoulders, Adeel felt the ragged breathing of his brother's hot breath against his neck and the tingling of his brother's electromagnetic field against his skin and hairs. Holding onto his brother as he gripped Fluffal's leash, he steadied himself before facing the disciple.

"She looks pretty angry." Semal groaned, rubbing his hand against a bleeding gash on his face.

"We finish this… now!" Adeel grunted. "You know which card we need!"

"I do." Semal agreed, shakily holding out his own Duel Disk.

"Ore no… TURRRRRRRRRN!" Adeel howled, ripping a card from the top of his deck as Fluffals let loose a mighty howl of her own.

"From my hand, I activate the magic card, 'The Dogs Are Out!' With this card, I can Special Summon two Level four or lower 'Canine' monsters from my deck with their effects negated and their attack and defense changed to zero. Furthermore, I cannot Normal Summon monsters during the turn I activate this card or use these monsters as a material for a Special Summon, except the Special Summon of a 'Canine' monster! Come! My level four monster, Laika the Canine Astronaut, and my Level two Tuner monter, Jack the Canine Lifeguard!"

Barking as they charged through a set of two portals, Adeel's monsters pounced onto the field. The first was a mutt-dog in a Russian spacesuit while the second was a black retriever wearing a swimsuit bottom, a life-jacket, a whistle, and sunglasses like a lifeguard.

"With these two monsters, I Synchro Summon! Adeel declared. In his hands, a holographic dog whistle materialized, which he immediately blew. Obediently, the two dogs rushed forward, barking at the top of their lungs before Jack the Canine Lifeguard morphed into a set of green rings that encompassed Laika in their light as Adeel commenced his summoning chant:

"Loyal and fierce canine companions, fight as one in the pack and give birth to the legendary canine who rules over the fiery darkness! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Come to me! Orthrus the Legendary Canine Gaurdian!"

From a fiery pit that opened in the sandy ground, Adeel's Synchro Monster rose to the field as a massive flaming two headed dog with a fiery snake tail, flaming bone armor, and crimson fur that burned against magma-like skin. The creature was about as tall as a bus and nearly twice as wide, possessing a very muscly figure. As it looked down at the Earthbound Disciple with a set of glowing flaming eyes, it let out a fiery roar from its twin mouths as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2600.

"When Jack is used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon, I can target cards on the field, up to the number of Synchro Materials used in the Synchro Summon, and shuffle them into the owner's deck. I target your Field Magic Card, Trompe L'oeil, and your monster, Abstraction Muse Guernica.

"Guernica effect activate!" the girl countered. "During my opponent's turn, I can tribute one Magic Card I control in order to negate the effects of a monster! I tribute 2 Magic Cards in order to negate the effects of Jack the Canine Lifeguard and Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian!"

Adeel shielded his face, as winds ripped through the sandy landscape, blowing sand into his and his monster's eyes.

"Guernica gains five-hundred attack for each Magic Card in my graveyard, and since I now have six, that's a total of three-thousand attack!" the girl roared, mark blazing against her chest as her fury grew. Matching her own fury, the shadowy monster let out a series of tormented screams and howls as a holographic indicator showed its ATK rise from 2000 to 3000.

"I was expecting that." Adeel grunted, gasping before falling to his knees with exhaustion. "Semal… finish this!"

"With pleasure." Semal replied. "Boku no turn! Draw! From my hand, I Normal Summon the Level three monster, Celestial Hero Serpens!"

In a flash of light, a shining warrior in black armor bearing a shield with a serpent shaped star constellation on its face appeared to Semal's field. While humanoid, the warrior possessed serpentine features with a pair of glowing snake eyes, scaly skin, and a pair of long snake fangs protruding from its upper lips. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1200 and a Level of 3.

"When this card is Normal Summoned successfully, I can add 1 Celestial Hero monster from my deck to my hand. And I think I'm going to summon it right away! With Celestial Hero Volan's effect, I can Special Summon it from my hand while I control a Celestial Hero monster! So say hello to my Level one tuner, Celestial Hero Volans!"

Through another portal, a second smaller shining warrior flew through the air before landing on Semal's field. The warrior possessed a pair of triangular constellations on its back, giving it the appearance of two fin-like wings. Its body was piscine with webbed hands, fins, a set of gills on its neck, wide eyes, and a fish-tail like a mermaid instead of legs. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 300 and a Level of 1.

"Now to bring forth the light!" Semal declared. "I tune my Level one Celestial Hero Volans with my Level three Celestial Hero Serpens in order to Synchro Summon!"

Flapping its wings and tail, Volans flew through the air like a flying fish before morphing into a ring of glowing white light that encompassed Serpens in a pillar of radiant light as Semal began his own summoning chant.

"Ancient radiant constellations of pure and noble heroic beasts, shine your light together in harmony and gravitate together as a new hero! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Appear in the sky now! Level four Synchro Tuner! Celestial Hero Graviton!"

Bursting free from the column of light, Semal's Synchro monster appeared to the field as a massive muscly warrior in dark black armor with multiple shining orbs over its face like twinkling stars. Cupping its hands together, it sucked bits of sand and dust into the center of a gravity well, slowly condensing them until they began to form a miniature star. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1000.

"Once per turn, Graviton can negate the effects of one of your monsters!" Semal declared, extending his hand towards the disciple's monster.

"Guernica effect!" the disciple roared, sending another of her Continuous Spell Cards to the graveyard in order to negate the effects of Semal's monster and increase her own monster's ATK to 3500.

"I thought you'd do that." Semal replied, "Which is why I planned this! Adeel, you ready?"

"Use my monster." Adeel instructed.

"I will." Semal agreed. "Using my Level four Synchro Tuner, Celestial Hero Graviton, and my brother's Level six Synchro Monster, Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian, I Synchro Summon!"

Leaving a trail of flames behind as it sprinted forward, Orthrus let out a mighty howl from its twin heads as Graviton morphed into a set of four rings and encompassed Orthrus in their light.

"Light and darkness shall always coexist but evil need not prevail! Gather the powers of light and darkness together into your being now and become an instrument of righteousness in the deepest voids of space! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Appear now! Level 10! Celestial Hero Galactic Void!"

Above the duelist's heads, the sky itself darkened to reveal an array of thousands of stars decorating the night sky. From the thousands of stars, pillars of light descended to the earth, bathing the field in light until, from a single column of light, a lone warrior fell from the sky and stood up at his full height. Celestial Hero Galactic Void was clad in similar black armor to the other Celestial Hero monsters, but while the others possessed patterns of light on their armor, this monster's armor was pure black with a swirling shadowy galaxy decorating the center of his chest. Over each of his armored hands, another black galaxy swirled in the darkness, seemingly condensing into the center of a singularity. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 3200.

"Galactic Void's effect applies. While he is face-up on the field, Spell and Trap Cards and their effects on the field cannot be activated, in addition, the effects of all Spell and Trap Cards on the field are rendered null and void, and since your Guernica is always treated as a Spell Card, that includes the effects of your monster!"

"NO!" the disciple cried, watching helplessly as her monster's ATK dropped to 0.

"It's over." Adeel called. "Your deck is nothing but Magic Cards. Even if we don't have enough attack to reduce your life points to zero right now, with Galactic Void's effect, your deck is crippled."

The disciple stared at the two brothers, clenching her fists together as tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Andel… Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel!" the girl wept, falling to her knees as her body shook with sobbing. Just as suddenly as the rage had come and overwhelmed her body, it had suddenly vanished, leaving behind nothing but a vacuum of empty despair and sorrow as she collapsed in on herself. She was still not hearing much of what the others were saying, but she could see that she had failed. Her monster wasn't strong any more. Why wasn't it strong!? Why wasn't it strong!? Why couldn't she beat them!? Why was she so weak!? So helpless!?

Hearing her weeping, Adeel started walking forward, Fluffals guiding the way, when he suddenly felt Semal's arm blocking his way.

"Wait." Semal warned. "This duel isn't over yet."

"Andel, Andel, Andel, Andel, ANDEL!" the girl kept weeping, body shaking as her grief grew. It was just like back then, just like when the war began. They had attacked, and she could do nothing to protect her, Andel, her sister. Feeling her aguish grow, she gave voice to her thoughts. "I failed you! I failed you! I failed you! I failed you! Forgive me! Forgi-…"

Suddenly, the girl seemed to choke. Gagging and coughing, the girl starting writhing on the ground before throwing up her arms and hands and screaming at the top of her lungs as her eyes and mark each glowed with intense light. Suddenly, instead of pain, the girl suddenly felt overwhelming strength and power coursing through her being as something inside her seemed to take charge, aggressively sweeping aside her weakness and replacing it with its strength.

"I WILL NOT FAIL YOU ANDEL!" she roared in a voice half feminine and sorrowful and half deep, feral, and demonic, "I'M COMING FOR YOU! NOTHING WILL STOP ME! NOTHING!"

Leaping from the ground, she yanked a card from her hand and tossed it into her Duel Disk's graveyard.

"I DISCARD A MAGIC CARD FROM MY HAND TO ACTIVATE ITS EFFECT!" she roared, "SINCE GALACTIC VOID NEGATES THE EFFECTS OF MAGIC CARDS ON THE FIELD, IT'S EFFECT DOES NOT APPLY TO CARDS THAT ACTIVATE IN THE GRAVEYARD! WHEN ABSTRACT ART DESTRUCTION IS ACTIVATED, I INFLICT 500 DAMAGE TO ALL PLAYERS FOR EVERY ABSTRACT ART CARD IN MY GRAVEYARD! WITH EIGHT CARDS IN MY GRAVEYARD, WE ALL TAKE FOUR-THOUSAND DAMAGE! GO AWAY! YOU CAN'T STOP ME FROM FINDING ANDEL! WE WILL BE TOGETHER AGAI-…"

The rest of her speech was cut off as a raging explosion bathed the Duel Field in fiery light. Running as fast as they could, the two brothers managed to duck behind some cover before the force of the shockwave blasted them back, sending them rolling across the sandy plains until they both passed out.

…

…

…

…

"A…eel."

…

…

…

…

"A…eel."

…

…

…

…

…

"Adeel."

…

…

…

…

…

"ADEEL!"

Adeel woke with a start after hearing Semal's voice and began feeling his surroundings. Feeling some blankets against his throbbing chest and smelling the scent of an old and dusty mattress, he realized he must have been taken to their bedroom. Letting out a loud moan, he tried to get up out of his bed, but a firm hand pressed down on his shoulder.

"You need to rest now." His brother's voice instructed. I've managed to heal your serious wounds, but you'll still need some time."

"Were did she go?" Adeel coughed, feeling his throat burning as he became conscious of his thirst. He heard a clinking sound and felt the wet metal taste of a canteen being pressed against his lips. Drinking heavily, he wet his throat and then coughed again once he became conscious of the pain from his other wounds.

"After I brought you here, I tried tracking her." Semal explained. "But I wasn't able to find her, even with my mark."

"You went alone!?" Adeel angrily rasped before grimacing in pain.

"Take it easy! Just… take it easy!" Semal replied. "I wasn't going to face her on my own."

"Rotten liar." Adeel croaked.

"Well… maybe so." Semal admitted. "Still, I didn't manage to find her like I said, and I couldn't even sense her with my mark. I did… however… find some bodies… drained… of energy… and dead."

"She left to the Synchro Dimension." Adeel groaned, tears trickling down his eyes as he forced himself upright before his brother could stop him. "We have to stop her! Before the Earthbound make her hurt anyone else!"

"You're in no condition to…"

"DARN IT SEMAL, INNOCENT PEOPLE'S LIVES ARE ON THE LINE HERE!" Adeel roared. "We have a duty to protect them! We need to leave to the Synchro Dimension now!"

"Yeah right!" Semal retorted. "There's no way either of us even have enough energy in our marks to make the jump there! And besides, you need to heal, Adeel!"

"Let's compromise then." Adeel replied. "I'll stay in bed for the time being, meditating and gathering energy from the Crimson Dragon. You attend to my injuries while I do this, but once I gather enough energy, we're going to Synchro."

"But…"

"No 'buts' Semal." Adeel growled. "Right now we're the ones who have the best chance of stopping her. We can't communicate across dimensions with these marks, and Stephan, Subaru, and Katashi have their own problems to deal with! No matter what you do, I'm going. With or without you, I'm going!"

Semal hung his head. He knew it was useless to argue with his brother. They were both equally stubborn, but if Adeel gathered the energy he needed, which he could probably easily do with his skill, there would be nothing he could do to stop him.

"Alright." Semal conceded. "You stay in that bed and rest while you meditate. But once you gather the energy to open a path to Synchro, you take me with you."

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Adeel grunted, closing his eyes and pressing his fists together as his mark pulsated with gentle red light.

…

 **Fusion Dimension: 4 hours before Shun's Duel against Crow**

"We're going to Synchro!?" Joho nervously asked his companion, Lydia, as he wiped some sweat from his green eyes and sandy brownish-blonde hair. Joho, a former resident of the Xyz Dimension before being briefly captured by Fusion Soldiers and later released thanks to the help of a former Academia student, Lydia, had a propensity to get nervous in even the least stressful situations. The prospect of travelling to another foreign dimension in order to hunt down a homicidal pyromaniac who prided himself in killing Phoenix Guards and Earthbound Disciples alike was not helping him maintain his calm.

Together, he and Lydia had been working together in the Fusion Dimension to try and gather any Fusion Dimension citizen unsympathetic to Academia's tyranny together in order to topple the professor's authority once and for all. Hiding in the abandoned and ruined Portal City, which had been destroyed several years ago because of its treasonous actions against Academia, they had established their base of operations as they scavenged for resources.

Over the course of their struggles, they had encountered a group of strange individuals with glowing marks who called themselves, The Phoenix Guard. After learning that they too sought to fight against Academia, Lydia and Joho had each passed a set of trials before being accepted as Phoenix Guards. Lydia, had inherited a crimson mark of power from a woman named Seijun Hashimoto, while he had inherited his mark from a green-haired girl about his age who called herself, Ruka.

Two weeks had not passed since they became Phoenix Guardsmen when their resistance group had come under a series of attacks from not only squadrons of the usual Academia soldiers, but angry Earthbound Familiar spirits, and Earthbound Disciples who recognized them for who they were and wanted to test out their power against their own. Although Lydia and Joho had managed to survive the seemingly endless onslaughts with a combination of grit, skill, and sheer dumb luck, a recent threat, Akato, had caused them considerable grief, capturing five of their fellow resistance members and locking them up in an abandoned orphanage before threatening to burn one of them alive for every hour that passed before he and Lydia came out to face him. After receiving the ultimatum, Lydia and Joho had rushed from their hiding place, determined to stop the maniac, but once they had reached the orphanage, Akato had just laughed in their faces before using his own dark powers to destroy the building along with everybody trapped inside. Now, aside from the raging flames and piles of burnt rubble, the demolished orphanage was completely empty, devoid of even the charred remains of their companions.

Lydia adjusted the bandages over the left side of her face before kicking away a still burning piece of wood. In every respect, Lydia was someone who would probably have been considered beautiful with long purple hair tied into a ponytail and intelligent purple eyes. However, years of service as a soldier of Academia and a certain near-fatal accident had left the girl horrifically disfigured, disfigurements which she kept carefully concealed with her bandages and long black cloak. These coverings, however, could not conceal her robotic left arm, or the glowing robotic eye that pierced through her facial bandages with its ominous light.

"We've got no choice." Lydia growled, clenching her human fist with fury. "If that maniac plans to do to the Synchro Dimension what he did to this orphanage, then we'll be looking at a lot of burn victims in the near future, not to mention the possibility of Academia rolling over the Synchro Dimension once Akato weakens their defenses. There's nothing he likes more than war. He'll be happy to let Academia burn the place to the ground. I'm not letting him kill anyone else!"

"But what about our allies?" Joho asked. "We don't have to do this alone, Lydia. In fact, this is Akato we're talking about! That guy kills people like us for sport! If we could just call over Asuka, or Johan, or O-Brien, or…"

"Oh for once in your life will you man up!?" Lydia snapped. "Asuka is busy helping Yusho out and we still don't even know if Johan or O-Brien are even alive, much less on our side anymore! The only people we know are Jorq, Isaac, and Moriah, and you know that they are all out of the question!"

"I know… I'm sorry." Joho replied, holding up his hands in a defensive gesture. "It's just… we don't have Academia's teleportation function on our Duel Disks and we don't even have the energy to travel there right now. We'll need help if we're going to do this, or at least… some time to prepare."

"We do have energy." Said Lydia, feeling the left side of her chest.

Joho's eyes widened. "Oh no! You're not thinking! Your power supply is strained enough as it is! If you power your mark with the energy in your chest battery and then use more of that energy to fight Akato in a duel..." Joho paused, rubbing his hands together with worry. "Lydia, I don't want to almost lose you again!"

"I'm not letting Akato continue his rampage." Lydia growled. "And you can't stop me."

Joho hung his head down before glancing at the dragon-heart shaped mark on his arm, which was pulsating with intense red light.

"Okay…" Joho conceded. "…but let me help with this one. I've got a lot of energy stored in my mark. If I combine the energy in my mark with the bit of energy in yours, then we should have enough."

"Joho, I can…"

"This is not negotiable." Joho firmly replied, clasping the mask-like tail mark on Lydia's right arm before closing his eyes. Slowly the intense light from his mark faded away before Lydia's began glowing like a supernova.

Lydia's eyes widened once he had finished. "How much did you give me!?"

"Enough." Joho replied, panting for breath as sweat poured down his face and chest.

Lydia carefully reached into her trench coat before opening something up in her chest and fiddling with something. Closing her eyes, black electrical sparks emanated from her chest area before flowing into the crimson mark. After just a second, she stopped.

"I guess I didn't need too much." Lydia grunted, holding up her hand. "Come on Joho, let's see how the Phoenix Guard are doing in Synchro."

…

 **Synchro Dimension: 30 minutes before Shun's duel against Crow**

"No!" Emma barked, "For the last time Junior, I'm telling you, I've lived here before, Lizette and Kazama said they'd be waiting for us at Hungry Burger and the exit isn't until another two miles!"

"Bu-…" Kiryu tried to interrupt, as her swerved his bike out of the way to avoid an oncoming car.

"No Junior! Not 'But!' Our exit's not that one that's coming up, that'll just lead us to the financial district!"

Deciding to ignore his adopted mother, Kiryu swung his bike into the exit and traveled down the ramp.

"KIRYU YOU GET YOUR BUTT BACK HERE RIGHT NOW OR… oh…" Emma stopped once she spied Kazama and Lizette waiting at the restaurant with their bikes pulled up in the front. "Well bless my old age." She muttered, making an illegal U-turn to get onto the ramp as a bunch of cars angrily honked at her.

"HAVE A NICE DAY TOO YOU PEDESTRIANS!" She shouted back, shaking her fist at them. Speeding down the ramp, she pulled up alongside Kiryu, who had already removed his helmet and begun chatting with a tall girl with long blonde hair, green eyes, and freckles on her face, Lizette LeBlanc.

Standing behind Lizette, a tall man in his mid-to-late twenties, with spikey bluish-green hair, and brown eyes, who was dressed in an officer's uniform, waved to Emma as she approached them.

"Glad to see you could make it." Kazama smiled. "How's retirement been treating you?"

Emma popped some sore muscles in her back. "Been a real pain in the a-…"

"Language." Kazama warned. "We're still doing that game. You owe me one bill for every swear word."

"Oh, well here's a down payment." Emma smiled, handing Kazama a piece of paper with "100" written on its face. Getting up from her bike, she stalked over to a trash can, kicked the can across the lawn while shouting a torrent of obscenities and ranting about her recent troubles against the Earthbound at the top of her lungs while Kiryu covered his ears.

"How have you been doing… uhm… ex officer Kazama?" Kiryu asked while Emma continued her cursing.

"96… 97… 98… 99… HEY EMMA! THAT'S YOUR LIMIT! Whelp… now she owes me five." He muttered, before turning to Kiryu. "It's been just fine." Kazama sighed, looking down at Kiryu. "Discounting the fact that I have to potentially deal with new Dark Signers, perfectly alright. What about you though? I can see Emma's trying to cope with your recent tussle against an Earthbound disciple, but how are you holding up?"

Kiryu looked down at the ground.

"I'm… shaken." He admitted.

"That's normal." Kazama replied, patting Kiryu on the head. "I still have nightmares sometimes from when I think of my and Emma's duel against Sergey. Now he was a brute. Just be glad you're both alive. We'll find this person and we'll overpower her."

"That's not what's bothering me." Kiryu sighed. "Kazama, I KNOW her! I used to hang out with Yugo all the time. That girl, Rin, she was his friend! It was one thing fighting these guys when they were just random crazy strangers I didn't even know, but this…" he flailed his hands around helplessly, "…did Kiryu… I mean the actual Kiryu, the one before me, did he ever have to deal with a friend joining the Earthbound like that?"

Kazama looked off into the distance, a forlorn look in his eye. Noticing the silence of the group, Emma finished her ranting and strolled over.

"What's with the livelihood here?" she asked, walking up behind Kiryu.

"There were many victims of the Earthbound." Kazama whispered, many of whom did end up being people we knew. "I think the Earthbound targeted some people specifically just so they could get to some of the Signers, like they did to Jack Atlas when they possessed Car-…"

"Kazama, enough." Emma snapped, looking down at Kiryu with a concerned expression on her face.

Kiryu stared up at Kazama, hungry for more information.

"What did you guys do when that happened?" Kiryu asked. "Did you have to… to…"

Kazama remained silent as he stared down at Kiryu with a grim expression on his face. He didn't seem to know what to say.

"What does it matter?" Lizette sighed, sipping at a drink through a plastic straw. She had a lovely voice with a faint French accent that seemed to compliment her looks. However, her tone was tinted with anger and bitterness. "If your friend has joined the Earthbound, then she's not your friend anymore."

"Lizette." Kazama warned, but Lizette just continued

"It's true though!" Lizette snapped. "There's no point making excuses! Nobody's forced to join the Earthbound! Anyone who does is a monster who needs to be hunted down, just like the one who killed my family, Nozomi Aikawa!"

Kiryu flinched at the mention of Nozomi, a particularly nasty disciple who had plagued the Phoenix Guard for years, killing off members as she pleased. Thinking back on how Rin acted, Kiryu clenched his fists with fury.

"SHE'S NOT LIKE HER!" he spat, marching forward and giving Lizette a shove, causing the girl to nearly spill her drink. Lizette looked back at Kiryu in shock before clenching her own teeth together, throwing her drink on the ground, and shoving Kiryu back so hard that he was sent flying through the air before landing roughly on his back.

"STOP IT!" Emma and Kazama both barked in unison, getting between the two teenagers.

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK SHE'S NOT LIKE THAT, HUH?" Lizette snapped. "Are you just assuming that because she's your friend that she's not going to be like literally every single other disciple we've fought!? The Earthbound are evil! And the only person who'd ever join them is an equally evil person!"

Kiryu charged forward, ready for another round against Lizette, when Emma grabbed Kiryu by the back and held him back.

"Let me go!" he shouted.

"You conduct yourself like a Phoenix Guard!" Emma snapped, "And you, Lizette! Who made you the expert on the Earthbound anyway!? I may not be able to condone the actions of the Earthbound Disciples on the grounds that a lot of them are victims any more than I can do the same with your everyday criminal, but that doesn't change the fact that many disciples and criminals are not pure devils! For every Nozomi Aikawa and Sergey Volkov, there's a frightened kid and confused adult who have been genuinely deceived and exploited by REALLY evil spirits who don't give a crap about how much their human slaves suffer! We're here to help those people any way we can, and we WILL help Rin! I don't know if she's truly just a victim, but I'm inclined to believe that since she DID spare us, that she's not the fountain of pure evil you're making her out to be. If she resists and we have to destroy her to free her spirit and bring rest to her soul, we'll do it! But we will NOT be condemning her as a lost cause until we've tried our utmost to reclaim her!"

Lizette stared back at Emma, rage hardening her features as tears seemed to involuntary pool underneath her eyes. It looked like there were a lot of things she wanted to say, but she was not saying them.

"I'm done with this conversation." Emma huffed. "Kazama, you said you two had met Natsumi, Adeel, Semal, Lydia, and Joho, where are they?"

"Lizette?" Kazama asked, looking back at the blonde haired girl.

Angrily, Lizette wiped the salt water from her eyes before angrily blowing some hair from her face and folding her arms against her chest.

"Adeel and Semal left a little while ago. They said that they thought they had found a lead on the disciple they were hunting and decided to investigate it, but they also said that they would meet at the Friendship Cup Stadium if they didn't find anything by the time Shun's match began against Crow. Lydia was having… issues…" Lizette pointed at her chest, "…with her thing, and so Joho took her over to the stadium to… fix her up."

Kiryu shook his head. "She is one weird girl."

"She can't help it!" Lizette snapped.

"She worked for Academia." Kiryu breathed. "You know… the place where all those bad guys are? Only a person as equally evil as them could agree to work for them, or at least, that's what I got from what you said. I mean… it's not like she could have been conscripted against her will!"

"Don't you start that again!" Emma snapped, tugging angrily at Kiryu's hair. "What about Natsumi?" Emma asked.

Lizette straightened her hair. "She's…"

"NO YOU IDIOTS! I DID NOT STEAL THESE!" A shrill female voice called from the track-way above their heads.

"There she is." Lizette shrugged.

Looking up, Kiryu, Kazama, and Emma spied a girl wearing a jacket a few sizes too big for her figure while riding a small red D-wheel while a swarm of Security officers chased her. The girl wasn't wearing a helmet, so everyone could clearly see her golden eyes, tanned skin, and shoulder length black hair with a bang of yellow hair over her left eye which was flapping away in the wind. In one hand, she held a cluster of Hungry Burger bags while the other hand flailed helplessly around, alternating between holding up her cards, turning the wheel of her bike, and occasionally grabbing a French Fry. As crazy as it seemed, somehow she managed to keep herself upright while simultaneously eating and dueling the other officers. Spying the others watching her, she desperately waved her arms around, nearly dropping one of the bags before calling, "A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!?"

"YOU'RE DOING GOOD!" Lizette called back with a smirk on her face. "JUST A FEW MORE PLAYS AND YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT THEM!"

"YOU SUCK, LIZETTE!" Natsumi called back, "YOU KNOW THAT!? YOU ROYALLY SUCK!

"Oh come on." Lizette replied. "They're just Security. It's not like they're an actual threat."

"OH YEAH RIGHT!" Natsumi sarcastically laughed. "I FORGOT THAT I JUST EAT TWENTY OF THESE GUYS FOR BREAKFAST EVERY DAY 'CAUSE THEY'RE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EASY!"

"You pretty waste one every other day whenever you fight Nevan." Lizette snickered.

"Well… he's a special case." Natsumi admitted, before desperately dodging a blast of flame from an attacking Goyo Emperor. "BUT I COULD REALLY USE YOU GUYS' HELP RIGHT NOW!"

"I'll help her." Kiryu sighed, mounting his bike and speeding up the ramp.

"Awww…" Natsumi sighed flirtatiously, "…thanks Kiryu, I knew I could count on you. BUT YOU STILL SUCK LIZETTE!"

"Don't be like that, Natsumi." Lizette called. "Look, I'll help you take down the last one, I actually kind of need something to punch right about now, and once we're done, we'll go see Shun's duel and I'll buy you cheesecake on a stick from a concession stand.

Natsumi stared down at Lizette as she continued acrobatically whipping around her arms to continue her plays, eat, and balance the bike. "With raspberries on top?"

"With raspberries on top." Lizette agreed.

"Well… okay." Natsumi sighed, "I guess you don't… royally… suck, I just have to… CELESTIAL DRAGON - SOL!" she commanded, extending her hand towards a large muscular orange dragon with yellow patterns over its body, a long narrow snout, broad horns on the back of its head with a sun-disk in the center, muscular arms with sturdy claws with opposable thumbs, burly golden legs with curved talons like prehistoric Utah Raptors, and a long elegant golden tail with a golden sphere at the end, "EFFECT ACTIVATE! DUST THAT GOYO EMPEROR!"

A ghostly image of a female knight briefly appeared before the dragon devoured it and unleashed a burst of red light from its mouth into the officer's Goyo Emperor, destroying the massive monster.

"And now… ulp…" she continued, stuffing a fry into her mouth, "bltakck hffs limfpnts drtclky!"

The golden dragon stared back at her, a confused expression on its face.

"I said…" Natsumi repeated, gulping down her fries, "…ATTACK HIS LIFE POINTS DIRECTLY!"

Nodding its head, the dragon flew up into the sky, spreading out a massive pair of golden bat-like dragon wings with shining golden orbs in the membrane. Once he had flown several hundred meters into the air, the orbs on his wings ignited into flames of fire, before the entire dragon burst into flames and rapidly dive-bombed the pursuing Security officer, reducing his Life Points to 0.

"INFERNITY TOMAHAWK STRIKER!" Kiryu suddenly called from behind the other officers. "DIRECT ATTACK!"

In front of Kiryu's bike, what looked like an Indian Shaman with a painted red face, feathery headdress, Native American robes, and multiple skulls and bone charms decorating his figure, charged forward before throwing a pair of tomahawks with skull-decorated handles at one of the officers.

"TRAP ACTIVATE!" the officer roared, "MIRROR FOR-…"

"INFERNITY TOMAHAWK STRIKER EFFECT!" Kiryu countered. "IF I HAVE NO CARDS IN MY HAND, MY OPPONENT CANNOT ACTIVATE ANY CARDS OR EFFECTS WHEN AN INFERNITY MONSTER ATTACKS!"

Screaming, the officer could only watch helplessly as the two tomahawks slammed into his bike before his Life Points dropped to 0 and his bike spun out of control.

"Whelp, that's the second to last one." Kazama observed, looking down at Lizette.

Lizette shrugged. "Okay, a promise is a promise."

Watching as Natsumi lead the last officer down a ramp heading straight towards Lizette, Kazama, and Emma's location, Lizette calmly activated her Duel Disk while standing right in the bike's path.

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" the Duel Disk declared.

"I summon Angelic Armor Sword." Lizette calmly began with an almost bored expression on her face as a golden sword with a white blade and a hilt shaped like gilded angel wings appeared in her right hand. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 0.

"Next…" she continued, not backing down as the bikes sped towards her, "…since I control an Angelic Armor monster, I can Special Summon these two cards from my hand. Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet and Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet!"

Over each of her hands, a pair of golden knight gauntlets appeared, decorated with a pair of gilded angel wings over the elbows and shoulders. Continuing her game of chicken against the bikes, she stared up at the last officer's charging Goyo Emperor before continuing her play.

"Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet effect!" She declared, stabbing her sword into the ground before stretching out her right hand and revealing a red orb in the center of the palm. "Once per turn, I can target and destroy one card on the field!"

Firing a beam of red light from the central orb of her gauntlet, Lizette pierced through the chest of the officer's Goyo Emperor, dusting the monster while the officer looked on in stunned surprise.

"Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet effect!" Lizette continued, stretching out her left arm to reveal a glowing white orb in the center of her palm. "Once per turn, if exactly one monster is destroyed by battle or card effect, I can inflict damage to the controller's Life Points equal to the attack of the destroyed monster!"

Natsumi whizzed by her on her bike, still clutching the two bags with immense care as she chewed on a fry that was hanging from her mouth. Meanwhile, the officer continued charging forward, looking like he was ready to run Lizette over.

Just as the officer was about to hit Lizette, Lizette punched her left arm forward, and stopped the officer's bike dead in its tracks as her fist slammed into the hull, leaving a massive fist-shaped dent in the front. With the sudden stop of forward motion, the officer flew forward off his seat before Lizette caught his leg with her right arm and slammed him down onto the ground as his Life Points dropped to 0.

Natsumi pulled up around Lizette and began searching through her bags.

"Oh please don't tell me, please don't tell me… AHA!" she cried in joy, pulling out a toy that looked like a pink cat from one of the bags before reaching into the second bag and pulling out a different toy that looked like a blue cat.

"You still buy the kid's meals?" Lizette asked, suppressing a snicker as she deactivated her Duel Disk and the armor disappeared.

"I've been collecting these." Natsumi smiled, reaching into her pockets and pulling out an assortment of green, orange, red, purple, black, and white toy cats. "All I needed were the pink and blue ones and I just got those! I knew it would be worth buying two of them!" she exulted hugging the toy kitties to her chest before noticing Lizette tapping her foot while looking at her with an expectant expression on her face. "Oh and uh… thanks for helping me back there."

"Don't mention it." Lizette sighed, shaking her head before looking back at the track-way. "Where's Kiryu? I still feel like punching something."

"There's more coming!" Kiryu called from behind, just barely managing to exit the ramp and approach Lizette and Natsumi before a swarm of six more officers quickly appeared at the top of the track and started zooming towards them.

"You kids go to the stadium!" Kazama instructed, mounting his bike and putting on his helmet while Emma did the same. "I've been tracking Security's movements and it looks like they're still leaving everyone in the stadium alone. You should be safe there. Emma and I will hold these guys off!"

"Be nice to Kiryu." Emma growled, cracking her knuckles at Lizette.

"Don't worry Miss Grayson!" Natsumi giggled, jumping up from her bike and walking towards Kiryu before her foot caught on her leg as she clumsily stepped forward, causing her to fall flat on her face.

"Are you… okay?" Kiryu asked, wondering if he ought to help her up.

"Noooooooooooo!" Natsumi screamed, hastily scooping up her toy kitties, which had scattered on the ground, "Come back to me!" From her bike, Emma shook her head with disapproval, muttering something about Quetzalcoatl lowering his standards.

Once she had scooped up all the kitties and deposited them into her pocket, she enthusiastically hopped forward before slamming into Kiryu and giving him a massive bone-cracking squeeze while his face blushed like a radish. "Like I said…" Natsumi called back to Emma once again, "…don't worry, I'll protect Kiryu for you!"

"I'm almost more worried about you protecting him than Lizette attacking him." Emma mumbled before activating her Duel Disk. "Ready to show them what the Phoenix Guard's made of!?" Emma called to Kazama.

"My Chaos Kings are ready!" Kazama grinned. "Just like old times Emma?"

"Only if I was a young fifty-year-old." Emma sighed before the two of them sped towards the officers.

"We should go." Kiryu said, trying to pull away from Natsumi. "Uhm… time to go?" he repeated, giving her a light shove. She continued to grip him while Lizette shook her head before mounting her own bike. "How do you turn her off!?" Kiryu asked, desperately turning to Lizette as she zoomed away towards the stadium, ignoring his question. "THIS IS GETTING AWKWARD!"

"Only if you make it awkward." Natsumi tenderly whispered, affectionately patting Kiryu on the back.

Sighing in exasperation, Kiryu slammed forward on the accelerator, ripping himself out of Natsumi's grip before heading off to the stadium.

"Hey!" Natsumi called, "It wasn't like it was weird! Ugh…" she sighed, "Alright, we'll continue this later." And hopping onto her bike, she quickly pocketed her collection of kitties before speedily catching up to Kiryu and Lizette.

…

 **Fusion Dimension: Current Time**

Resting on a simple pillow in a dimly lit tent, a lone figure sat on the ground with his eyes closed, his fists pressed together, and his legs crossed in a meditative position. He was a teenage boy of medium height with a strong build. His short well-groomed hair was a deep crimson and his smooth skin was a deep olive. Over his body, he wore sleek purple armor, styled to mimic the appearance of Raviel Lord of Phantasms. On his right arm, a crimson dragon foot shaped mark burned against his skin with brilliant light, which steadily grew as he gained energy from his now almost day long fast and meditation. To everyone under his command, he was known as Commander Jorq, head of the Raviel Spec-Ops. To a handful of his closest friends, he was known as brother, a fellow member of the venerable Phoenix Guard.

There had never been a time when Jorq was more aware of the great responsibilities his two positions held than now. As a member of the Phoenix Guard, chosen by one of the Crimson Dragon's own Signers, he shouldered the burden of protecting the world of the living from the growing threat of the Earthbound Gods and the unholy servants who obeyed them. As a member of Academia's elite, he held the even greater task of bringing about an end to both the Earthbound War and Inter-dimensional War in order for Academia's noble goals of uniting the worlds into one single paradisiacal glory to be realized.

Unlike the regular military grunts, the Raviel Spec-Ops were tasked with handling Academia's most covert and sensitive missions with the help of the Hamon Strike Teams and Uria Scouts. At the moment, Jorq had been given a special task from the professor himself, to assist the Commander-In-Chief, Edo Phoenix, in securing the Xyz Dimension for the Arc Area Project's completion by using his skills and special gifts to eliminate any and all Earthbound Disciples and Earthbound Familiars in the region. Jorq had accepted his mission with zeal, promising to do his utmost to assist Academia in bringing about their glorious mission to merge the dimensions into a utopia.

Unfortunately, some low-class Slifer soldiers seemed to have forgotten their true purpose.

Jolting from his meditations as his mind was rent with the sound of a man screaming, Jorq quickly opened his eyes, revealing them to be a deep brown color, before frowning and slowly and deliberately rising from his position. Walking forward with purpose, he picked up a Raviel-themed helmet and mask from a table in the corner of the tent and adjusted them over his red hair and eyes. Snagging an elegant black cape from a nearby coat rack, Jorq adjusted the cloak over his shoulders before parting the flap at the front of his tent and stepping outside.

Outside his tent, the ruined landscape of Heartland stretched out in all directions. It was almost continually dark and foggy now, the smog from the previous battles still needing time to settle. Wherever there wasn't an Academia war tent, there was rubble, littering the ground, stretching out into the distance, and hanging precariously over their heads as if the entire ruined city was ready to fall upon them and swallow them up. Scattered around the encampment, squadrons of Obelisk Force Soldiers, Ra Yellow Team Leaders, and Slifer Red Grunts were performing various tasks for the furtherance of the Arc Area Project such as clearing away rubble, training with various practice duels, working out, cooking, setting up more tents, or performing various guard duties as they braced themselves for any possible guerrilla attacks from rag-tag groups of restless Xyz resistors.

Behind the red goggles of his mask, Jorq closed his eyes before slowly inhaling the smoggy air and stepping forward. At the sound of his approach, two other figures meditating on pillows identical to Jorq's suddenly stirred before quickly standing at attention with total discipline. Both of them were fellow Raviel Operatives and Phoenix Guardsmen. On his right was Isaac, a tall and well-built boy with skin the same olivine tint as Jorq's, Green eyes, long black hair, Egyptian kohl around his eyes, a charm necklace around his neck, and a glowing claw-shaped dragon mark shining against his skin. On Jorq's left was Moriah, a petit girl with short brown hair, maroon eyes, a dark blue cloak over her armor, a set of long jeweled earrings, and a glowing mask-like tail mark burning against the skin of her right arm. Glancing at their commander as he began walking forward, the two followed Jorq, while the other soldiers stopped and stared as the trio made their way across the camp.

"Is something troubling you, brother?" Moriah asked, gracefully stepping over a pile of twisted rebar without snagging her cloak on any of the sharp bits of metal.

"Some soldiers have stepped out of line." Jorq replied simply, treading over a pile fragmented cinder blocks. "On the other side of the camp. They thought they could conceal their activities from me by doing them as far away from my tent as possible. They are mistaken."

"Has nothing else troubled you?" Isaac asked, a tone of concern creeping into his voice despite his efforts to keep his face respectful and disciplined.

"Nothing else." Jorq replied, feeling that there was more his fellow Phoenix Guards wished to speak to him about.

"Permission to speak freely, brother?" Moriah asked, following established Academia protocols despite them being on nearly equal footing as Academia's special Phoenix Guardsmen.

"Permission granted, sister." Jorq replied, ignoring the stares of a group of Obelisk Soldiers as they pointed at him and his companions while whispering amongst themselves. "And once you are finished, Brother Isaac has my permission to speak freely as well. I am interested in knowing what you learned over the course of your meditations."

Moriah bowed her head in gratitude before continuing, maintaining an even tone and straight face as she spoke, betraying no emotion or lack of self-control.

"The Earthbound are growing more restless." Moriah warned. "I have been sensing their strength over the course of my meditations, and I have felt their strength growing. There are tremors in the Underworld, and great disturbances throughout the four dimensions. Something significant has happened. Yuu Hashimoto is making his move."

Jorq momentarily paused upon hearing the news, eyes blinking behind his mask. Composing himself, he continued walking forward, trying to digest the grave news. True, he had not felt anything like that himself, despite knowing that their current location, the very place where the late General Tarleton had slaughtered many innocent people, including his own fellow Phoenix Guardsmen from the Xyz Dimension before getting himself killed in his own egotistical campaign, was a hotspot for many vengeful Earthbound spirits to rise up. Still, he had learned never to doubt Moriah's insight. Her clairvoyance had saved them from a number of very dangerous situations, and if heeded with care, could help them now.

"Do you have anything else you wish to speak about?" Jorq asked, maintaining his composure, despite feeling slightly shaken by the dire news.

"Only that." Moriah replied. Stealing a quick glance, Jorq was able to glimpse an ever-so-slight glimmer of worry in Moriah's face before she quickly suppressed it under a mask of calm discipline and control. Jorq didn't like to see weakness in the people he worked with, but he couldn't blame her. They had all anticipated the day with dread. They had tried to discover Yuu's plans for years, but nobody had been able to uncover anything. His actions had always seemed random, as if his plan consisted of nothing but throwing wave after wave of random Earthbound disciples at the surface world, sometimes causing his own disciples to fight and kill one another as they each pursued their own random and unrelated goals. Jorq was certain there was a bigger plan behind these seemingly random acts, but after years of trying to find the answer, neither the Phoenix Guard nor Academia were any closer to finding an answer or preparing for his big plans, whatever they may have been.

Isaac was the next to speak.

"I have had a vision." He said, turning his head towards Jorq, who kept his head firmly facing the direction of his next goal. "It was… troubling. There was a great mark burning in the sky, and six other great marks just below it. The marks consumed Academia and the four dimensions before all seven of the original marks were swallowed up in an infinite black void."

He looked around to make sure nobody was listening before continuing, whispering into Jorq's ear. "I fear the Dark Signers will be returning."

This was even more foreboding than the last premonition. It was made all the worse by Jorq's knowledge that Isaac, while not as generally omniscient as Moriah, was dead accurate when it came to interpreting the narrow scope of his visions. It WAS troubling. More troubling than anything else Jorq could think of. But he didn't have time to worry about it now. There was another matter that needed addressing.

"Well speak about this later." Said Jorq, stepping around the wall of a ruined building. Around the other side of the wall, Jorq spied a Ra Yellow team leader and a pair of rowdy Slifer Red students kicking around an old man who was letting loose the same screams he had heard during the course of his meditations. Evidently, the three had beaten the pathetic wreck in a duel, and instead of carding him as was appropriate, had decided it would be more fun to abuse the Xyz civilian even more.

"Please… no more!" the man gurgled, shielding his bald liver-spotted head with his wrinkly arthritis-ridden hands.

The other soldiers started to laugh, getting ready to assault the man with another round of kicks from their own boots and the metallic feet of their Antique Gear Soldiers. However, when the Ra Yellow Team Leader and the Slifer Soldiers suddenly spotted Jorq appearing behind them with his two top operatives, they suddenly stopped.

"C-commander Jorq." Said the Ra Team Leader, nervously addressing Jorq with a respectful bow. "I-I didn't think we would be honored with your presence."

Jorq was disgusted by the officer's cowardice. It was clear that he knew his actions were despicable and wrong and was desperately trying to see if there was a way he could duck out after being caught red-handed. Jorq was not going to give him that option.

"Why hasn't this man been carded?" Jorq asked with a stern expression on his face.

"Uhm… well…" the Ra Team Leader mumbled, "…he… he lost and… we… we thought we'd teach this bit of Xyz scum a… a lesson."

"I don't recall you receiving the assignment to torture Xyz civilians without my express authorization." Jorq growled, stepping towards the quivering Ra Yellow student. "In fact, if I recall correctly, I remember specifically giving the orders for the so-called 'Hunting Games,' to be done away with in favor of a quick and efficient, capture-and-card strategy in order for the Arc Area Project to be completed as quickly as possible."

"We were gonna card him." The Ra Yellow student protested. "We were just having fun, that's all! He's just Xyz scum."

Jorq couldn't take this kind of stupidity. The utter foolishness and condescension of students whose Academia teachings should have taught them better. It was one thing to fight with zeal and have a strong desire to defeat the enemies of Academia in order to complete the Professor's goals, it was an entirely different thing to lose sight of the end goals engaging in pointless exercises of cruelty.

"We are to be the builders of a paradise!" Jorq roared, staring daggers into the students' eyes. "When this war is over, we will restore everyone who has been carded and dwell with them in the renewed world! Our relationship with the people of this dimension is strained enough as it is! The last thing we need is for idiots like you three to mar the name of Academia with these vile acts of sadism!"

Jorq turned his head away from the cowering students as the old man's whimpering intensified. Whipping out his shield-shaped Duel Disk, Jorq quickly activated the carding function on his Disk, causing the man to vanish in a flash of light before his Disk produced a card of the man in the same cowering position. Carefully taking the card in his hands, Jorq produced a large binder from the folds of his robes before placing the card in one of the binder's many plastic slots and handing it to one of the Slifer Red Students.

"You will deliver this to Headquarters immediately before reporting back to camp to receive disciplinary measures. If you are not back here by tonight, I will personally see to it that you are court marshalled for conduct unbecoming of an Academia Soldier."

The Slifer Red student bowed his head before hastily running off with the binder in his hands, leaving the other two soldiers to stare back at Jorq and his companions with growing fear.

"As for you two…" Jorq continued, "…your disciplining starts now. Since you seem so eager to punish the civilians of the Xyz Dimension, I am sending you out into the front lines to root out and discover the location of the wanted resistor, Kaito Tenjo."

The eyes of the two students bugged out in horror. Nobody who had gone to try and collect the bounty on Kaito's head had come back alive.

"You will start now." Jorq growled, ordering the cowering students away. "Or you will face disciplining from Isaac and Moriah.

The Slifer Red and Ra Yellow student looked into Isaac and Moriah's hard cold eyes, sweat beading on their foreheads. Deciding they'd have better chances against Kaito, the two students scampered away like rats, fading into the smoggy fog as they ran back in the direction of the camp.

Once they had gone, Jorq returned his attention to his companions.

"Send word to the commanders of the Hamon Strike Teams and the Uria Scouts." Jorq instructed. We move out against the Earthbound in this sector immediately."

…

 **Xyz Dimension: Current Time**

In an open field of the ruined Heartland City, two lone figures clad in ragged cloaks stood in front of dozens of rows of freshly dug graves with a few pieces of wood, broken stone, and scrap metal serving as headstones. Next to the field of graves, a large empty trench that had once held the victims of the Dreadroot's rampage stood silent and empty. Hardly moving and remaining deathly silent, the two figures continued their vigil, just as silent and just as empty as the cemetery they had created.

The figure on the right was a teenage boy with light blue hair, beautiful lime green eyes partially covered by a red-and-gold mask, blue, diamond-shaped earrings piercing each earlobe, a skin-tight white suit, boots, and gloves covering his body, a long a red Resistance ribbon tied around his waist like a sash, and a ragged blue cape fluttering in the wind. Against his right arm, a dragon-heart shaped mark glowed against his skin.

Standing to his left was a tall and athletic girl. Her hair was two toned with the top half a light red and the bottom half and side tails a creamy orange. Two blue-and-white hair clips held up her hair on either side of her head, while a crimson Resistance headband adorned her forehead. Her eyes were a deep hazel and her skin was fair, save for a layer of dust and grime that covered her arms and skin-tight pink-and-white riding outfit. Over her back, a ragged black cloak partially concealed her tear-stained face as she wiped at her eyes with her right arm, which bore a crimson dragon-claw shaped mark.

Trying to offer comfort, the boy took the girl in his arms, and let her weep into his chest with renewed vigor as he stared into the unending smog that now forever permeated the once peaceful and prosperous city. The natural and almost knee-jerk human response was to say something along the lines of, "It's all right, it's okay, we're here for each other, we'll get through this together." But that was something the boy absolutely could not bring himself to say.

"What do we do, Fuya?" the girl wept, pounding her fist's against the boy's back as her body shook with her sobbing. "First Gauche and Droite, then Rio and Ryouga, and then the entire Arclight family gets killed by Academia, and then, just when we think we've finally found a way to survive, Kathy and Kotori are both suddenly hunted down by a pack of insane Earthbound Disciples! Everyone! Every last Phoenix Guard we thought could turn this war around! Gone! We're dying! Everyone's dying! We're all that's left!"

Fuya continued gently rubbing his hand up and down her back, failing to suppress his own tears, which began trickling down his mask.

"We're not alone, Anna." Fuya whispered. "We still don't know if there are others who have survived."

"I've tried to find them!" Anna wept, "I've TRIED! I've used every trick I know to sense them, but they're gone Fuya! Don't you get it! We've lost! Academia took away your mom, they took away my mom and dad, and my little brother, Allen, and everyone else we love! The Phoenix Guard in Xyz is going extinct and neither the Crimson Dragon nor the other Phoenix Guards in the other dimensions even care about it!"

"That's not true." Fuya hoarsely whispered, struggling to believe his own words. "We don't know if they carded Allen. He could still be alive, hiding somewhere. And besides, I don't know if many of the Phoenix Guard know about what is happening here. We don't have Academia's dimension-crossing technology and so we have to use our marks to travel, which is quite difficult even with a surplus of energy. We can't use the marks to communicate across dimensions, and we can't send visions to other guardsmen at will. We don't know what they are having to deal with. For all we know, Academia could be attacking the other dimensions, or they could be facing growing threats of their own from the Earthbound."

Anna slammed her fists against Fuya's back, angrily shaking her head against his chest as a fresh torrent of tears streamed down her cheeks before she nearly collapsed to the ground with sobbing.

Kneeling down to the ground, Fuya gently scooped the weeping girl into his arms before gently pressing his lips against hers and then hugging her, resting his chin in her shoulder while she rested her chin against his own shoulder in a tight embrace.

"We're not alone." Fuya repeated. "We have each other. You are the bravest and strongest girl I know. Even if we really are the last Phoenix Guardsmen defending the Xyz Dimension, we will fight. We will drive them back together, and, if it really comes down to it, we will die together."

Anna pulled away from the embrace will still holding onto Fuya's arms. For a long time, she just stared back into his eyes, allowing the tears to continue flowing down her cheeks. He was right. They were still here. Despite everything that had happened, despite the countless deaths, all the destruction, and all the indescribable suffering they had witnessed, they had survived. That, in and of itself, was a miracle. Anna still wasn't sure if the Crimson Dragon cared about them or any of the other Guardsmen, but she knew that Fuya did. He would always be there for her, and she would always be there for him.

Nodding her head in agreement, a look of strong-willed determination slowly replaced her sorrowful expression. Wrapping her arms around Fuya as he wrapped his arms around her and pulling each other close, they gently pressed their foreheads together, closing their eyes before sharing a tender kiss.

Gently withdrawing, Anna opened her eyes before looking back at the graves with sorrow.

"We should do something for them." She whispered, "Something to make sure they aren't disturbed."

Fuya nodded his head in agreement before the two of them stretched forth their right hands, marks glowing brightly against the smog. Closing their eyes and chanting under their breaths, a crimson wall of light rose up around the perimeter of the cemetery before slowly fading away.

"Rest in peace." Fuya whispered. "May neither Academia nor the Earthbound disturb you."

Adjusting her cloak over her head, Anna waited for Fuya to finish before joining him as they exited the cemetery, preparing to continue their struggle against two invasions from two equally evil powers.

Suddenly, Fuya stopped dead in his tracks, eyes opening wide with fear as his mark began pulsating like a heartbeat and humming with a faint high-pitched ring.

"What is it?" Anna asked, noticing her own mark beginning to pulse.

"Nozomi Aikawa." Fuya whispered, whipping out his Duel Disk. "She's here!"

Anna gasped in shock, desperately activating her own Duel Disk while looking around and trying to find a sign of her. Suddenly, Fuya began shoving Anna away.

"RUN!" Fuya shouted at the top of his lungs. "I'LL HOLD HER OFF!"

Anna kept her feet planted where she was.

"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!" Anna snarled, "WE'RE FIGHTING TOGETHER AND WE'RE DYING TOGETHER, REMEMBER!?"

"Excellent choice." A raspy female voice sarcastically croaked. From behind a ruined building, a small middle-aged woman with long greasy green hair cascading in tangled mats down her back and pale sallow face, began hobbling towards them. Long nails curled down her fingers like bird claws while her dirty scab-covered bare feet sported their own talon-like nails. Her clothing was exceedingly ragged and dirty, giving her the appearance of a wandering hobo. But the most startling feature about her appearance were her eyes, swamp-green irises glowing with a faint light against coal-black sclera. Dark red-and-black rings under her eyes gave her the appearance of one who hadn't slept for weeks. Against her chest, a multi-colored spiral shaped mark blazed to life.

"WE'RE TAKING YOU ON!" Anna shouted as the woman approached them, "WE'RE NOT LETTING YOU MURDER ANYONE EVER AGAIN!"

Nozomi looked up at Anna, brushed a strand of hair out of her eye with a single dirty nail…

…

…

…

…and smiled.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Nagasaki Yoshida / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Element / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active / Theme Song: The opening theme song, "You Can't Stop the Girl," from "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee."

Name: Ming / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Esoteric Diviner / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Alex / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Holoride / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Einer / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: D.D. / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Katashi Yoshida / Original concept by: Scorchgid / Deck: Satellite / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Subaru Yamakuro / Original concept by: Ultimate Black Ace (I still can't read your name without the "Mortal Kombat" announcer voice in my head. Sorry.) / Deck: Fire King / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Stephan / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: Paradigm Shift / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Semal Haddad / Original concept by: kaploblast / Deck: Celestial Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Adeel Haddad / Original concept by: AngeLight952 / Deck: Canine / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Unknown Earthbound Disciple / Orignal concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Abstract Art / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Joho Okubyona / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Fusion Dimension Resistance / Status: Active

Name: Lydia Shiunin / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Fusion Dimension Resistance / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Lizette LeBlanc / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Angelic Armor / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Natsumi Kazuki / Original concept by: Shimmering-Sky (The one who Donjusticia fears) / Deck: Celestial / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Jorq / Original concept by: KuroganeFang / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Academia / Status: Active

Name: Isaac / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Academia / Status: Active

Name: Moriah / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Academia / Status: Active

Name: Nozomi Aikawa / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active / Theme Song: The Living Tombstone's "FNAF 2 Song"

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Nagasaki's Monsters

Element Module/ DARK/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1500/ DEF 1500/ If you control a face-up "Element" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can declare 1 Attribute (FIRE, WATER, WIND, EARTH): This card's Attribute becomes that Attribute. If this card is sent to the graveyard, add 1 "Element" monster from your deck to your hand.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Element Charger/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Thunder/ Effect/ ATK 1500/ DEF 1500/ If an "Element" monster you control battles, you can discard this card from the hand: Until the end of this turn, apply the following effects depending on the monster Attributes on the field. FIRE: "Element" monsters you control gain 1000 ATK and DEF. WATER: "Element" monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's card effects. EARTH: "Element" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle. WIND: You take no damage.

Nagasaki's Extra Deck

Element Chimera/ DARK/ Rank 4/ Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1700/ 2 Level 4 "Element" monsters  
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, attach that monster to this card as Xyz Material. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Activate the following effects, based on the monster Attributes on the field.

* FIRE: This card gains 500 ATK and DEF  
* WATER: Control of this card cannot switch, also, this card cannot be banished.

* WIND: This card can make up to two attacks per Battle-Phase this turn.  
* EARTH: Negate the effect of an Effect Monster that this card destroyed by battle, also, this card inflicts piercing battle damage.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Nagasaki's Spells

Aristotelian Element/ Spell/ Continuous/ You can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Element" monster from your hand, deck, or graveyard. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster on the field: That monster is treated as EARTH, FIRE, WIND, and WATER. If an "Element" monster you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your graveyard instead.

Ming's Monsters

Esoteric Diviner Onmyoji Seimei/ DARK/ Level 9/ Spellcaster/ Ritual/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2700/ _Effects unrevealed._

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Alex's Extra Deck

Holoride Megapod/ EARTH/ Level 5/ Machine/ Fusion/ ATK 2000/DEF 1000  
Must first be Special Summoned with "Holoride Upgrade". This card gains 500 ATK for each Union Monster equipped to the monster sent to the graveyard to Special Summon this card. Each turn, this card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effect a number of times equal to the number of Union Monsters equipped to the monster sent to the graveyard to Special Summon this card.  
(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Einer's Monsters

D.D. Paladin/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 1800/ Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "D.D." monster from your hand. If this card battles an opponent's monster, you can banish both this card and the monster this card was battling. If this card is banished, add 1 Level 4 or lower "D.D." monster from your deck to your hand. You can only activate the effect of "D.D. Paladin" once per turn.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

D.D. Explorer/ LIGHT/ Level 3/ Machine/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 1800/ During the End-Phase of the turn this card was banished, you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card. If this card is Special Summoned, you can add up to 2 of your banished cards to your hand.

Einer's Extra Deck

D.D.V. Fissure Scar General/ DARK/ Level 7/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2300/ DEF 1600  
1 "D.D." Tuner monster + 1 non-Tuner "D.D." monster(s)  
Once per turn, you can target 1 card your opponent controls, banish it. If this card leaves the field, target 1 of your banished "D.D." monsters, except for "D.D.V. Fissure Scar General", and Special Summon it, then increase that monster's ATK and DEF by 400.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Subaru's Traps

Rage of the Fire Kings/ Trap/ Continuous/ "Fire King" monsters you control gain 500 ATK. If a "Fire King" monster(s) you control is destroyed as a result of battle, you can treat it as if it were destroyed by a card effect instead. Each time a "Fire King" monster is destroyed by a card effect, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of that monster X 100.

Katashi's Extra Deck

Satellite Laser Balsam/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Machine/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ Satellite Cannon + Satellite Cannon + Satellite Cannon

Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned other ways. Cannot be targeted for attacks by a Level 10 or lower monster. During each of your End-Phases, increase the ATK of this card by 3000. This card can make up to 3 attacks per Battle-Phase. If this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict Piercing Damage to your opponent's LP. At the end of the Battle-Phase in which this card attacked, change this card's ATK to 0.

(Original Concept by: Scorchgid.)

Katashi's Spells

Satellite Overcharge/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 "Satellite" monster you control: Activate its effect which activates during the End-Phase three times in succession. During the End-Phase of the turn this effect was activated, destroy the targeted monster.

Unknown Disciple's Extra Deck

Abstraction Muse Guernica/ _Stats Unrevealed_ / _Effects not fully revealed._

Trivia: This monster is based off "Guernica" by Picasso.

Unknown Disciple's Spells

Trompe L'oeil/ Spell/ Field/ _Effects unrevealed_

Trivia: "Trompe L'oeil" is French for "Deceive the Eye."

Abstract Art Destruction/ Spell/ Normal/ During either player's turn, you can discard this card from your hand: Inflict 500 damage to each player's LP for each "Abstract Art" card in your graveyard. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Destroy all "Abstract Art" cards you control, and if you do, draw 1 card from your deck for each card destroyed with this effect, and if you do, send a number of cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard equal to the number of cards you drew with this effect.

Adeel's Monster's

Jack the Canine Lifeguard/ WATER/ Level 2/ Beast/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1100/ DEF 900  
When this card is used for the Synchro Summon of a "Canine" monster, you can target cards from the Field, Extra Deck, or Graveyard up to the number of monsters used for the Synchro Summon and shuffle those cards into their owner's deck. You can only use the effect of "Jack the Canine Lifeguard" once per turn.

(Original concept by: AngeLight952.)

Laika the Canine Astronaut/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1350/  
If this card is Special Summon from the deck you can target 1 face-up "Canine" monster you control: This monster's level becomes equal to that monster's level. A "Canine" monster that was summoned using this card as material gains this effect.  
If it is summoned your opponent selects 1 card in his/her hand and 1 card on the field. Return those cards to their owner's deck.

(Original concept by: AngeLight952.)

Adeel's Extra Deck

Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2600/ DEF 600/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners  
Once per turn, you can shuffle one card from your hand into the deck: Draw 1 card, and if the card you drew was a monster, draw 1 additional card, otherwise, send the card you drew to the graveyard. If a card or effect is activated that would return a card(s) to the hand or deck, you can shuffle any number of cards you control into the deck: Negate that effect, and if you do, add cards from your graveyard to your hand up to the number of cards shuffled into the deck with this effect.

(Original concept by: AngeLight952.)

Adeel's Spells

The Dogs Are Out!/ Spell/ Normal/ Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower "Canine" monsters with different names from your deck. They can't be tributed or used as a material for a Special Summon, except for the summon of a "Canine" monster. You can only activate "The Dogs Are Out!" once per turn.

(Original concept by: AngeLight952.)

Semal's Monsters

Celestial Hero Serpens/ LIGHT/ Level 3/ Reptile/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ When this Monster is Summoned, add 1 "Celestial" Monster from your Deck to your Hand.

Trivia: This card's design is based off the "Serpens" constellation.

(Original concept by: Kaploblast.)

Celestial Hero Volans/ WATER/ Level 1/ Fish/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 300/ DEF 100/ If there is a face-up "Celestial" monster on the field, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.

Trivia: This card's design is based off the "Volans" constellation.

(Original concept by: Kaploblast.)

Semal's Extra Deck

Celestial Hero Graviton/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Tuner/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners

Once per turn, you can target 1 monster on the field: Negate the effects of that monster.

(Original concept by: Kaploblast.)

Celestial Hero Galactic Void/ DARK/ Level 10/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3200/ DEF 3000/ 1 "Celestial" Synchro Tuner + 1 or more Synchro Monsters.

Spell/Trap Cards and their effects on the field cannot be activated. Negate all Spell/Trap Card effects on the field. When this card leaves the field, draw 1 card.

(Original concept by: Kaploblast.)

Natsumi's Extra Deck

Celestial Dragon - Sol/ LIGHT/ Level 7/ Dragon/ Synchro/ Effect/ 2700 ATK/ 1500 DEF/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners  
Once per turn: You can banish one "Celestial" card from your Graveyard: Target 1 card on the field; destroy it.  
Kiryu's Extra Deck

Infernity Tomahawk Striker/ Dark/ Level 6/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect  
ATK 2700/ DEF 500/ 1 DARK Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners  
If an "Internity" monster attacks while you have no cards in your hand, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the damage step.

(Original concept by: FanOfKings.)

Lizette's Monsters

Angelic Armor Sword/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Warrior/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ When this card attacks or is attacked, increase its ATK by 500 for each "Angelic Armor" monster you control. Other monsters you control cannot attack the turn you declare an attack with this card. This car can attack each monster your opponent controls, once each. If this card destroys a monster by battle, you can target 1 card on the field: Return that target to the hand. You can tribute this card: Add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand, and if you do, it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet/ FIRE/ Level 1/ Rock/ ATK 500/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control an "Angelic Armor" card. You can target 1 card on the field: Destroy that target. You can tribute this card: Add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet" once per turn).

Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet/ FIRE/ Level 1/ Rock/ ATK 500/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control an "Angelic Armor" card. When exactly 1 monster is destroyed by battle with an "Angelic Armor" card or an "Angelic Armor" card effect, you can activate this effect, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to the controller equal to the original ATK of the destroyed monster. You can tribute this card: Add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet" once per turn).


	22. Part 1: Chapter 11 Scene 4 Part 1

**Welcome back everyone! It's been a little while since I've been able to post new content, but hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait. Special thanks goes to the "Signs of Renewal" team, CorinnetheAnime, Epsilon Tarantula, and Nox Descious, for creating cards, designing duels, and proofreading my work in order to help this chapter come out as soon as it did. As always, thank you for everyone for your continued contributions. As a special announcement, on my profile page, I have set up a new poll. In the past, I have striven to post an update chapter at least once weekly in order to keep you all informed of the progress of the story as well as give you all something to read while you wait for the official releases of some chapters. I, however, would like to know your opinion on this policy. Would you all prefer it if I continued posting these update chapters, or would you prefer it if I instead focused my time and effort exclusively on the official chapters? Please note that the ultimate decision on what policy I take for "Signs of Renewal" lies with me, but I'd like to gauge what my audience thinks before I continue. So after reading and enjoying this chapter, please take some time to go to the profile page and submit your vote. I will keep the poll up until the 21** **st** **of October. With that out of the way, please enjoy!**

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Escalation (Scene 4: Day Jobs Part 1)

"And if you have all three of these monsters out, you can summon Gate Gaurdian." Gin explained to a teenage Common boy about twice her height as he stared back down at her with a confused expression on his face. It was not every day that a member of the Tops would even enter a Common neighborhood, much less start handing out extremely rare and expensive cards. Gin, however, had felt the need to visit the neighborhood despite the constant warnings of danger she had received from both her parents. She had always been grateful that she could live where she didn't constantly have to worry about thieves, gangs, or other shady characters harming her, but she had decided to take the risk of entering the slums, for one, because this was the neighborhood of her friend, Lilly, and she needed to see if anyone knew where she was, and for two, because, and it was strange to explain, but she never really minded giving any of her things away, especially if she could help others some way by doing so.

"Why are you doing this?" The boy asked, looking back and forth from the cards Gin handed him to Gin and Akio, who were both standing next to their bikes while distributing some other cards to a gathering group of kids.

Gin paused after hearing the boy's question, thinking about what her dad would say. Most likely, he would scold her for just handing out cards like that when they hadn't done anything to earn them. Charity, he had taught her, was best served when it involved providing ways for the Commons to better themselves, such as with a job or access to a public library, not by throwing resources at them so they could feed themselves for another week before coming back for more. "A Tops man who only has wealth because he inherited it, does not deserve that wealth and will soon lose it." Mr. Tami had explained, "A Common man who's had wealth thrown at him for the cause of charity is no better."

People like her mother and Tops relations would also raise their concerns, but theirs would be of a different kind.

"You can't mingle with the Commons in the slums like that!" Her mother would say, "Haven't we taught you anything! They will beat you within an inch of your life just so they can steal from you! Don't go anywhere near them! Not without me or your father accompanying you!"

"But Erika and Lilly are okay." She would reply.

"Yes… but I don't know if I like Lilly… she's a little course, even for a Common. And as for Erika… there's something strange about that one. You really need to be more careful! It's one thing to be friendly, another thing to be foolish!"

Her uncle, Goro, would have raised an even stranger concern.

"Ever hear of the Earthbound?" he would whisper, eyes darting around the room as if he were afraid of summoning a demon.

"Earthbound?" Gin would ask.

"I've seen 'em!" Goro would whisper, trembling ever so slightly. "They skulk in the Slums, stealing corpses at night and placing the ghost mark on them!"

"Ghost mark?" Gin would then ask, feeling scared.

"Ooh… it was terrible…" Goro would shudder, shaking his head theatrically, "…I was out for a midnight walk, when I made a wrong turn and ended up in the dark slums of the Commons. I turned to head back but…"

"But what?" Gin would whimper, still too young to understand the concept of a ghost story.

"But the path back was gone!" Goro would tremble. "So I called out into the misty night, trying to find someone who would help me. And that's when I saw it… the ghost mark! It was shining against the chest of a dark hooded man who stood there… watching me… holding a hook in his hand. I called out to the man to see if he would help me, but he only stared back at me, slowly advancing on me while raising the hook into the air. I backed away, but he continued approaching me, and soon, I saw other figures. Ghostly lizards, birds, monkeys, and spiders, all advancing on me, all watching me, all bearing ghost marks! I closed my eyes… hoping it was all a dream, when I suddenly woke up, lying in a gutter in the middle of the slums with nobody around me. It must have all been a dream after all. I picked myself up to walk away, but then I saw it…"

"Saw what!?" Gin would squeak, burying her head in the folds of her dress.

"A large hook, buried in the sidewalk!" Goro would whisper, to which Gin would suddenly scream and run away before her mother would enter the room, grab Goro by the ear, and give him a severe scolding for filling Gin's head with frivolous ghost stories.

Gin, however, had decided after turning eight that most of the horror stories she had heard about the Commons were untrue. Part of this resolution had been due to her befriending Erika and Lilly, but most of it had come about simply due to her realizing just how outlandish and silly some of the horror stories were. Sure, some of the Commons may have been dangerous, but she was finding it hard to believe such gruesome accounts such as the, "Commons-sacrificing-children," stories and the, "I-saw-a-Common-baking-the-governor's-wife-into-a-pie," accounts. All-in-all, Gin felt like she had inherited more of her Dad's practicality.

And as for her father's more practical objections about unnecessary charity, Gin had mostly waved them aside in the face of Security's assault. She didn't want any of them to suffer what she had suffered when she lost her father.

"Security will be attacking this place." Gin explained, handing a young boy a copy of Star Eater and a Tuner. "I'm not giving these away just for charity. You'll need to be ready for when they attack, so train yourselves using these things, otherwise, Security will be dragging everyone away."

The gathering Commons suddenly didn't look as eager to collect the cards as they had before. Groups started muttering between themselves about whether or not they should trust what a Top said while others began earnestly discussing the possibility of leaving the city.

"We should go, Gin." Akio warned, placing his hand on Gin's shoulder as his golden eyes vigilantly swept the area.

"What's wrong?" Gin asked, looking around.

Akio made a subtle movement of his head, indicating a pair of shady-looking duelists who were playing a game against each other. "We're being watched."

Gin glanced at the duel that was taking place. One of the duelists was a teenage goth girl with blue hair, black make-up, and multiple criminal marks over the left side of her face that made her cheek look like a circuit board. The other was a teenage boy with spikey short brown hair, two dagger shaped criminal marks stabbing through both eyes, and multiple knife scars on his arms and cheek. The girl controlled a copy of Mermaid Archer equipped with Skystarray and Hydro Pressure Cannon while the boy controlled a copy of Mataza the Zapper equipped with Magnum Shield. Both controlled a face-down card. Between the two duelists, a very tall and muscular man in his very early twenties seemed to be recording the duel with his Duel Disk, but Gin didn't fail to notice just how unserious the two duelists seemed to be and how the man's camera seemed to be pointed more directly at her and Akio. Growing uneasy as she started recalling the stories she had heard of the horrible things Commons did to Tops who wandered in their slums, Gin felt herself begin to tremble.

"Erika and Lilly are not like that." Gin reminded herself. Even though she had had the horror stories of the Commons drilled into her head on a weekly basis with repeated warnings not to visit the slums, Erika and Lilly had all been very nice to her. Maybe she was being too hasty judging these Commons. After all, one didn't have to believe all the Common-attacking-a-Top horror stories any more than one had to believe the ridiculous ghost stories about the Earthbound some people insisted were gospel truth. It was the same with these Commons. Just because they looked scary, didn't mean they were the predatory demons she had been warned about.

Akio, however, seemed to disagree.

"However disgusting they may be…" he whispered as if understanding Gin's thoughts, "…there is usually some truth behind the stereotypes. None of these people know where Lilly is and we have already armed this neighborhood. The good people here will remember what you did. Best not to stay here and see what the bad people will do."

Gin slowly nodded her head, deciding it would be best to trust Akio's word. He was, after all, a Common. He probably knew better how to judge his own kind better than she did. Putting on her helmet, she picked up her bag and walked back towards her small sleek grey, silver, and black bike.

"I ought to take that bag." Akio insisted, putting his hand on Gin's shoulder while still keeping a wary eye on the three individuals who had suddenly and inexplicably ended their duel, the girl proclaiming that she was bored, before walking away towards their own trio of D-wheels, one quite large while the other two were smaller and rustier.

"I can carry it." Gin replied, mounting her bike. It was kind of funny really. Normally she would have just had Akio carry her things because it was expected of her to let the servants do things for her, but being away from her parents, hard on her emotions as that was considering her father had been forcefully taken from her, had made her feel free to do those little independent things she had craved to do for a long time. And besides, Akio had usually been the one who had encouraged Gin to develop her self-reliance over the course of her sparring sessions with him.

Akio, however, seemed to be rapidly shifting into his role as her servant and protector.

"I insist." Akio grunted, pulling the bag off her shoulders and strapping it to his own immense load on the back of his bike.

"But you're already carrying the other three bikes and riding outfits!" Gin protested, feeling that they would do a lot better if the work were more evenly distributed. She tried to explain this to Akio while indicating a large bundle of heavy compact cases on the back of Akio's larger and older-looking grey bike, but Akio just ignored her.

"We need to get moving." Akio insisted, pressing the ignition button on his bike handles until his bike roared to life with a series of loud screeches, pops, and a final smoky explosion out the tail-pipe. Pulling ahead of Gin, he waved to her, indicating she should follow him.

Reluctantly, Gin started her own bike, which instantaneously and smoothly purred to life with a quiet, steady, and strong humming. With just a slight press of the accelerator, she almost instantaneously caught up to Akio's larger, older, and slower bike, following close behind him as they entered a highway.

"Mental note." she thought to herself. "Be sure to thank Akio by buying him a better bike."

Racing down the highway at break-neck speeds, they continued eastward, heading towards the neighborhood where Lilly lived when suddenly, Akio made a rapid U-turn and indicated for Gin to follow him.

"What's wrong?" Gin asked, noticing the worried expression on Akio's face.

"We're being followed." Akio called back. "Have your deck at the ready and stay close!"

"Security?" Gin nervously asked, suddenly feeling very frightened despite her efforts to remember her combat and duel training. For a moment, thoughts of the ghost stories she had heard flickered through her mind, but she quickly tried brushing them aside, reminding herself that they were no truer than the mystical fairy dragon spirit she used to believe in as a toddler.

"No." Akio replied, gripping the handles of his bike. "But potentially just as dangerous. Be on your guard, Gin."

Akio and Gin raced down the highway, Gin making sure to not let herself pull ahead of Akio's bike, when she and Akio suddenly noticed that their path had been blocked by the large blonde-haired man she had seen recording the duel a few moments ago. He was riding a massive brown Motorbike more than twice the size of Akio's bike, with two massive front wheels and two equally large back wheels. The front of the bike was styled to look like a massive bear head with its mouth gaping wide. The man was wearing a large white leather riding outfit with spikey black shoulder pads and a large black helmet decorated like a bear head. Smiling at Gin and Akio, he waved to them, before revving up the massive engines of his bike and charging towards them.

Gin and Akio prepared to turn around, but were stopped dead in their tracks when two other riders pulled up and blocked their path. Looking at their rusty bikes and the faces beneath their cheap helmets, Gin recognized them as the duelists she had seen in the neighborhood.

"Gin, go!" Akio growled, activating his bike's duel disk.

"What's the rush?" the large blonde-haired man boomed in a deep rumbling voice, slowly circling Gin and Akio with his buddies.

"Yeah! What's the rush?" the brown-haired boy giggled, eyeing the packages on Akio's bike with a hungry expression on his face.

"It's not every day the Tami family visits us." The blue-haired girl snickered.

"We noticed you giving out all those free cards." The brown-haired boy sneered, making a grabbing motion for some of Akio's bags on one of his passes.

"Pretty rare and expensive cards." The girl added with a grin.

"VERY expensive cards." The blonde-haired man agreed, revving up his engines with a threatening roar. "It's always nice to see someone being so generous with their property, but we were wondering, when was it our turn?"

Gin felt her heart pounding against her chest. She was starting to recall some of the stories she had heard. The tales of people beaten half to death and robbed of everything they had on them, people drowned in the gutter by mobs of hooded individuals, and even more outlandish tales of shadowy individuals with glowing marks commanding evil ghosts to disembowel their victims began to feel more ominously realistic by the second as the gang of duelists circled her bike.

"NO!" she firmly thought. "Those stories aren't real… I'll just calmly tell these people I can't…"

"HEY MISSY!" the girl shouted, looking Gin in the eyes with the kind of look a shark gives its prey. "When do we get some!?"

Gin nervously opened her mouth to respond, but Akio gripped her shoulder, giving her a warning look before turning his attention back to the circling gang.

"I think someone's being stingy." The brown-haired boy snickered.

"TERRIBLY stingy." The blonde-haired man growled, starting to sound more serious. "So if you don't mind, I think we're going to finish your little charity drive and take back the stuff your dad stole from us."

"Stole from you?" Gin nervously whimpered, feeling extremely embarrassed and even more scared after hearing how wimpy and cowardly her voice sounded.

"Yes, your highness." The blonde-haired man gruffly replied. "Did you ever wonder just how your dear little daddy got so rich? How many Commons he's had to trample under his feet to get to where he is today?"

"But dad gave you that library…" Gin whimpered, "…and-…"

"GAVE IT TO US!?" the blonde-haired man laughed, "More like took from us before building that library just so he could create a publicity stunt and convince idiots like you that he actually cared about us! But we're not buying it! We know what he's REALLY like! There's no difference between him and any other Top thief! So in consideration of your father's thievery, my compatriots and I feel it would only be appropriate to steal back some of the stuff you've taken from us. But we'll let you keep your butler and his bike. It's not like we want those anyway."

"Ugh… yeah!" the girl agreed, sticking out her tongue in disgust before pointing to Akio's rough face. "Look at that guy! He looks even worse than Benji!"

"Hey!" the brown-haired boy named Benji protested. "My scars make me look manly! Not like Mr. Acid Victim over there!"

"Right." The girl sarcastically replied, rolling her eyes. "You look about as manly as Freddy Krueger's wimpy two-year-old kid."

"Benji! Unagi!" the blonde-haired man growled. "I'm not giving you guys your cut unless you help out! Whoop the old man if you have to, but grab those bags and make sure the girl's wallet is taken. She's gotta have one and it'll have A LOT on it."

"Chill out Kuma." The girl named Unagi snapped. "We're on it."

"Can we uh… take the girls clothes too?" Benji snickered, eyeing Gin with a menacing expression on his face. "I'm sure that uhm… a little girl in our neighborhood would really appreciate them."

"We're staying professional." The man named Kuma growled. "We're just taking back what her dad took. There's no need to do anything else unpleasant." He narrowed his eyes, "Unless of course we have no other choice."

"Ugh… gross!" Unagi gagged, seemingly coming to a realization regarding what Benji had been implying. "Benji! She's like… ten! At least show some class and do it to someone your age!"

"I don't think she even knows what 'it' is." Benji guffawed, earning him a hard stare from Kuma before he quieted down.

Gin had no idea what they were talking about, but she could tell that whatever "it" was, "it" was very bad. She did not want to believe the ghost stories or the demonic characterizations she had heard from some of the other Tops about the Commons when she had met and gotten to know so many Common friends, but these guys weren't helping her shake the feeling that the Tops may have been right about the Commons all along. Akio, meanwhile, was holding out his arms protectively and eyeing the circling riders with an expression of pure rage in his golden eyes.

They were tightening the circle, coming closer and closer to them with every pass. Beneath her helmet, Gin could feel sweat beading on her forehead.

"LEAVE NOW!" Akio barked. "I will not hesitate to strike down dishonorable dogs like you who would reward her kindness with evil!"

"Did he just call us dogs!?" Unagi hissed, gripping her bike handles tighter.

"I think he did!" Benji snarled. "Let's show this Tops dog we mean business!"

"We're not messing around." Kuma agreed with a deep growl. "You think just because Tami's spawn goes around throwing cards at us that we're gonna fall on our feet and worship her like a goddess after all her father's done to us! My dad was scammed after he worked for Mr. Tami and then left to die of cancer after getting no health benefits from his work! While Mr. Tami's spoiled little princess has been living in her tower eating cake and lobster every day, her dad has left us to live in the slums, scraping by on whatever scraps we can scrape off the sidewalk!"

"There is no dishonor in either poverty or prosperity." Akio sternly replied. "Whatever evil you feel Master Tami-Sama has committed, you gravely dishonor yourselves by seeking to prey on his innocent daughter like wild animals… cowardly wild animals."

"The only dishonor here is with the thieving Tops and the cowards who serve them… coward!" Kuma retorted. "We're way more honorable than traitorous scum like you, so don't even think about lecturing us!"

"Prove your honor then!" Akio spat. "Show your true character in a duel! If your team wins, I will concede to your demands. If we win, you let us go."

"Akio." Gin nervously whimpered, desperately trying to contain her growing fear.

"I'm here for you." Akio reassured her. "Remember, dueling is the great equalizer. On the battlefield, there is only skill in battle, and you are far more skilled than any of them."

Kuma seemed to be considering Akio's words. Turning his head towards Benji he asked, "How are we looking on Security?"

Benji quickly looked through a screen on his bike. "I'm not picking up any Security in a wide radius. We should be good."

"Fine." Kuma growled. "Okay old man. We accept your offer." He signaled to the other duelists who formed up next to Gin and Akio like racers at a starting line. "We're gonna do a team Battle Royal. My team verses your team. The team who goes first doesn't get to attack while the second team does. Everything else is a pretty standard battle royal, our own fields, our own life points, our own skills."

Gin felt herself panting with anxiety. She had hoped her experiences in martial arts classes would have prepared her to face them, but she couldn't get over her growing worry that something horrific would happen to either herself or Akio. It was just like when Security had captured her father earlier that day. Her limbs were locking up like they were paralyzed, her chest was heaving as she began panting, she was sweating, her chest and throat were in pain as her worry grew, and her heart kept hammering against her ribs like it would explode.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Whipping her head around, she saw Akio, looking at her with a calm and reassuring expression on his rough face, almost as if to say, "Don't worry. You're not alone. This isn't like when you faced Security. You're not alone and you're not defenseless. We can fight them and we can beat them."

Nodding her head at Akio, Gin closed her eyes and began taking a few deep breaths, in through her nose and out her mouth, before opening her eyes, pulling down the visor on her silver helmet and gripping the handles of her bike for comfort. He was right, even if the horror stories she had heard were true, Akio was here for her. He had taught her to master her fear in his sparring sessions with her. She just needed to think of this as another sparring session with him, not as an episode from a scary ghost story. And this card would help her do that.

"Turbo Field Activate!" Gin declared, slotting a card from her deck into her Field Spell Zone. "Speed World Acceleration!"

A shockwave emanated from the center of Gin's bike, bathing the highway in a light blue tint. Over the distant track, several evenly spaced pillars of light appeared with the first labeled, "Checkpoint 1" the second labeled "Checkpoint 2" and so forth. Over each of the duelist's heads, an indicator showed a picture of each of their faces along with score counter labeled "SC."

"This is now a turbo duel." Gin explained, trying to muscle through the pain and fear by acting like the announcer at the Friendship Cup, Melissa Claire. Okay… maybe not as flamboyant as she was, but still, Gin had always admired how confident she looked whenever she spoke. "The team who goes first will be determined by whose team-member reaches Checkpoint 1 first. In addition, the first player to reach each checkpoint gains five-hundred life points and one Speed Counter. Each player will also gain one speed counter at the end of each player's turn. The more speed counters we gain, the faster our bikes will go, plus, we can also pay speed counters during either player's turn in order to pay for certain effects. One speed counter increases the attack of one monster by five-hundred until the end of the turn, two speed counters can negate one attack, and four speed counters can reduce damage to zero."

"Fine by me." Kuma growled, revving up his engines till they sounded like a sleuth of roaring bears. "But once we finish this game, we're taking everything you've got!"

"You will honor your agreement." Akio countered, revving up his bikes old engine, which sounded, by contrast, like a dying frog.

Kuma rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm not gonna let Benji touch her if that's what you're worried about. That was just a joke. We just want your stuff. Just hand it over and nobody has to get hurt."

"We will not back down, and you will not touch Gin!" Akio growled, gripping his bike handles tighter.

"Then let's go!" Kuma snarled.

"DUEL!" all five duelists proclaimed as a holographic timer counted down from three.

…

THREE

…

TWO

…

ONE

…

GO!

All five of the duelists blasted forward on their bikes, racing towards the first checkpoint at breakneck speeds. All, that is, except Gin, who hesitated for just a second as she thought of the potential danger before speeding forward on her little bike, struggling to catch up with the others. She realized, with frustration, that she had already messed up. She needed to focus on the duel and nothing else!

That, however, was easier said than done. As she struggled to catch up, she found herself looking at the other players with fear and worry more than she was managing to focus on catching up.

Kuma's muscly bike was in the lead, engine roaring like the gravelly roars of a thousand bears. Puttering behind him while carrying an immense load on its back, Akio's bike trailed just behind, managing to keep up despite being obviously outclassed. Behind him, Benji was pulling up with Unagi just on his tail.

Despite being unfocused, Gin's bike was still superior to everyone else's. Gently humming, it managed to quickly pull up, coming closer and closer to catching up to and passing Unagi and Benji, when Unagi suddenly pulled her bike directly in front of Gin, cutting her off while Gin instinctively slammed on the brakes in order to avoid a collision. Laughing her head off, Unagi sped forward while Gin tried to regain her lost momentum.

Akio, meanwhile, continued to make rapid progress along the course, rapidly shifting gears at just the right times in order to juice as much speed as he could from his bike. Inch by inch, his bike steadily caught up to Kuma's massive bike until the wheel was just inches ahead of Kuma. His bike was now in the lead and the checkpoint was almost in sight.

Just

…

a little

…

…

SLAM!

With an aggressive roar, Kuma slammed his bike against Akio's, sending the man spinning out of control and falling back as Kuma raced past Checkpoint 1, followed closely by Benji and then Unagi.

"Akio-San!" Gin cried, desperately trying to catch up.

Akio managed to right his bike and speed through Checkpoint 1 just before Gin caught up to him and passed the checkpoint herself. Holding up his hand, he called to Gin to focus on the duel before gripping both handles of his bike and attempting to regain his lost distance.

"Ha!" Kuma laughed at Gin as his Life Points rose to 4500 and his Speed Counters rose to one. "Looks like all your money couldn't buy you a descent rider! It's my move, and I'll start by playing two Magic Cards, my Field Magic, War Bear Encampment, and my Continuous Magic, War Bear Banner!"

On the sides of the track-way, a forest of massive evergreen trees rose up, blocking out the sun and bathing the track-way in ominous shadows. In the distant shadows of the trees, Gin could swear she saw distant fires and eyes watching her in between the branches. Behind Kuma's bike, a wooden tower with a large banner depicting a growling bear head over a pair of crossed axes appeared. Eyes widening, Gin suddenly felt like one of the ghost story characters who died after wandering into the woods late at night, just at the time when shady Commons and demonic Earthbound Spirits roamed through the shadows like predators.

"When War Bear Banner is activated, I can immediately add one Warlord-Bear monster from my deck to my hand." Kuma explained, tearing a card from his deck. "And I know just the monster, say hello to my Tuner monster, Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero!"

From the distant trees, Gin could hear the sound of deep growling as something thundered through the woods, cracking through trees and underbrush as it charged towards them. Letting out an involuntary scream, Gin nearly fell off her bike, screaming as a massive grizzly bear clad in a red cape and thick iron and leather armor like a barbarian's armor, punched through a tree with a single blow from one of its massive paws before jumping in front of Kuma, standing up on its hind legs, and unsheathing a massive two-handed ax from its back. The monster looked like it had seen its fair share of scuffles. It had a massive scar running down its shut right eye while its fur was matted and torn out in different places. Its crimson cape was ragged at the bottom while its armor and ax were each chipped in many different places. Letting out a blood-curdling roar, a holographic indicator appeared, showing an ATK of 2000 and a Level of four.

"But I'm not even close to done yet." Kuma grinned after watching Gin panic, throwing down another card from his hand. "My War Bear Encampment allows me to Normal Summon one Warlord-Bear monster from my hand in addition to my Normal Summon or Set. Come forth! Warlord-Bear Brown Spy!"

From a tree branch, a smaller brown bear leaped onto the duel field, landing lightly on its feet while concealing its appearance with a midnight-black hood and cape. Appearance-wise, the monster looked like a Syrian Brown Bear, with milky brown fur on its body and darker-brown fur at the base of its arms and legs. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK or 1800 and a Level of two.

"I now pay one-thousand Life Points…" Kuma roared, sweat beading on his forehead as his Life Points dropped to 3000, "…in order to perform a Synchro Summon with my Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero and Warlord-Bear Brown Spy!"

Beating its chest while roaring with fury, Warlord Bear Grizzly Hero raised its axe into the air before morphing into four green rings of light that flew up into the air before descending and encircling Warlord-Bear Brown Spy, which faded into a golden outline of itself before leaving behind two spheres of white light as Kuma began his summoning chant:

"Warriors of Primal Fury, conjure forth the warrior priest whose magic sounds the drums of war! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! LEVEL SIX, WARCHIEF-BEAR BLACK SHAMAN!"

Suddenly, Gin heard crows cawing through the air as they flew from off the branches of the trees and a strong wind blew through the forest. Feeling the hairs of her neck stand on end, Gin gripped the handles of her bike, as the street darkened with the growing shadows of the trees and her bike's lights automatically activated in order to illuminate her way. The rings of Kuma's Synchro Summon had long faded away, but Gin still couldn't see his monster. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say, she couldn't tell what actually was his monster. In the twisted shadows of the forest, Gin thought she saw Kuma's monster everywhere, crouching behind trees, looming over branches, or leaping across a pair of stumps. Where was it?

Suddenly, Gin heard a roar behind her.

Whipping her head around, Gin let out a scream when she suddenly saw it, standing right behind her, a massive black bear with glowing red eyes, white war paint over its face and body, golden armor over its chest, legs, and arms, and a massive blood-red cape over its back. In its hand, it carried a massive staff adorned with crow-feathers, beads, teeth, claws, and a wolf's head. Leering down at Gin and her bike, a holographic indicator appeared next to the monster and showed an ATK of 2800.

"Help me!" Gin screamed to Akio, as she tried to speed away from the massive dark monster.

"Stay focused Gin!" Akio harshly commanded, furiously keeping up with the other riders on his bike. "Their team cannot attack on the first turn, so he can't harm you."

"Clearly you haven't heard of my Warchief-Bear's hospitality." Kuma retorted, extending his hand towards his monster. "Once per turn, my Warchief-Bear Black Shaman can Special Summon one Warlord-Bear monster from my graveyard. So return to my field now, Warlord-Bear Brown Spy in defense position!"

Shaking its staff in the air while chanting in a deep growling voice, Warchief-Bear Black Spy conjured a black portal in the ground, through which Warlord-Bear Black Spy rose to the field. Keeping its face shrouded in its dark cloak, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a DEF of 0.

"Brown Spy effect activate!" Kuma triumphantly declared. "I can add one Warlord Bear Monster from my deck to my hand, but here is the catch! Under normal circumstances I would have to pay five-hundred of my Life Points to use this effect, but since I control a Warchief-Bear monster on my side of the field, I can force you to pay those Life Points instead, and that's not even the best part! The best part is the second effect of my Black Shaman! Remember that hospitality I talked about? Well, my Shaman doubles the amount of Life Points you are forced to pay, so now you'll get a taste of what your father has put us through! GO! NOBLE THEIVERY!"

As Kuma yanked a card from his deck and added it to his hand, Brown Spy suddenly charged towards Gin, before pulling out a knife. Gin lurched to the side, but not before taking a small blow from the bear's paws, reducing her Life Points to 3000.

"GIN!" Akio called, sounding worried.

Heart hammering against her chest, Gin just struggled to stay upright as she recovered from the attack, feeling a slight throbbing on her shoulder and back from where the paw had struck her.

"I will now set two cards face-down." Kuma continued, a satisfied expression on his face. "And on my End-Phase, my Brown Spy's effect sends itself to the graveyard. Turn end."

As Kuma ended his turn, his Brown Spy vanished while Black Shaman leaped into the forest and disappeared into the thick trees, rumbling with deep malevolent laughter. Feeling her bike begin to speed up, Gin looked up to see the holographic displays show Kuma's Speed Counters rise to two, while everyone else's Speed Counters rose to one.

Laughing his head off, Benji next began his turn.

"Oh man!" he laughed, "I wish I could get a recording of that! Aint nothing like seeing a Top get knocked down! My move now! Draw!"

Looking through the cards in his hand with narrow eyes, his face suddenly brightened as he continued his move.

"I activate the Magic Card, Double Summon! With this card, I can now Normal Summon two monsters this turn! So come forth now, Dawnbreak Guardna and Torapart!"

Two portals opened up in front of Benji's bike and two monsters appeared. The first was a very heavily armored knight with a masked face and 1500 ATK while the second was a strange jack-in-the-box like creature with two doll-like men attached to each other by the waist and an ATK of 600.

"The battlefield has been set!" Benji laughed in triumph. "Now I can tune my Level two Torapart with my Level 3 Dawnbreak Gardna! Veteran Warrior of many battles! Rise up again to show that no matter how many scars you receive in battle you will always triumph in victory! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! SCARRED WARRIOR!"

Appearing in a flash of light, a large cyborg warrior with bandages over his right arm and multiple jagged scars over his left and right leg appeared to the field. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 2100.

"Benji! Up ahead!" Kuma called, pulling back as the riders approached Checkpoint 2.

"Right you are, Kuma-Sama!" Benji grinned, slamming down on the accelerator and speeding ahead in order to pass through the checkpoint first. Whooping as his Life Points rose to 4500 and his Speed Counters rose to two, Benji sneered back at Akio and Gin.

"I dare the two of you to get past me now! Turn end!" Benji laughed, as his and Kuma's Speed Counters rose to three and the other duelist's Speed Counters rose to two.

"My turn!" Unagi declared, ripping a card from the top of her deck.

"Time to summon something that's actually strong!" she declared. "I'll start by summoning Deep Sea Diva, and I'll use her effect to Special Summon one Level three or Lower Sea Serpent-Type monster from my deck! So come on out, Lost Blue Breaker!"

In a distant pool within the forest, Gin heard the haunting voice of a lone singer in the distance. Peering through the trees, she noticed a mermaid-like woman singing in the pool before a large two-headed sea-creature poked its heads out of the water. Transforming into a pair of two green rings, the mermaid-like creature engulfed the sea creature in its light before Unagi began her summon chant:

"Ancient Creature of the Deep! Rise up from the ocean to terrify all with your power! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! SEA DRAGON LORD - GISHILNODON!"

Suddenly, with a mighty splash of water, a massive sea creature rose from the pool of water before snaking its way through the dark forest with the speed of a serpent. Pulling back in fear when she saw the massive creature leer at her with a crocodile like mouth, Gin desperately tried to focus less on her fear and more on the monster's base stats, such as its 2300 ATK, not really low, but not ridiculously high like Unagi had made it sound like it would be.

"I next activate Aqua Jet!" Unagi declared, throwing down a Spell Card, "This gives my monster another 1000 ATK!"

"Nevermind." Gin nervously thought as the Sea Creature let out a loud hiss as its ATK rose to 3300. As Gin gawked at the power of Unagi's monster, Unagi managed to pull forward and zip through the next Checkpoint, boosting her own Life Points to 4500 while increasing her Speed Counters to three.

"Turn end!" Unagi declared, racing forward with her two companions as She, Benji, and Kuma's Speed Counters rose to four while Gin and Akio's Speed Counters rose to three.

"This isn't good!" Gin thought to herself, heart racing as her breathing increased. It was times like this where she was grateful, more than ever, that her bike had an autopilot function, otherwise she would have probably crashed a long time ago. "They're so far ahead, and they have so many strong monsters! If they keep getting Speed Counters, at the rate they're getting them, they'll be unstoppable, and then…" Gin couldn't bear to think what would happen next, instead only wishing that she had listened to what her mother said about not approaching the Common slums.

"WATASHI NO TURN!" She suddenly heard Akio boldly proclaim. "DRAW!"

Gin looked over to where Akio was dueling. Despite the overwhelming odds against him, he looked remarkably calm and composed, taking every opportunity to juice as much power from his bike as possible, as if he wasn't aware of how inferior his bike was. Did he actually think they could win?

"I activate the Continuous Magic Card." Akio boldly proclaimed, "Shien's Dojo! While this card is face-up on the field, each time I Normal or Special Summon a Six Samurai monster, this card gains a Bushido Counter."

Above his bike, a massive hexagonal castle rose into the air. Unlit torches decorated each of its corners and Gin could hear swords clashing against each other within the walls of the building, as if soldiers were training within.

"Next…" Akio continued, "…I activate a second Continuous Magic Card, Gateway of the Six!"

In front of the massive castle, Gin saw a massive gateway with a circular mark on its face materialize into existence before illuminating the forest with its brilliant blue glow.

"Each time a Six Samurai monster is Normal or Special Summoned, this card gains two Bushido counters." Akio explained. "And now, for me to begin. Since you all control monsters on your sides of the field and I control none, I can Special Summon Elder of the Six Samurai from my hand! Appear now!"

Riding on a large sedan chair propelled with a set of four steampunk robotic legs, Akio's monster appeared to the field, a holographic indicator displaying a DEF of 0 and a Level of three while the elderly occupant read a scroll. Above Akio's head, a single torch lit up above Shien's Dojo while two circles lit up with light in front of the gateway.

"I next summon the Tuner Monster, Kagemusha of the Six Samurai." Akio continued, summoning a red-haired samurai wearing green robes and black armor with yellow highlights. With the arrival of his new monster, a new torch lit up above Shien's Dojo while two more marks lit up on Gateway of the Six.

"That's a lot of counters." Benji whistled. "It's almost a shame we're gonna have to tear that little castle of yours down."

"Stay focused." Kuma growled. "He's planning something."

"For once you show wisdom." Akio dryly replied. "With two Six Samurai monsters out on my field, the master of the dojo can now appear. Come forth! Level seven! Great Shogun Shien!"

In front of Akio, a massive wall of blue fire erupted from the ground, which Akio jumped his bike through, an extremely fierce expression on his face. Next to him, a massive warrior in crimson armor and a flame-decorated helmet appeared, wielding a sleek white katana in his hands. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500.

"A Level seven monster!?" Unagi exclaimed, looking flabbergasted as another torch and two more gateway marks lit up on Akio's castle, "Without tributing!"

"You threatened the family I serve!" Akio growled. "For that I will show you no mercy! Now for a Synchro Summon of my own! I tune my Level two Kagemusha of the Six Samurai with my Level three Elder of the Six Samurai in order to Synchro Summon! Legendary Samurai Warrior wielding the power of the Blue Flame, become a roaring inferno and burn all traces of evil to the ground! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! LEGENDARY SIX SAMURAI - SHI EN!"

Swinging its sword through a pillar of blue flame that appeared in front of Akio, Shi En stormed onto the battlefield before raising a mighty battle cry into the air as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2500. Above Akio's head, Shien's Dojo was illuminated by four burning torches while Gateway of the Six glowed with eight marks.

"OH NO!" Kuma exclaimed, looking extremely worried. "He's got both of them out!"

"It would seem you know of my monsters' effects." Akio observed, staring back at Kuma with a calculating expression on his face.

"Yes!" Kuma seethed, looking extremely irritated.

"Then you should be aware that I have essentially locked out your Magic and Trap Cards with this simple field." Akio replied. "And unfortunately, things are about to get worse for the three of you."

"We can't use our Magic and Trap Cards?" Benji asked, looking nervous.

"Yes you idiots!" Kuma snapped. "Great Shogun Shien limits us to using one Magic or Trap Card per turn and Legendary Six Samurai Shi En can negate one Magic or Trap Card per turn, so we're basically stuck with using our monsters!"

"Speaking of monsters…" Akio continued, "…it's time for me to bring out some more."

"MORE!?" Unagi exclaimed.

Akio nodded grimly before stretching his hand towards his castle. "I tribute Shien's Dojo in order to activate its effect. By sending it to the graveyard, I can summon one Six Samurai Monster from my deck whose Level is equal to the number of Bushido Counters I had on my Dojo. Since there were four Bushido Counters on Dojo, I summon the Level four Six Samurai Enishi!"

Flipping over the gate of the dojo, Enishi appeared to Akio's field, drawing its sword as the Dojo vanished into thin air and Gateway gained another two counters.

"And now…" Akio continued, "…since there are now ten Bushido Counters on my Gateway, I remove eight counters from my gate in order to add both Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai Kizan! And now that they are both in my hand, I will use each of their respective effects to Special Summon both of them to the field! Appear now! Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai Kizan!"

Bursting through the gateway in twin bursts of white light, two new Samurai swarmed Akio's field, one a samurai in black armor with gold highlights, and the second an elderly samurai with a long white beard and a mechanical eye-patch over his right eye.

"Gateway of the six gains four more counters." Akio declared, "And Kizan and Enishi's effects are each applied. Enishi's ATK rises by five-hundred and Kizan's rises by three-hundred."

Over Akio's field, holographic indicators appeared, displaying an impressive force of five monsters with Great Shogun Shien and Shi En each having 2500 ATK, Enishi having 2200 ATK, and Grandmaster and Kizan having 2100 ATK.

"I will now activate Gateway's first effect!" Akio declared. "I remove two counters to increase Legendary Six Samurai Shi En's attack to three-thousand and I remove four counters to increase Great Shogun Shien's attack to thirty-five hundred!"

Crossing their Katana's together, Great Shogun Shien and Shi En each roared with fury as their blue flames burned with intensity and their attack power rose. Watching in awe, Gin began wondering if Akio had been holding back against her the many times they had sparred.

"I now activate Enishi's effect!" Akio proclaimed, stretching his hand towards his green-armored samurai. "I banish Elder and Kagemusha from my graveyard in order to return Gishilnodon to the owner's hand!"

Obediently rushing forward, Enishi sprinted through the forest with the agility of a monkey, leaping across tree trunks and tree branches Enishi quickly closed the distance with Unagi's monster. Hissing angrily, Gishilnodon took a snap at Enishi, but Enishi was too quick. Leaping onto Gishilnodon's own head, he brought his Katana down on the monster's skull, causing the serpent to vanish away as it left Unagi's field.

"What!?" Unagi exclaimed. "Why are you suddenly picking on me!?"

"Because you insulted both my honor and the honor of my master's family." Akio coldly declared. "BATTLE! Legendary Six Samurai Kizan, attack Unagi directly!"

"Reach the next checkpoint!" Kuma ordered, moving aside to give Unagi some room as Kizan began sprinting forward, Katana drawn and at the ready.

"Got it!" Unagi replied, pressing down on the accelerator and zooming through the checkpoint just as Kizan came within three feet of her.

"Turbo Field effect!" Unagi declared as her Life Points rose to 5000 and her Speed Counters rose to five. "I remove two Speed Counters to negate your attack!"

Swinging his sword down, Kizan barely missed Unagi's head as a sudden speed burst enabled Unagi to evade the attack before her bike rapidly began slowing down as her Speed Counters dropped.

"Grandmaster of the Six Samurai Attack!" Akio ordered.

Letting out a wild war cry, Grandmaster leaped forward, raising his sword into the air and preparing to bring it down on Unagi's head when Unagi suddenly managed to evade the second attack with a sudden burst of speed.

"You're not taking me out!" Unagi bellowed as indicators showed her Speed Counters drop to one. "I activate Speed World Acceleration's effect again!"

"But now you don't have enough Speed Counters." Akio growled, extending his hand towards Enishi. "Legendary Six Samurai Enishi, direct attack!"

Slamming down on her accelerator, Unagi attempted to speed forward, but her bike had slowed down too much. Closing the distance with her, Enishi brought his sword down on Unagi, lowering her Life Points to 2800.

"AND NOW TO FINISH YOU!" Akio bellowed, "LEGENDARY SIX SAMURAI – SHI EN, ATTACK HER LIFE POINTS DIRECTLY! BLUE FLAME KATANA!"

Sword igniting with blue flames, Shi En charged forward so fast, it looked like he was flying through the air. With a quick swipe of his sword, he lowered Unagi's Life Points to 0, causing the girl to spin out and come to a stop as she lost the duel.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Benji exclaimed as they sped away from Unagi, "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU OLD FART!"

"Then here's your chance." Akio coldly replied, "GREAT SHOGUN SHIEN, ATTACK SCARRED WARRIOR! BLUE FLAME WHIRLWIND!"

Raising his sword into the air, Great Shogun Shien caused a massive whirlwind of blue flame to launch from the end of his sword blade before launching himself forward with the force of a tornado and bringing his burning blade down on Scarred Warrior, who deflected the blade with his bandaged arm.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY MONSTER OUT!" Benji roared back, fury evident on his features. "I REMOVE ALL OF MY SPEED COUNTERS IN ORDER TO INCREASE MY MONSTERS ATTACK POWER BY TWO-THOUSAND! COUNTERATTACK NOW! VETERAN BLADE!"

Roaring with fury, Scarred Warrior kicked Enishi back with a kick of his robotic foot before charging forward with his blade extended, ready to strike back at Great Shogun Shien as its ATK rose to 4100.

Akio, however, while maintaining a fierce expression on his face, looked completely calm and in control of the situation.

"I remove two of my own Speed Counters!" Akio declared, "In order to increase my Shien's attack power to forty-five hundred! Overwhelm Scarred Warrior!"

Deflecting Scarred Warrior's blade with his burning katana, Shien twirled through the air, hitting Scarred Warrior in the face with two of his own kicks, before slashing at Scarred Warrior, who managed to block Shien's attack with his arm as Benji's Life Points dropped to 3600.

"Scarred Warrior can't be destroyed once per turn." Benji growled. "Just you wait, once my next turn comes, I'm tearing you apart! Nobody gets to do that to Unagi!"

"You don't get to say what you did to Miss Tami and get away with it." Akio countered, looking back at Gin. "Nevertheless, since I can't continue, I'll let her defend her own honor. Turn end!" he declared as his Speed Counters rose to two, Benji's rose to two, Gin's rose to four, and Kuma's rose to five.

Gin was amazed by Akio's power. In all her years knowing him, she had never seen him fight with this level of skill. His presence definitely made her feel better about her odds, but the question was, could she really help out?

She looked over at Benji, who almost literally stared daggers at her with his tattooed eyes, rage evident upon his features. Kuma was looking even more enraged, and behind him, his massive monster loomed over the field with the strongest attack power. Gin had certainly faced some challenges when she dueled Akio, but she had never gone against two people at once, and her opponent's had never been bent on actually harming her. What was she supposed to do in this situation?

"Gin." Akio's gentle voice called, noticing her hesitation.

Ashamed by her weakness, Gin looked up at Akio, preparing to apologize when she noticed Akio's expression. He was not looking at her with either pity or frustration, but instead seemed to be regarding her as if expecting her to rise up to the occasion and meet his expectations, like a master teaching his apprentice.

"You do not need to fear their posturing." Akio declared. "You are stronger than all of them! Now show them the power I know you possess! Do it for your friends, family, and everyone else who is counting on you!"

Gin stared back at Akio, letting his words sink in as she continued navigating the field with her bike. She thought of the faces of her friends, Erika and Lilly. Erika was in danger and needed her help, and Lilly needed to be found before she walked into a trap. They would risk their lives for her if she was ever in trouble, regardless of either the fact that she was a Top or the level of danger they faced. She thought of her father, unjustly taken by Security for the sake of an unjust law. She had counted on people like Security to protect them, but now they had become the enemy. She couldn't count on them to save them, so it was up to her.

Taking a deep breath, Gin placed her hand on top of her deck.

"Watashi no turn… DRAAAAAAAW!" she declared, yanking a card from the top of her deck.

"Wait for me, Dad, Erika, and Lilly." Gin whispered, "I'm coming for you!"

…

There were a lot of people gathered around the beach. Under normal circumstances, the trash-filled dump of sand wasn't the most savory resort, even for Commons, but today, thanks to the Friendship Cup, Commons from all across the neighborhood had gathered along the beach edge to catch the action on the run-down holographic projectors. It was sunny, there were big crowds, and they were all looking extremely anxious as they waited for the next duel, Shun vs. Crow, to begin.

Perfect conditions for a show of her own.

Wandering behind the crowds while clearing away a few pieces of trash, a small girl with straight purple hair down to her neck, a pair of bright sea-green eyes, a pink-and-white baseball cap on her head, a white T-shirt bearing an image of the now tragically deceased model, Misty Lola, a blue jean vest over the T-shirt, a pair of short jeans, and a pair of short beige boots with black bottoms, set down a small sand pail with a few coins and wadded up bits of paper currency in the bottom before activating her Duel Disk, a much older version that didn't project a solid vision duel field but which had been modified to incorporate the technology into its system so it could project solid monsters, and clearing her throat.

Neya had been wandering the neighborhood all morning, scoping for just the right opportunity to begin her entertainment routine. It wasn't really renowned, though she dreamed it would be one day, but between the income she got from her performances and what her older brother did, it did put food on the table. All she had to do now was reel the crowds in.

"ATTENTION PLEASE!" Neya called, earning a few startled looks from some members of the crowd. Most, however, kept their eyes glued to the screen, ignoring her. That was okay though, she'd soon have their attention. She just needed to push through, keep up the showman image, and above all, not let her embarrassment show.

"MY FELLOW COMMONS!" Neya continued, tipping her hat towards the crowds. "WE HAVE BEEN WELL ENTERTAINED BY THE FRIENDSHIP CUP… baring those weird audio difficulties and the Tops' obvious attempts to rig the games against the Common participants."

This earned her some laughs from the gathering Commons. One of them even threw a coin in the direction of her bucket, shouting "FORGET THE TOPS!" at the top of his lungs.

"BUT WE NEED MORE!" Neya went on, casually scooping up the coin and dropping it into her bucket before winking in the direction of the Common. "LIFE'S TOO SHORT AND MISERABLE TO WAIT FOR MELISSA CLAIR TO GET HER HEAD OUT OF HER COWBOY BOOTS AND GET ON WITH THE FREAKING FRIENDSHIP CUP. WE NEED ENTERTAINMENT NOW!"

There was a roar of assent from the gathering crowds. Slowly but surely, Commons were turning their heads away from the screen, which was showing nothing but re-runs and some boring reports about the stock market, and over to the direction of the short fifteen-year-old girl who was addressing them like a travelling magician.

It was time now. Show them the cards, and get the children's attention. If she could get the children's attention, she could get the parents to stay and pay, even if they didn't really want to.

"AND SO, FELLOW COMMONS, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE TO ENTERTAIN US WHILE WE SLOG THROUGH THE COMMENTARY ON THE FRIENDSHIP CUP, I GIVE YOU, THE LIVELY, THE LOVELY, THE PLAYFUL, THE ONE AND ONLY… AQUAPERFORMER FLIP DOLPHIN!"

Slamming down a card onto the metallic V-shaped duel field of her Duel Disk, Neya spread out her arms dramatically into the air as behind her, a cute baby dolphin suddenly jumped up from the sea, front flipping through the air before swimming above the heads of the crowds as if the air was liquid water. The monster had a smooth blue body, bright shiny black eyes, and a cute yellow star on both its forehead and underbelly. Squealing with laughter, the dolphin swam down to a group of Common children who began running up to the dolphin and petting it like was a puppy. One of them, a small boy with messy brown hair, even climbed onto the little dolphin's back and began riding it like a cowboy. Obliging the little boy, the dolphin rose into the air, causing the boy to momentarily panic and grab the holographic creature's neck, before squealing with delight once the Dolphin began zooming around the beach in little circles. The gathering children started going crazy, tugging on their parents' legs, pushing each other out of the way, and generally begging to pet and ride Neya's monster.

Neya smiled at the success she was getting. Some parents, growing weary of their children's whining, were already promising to talk to the girl to see if they could pay for just one ride.

"Perfect!" Neya thought to herself, "Absolutely perfect! Now all I have to do is make sure I don't get too many kids upset waiting around for Flip Dolphin."

"FLIP DOLPHIN HAS MORE FRIENDS, EVERYONE!" Neya enthusiastically called. "SO EVERYBODY GIVE A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE AQUAPERFORMER MASCOT! Since I control an Aquaperformer monster, I Special Summon the Level two Tuner monster, Aquaperformer Seal Pup!"

Bursting free from the water, a small fuzzy white baby seal began swimming through the air, barking happily at the gathering crowd. The seal had a small blue bow on its head and a small golden star on its left cheek. Turning their attention from the blue dolphin, the eyes of the children bugged out of the heads when they saw Neya's new monster.

"IT'S SO FUZZY!" A little girl with pink hair squealed, before stampeding towards the baby seal along with a roaring crowd of equally young children. Eyes bugging out of its own head, the baby seal looked a little nervous as the mobs of children began tackling it and squeezing it like a stuffed animal. As the children diverted their attention to the new monster, Flip Dolphin glared at Seal Pup with what looked like a resentful expression on its face.

"Alright kids." Neya continued, smiling as they thronged the little baby seal. "Flip Dolphin and Seal Pup are both very happy you're enjoying the show so far, but the real act begins when they work together!"

"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY WORK TOGETHER!?" One little boy squealed, excitement building.

"YOU WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY WORK TOGETHER!?" Neya asked as they began thronging her, one boy and one girl still fighting over who got to hold the baby seal, much to Seal Pup's discomfort.

"SHOW US! SHOW US!" The little kids chanted.

"Okay then!" Neya enthusiastically cheered, "But first… uhm… if you could let go of Seal Pup for a second… we don't want to break her."

Begrudgingly, the two kids let go of the baby seal, who gratefully swam up to Neya before receiving a gentle pat on the head from its master.

"It's time for the real show to begin!" Neya called, blowing a whistle that was hanging around her neck. Immediately, the dolphin and the baby seal began swimming through the air, intertwining with each other as they swam while leaving behind a trail of sparkles from their tails until the sky was decorated with patterns of interwoven light.

"I tune my Level two Aquaperformer Seal Pup with my Level four Aquaperformer Flip Dolphin in order to Synchro Summon!" Neya declared as Seal Pup morphed into a pair of green rings that encompassed Flip Dolphin in their light. As the children and adults looked on in awe, Neya began her summoning chant:

"Nobility of the ocean, grab the starlight reflecting off the water and spread to it all! Synchro Shokan! Wow them, Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion!"

Exploding in a blast of sparkling water, Neya's Synchro Monster twirled onto the field, trailing water droplets and sparkling stars wherever it went. As might have been expected, Neya's monster was a large Sea Lion with a sleek body and majestic flippers. Its body, however, was painted with multi-colored stars and polka-dots like a circus animal, it had a golden star painted over its right eye, a large clown collar over its neck, and trailed large leafy fins over its back and fins like a sea-dragon. Slapping its fins together, it flopped its colossal body next to the children, allowing them to rush forward and rub its fat belly while climbing onto its back, some of them jumping on it like a trampoline. Star Sea Lion, however, didn't seem to mind one bit. Regarding the children with half-lidded eyes, it nuzzled a couple kids with the fluffy moustache on its snout, causing some kids to squeal in delight and others to squeal in fright upon being touched by its nose. Neya, meanwhile, was receiving a descent shower of coins from some grateful parents who were thanking her for the performance.

"Thank you, thank you!" Said Neya, bowing to the crowd. "You've all been a great audience! I'm here all week. If any of you have a specific request for a trick my Aquaperformer's should perform, just drop a tip in the bucket here and we'll be glad to entertain you!"

Suddenly, a crumpled bill with the number "20" on the face and a roll of coins plunked into her bucket.

"I've got a request." A small girl with short bobbed navy hair, sky-blue eyes, a gold, tear-drop shaped criminal mark over her left cheek, a white choker with a silver cross-charm, a blue T-shirt with a green water drop on the front, a pair of black boot-cut jeans, and a pair of white tennis shoes over her feet said with a sigh. Her tone of voice made it sound more like a challenge than an actual request. She was staring down at Neya, a somewhat morose expression on her stony face.

"Oh… uhm… well what do you know!?" Neya exclaimed, recovering from her momentary shock. It wasn't so much that she was uncomfortable performing tricks in front of the crowd, it was just the girl's appearance was so sudden that she had to take a moment to compose herself. "We already have a volunteer! And what would you, young lady, like to see my Aquaperformer's do!?"

"Call me young lady and your dead..." the girl sighed, rolling her eyes, "…and I think…" she continued, whipping out a navy-colored Duel Disk, which projected a sky-blue duel field, "…that I'd like to see your duel monsters actually duel against an opponent."

There were some cheers from the crowd who had already exhausted themselves waiting for the next duel of the day. Neya, however, felt uncomfortable with this. Sure, she had dueled plenty of times against her older brother, and she had usually won, but she wasn't too sure if an actual duel fit the cute performance of her Aquaperformers. She was used to having her monsters swim around and do tricks for people, not fight other monsters. If one of her Aquaperformers was destroyed fighting in a duel… it might provoke an altogether different response from the children, which would end up hurting her business more than help it.

"Uhm… that's a very… interesting request…" Neya stammered, trying to think of a way out of the duel without offending anyone, "…I uhm… am sure we could do that another time… but uhm… let's see if some of the younger children want something first… we wouldn't want to… exhaust our Aquaperformers in a long duel."

"Don't worry Onee-Chan." A little boy called out to Neya, reassuringly. "Big Seal can handle it…" he continued, slapping Star Sea Lion on its fat belly before smiling at Neya, "… Big Seal can do anything!"

"Thanks you little tike." Neya angrily thought to herself. "Now I HAVE to duel her, and I'd sure as heck better make sure I DO NOT lose Star Sea Lion!"

The little girl shrugged her shoulders. "If you're not going to duel, I can just leave. I'm just looking for something to distract me." The girl sighed, walking over to pick up her money while Neya looked on, trying to decide if the money she had deposited was worth it.

The children, however didn't look happy.

"She just needs some encouragement." A little girl chirped. "Everybody, tell her she can do it! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" She chanted before being joined by the other kids, who began thronging Neya, begging her to duel the other girl.

"Oh… uhm… alright then…" Neya agreed, plastering a fake smile on her face in an effort to maintain her act, "…I guess it's a duel then! Yay!" she cheered, feeling more apprehensive than excited. Walking over to a nearby pile of sand in order to face the girl, who had walked up to a different sandy hill, Neya shuffled her Aquaperformer monsters into the deck before bowing to the audience and proceeding to hold her Duel Disk in front of her opponent.

"So… what's your name, volunteer?" Neya began, trying to maintain a friendly feel to the duel.

"What's it to you?" The girl replied, sounding unnecessarily hostile.

"Oh… I… uh…" Neya stammered, trying to keep her composure. She had dealt with some troublesome members of her audiences before, but this one was doing a really good job of getting her uncomfortable.

The girl stared back at Neya, seemingly aware of Neya's discomfort.

"I'm just bustin' your chops." the girl sighed, letting a smile that looked more like a grimace creep onto her face. "It's Lilly, Lilly Hoshi." She explained, folding her arms over her chest. "And what's your name?"

"Neya." Neya replied, not sure what she was supposed to think about her opponent. She was acting rather odd. And then of course, there was the matter of her criminal mark. Neya had, of course, seen plenty of people with criminal marks in her time, but this girl looked like she had only just barely become a teenager. What had she done in such a short time, or had she even deserved the mark? Either way, Neya would have to be careful in this duel.

"Well… nice to meet you, Neya." Lilly replied with a shrug. "Now then, let's get to the duel. Like I said before, I've been needing something to distract me."

"Distract… you?" Neya asked, a quizzical expression coming over her face.

Lilly suddenly looked embarrassed.

"Never mind!" she snapped, "Just… do your turn first or… whatever."

"Okay…" Neya replied, drawing the top five cards from her deck while silently adding, "…you weirdo."

Looking through the cards in her hand, she thought about how to open her turn before glancing up at the gathering crowd of Commons who were eagerly awaiting her first turn.

"Okay…" she thought, "…I've still got to make this entertaining, but I've also got to play it safe and make sure my monsters don't get hurt so the children don't get upset. If I can drop her Life Points to zero without making this into a bloody gladiator match then everyone goes home happy. And so…" she thought, pulling a card from her hand, "…let's start with a little scenery change, just to set the mood."

"From my hand…" Neya declared, "…I activate the Field Spell Card, Aquaperformer Oceanarium! With this card, I set the stage for our spectacular performance!"

Above the heads of the two duelists, a massive tidal wave rose up. Some of the Commons began hastily backing away as the massive holographic wave crashed into the Duel Field, sweeping aside the trash and replacing much of the beach with a pool of sparkly water and the two duelists standing on top of their own islands. Breaking through the surface of the water, dolphins, seals, whales, and other aquatic mammals began flipping through the air, scattering sparkling water wherever they went and eliciting a roar of applause from the audience. Bowing to the audience, Neya let out a dazzling smile while thanking the crowd for their continued support.

"Thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed, spreading her arms out wide as a pair of dolphins jumped over her island, scattering droplets of water above her head. "And now, following the appearance of this absolutely spectacular, stupendous, and…"

"…and really wet arena." Lilly muttered, ringing some holographic water from her hair.

"…and really FABULOUS arena!" Neya snapped, almost losing her temper at Lilly's suffocating depression before regaining her composure and resuming her role as an entertainer, "…we now have a mystery for all of you watching! From my hand, I set a very secret monster face-down in defense position."

"But what is it!?" one of the kids asked, jumping around and trying to see what was under the face-down card, which materialized in front of Neya.

"That's a secret for later!" Neya called back, winking at the kid, who folded his arms in frustration. "For now, I'll activate an effect of my Oceanarium. Once per turn, I get to send one Aquaperformer Equip Spell Card from my deck to the graveyard. Using its effect, I send the Equip Spell Card, Aquaperformer Dodge, to my graveyard."

Above Neya's head, a Spell Card with an image of a platypus dodging a harpoon appeared before sinking into the depths of the pool.

"And with that I end my turn." Neya smiled, before extending her hand towards her opponent. "And now, Lilly Hoshi, it's your turn to wow the audience!"

"I draw and send the monster, Aqua Avatar – Photic Zone Drifter from my hand to the graveyard in order to add two WATER or LIGHT Plant-Type monsters from my deck to my hand." Lilly abruptly began, yanking a card from the top of her deck before nonchalantly depositing a card into her graveyard. In a swirl of water, a small feminine creature that seemed to have a body composed of liquid water, and which wore a covering of thick seaweed with glowing orbs of light and a laurel of white water lilies in her liquid hair, appeared above Lilly's head before the monster let out a watery giggle and descended into the sea as Lilly plucked two cards from her deck and added them to her hand.

"Using its effect…" Lilly continued, "I add the monsters, Aqua Avatar – Benthic Drifter and Aqua Avatar – Water Lily to my hand." She looked through her hand, looking bored… or calm… or depressed… it was hard for Neya to tell which, before plucking one card from her hand and slapping it face-down on the field.

"I set one monster face-down and end my turn." Lilly finished, almost yawning.

Neya's eye twitched.

"Tha-that's it?" she asked.

"That's it." Lilly nodded, folding her arms. "It's pretty much exactly what you did."

"You're not going to even attack?" Neya gawked.

"Why would I attack?" Lilly asked, arching one of her eyebrows, "Especially when you basically just told me I should attack you."

Neya gritted her teeth. Wanting to protect her monsters was one thing, but she didn't want the duel to become boring! She'd already set up a defense for her monster, so attacking it wouldn't have been an issue. Of course, then again, maybe she had been so obvious about it that Lilly wasn't willing to take the risk. Unfortunately, the Commons didn't look too impressed.

"SHOW SOME ACTION ALREADY!" One of them called.

"WHERE'S BIG SEAL!" Another little boy cried.

"Oh dear…" Neya thought to herself, "…I'd better find a way to remedy this… and fast!"

"Boku no turn… Draw!" Neya declared, ripping a card from the top of her deck. Extending her hand towards her face-down monster, she continued her turn.

"It's time to reveal the surprise I told you all about. I will now reveal my set monster!"

"About time!" an angry Common man in his early twenties yelled.

Doing her best to ignore the Common, she continued with her turn.

"I begin by flip-summoning the marvelous, stupendous…" she threw back her head melodramatically as if she were an actress, "…dramatic, Aquaperformer Drama Platypus!"

As the holographic projection of her card flipped face-up, a furry brown platypus wearing purple renaissance robes and a hat flipped out of the water before splashing into the depths and swimming around with great acrobatic skill despite its heavy clothing. Jumping out of the water, it posed next to Neya, throwing back its billed face in a dramatic sigh, before a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1500.

"Drama Platypus's effect now activates!" Neya declared. "If it is Normal Summoned, Special Summoned, or flipped face-up successfully, I am allowed to set one Aquaperformer Spell or Trap Card directly from my deck, and the card I choose to set is the Equip Spell Card, Aquaperformer Rush, which I think I'll activate now and equip to Drama Platypus!"

Setting a card face-down onto her old Duel Disk, she quickly flipped the card face-up, revealing a picture of Aquaperformer Seal Pup charging forward through the water at incredibly high speeds, leaving a massive wake behind itself. Mimicking the picture, Drama Platypus dived into the water and began zooming around the field.

"Aquaperformer Rush increases the ATK of my monster by eight-hundred while it is equipped to my monster." Neya explained as the holographic indicator showed Platypus's ATK rise to 2300. "In addition, any time an Aquaperformer monster I control attacks, I can increase the attack of that monster by four-hundred until the end of the Damage Step."

"That's pretty good." Lilly calmly observed, not sounding too impressed. "Most likely you'll be able to defeat my face-down monster.

Neya gawked at her.

"Most likely!? Most like-… since when was there a monster you can just set that has more than twenty-seven hundred defense!?"

"I don't know." Lilly shrugged. "Maybe you should attack and find out."

Neya eyed Lilly suspiciously. She was obviously planning something. Or at least… she thought she was. Could she really just be resigned to defeat? Fortunately, whatever was going on with Lilly, Neya's own strategy involved a lot more than just powering up her one monster. It was time to set up for her real play.

"I will continue with my move by setting another monster face down." Neya continued, slapping down another face-down.

"BOO!" One of the Commons, Neya was pretty sure it was the same obnoxious Common who had mocked her last turn, "NO MORE FACE-DOWNS!"

"That…" Neya thought to herself, gritting her teeth, "…is not going to be too easy given the way my deck works… but I think I can oblige him with something else."

"From my hand…" Neya continued, "I Special Summon Aquaperformer Seal Pup!"

Much to the delight of the children, Neya's familiar baby seal flipped out of the water before swimming around the ocean, playfully waving at the audience as it did. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a DEF of 800.

"FUZZY!" One of the little girls exclaimed when she saw her favorite monster appear.

"Oh come on!" the rude Common groaned. "It's only in defense position, I wanna see some blood already!"

Neya noticed Lilly lose her composure and become very angry.

"Clamp it you skel!" Lilly barked back at the man, angrily picking at the mark beneath her eye. "I wanna focus on this duel!"

"We'll you're not doing anything either!" he protested.

"You wanna go again?" Lilly threatened, cracking her knuckles.

The man shut up at that and Lilly's expression once again became impassive.

"Sorry for the rudeness." Lilly apologized, popping some muscles in her neck before returning her face to its impassive expression. "I used to duel that guy before, before he became no fun after he lost for the umpteenth time. Please continue your move…" she instructed, scratching at her criminal mark is if it was irritating her, "…this is actually looking like it might be interesting."

"Uhm… right." Neya replied before remembering what her next move was. Still, she was feeling distracted. There was something about Lilly, but she couldn't figure out what it was. She was younger than herself, and she acted like nothing more than a typical depressed Goth, and yet, she had shut up somebody much older than either of them, as if she was feared or respected by him.

"Another time…" Neya whispered to herself, "…I've got more important things to worry about now." Recomposing herself, she extended her hand out towards the ocean.

"I next activate the effect of my Oceanarium!" she declared. "Using its effect, I send the Equip Spell Card, Aquaperformer Hoop Jump from my deck to the graveyard!"

Above Neya's field, a Spell Card with an image of a beaver jumping through a flaming hoop appeared before slowly sinking into the water.

"BATTLE!" Neya declared, extending her hand towards her Platypus as her confidence slowly returned. Now that the rude Common had been taken care of, she felt like she might actually enjoy the duel. It was starting to feel more and more like the duels she'd do against her brother and the children actually looked like they were quite entertained. It was probably time to do like her platypus and up the drama a bit.

"It's time to see what the face-down is folks!" Neya proclaimed, extending her hands into the air. "Our brave Platypus is ready to rush forward and face the hidden danger, but will he make it!?"

"PLEASE DON'T DIE, MR. PLADIPIS!" A little girl wept, clearly VERY worried about the safety of Neya's monsters.

"Don't worry, little girl." Neya thought to herself. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to my monsters. There's no way that face-down could actually be a threat… or at least I hope it isn't. And besides… I do have a back-up plan."

"Aquaperformer Drama Platypus…" Neya ordered, "…attack that face-down card!

Saluting its master, Drama Platypus charged forward, drawing a prop sword from a scabbard on its side as its ATK rose to 2700 due to the effect of the Equip Spell Card. Slicing through the center of the card, the Platypus seemed to recoil slightly as a petit girl made entirely from water, with long flowing blue hair, golden eyes with orange bands, and a large lily-pad in her hair with a white water lily growing out of the top appeared in front of it, taking the sword in its watery chest. Rather than seeming bothered by the impalement, the monster giggled mischievously at the platypus before exploding into a shower of glowing water droplets, leaving behind the water lily and lily pad behind.

"The monster you just destroyed is Aqua Avatar – Water Lily." Lilly explained, face remaining bland and impassive. "When it's destroyed, I can add it back from my graveyard to my hand and Special Summon one Aqua Avatar or Thunder Avatar from my deck or my hand. So come to my field, Aqua Avatar – Algae Lily."

Poking her liquid head out of the water, just beneath where the lily pad lay, a tiny water sprite with foamy white hair, green eyes with red polka dots, and green algae covering her extremities like a bikini, slowly and nervously rose out of the water, wearing the lily pad over its head before Water Lily reformed behind the monster, snatched her beret from the diminutive monster, placed it on her own watery head, and leaped up into the air, transforming back into a card, which Lilly caught in her hand. As a holographic indicator appeared and displayed a Level of three and a DEF of 200, Lilly extended her hand towards her new monster.

"If Algae Lily is summoned, I can Special Summon one Aqua Avatar Monster from my hand. So come forth in defense position, Aqua Avatar – Seaweed Lily." Lilly continued, barely even looking at the cards she gently placed on her duel field.

Algae Lily began swaying back and forth, closing her colorful eyes while singing a gentle song. Suddenly, right next to her, a small whirlpool appeared, and a new water sprite arose from the water, carefully braiding her liquid hair while wearing a vain expression on her face. Tying her hair back into a long ponytail, a large blue water lily decorated her hair while the rest of her body was wrapped in elegant seaweed, which wrapped around her arms, chest, legs, and waist like a swimsuit, the monster tossed back her head before opening four large eyes, two positioned where human eyes would be, and two above those eyes. Her four eyes were a deep aquamarine with vertical black stripes. Regarding Neya's monsters narrowly, the monster put a protective arm around the smaller Algae Lily while a holographic indicator appeared and showed a Level of three and a DEF of 1000.

Neya looked through the stats of each of the monsters. Both had a Level of three, but the smaller one, Algae Lilly, was a Tuner. If they survived next turn, Lilly would definitely use them for a Synchro Summon. Fortunately, Neya had a Synchro Summon of her own, and she could do it during the Battle-Phase. The only trick, was making sure she continued entertaining the audience while she did.

"The problem is…" Neya thought to herself, "…is that my duel partner isn't exactly being a bright ball of sunshine. Oh well..." she sighed to herself, "…I guess I'll just have to provide the entertainment."

"Everybody give a hand to Lilly here!" Neya proclaimed, trying to maintain her showmanship, "She's managed to survive a very powerful attack from our brave platypus…"

"I wouldn't call it powerful." Lilly sighed, folding her arms before picking at her arm.

"…but my Aquaperformers and I have more surprises in store for you." Neya ploughed through, gritting her teeth as she maintained her smile.

Neya looked over at Lilly, there was something that was clearly upsetting her. She had said this duel was all about distracting her and even if her moves were descent, she had barely seemed to be paying attention to the duel. Instead, she was constantly picking at her arms, scratching her shoulders, fingering the mark on her cheek, and looking off into the distance as if she were thinking about something else. Neya didn't want to pry, but she didn't like it when a member of her audience was depressed like this.

"Uhm… if you don't mind me asking…" Neya whispered, trying not to raise her voice so that the other members of the audience wouldn't listen, "… but uhm… is something…" how can one be tactful about these things? Should she just drop it and ignore it? But the showgirl in her wouldn't let it drop. Something was upsetting the girl, and as an entertainer, she almost felt like it was her job to cheer up her audience, however depressed they may be. Swallowing a little, she continued.

"…is something bothering you?" she finished, almost coughing.

Lilly looked at her, face darkening.

"Uhm… forget about it…" Neya hastily apologized, looking back at her field, "…I'll just uh…"

"What business is it of yours?" Lilly asked, folding her arms.

"It… it's not…" Neya hastily replied, "…it… it's just you looked sad and… uhm… well… I kind of like to make people happy." She started picking at her own arm, realizing that there really was something therapeutic about the action.

Lilly looked back at Neya before glancing over at the children who were staring at the duel with happy and excited expressions on their faces. Pursing her lips, she looked back at Neya.

"Don't mind me…" Lilly sighed, staring down at the water. "…I've got some… personal issues to deal with… I'm not usually like this… but today… with my sister…" She stopped herself before looking up at Neya, and shrugged, "… tell you what…" she sighed, "…I'll start playing seriously from now on and help you… entertain these people. If you beat me, I'll tell you what's going on… not that you ever will beat me." She added, narrowing her eyes at her opponent.

Neya felt a smile creep over her face.

"Okay Lilly…" she agreed with a nod of her head, "…challenge accepted. You still haven't seen me go all out either."

Lilly let a small smile of her own creep onto her face. "Hmmm…" she shrugged, "…I'd like to see that."

"Then get ready to be amazed!" Neya proclaimed, adjusting her baseball cap over her head as she relaxed back into her entertainer role. "From my graveyard, I activate the effect of my Aquaperformer Hoop Jump which I sent to the graveyard!"

"Awww…" said Lilly, nodding her head in understanding, "…so that's why you were using the effect of that Field Magic."

"Exactly…" Neya agreed. "…all of my Equip Spell Cards have a second effect that can be activated in the graveyard if they are properly sent there. My Aquaperformer Hoop Jump can activate during either player's turn in order to Synchro Summon one Aquaperformer monster from my Extra Deck using monsters I control!"

"That would include during the Battle-Phase." Lilly realized, eyes widening. "You really are pretty good."

"Hopefully we can duel some other time…" Neya smiled, "…I'd love to see how you do when you're actually trying."

Lilly eyed Neya, a smirk playing on her lips. "Oh… you think I'm going easy on you?"

"We'll see soon." Neya replied, extending her hands towards her monsters, "Using my Aquaperformer Hoop Jump, I tune my Level two Aquaperformer Seal Pup with my Level four Aquaperformer Drama Platypus in order to Synchro Summon-…"

"BIG SEAL!" one of the little kids squealed.

"Yes!" Neya agreed, "BIG SEAL… even though that's not really his name, but…" she added under her breath as her Seal Pup morphed into a pair of green rings before encompassing Drama Platypus in its light and beginning the Synchro Summoning process while Neya began her familiar summoning chant:

"Nobility of the ocean, grab the starlight reflecting off the water and spread to it all! Synchro Summon! Wow them, all of them…" she added, smiling at Lilly, "…Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion!"

"BIG SEAL!" the other kids cheered as Neya's Synchro Monster burst out of the water, corkscrewing through the air before happily slapping its flippers at the crowd and letting out little barks of delight as a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2400. Even Lilly cracked a small genuine smile after seeing the entertainment of the crowd. Smiling at the happiness of her audience, Neya continued her move.

"Since my Equip Spell Card, Aquaperformer Rush, was destroyed by an in-game mechanic with the loss of its target, my Aquaperformer Oceanarium activates its second effect! I get to Special Summon one Level four or lower Aquaperformer monster from my deck or graveyard in face-down defense position! With this effect, I choose to Special Summon Aquaperformer Flying Porpoise from my deck in face-down defense position!"

Lilly narrowed her eyes as a new face-down card appeared to Neya's field. She no longer looked bored and unfocused on the duel. Instead, she was beginning to pay attention and give Neya her full focus as the entertainer continued her plays.

"I next equip Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion with the Equip Spell Card, Aquaperformer Flip! With this card, once per turn, I can either flip summon one "Aquaperformer" monster I control or set one Aquaperformer monster I control face-down. So with this effect, I flip summon my face-down, Aquaperformer Flip Dolphin!"

Swimming up to the face-down card, Star Sea lion let out a low bellow and slapped his fins in the direction of the face-down card, until Flip Dolphin burst out from underneath the water, chattering with delight as it flipped through the air and acrobatically swam around the Oceanarium.

"When Flip Dolphin is Flip Summoned, I can activate her flip effect!" Neya declared, "I get to draw two cards!"

Yanking the two cards from the top of her deck, she continued her turn.

"The stage is now set for the ultimate trick!" Neya declared with delight, "I first begin by equipping my Star Sea Lion with two more Equip Spell Cards, Aquaperformer Pass and Aquaperformer Corkscrew!"

As Neya slapped her two new Equip Cards onto her Duel Disk, Star Sea Lion began going wild, flipping, barrel rolling, diving, and corkscrewing through the air and water as the audience cheered with delight.

"We are almost at the climax!" Neya declared, "My Star Sea Lion… or Big Seal if you prefer… has a Special Ability! Now on my opponent's field are two defensive monsters, making it almost impossible to get to her Life Points!"

Lilly inclined her head in agreement, tapping her finger against her arm as she waited for Neya to continue with her turn.

"However…" Neya smiled, "…Star Sea Lion-…"

"BIG SEAL!" One of the kids insisted.

"BIG SEAL…" Neya hastily corrected, "…has a trick of his own! For starters, he gains two-hundred attack for every differently named Aquaperformer Equip Spell Card I control and in my graveyard! With Aquaperformer Flip, Pass, and Corkscrew under my control, and Hoop Jump, Rush, and Dodge in my graveyard, that's twelve-hundred extra attack!"

Barking with delight, Star Sea Lion began slapping his fins together as his ATK rose from 2400 to 3600.

"And there's more!" Neya declared, "While my Star… I mean… BIG SEAL, is equipped with three or more Equip Spell Cards, it can attack my opponent's Life Points directly!"

Lilly arched her eyebrows in surprise.

"A direct attack with thirty-six-hundred attack." Lilly whistled, "That's almost enough to destroy me… except…" her eyes widened as she suddenly realized something. "…but you can activate the effects of your Equip Spell Cards in the graveyard! If you activate Aquaperformer Rush from your graveyard when your monster attacks… you'll beat me."

Neya smiled back at Lilly.

"That would be convenient…" she admitted, "…but fortunately for you… my monster does have a restriction. Any Battle Damage it inflicts is halved, so it won't be able to beat you with just one attack."

Some of the children sighed, upset that their hero, Big Seal, wouldn't be able to win yet.

"However…" Neya winked, "…that's where the Equip Spell Cards come into play. With the effect of Aquaperformer Corkscrew, if the equipped monster attacks, my opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. Also, each time an Aquaperformer monster I control attacks, I can destroy one card on the field at the end of the Damage Step. Furthermore, with Aquaperformer Pass equipped to my monster, up to thrice per turn, if my monster attacks, I can, immediately after it attacks, reduce its attack by one-thousand in order to attack again with the monster!"

"Huh… so you really can beat me this turn." Lilly observed, smiling with approval.

"Like I said…" Neya smirked, "…hopefully we'll be able to duel again some time."

Lilly smirked back at her.

"I'd like to duel again… but I still don't think I want to share my secret with you." Lilly replied, plucking a card from her hand.

"You don't have to share anything." Neya replied, reassuringly. "I never really meant to pry."

"Well… that's nice of you…" Lilly acknowledged, "…but… I still don't think I want to lose.

She threw down the card in her hand.

"I activate the effect of the Aqua Avatar – Benthic Drifter, which I added to my hand." Lilly declared, extending her hand towards Neya's monster. In front of her, a larger water sprite composed of darker water rose to the field. Her eyes were black with white pupils giving them the appearance of spotlights, she had a black water lily in her long floating watery hair, and she was wrapped in long tendrils of sea plants which gave off a fluorescent white glow from sacs in the leaves. "Before you can enter your Battle-Phase, I discard this card from my hand and tribute my Algae Lilly in order to change the attack and defense of all monsters you control to zero."

"What!?" Neya exclaimed as the Benthic Drifter shot out several tendrils of sea plants, which wrapped themselves around Star Sea Lion like ropes before reducing his ATK to 0.

"BIG SEAL!" the kids cried, sounding upset.

Lilly inclined her head in the children's direction. "Did I overdo it?" she asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

Neya shook her head reassuringly.

"It's alright everyone!" she proclaimed, calming down the groups of children. "Big Seal may have met an obstacle, but that won't stop him from trying!"

"Good to know." Lilly smirked. "Since Algae Lilly was sent to my graveyard, Its effect allows me to draw one card." She explained, plucking a card from the top of her deck.

"But like I said before…" Neya countered, "…we're not giving up!"

As if in affirmation of her statement, Star Sea Lion chewed through the sea plants that were binding him before howling in triumph and resuming its swim around the duel field.

"Battle!" Neya declared, "Even if my Star Sea Lion's attack is at zero, I can still activate the effect of my Aquaperformer Rush! I attack your Life Points directly and increase my Star Sea Lion's attack to 400!"

Letting out a determined bark, Star Sea Lion rushed forward, twirling through the air before diving into the water and charging at Lilly at full speed. Lilly assumed a defensive marital art stance, burying her feet in the stand, ready to take Sea Lion's attack head-on. However, instead of ramming her as Lilly seemed to expect, the massive monster leaped above Lilly's position, scattering sparkles and water above her head, which rained down on her, reducing her Life Points to 3800.

"Corkscrew's effect activates!" Neya declared. "Since my Star Sea Lion attacked, I can destroy your Seaweed Lily! So go ahead and gobble her up!"

Most of the kids started laughing at the joke as Star Sea Lion started charging towards Lilly's monster. One little girl, however, looked upset.

"But miss Lily!" She cried as Star Sea Lion caught the small water sprite in its mouth, chewing up the seaweed as it did.

"She'll be back." Lilly reassured the kid with smile, who blinked back at her, not quite sure if she could believe her. "Aqua Avatar – Seaweed Lilly also has an effect." Lilly explained, "If she is destroyed, I can add one Plant-Type monster from my graveyard to my hand, and I choose to add Aqua Avatar – Benthic Drifter."

The girl began drying her eyes as the dark form of Lilly's Benthic Drifter rose from the water before returning to her hand.

"You're keeping hand advantage." Neya observed. "But it still won't be enough. Fortunately for you, since I can't reduce my monster's attack any more with Rush's boost ending at the end of the Damage Step, I'll have to call it good for now. Which means that my monster's attack goes back to normal.

Shaking off its wet flippers, Star Sea Lion grunted as its ATK returned to 3600.

For one of the first times in the duel, Lilly looked genuinely happy.

"Alright Neya… you've piqued my interest. Let's see how well your entertainment does against me on my turn. Atashi no turn! Draw!" she declared, yanking a card from the top of her deck with much more energy than she had previously shown. On the contrary, far from looking lackadaisical, Lilly was looking much more serious. She had assumed a solid martial arts stance and there seemed to be a fiery glow in her eyes now. Neya began to wonder if helping her had been the right choice. She might lose now!

"Remember what I said about my Seaweed Lily coming back?" Lilly began, throwing a card onto her Duel Disk, "Well I meant it. I'll start by Normal Summoning the Level three monster, Aqua Avatar – Kelp Lily."

Emerging from the water, a human-sized water sprite rose from the ocean. Her hair was tangled in long tendrils of healthy green kelp, which was held together with two large red water lilies, which acted like hairclips. Her six eyes were a deep sandy brown with white speckles over the surface of the eye. Over her shoulders, and trailing down her body, tangles of large leafy kelp served as a covering for her body.

"When she is Normal Summoned, her effect activates." Lilly declared, smiling at the crowds of children. "I get to summon two Aqua Avatar monsters from my graveyard with their effects negated, and if I do, I can change Kelp Lily to defense position. The cards I choose to summon are Aqua Avatar – Algae Lily and Aqua Avatar Seaweed Lily."

Extending out her hands, Kelp Lily launched twin trails of long stringy Kelp from her body, which sank into the water like fish lines. Pulling at the lines of kelp, she pulled the two water sprites up from the depths of the ocean, Seaweed Lily holding on to the left train of Kelp with one hand while Algae Lily sat on the right train of Kelp like it was swing-set. As all three water sprites assumed a defensive stance, holographic indicators appeared next to each monster showing a defense of 200 for Algae Lily, 1000 for Seaweed Lily, and 2300 for Kelp Lily.

Neya's eyes widened at the play, by summoning just one monster, she had already set herself up for a Synchro Summon. Fortunately, she was ready with a counter of her own.

"In response to the activation of that effect…" Neya declared, "…I activate the effect of my Aquaperformer Flip in order to Flip Summon my face-down Aquaperformer Flying Porpoise!"

Beneath the face-down card, a chubby blue porpoise wearing a fiery red crash helmet and a cape leaped from the water. Behind the monster, a large water cannon materialized, which the porpoise loaded itself into, wriggling about a bit to fit its fat body inside.

"When Flying Porpoise is Flip Summoned successfully, its effect activates!" Neya declared, "I get to Special Summon one "Aquaperformer Monster from my deck in face-down defense position, and the monster I choose is Aquaperformer Design Beaver! Let her rip Flying Porpoise!" She commanded.

In response, Flying Porpoise gave a little salute before adjusting its helmet over its head, a determined expression coming over its chubby face. With an explosive blast, the water cannon fired the porpoise into the sky like a cannonball, eliciting several "ooh's" from the crowd as they watched the porpoise fly through the air, before dropping a package into the water, which materialized into a face-down card upon hitting the waves.

"Your setting up for something next turn…" Lilly observed, "…but I don't think I'm giving you the chance to make it to your next turn. It's time for a Synchro Summon of my own. I tune my Level three Algae Lily with my Level three Seaweed Lily in order to Synchro Summon!"

Giggling with happiness, Algae Lily rose into the air, tiny red flowers blooming from the algae on her body, before the miniature water sprite morphed into three bluish-green rings of light, which encircled Seaweed Lily in their light as Lilly began her summoning chant:

"Majestic and beautiful embodiment of the sea's life, bloom and grow into royalty and become my power to wash away my enemies! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level six, Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen!"

From the depths of the water, a massive white, red, and blue water lily rose up before unfolding and revealing a tall and beautiful water sprite inside. Her eyes were heterochromatic with the right eye sporting blue sclera, a yellow iris, and a green pupil, and the left eye sporting brown sclera, a red iris, and a white pupil. Woven into her hair and wrapping around her body like clothing, choral, seaweed, anemones, kelp, seaweed, and other sea plants and animals adorned her figure while wriggling about and steadily blooming and growing. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1000 and a DEF of 2000.

"Since Algae Lily was sent to the graveyard, its effect activates." Lilly declared, "I get to draw one card. In addition, I'll activate the second effect of my Algae Lilly. After drawing a card with its effect, I can reduce the attack of all monsters my opponent controls by one-hundred for each card in my hand. Since I have eight cards in my hand right now, your monsters lose eight-hundred attack."

Poking its head over the water, Algae Lilly momentarily appeared after Lilly drew her card, before the water sprite ducked under the water once again. From her previous position, a massive cloud of algae suddenly bloomed over the ocean, tiny red flowers sprouting from the top of the heap of algae before unleashing fumes of gases, which caused Neya's monsters to start going into a coughing fit as Star Sea Lion's ATK dropped to 2800, Flip Dolphin's dropped to 800, and Flying Porpoise's dropped to 200.

"Reef Queen's effect now activates." Lilly explained. "Each time the attack or defense of a monster changes, except by the effect of my Reef Queen, my Reef Queen gains five-hundred attack and defense."

Raising her liquid arms into the air, Reef Queen closed her eyes and began swaying back and forth, seemingly soaking in the sunlight as the water plants on her body began slowly growing and her ATK rose to 1500 while her DEF rose to 2500.

"It's only fifteen-hundred attack." Neya observed. "Still not that much."

"Plants grow." Lilly countered, "And your about to see just how much." Plucking a card from the massive fan of cards in her hand, she continued with her turn.

"I discard Aqua Avatar – Coralline Lily in order to activate its effect."

Above Lilly's head, a small water sprite with what looked like purple lumps growing in her hair with tiny blue flowers blooming at the top, and clumps of purple algae covering her extremities appeared before descending into the water. Immediately as she descended into the water, purple algae began blooming over the surface of the sea, unleashing their own fumes of blue gas.

"By discarding this card…" Lilly explained, "…I can return the attack of all monsters on the field to their original attack."

"What?" Neya exclaimed, watching as Star Sea Lion's ATK dropped to 2400, Flip Dolphin's ATK rose to 1600, Flying Porpoises' ATK rose to 1000, and Reef Queen's ATK dropped to 1000. "But what's the point of that?"

"That's just the first part of the effect." Lilly explained, "Afterwards, my Coralline Lily increases the attack of all LIGHT and WATER monsters I control by three-hundred for each monster whose attack changed with this effect while all monsters my opponent controls lose attack equal to the number of monsters whose attack changed with this effect. First however, Reef Queen's effect resolves since the ATK of all monsters changed once again."

Smiling widely, the flowers on Reef Queen's body began expanding in size as her ATK rose once again to 1500 and her DEF rose to 3000. After the effect resolved, the plants on her body began growing even larger as Coralline Lily's effect resolved, causing her ATK to rise to 2700, while Kelp Lily's ATK rose to 1200, Star Sea Lion's dropped to 1200, Dolphin's dropped to 400, and Flying Porpoise's dropped to 0.

"And with another attack change, comes another activation of Reef Queen's effect." Lilly declared as Reef Queen's effect caused her ATK to rise to 3200 and her DEF to rise to 3500.

"Oh boy…" Neya muttered, "…I think I know where this is going."

"And I still have seven cards in my hand if you can believe it." Lilly smirked before placing another card on her Duel Disk.

"Since I control a face-up WATER monster, I can Special Summon the Level three Aqua Avatar – Coral Lily from my hand before activating its effect, to Special Summon one Aqua Avatar Monster from my graveyard. With its effect, I will Special Summon the Level three Tuner monster, Aqua Avatar – Coralline Lily."

Materializing in front of Lilly, a teenage-aged water sprite stepped onto the water before tossing back her long mane of watery hair and coral plants. Her eyes were a bright pink with yellow pupils and the cluster of coral plants over her watery body gave her the appearance of wearing a prom dress with a bright yellow water lily over her left breast. Opening her right hand, she let loose what looked like a cloud of yellow pollen from the palm of her hand, which descended into the water before Coralline Lily emerged from the water and took up position next to her, holographic indicators displaying a DEF of 2000 for Coral Lily and a DEF of 500 for Coralline Lily.

"Ooh… pretty!" Some of the little girls exclaimed as Coral Lily smiled at them and posed like a beauty queen.

"Sadly, I'm afraid Coral Lily and Coralline Lily are gonna have to leave the stage pretty soon." Lilly continued, extending her hand towards her monsters. "I tune the Level three Aqua Avatar – Coralline Lily with the Level three Aqua Avatar – Coral Lily in order to Synchro Summon."

"Again!?" Neya exclaimed as Lilly closed her eyes and began her summoning chant:

"Regal serpentine ruler of the seas, call forth the watery strength of your dominion and shape a kingdom in your image! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! Arawayo! Level six! Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin!"

Bursting forth from the depths of the ocean, Lilly's new Synchro Monster appeared as a massive blue-and-white dragon with glittering rainbow-colored scales, fish fins over its back and neck, a thin snout like a barracuda, glowing green eyes, and a wreaths of brilliant pink coral over its head, the base of its neck, and back. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1700.

"Ryu Jin's effect activates!" Lilly declared, face suggesting she was steadily growing more excited, "When it is Special Summoned, successfully, I can target one monster my opponent controls and change its ATK to 0, and I choose Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion. Go! Oceanic force!"

Unfolding a pair of fin-like wings, Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin began flapping them back and forth until it generated a hurricane from its wings, which sent a massive wave crashing into Star Sea Lion, which reduced its ATK to 0. With the attack change, Reef Queen's effect activated once again, causing her own ATK to rise to 3700 while her DEF rose to 4000.

"Now that that's done." Lilly continued, "I'll activate the second effect of Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin. Once per turn, I can equip one Level six or lower WATER Synchro monster from my extra deck to my dragon in order to enable my dragon to gain that monster's effect. With its effect, I will equip a second Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen from my Extra Deck to my monster!"

Roaring with pride, Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin spread out its wings as a colony of sea plants began growing along its back like a layer of armor.

"I next activate the second effect of my Aqua Avatar – Kelp Lily. Once per turn, I can increase the attack and defense of all Plant-Type monsters I control by three-hundred.

Spreading out her arms and glowing with yellow light, Kelp Lily caused her ATK to rise to 300 and her DEF to rise to 2600 while Reef Queen's ATK rose to 4000 and her DEF rose to 4300.

"And let me guess…" said Neya, folding her arms over her own chest.

In reply, Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin's and Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen's ATK and DEF each began rising, Ryu Jin's ATK rising to 2200 and DEF rising to 2900 while Reef Queen's ATK rose to 4500 and DEF rose to 4800.

"That's way more attack power than you need." Neya commented, gazing up at the massive ATK of Lilly's monsters and back down to the very tiny ATK of her own monsters.

"No kill like overkill." Lilly sighed, before placing another card on her Duel Disk.

"I activate the effect of my Magic Card, Reef Hazard. With this card, I can destroy any number of Aqua Avatar monsters on my side of the field or my hand in order to target a number of cards you control equal to the number of Aqua Avatar monsters I destroyed with this effect plus the number of Aqua Avatar monsters I control and negate their effects. With this card, I destroy the Aqua Avatar - Kelp Lily I control along with the Aqua Avatar – Anemone Lily and Aqua Avatar – Water Lily from my hand in order to negate the effects of your Aquaperformer Oceanarium, Corkscrew, Pass, and Star Sea Lion."

Behind Lilly, a massive tidal wave began rising into the air, darkening the field and eliciting some "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd. Inside the tidal wave, Neya saw Lilly's Kelp Lily, Water Lily, and another water sprite with orange eyes with green wave patterns, and large orange anemones in her hair and over her body, get washed up as the wave charged towards her opponents.

"Water Lily and Anemone Lily's effects each activate." Lilly declared, leaping onto her Reef Queen's back as the wave caught up her monsters. Together, she and her Synchro monster began surfing along the wave, the massive water lily at the base of Reef Queen's feet acting like a surfboard.

"First…" Lilly declared, "…since my Anemone Lily was destroyed, I get to reduce the attack of your Flip Dolphin by one-thousand before Special Summoning my Aqua Avatar – Seagrass Lily from my deck!"

"Guess we're gonna get wet!" Neya exclaimed, leaping onto the back of Star Sea Lion as the wave crashed on top of her island. Spitting out a mixture of some holographic and real water from her mouth, she watched as her Flip Dolphin got stung by Lilly's Anemone Lily, reducing its ATK to 0, before a new water sprite clothed in what looked like interwoven strands of grass appeared in the wave. Glancing over to Lilly, who was still surfing along with Reef Queen, Neya watched as the attack change of her Dolphin caused Lilly's Ryu Jin to gain 2700 ATK while her Reef Queen's ATK climbed to a staggering 5000.

"My Water Lily's effect also activates!" Lilly continued, smiling as Neya struggled to keep balance on her Star Sea Lion. "Since it was destroyed, I Special Summon Aqua Avatar – Chaeto Lily from my deck and return Aqua Avatar – Water Lily from my graveyard to my hand!"

Next to Lilly, Aqua Avatar – Water Lily appeared next to her, calling out to the ocean and summoning another water sprite, this one with hair made up of a mass of what looked like tangled green vines, before Water Lily returned to Lilly's hand.

"While Aqua Avatar – Chaeto Lily is face-up on my field…" Lilly explained, spraying some water into the air as her hand brushed along the edge of the wave, "…so long as the total ATK of all WATER and LIGHT monsters I control is higher than the total ATK of all monsters my opponent controls, the effects of my opponent's monsters are negated! Furthermore, I'm activating the effect of my Seagrass Lily. Once per turn, I can target one monster my opponent controls whose current attack is different from its original attack. While that monster is face-up on the field, face-up LIGHT and WATER monsters I control gain five-hundred attack. In addition, if a LIGHT or WATER monster I control destroys a monster by battle, that monster can attack once again in a row!"

"Your monsters are pretty powerful…" Neya admitted as the combined effects of Lilly's monsters caused Ryu Jin's ATK to climb to 3700, Reef Queen's ATK to climb to 6000, Seagrass Lily's ATK to climb to 2100, and Chaeto Lily's ATK to climb to 1700, "…but I've dealt with powerful offenses before. It doesn't win duels on its own!"

"It sure helps though." Lilly shrugged before slapping another card onto her Duel Disk. "But just in case… and just because I can be a major prick when I want to be… I activate the Quick-Play Magic Card, Reef Tide. This card enables me to destroy any number of Aqua Avatar monsters I control from my side of the field or my hand in order to destroy a number of Spell and Trap Cards you control up to the number of monsters I destroyed with this effect plus the number of Aqua Avatar monsters I control. I won't destroy any monsters, but since I control Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen, Chaeto Lily, and Seagrass Lily, I choose to destroy your Aquaperformer Oceanarium, Flip, and Pass!"

Just as the last wave began settling down, a new wave began rising up, picking up Lilly and her monsters as they began surfing down the edge of the wave and coming towards Neya and her monsters.

Neya seemed to be ready for this, urging Star Sea Lion forward, she threw a card onto her Duel Disk.

"I activate the effect of my Continuous Trap Card from my hand!" Neya triumphantly declared.

"From your hand!?" Lilly exclaimed, as Neya and her monster let themselves get picked up by the wave before the two of them began surfing right alongside Lilly.

"Yep… from my hand." Neya smirked. "With the effect of my Aquaperformer Determination, I can activate this card from my hand while I control at least two Aquaperformer Equip Spell Cards. With its effect active, once per turn, Aquaperformer Equip Spell Cards I control cannot be destroyed, also, my opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation or effects of my Aquaperformer Equip Spell Cards."

"So you've saved the Equip Spell Cards…" Lilly observed as she surfed right alongside Neya… but your Oceanarium will still be destroyed."

"Meh… can't always be perfect." Neya shrugged as she deposited her Field Spell Card into the graveyard.

"It's still pretty cool." Lilly commented with a smile. "I've actually never seen someone activate a Trap Card from the hand. Your deck is pretty interesting."

"Yours too." Neya agreed, tipping her baseball cap to Lilly.

"Sadly, I'm still not letting you win." Lilly smirked as she extended her hand towards her opponent. "Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin, attack Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion!"

"BIG SEAL!" The kids screamed as the massive form of Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin burst from the water, jaws opening like a shark as it descended on Neya and her monster.

"I activate the effect of Aquaperformer Dodge in my graveyard!" Neya countered, blowing on a whistle and directing Star Sea Lion to dive under the sea and corkscrew to the right. Creating a massive splash, Ryu Jin crashed its jaws into the water, just where Neya and her monster had been a second before, but came up empty handed as Neya and her monster broke through the surface of the water, Neya dripping wet with real and holographic water.

"While Aquaperformer Dodge is in my graveyard…" she explained, "…I can negate an attack from your monster."

"Well I still have another attack!" Lilly countered, face brightening as the challenge of the duel increased. "I'm not letting you get off without at least SOME damage this turn! Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen…" she commanded, as the two of them zoomed towards Neya and her monster on their water lily, "…attack Star Sea Lion!"

"OH NO!" the kids exclaimed as Lilly's monster sprouted a pair of massive multi-colored water lilies from her back before shooting a jet-stream of water from the center of her flowers, straight towards Neya and her monster.

"Sorry Lilly!" Neya taunted, "But I don't think I quite explained how Aquaperformer Dodge works! You see, I can activate its effect a number of times, equal to the number of differently named Aquaperformer Equip Spell Cards I control!"

Leaping into the air with Neya on its back, Star Sea Lion just barely managed to doge the blast of water from Lilly's monster as Lilly looked on with an impressed expression on her face.

"So that's why you activated that Trap Card earlier." she concluded as Neya safely landed next to her before having her monster swim around to face her opponent.

"It's all part of the act." Neya explained, wiping some sweat from her brow. "But I never reveal all my tricks in one show. But I admit… I've never had to surf around like that before. You and I seriously ought to partner up! I could teach you more of what I know!"

"Well, I think I would like to see more of your tricks." Lilly replied with a smile. "But for now, I think I've battered you and your monsters enough. So I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

After setting her card face down, Lilly looked back at her opponent, both of them standing on their own Synchro Monsters which were drifting above the water, just a few feet from each other. Assuming a defensive martial art stance, Lilly extended her hand out towards Neya before beckoning to her, daring her to attack.

Neya smiled back at Lilly, surprised that she was having as much fun with this duel as she was. She never would have expected this kind of experience based on the beginning of the duel, but Lilly had probably made this one of her most exciting performances ever. Turning her head in the direction of the crowd, she readied herself for the thunderous applause she and Lilly would receive for their performance thus far.

And that's when she saw them.

"NO!" Lilly suddenly screamed, eyes widening with horror.

Two armored Security vehicles had driven right up along the beach and had begun attacking the crowds of Commons, scooping them all up in massive holographic nets, which they shot from turrets mounted on their tops. Instead of the sounds of laughter or applause, the air was rent with the sounds of screaming, trampling, and general panic as Commons trampled each other in vain to escape the brutal efficiency of the vehicles' assault. The few Commons who managed to escape the nets were quickly incapacitated by a pair of Goyo Emperors, who used an array of weapons to subdue groups of fleeing Commons before the weapons from the vehicles ensnared those Commons in their nets.

From Neya and Lilly's Duel Disks, a pair of voices suddenly sounded.

"BATTLE ROYAL…" Their Disks declared, "…JOINING!"

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Ninja/Ninjitsu / Allegiance: Her friends and family / Status: Active

Name: Akio Fujimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Six Samurai / Allegiance: The Tami Family / Status: Active

Name: Kuma Mizuki / Original concept by: thetiger39 / Deck: Warlord Bear / Allegiance: Kuma's Gang / Status: Active

Name: Unagi / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Sea Serpent / Allegiance: Kuma's Gang / Status: Active

Name: Benji / Original concept by: Donjusticia (name contributed by Nox Descious) / Deck: Warriors / Allegiance: Kuma's Gang / Status: Active

Name: Neya Mizuki / Original concept by: thetiger39 / Deck: Aquaperformer / Allegiance: None: Synchro Dimension Civilian / Status: Active

Name: Lilly Hoshi / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Aqua Avatar / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Kuma's monsters

Warlord-Bear Brown Spy/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 0/ Pay 1000 LP to add 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your deck to your hand. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP to activate this effect instead). (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Cannot be destroyed by battle. During the end-phase of the turn this card is face-up on the field, destroy this card.

Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Beast/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2000/ Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). The controller of this card must pay 1000 LP to Synchro Summon with this card. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP instead).

Kuma's Extra Deck

Warchief-Bear Black Shaman/ DARK/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your hand or graveyard in face-up attack position or face-down defense position. If your opponent pays LP for a card effect, double the amount of LP he/she must pay.

Kuma's Spells

War Bear Encampment/ Spell/ Field/ Once per turn, you can Normal Summon/Set 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Once per turn, if your opponent declares an attack on a "Warlord-Bear" or "Warchief-Bear" monster you control, you can pay 1000 LP: Negate that attack. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP to activate this effect instead).

War Bear Banner/ Spell/ Continuous/ When this card is activated, you can add 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand. Increase the ATK and DEF of all "Warlord-Bear" and "Warchief-Bear" monsters you control by 200. If a Beast or Beast-Warrior-Type monster you control would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.

Neya's monsters

Aquaperformer Seal Pup/ WATER/ Level 2/ Beast/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 800/ If you control an "Aquaperformer" monster, you can Special Summon this card (From your hand). You can discard 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your hand and tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Aquaperformer" monster from your deck.

Aquaperformer Flip Dolphin/ WATER/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1800/ Flip: If you control an "Aquaperformer" monster and at least 1 Equip Spell Card, draw 2 cards. Once per turn, you can activate this effect: Equip 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control.

Aquaperformer Drama Platypus/WATER/Level 4/Beast/Effect/ATK: 1500/DEF: 1300  
If this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or flipped face-up, Set 1 "Aquaperformer" Spell/Trap Card from your deck. Once per turn, you can switch this face-up card to face-down Defense Position. If this card is sent to the graveyard by battle or by card effect, add 1 FLIP "Aquaperformer" monster from your deck to your hand. If this card is as a material for a Synchro Summon, add 1 "Aquaperformer" Spell/Trap card from your deck to your hand.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Aquaperformer Flying Porpoise/WATER/Level 3/Beast/FLIP/Effect/ATK: 1000/DEF: 1200  
FLIP: Special Summon 1 "Aquaperformer" monster from your deck in face-down Defense Position. It cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.  
During the turn an "Aquaperformer" monster is flipped face-up, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is used in the Synchro Summon of an "Aquaperformer" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard in face-down Defense Position. You can only use this effect of "Aquaperformer Flying Porpoise" once per turn.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Aquaperformer Design Beaver/WATER/Level 5/Beast/FLIP/Effect/ATK: 1500/DEF: 2100  
FLIP: Destroy 1 card on the field, then, if it is not face-up on the field, activate from your deck or graveyard, 1 "Aquaperformer Oceanarium". Its activation cannot be negated. If "Aquaperformer Oceanarium" is face-up on the field, this card cannot be destroyed by battle, also, you can set this card face-down.

You can send 1 Set card on the field to the graveyard to Special Summon this card from your hand in face-down Defense Position. Once per turn, if an "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card equipped to this card would be destroyed via a card effect, negate the destruction.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Neya's Extra Deck

Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion/ WATER/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2000/ 1 "Aquaperformer" Tuner + 1 or more WATER monsters  
Any Battle Damage this card inflicts is halved. This card gains 200 ATK for each differently named "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card you control and in your graveyard. If this card has 3 or more "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Cards equipped to itself, this card can attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card would be destroyed, Destroy 1 Equip Spell Card you control instead.

Neya's Spells

Aquaperformer Oceanarium/Field Spell Card/Once per turn, you can send 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your graveyard. Any "Aquaperformer" Equip cards that are sent to the graveyard are treated as if they were sent from the field to the graveyard by their own effects. Once per turn, if an "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card you control is destroyed, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Aquaperformer" monster from your deck or graveyard in face-down Defense Position.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Aquaperformer Hoop Jump/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to an "Aquaperformer" monster. The equipped monster is treated as a Tuner monster. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves Synchro Summon 1 "Aquaperformer" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control. If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Aquaperformer Flip/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can change 1 "Aquaperformer" monster into face-down defense position or Flip-Summon 1 face-down "Aquaperformer" monster you control, and if you do, you can equip this card to 1 other "Aquaperformer" monster you control. If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Aquaperformer Rush/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control. Increase its ATK by 800. If an "Aquaperformer" monster attacks, you can activate this effect: Increase the ATK of that monster by 400 until the end of the Damage Step. If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Aquaperformer Dodge/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control. If the equipped monster is attacked, you can negate the ATK, and if you do, reduce the ATK and DEF of the equipped monster by 500. (You can only use this effect of "Aquaperformer Dodge" once for each "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card with a different name on your side of the field). If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Aquaperformer Pass/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control. Once per turn, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle. Up to thrice per turn, if an "Aquaperformer" monster you control attacks, you can reduce the ATK of that monster by 1000: That monster can make an additional attack. If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Aquaperformer Corkscrew/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to 1 "Aquaperformer" monster you control. If the equipped monster attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. If an "Aquaperformer" monster you control attacks, you can activate this effect at the end of the Damage Step: Destroy 1 card on the field. If this effect is used three times, you can send this card from your side of the field to the graveyard: Add 1 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard with this effect, this card's effects can be activated from the graveyard.

Neya's Traps

Aquaperformer Determination/Continuous Trap/If you control at least 2 "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Cards, you can activate this card from your hand. Once per turn, your opponent cannot destroy "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Cards you control by card effect, also, once per turn, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation of an "Aquaperformer" card. Destroy this card during your 3rd Standby Phase after activation. If this card is destroyed, Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower "Aquaperformer" monster from your graveyard in face-down Defense Position.

(Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula.)

Lilly's Monsters

Aqua Avatar – Photic Zone Drifter/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can discard this card: Add 2 WATER or LIGHT Attribute Plant-Type monsters from your deck or graveyard to your hand. (You cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect). You can banish this card from your graveyard to target 1 "Aqua Avatar" monster you control and declare a Level between 1 and 4: Change that Target's Level to the declared Level.

Aqua Avatar – Benthic Drifter/ LIGHT/ Level 6/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2000/ During either players turn if you control 2 or more WATER and/or LIGHT Attribute monsters, you can discard this card from your hand and tribute 1 monster you control: Until the end of this turn, The ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls are changed to 0.

Aqua Avatar – Water Lilly/ WATER/ Level 1/ Plant/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 100/ If this card is destroyed, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Thunder Avatar" or "Aqua Avatar" monster from your deck, and if you do, add this card to your hand. (You can only use this effect of Aqua Avatar Water Lilly once per turn).

Aqua Avatar – Choral Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 2000/ If you control a face-up LIGHT or WATER monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Plant-Type monster from your graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Aqua Avatar – Choral Lilly" once per turn). Once per turn, you can activate this effect: Reduce the ATK and DEF of 1 monster your opponent controls by 300, and if you do, increase or decrease the Level of 1 monster you control by 1.

Aqua Avatar – Anemone Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 800/ If this card is destroyed, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Aqua Avatar" monster from your hand or deck, and if you do, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: That target loses 1000 ATK. (You can only use this effect of "Aqua Avatar – Anemone Lilly" once per turn). A monster that battles an "Aqua Avatar" monster has its effects negated at the End of the Damage Step while this card is face-up on the field.

Aqua Avatar – Kelp Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2300/ If this card is Normal Summoned successfully, you can target 2 "Aqua Avatar" monsters in your graveyard: Special Summon those Targets with their effects negated, and if you do, change this card to face-up defense position. Once per turn, you can increase the ATK and DEF of all Plant-Type monsters you control by 300.

Aqua Avatar – Seaweed Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can activate this effect: reduce the ATK of 1 monster your opponent controls by 1000, and if you do, 1 LIGHT or WATER monster you control gains 1000 ATK until the End Phase of this turn. If this card is destroyed, you can target 1 Plant-Type monster in your graveyard: Add that card to your hand.

Aqua Avatar – Algae Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 300/ DEF 200/ If this card is summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower "Aqua Avatar" monster from your hand. If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard, you can activate this effect: Draw 1 card, and if you do, monsters your opponent controls lose 100 ATK for each card in your hand.

Aqua Avatar – Seagrass Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 100/ Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls whose current ATK is different from its original ATK: Face-up LIGHT and WATER monsters you control gain 500 ATK while that target is face-up on the field. If a LIGHT or WATER monster you control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can activate this effect: That monster can attack once again in a row.

Aqua Avatar – Coralline Lilly/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 500/ During either player's turn, you can discard this card from your hand: the ATK of each monster on the field changes to its original ATK, and if it does, all LIGHT and WATER monsters you control gain 300 ATK for each monster whose ATK changed with this effect and all monsters your opponent controls lose 300 ATK for each monster whose ATK changed with this effect.

Aqua Avatar – Chaeto Lily/ WATER/ Level 3/ Plant/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 400/ While the total ATK of all monsters your opponent controls is less than the total ATK of all LIGHT and WATER monsters you control, negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls. A monster Synchro Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect.

If it is Synchro Summoned, while that card is on the field and the total ATK of all LIGHT and WATER monsters you control is higher than the total ATK of all monsters your opponent controls, negate the effects of your opponent's monsters.

Lilly's Extra Deck

Aqua Avatar Reef Queen/ WATER/ Level 6/ Plant/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 2000/ 1 "Aqua Avatar" Tuner + 1 Non-Tuner

Each time the ATK or DEF of a monster(s) changes (except by the effect of this card), increase the ATK and DEF of this card by 500. Once per turn, during either players, you can send 1 Level 3 or lower LIGHT or WATER monster from your side of the field, hand, or deck to the graveyard: This turn, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin/ WATER/ Level 6/ Dragon/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

When this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can target 1 monster on the field: Change that Target's ATK and DEF to 0. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can equip 1 Level 6 or lower WATER Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck or graveyard to this card: This card gains the effects of that card. (Only 1 monster can be equipped to this card at a time with this effect). If this card is destroyed by battle, you can banish 2 WATER monsters from your graveyard: Special Summon this card from your graveyard.

Lilly's Spells

Reef Hazard/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Destroy any number of "Aqua Avatar" monsters from your side of the field or hand. Afterwards, negate the effects of a number of cards your opponent controls, up to the total number of "Aqua Avatar monsters" you destroyed + the total number of "Aqua Avatar" monsters you control.

Reef Tide/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Destroy any number of "Aqua Avatar" monsters from your side of the field or hand. Afterwards, destroy Spell/Trap cards your opponent controls up to the total number of "Aqua Avatar" monsters destroyed with this effect + the total number of "Aqua Avatar" monsters you control.


	23. Part 1: Chapter 11 Scene 4 Part 2

**Welcome back everyone to the long awaited chapter of "Signs of Renewal!" Fitting for this wonderful Halloween day, this chapter will feature ghosts, zombies, monsters, (a discount Kung-Fu Panda), and even someone in a Halloween costume! Enormous thanks goes to CorinnetheAnime for editing my work, Epsilon Tarantula for creating Neya's deck, and Nox Descious for creating the Duel between Gin, Akio, and Kuma. At the end of this chapter, there will be some announcements regarding the future of "Signs of Renewal" going forward, so please check that out when you are finished reading. With that out of the way, ENJOY!**

Part 1: Chapter 11 – Escalation (Scene 4: Day Jobs Part 2)

Gin looked through the cards in her hand, the thoughts of her friends and family still in her mind. They were counting on her and with the cards she had, she could make a difference, first in this duel, and then in helping them.

"Just give up!" Benji growled, staring at her with a menacing expression on his face, "Unless you want me to do to you what I'm about to do to your slime ball of a butler!"

That did it for Gin. It was one thing for these thugs to just want to take her money, it was another thing to threaten her teacher, protector, and friend.

"You're not hurting him unless you get past me!" she squeaked, irritated to hear that her ten-year-old girl voice did not sound the least bit threatening, but relieved to feel that her fear had left her. Throwing down a card from her hand she continued with her turn.

"Since I control no monsters on my side of the field and you do, I summon the Level five monster, Earth Armor Ninja, from my hand!"

Through a blue portal, a tough-looking ninja wearing brown robes and metal armor plating over his upper arms and lower legs appeared to Gin's field. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1600.

"Next…" Gin continued, pressing down on the accelerator in an effort to catch up, despite Benji's threatening movements and facial expressions, "…since I control a Ninja monster, I Special Summon the Level two monster, Terra Cotta Ninja, in defense position!"

Bursting from the track directly in front of her, a terra cotta statue of a ninja wielding a long spear appeared to Gin's field before the statue slowly bent its stiff limbs into a defensive stance as if it were alive. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a DEF of 1800.

"A level five and a level two monster." Kuma observed. "Are you gonna summon a Tuner now and bring out your expensive Synchro Monster?"

"Yeah…" Benji agreed, a sneer coming across his face, "…think you're gonna flaunt your wealth at us before we take it back from you?"

"My monsters aren't just materials for a Synchro Summon!" Gin retorted, pulling another card from her hand, "My ninja's strength comes from their teamwork and friendship!"

"Sounds like something that came out of a kid's cartoon!" Benji guffawed.

Ignoring him, Gin continued with her move.

"I normal summon the Level one Tuner monster, Ninja Kid, in attack position!"

As Gin threw down her card, her deck's signature monster appeared next to Gin's bike in a puff of black smoke. Twirling his bamboo staff through the air, the diminutive ninja let out a high-pithed "Ha!" before pointing his staff at Gin's opponents while a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 100.

"Awwwww…" Benji smirked, "…it's so cute! All dressed up as a ninja like a kid for Halloween! ARE YOU TRYING TO INSULT ME!?" He suddenly bellowed, looking enraged, "IS THAT SUPPOSED TO SCARE ME!?"

"CAREFUL BENJI!" Kuma growled, "That monster is a tuner! She can use it to Synchro Summon a very powerful Level eight monster!"

"I told you before!" Gin countered, "I don't just use my monsters as Synchro Materials."

"Then what the heck are you gonna do with those things!?" Benji sneered. "In case you haven't noticed, not one of these monsters holds a candle to Scarred Warrior!"

"That's why help is on the way!" Gin explained, extending her hand towards her monster, "I activate the effect of my Ninja Kid. When it is Normal Summoned, I can Special Summon up to two other Ninja Kid from my hand or deck in face-up attack position! So come forth! Two more Ninja Kid!"

Leaping into the air, Gin's Ninja Kid threw down two smoke bombs, which exploded onto the field in front of Gin, covering both herself and her monsters in a black cloud of smoke. When the black cloud cleared away, two more Ninja Kids stood right next to the original Ninja Kid, each of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their staffs drawn.

"Oh no!" Benji mumbled sarcastically, clearly annoyed, "More weak monsters."

"The effect of each Ninja Kid is applied!" Gin countered, dark eyes narrowing as she regarded Benji, "Each of them gain five-hundred attack for each Ninja monster I control!"

"WHAT!?" Benji exclaimed as the ATK of all three of Gin's Ninja Kids rose to 2600.

"Next…" Gin continued, "I equip my first Ninja Kid with Fuhma Shuriken in order to increase its ATK to 3300!"

In a flash of light, Ninja Kid's bamboo staff vanished before being replaced by a set of four-pointed throwing stars in each hand as his ATK rose to 3300.

"Time to stop you!" Gin declared, extending her hand towards her monsters, "Ninja Kid one, attack Benji's Scarred Warrior!"

Leaping forward, Gin's first Ninja Kid twirled through the air, rapidly throwing a set of shurikens at Benji's monster with each twirl.

"Speed World Accelerations effect!" Benji declared, "I pay my last Speed Counter in order to increase Scarred Warrior's attack to twenty-six hundred!"

Jumping backwards, Scarred Warrior caught Ninja Kid's shurikens in the folded bandages of his left arm before brushing them out with his right arm. Shockwaves from the attack struck at Benji, lowering his Life Points to 2900.

"YOU CAN'T BEAT ME!" Benji roared, "My Scarred Warrior can't be destroyed by battle, and now its attack is equal to the attack of your other monsters!"

"It can only be protected once per turn." Gin corrected, extending her hand to her other Ninja Kid. "And I can increase the attack of my monsters as well! I pay one Speed Counter in order to increase the attack of my second Ninja Kid to thirty-one hundred and I'll use it to finish your Scarred Warrior! Attack!" she ordered.

Glowing with light as its ATK rose to 3100, Gin's second Ninja Kid charged forward, connecting his staff with the blade of Scarred Warrior's left arm. Scarred Warrior was strong enough to slam Ninja Kid's staff to the ground, but just as the massive cyborg warrior was about to slam his right fist into Ninja Kid's face, Ninja Kid leaped out of the way before jumping on Scarred Warrior's face. Roaring with rage, Scarred Warrior swung his fist back in order to knock Ninja Kid off his head… only to end up hitting himself in the face once Ninja Kid quickly leaped off his body. Staggering from the force of his own self-inflicted blow, Scarred Warrior barely had time to register what was going on before Gin grabbed Ninja Kid's staff from off the track, handed the weapon to her monster, and watched as Ninja Kid used the rod to leap behind Scarred Warrior, and trip the massive cyborg with the staff as the monster staggered backwards. With a final blow to the head, Gin's second Ninja Kid defeated the dazed Scarred Warrior before Benji's monster disappeared in a burst of holographic sparks and Benji's Life Points dropped to 2400.

"NO!" Benji screamed, petulantly tearing at his hair in frustration. "NO! NO! NO!"

"The effect of my second Ninja Kid activates!" she declared. "Since he destroyed a monster by battle, I can banish him in order to Special Summon one Ninja monster from my deck or graveyard in either face-up attack position or face-down defense position. The monster I choose to summon is the Level four monster, Air Armor Ninja!"

In a swirling vortex of wind, a new ninja wearing green robes appeared to Gin's field. Indicators showed the monster had an ATK of 1400.

"When Air Armor Ninja is summoned, I can reduce its Level by one in order to make it a Level three monster." She explained as Air Armor Ninja assumed a combat stance while indicators showed its Level drop to three.

"And now to finish you off!" Gin roared, extending her hand towards her last monster. "Ninja Kid three, direct attack!"

"KUMA, HELP ME!" Benji panicked, looking at Kuma with desperation evident on his features.

Kuma didn't look like he was moved one bit by Benji's pleas.

"It's your own fault!" Kuma growled. "Help yourself!"

Upon hearing this, Gin looked over at Kuma in shock, surprised to find that she was feeling just a little bit of pity for Benji. Still, Benji had threatened her and the people she cared about, she couldn't let him win. Speeding forward and averting her eyes, she heard the crack of Ninja Kid's staff against Benji's bike before Benji roared with fury and his bike abruptly stopped, losing all its momentum as Benji lost the duel.

"You WILL pay for that!" Kuma spat as he sped his bike through another checkpoint, raising his Life Points to 4000 and his Speed Counters to six. Looking at Kuma's expression, which had started to become more savage and feral, Gin began to feel uneasy again. Perhaps attacking Benji had been the wrong move. Thinking back on the way he had just treated Benji, Kuma now seemed to be a far bigger threat than either Unagi or Benji, whose words had turned out to be far more of a threat than their actual dueling power. Could they have been victims all along? Bullied into helping Kuma out of fear and the desperation of poverty, and left with nothing but their attempts to fit in with the cruel duelist by talking as callously and threateningly as possible?

But Gin didn't have time to think about that now. Right now, whether or not Benji, Unagi, or even Kuma were victims, they were still threatening both herself and Akio. If she was going to protect any of the people she cared about, she had to defeat Kuma.

"Now that my Battle-Phase is complete, it's time to prepare for the next battle." Gin declared, "I tune my Level one Ninja Kid with my Level three Air Armor Ninja and my Level two Terra Cotta Ninja in order to Synchro Summon!"

Akio nodded his head in approval as Gin's monsters aligned in a column of light for the Synchro Summon and Gin began her summoning chant:

"Masters of the way of the shadows, immerse yourself in your craft and bring forth the silent warrior whose silver shadow dances in the night! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! SILVER SHADOW ARMOR NINJA!"

At the conclusion of her summoning chant, a silent ninja warrior clad in silver armor descended from the heights of the trees before landing right next to Gin and unsheathing his sword. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared next to Gin's monster and showed an ATK of 2500. Kuma's Synchro Monster, Warchief-Bear Black Shaman, began growling at Silver Shadow Armor Ninja, red eyes glowing menacingly against the darkness, but Gin's monster didn't flinch as it assumed a defensive stance in front of Gin's monster, ready to protect her at all costs.

Feeling comfort from the presence of her monster, Gin continued with her turn.

"Now it's time for a little light in this dark forest!" she declared. "I activate the continuous Magic Card, Ninjitsu Art of Coordinated Attack! With this Magic Card, I can banish one Ninja monster from my graveyard in order to give that monster's abilities to another Ninja monster I control and increase its attack by one-thousand! With this card, I choose to banish the Air Armor Ninja in my graveyard in order to give my Earth Armor Ninja the same effect as Air Armor Ninja! Use his power to reduce your Level to four now, Earth Armor Ninja!" Gin commanded.

Nodding his head obediently, Earth Armor Ninja clamped his hands together in a meditative pose as his ATK rose to 2600 and his Level dropped to four.

"With this, I am ready for a second Synchro Summon!" Gin declared. "I tune my last Ninja Kid with my now Level four Earth Armor Ninja in order to Synchro Summon!"

Bowing his head in respect to Earth Armor Ninja, Ninja Kid rushed towards the elder ninja, who threw the little boy into the air. Morphing into a single ring of green light, Ninja Kid encompassed Earth Armor Ninja in his light as Gin began her summoning chant:

"Masters of the way of the shadows, immerse yourself in the darkness that comes before the dawn, and rise up as a warrior with the power of the sun's heat! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! SUN SHADOW ARMOR NINJA!"

Bursting onto the field in a flash of sunlight, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja illuminated the dark shadows of the forest, banishing the twisted shadows and revealing the horrific figures lurking behind the trees to be nothing more than twisted stumps, branches, and common forest animals such as deer and rabbits. Hefting his two sun-ornament decorated katanas into the air, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja let out a mighty war cry before a holographic indicator appeared and displayed an ATK of 2300.

Kuma winced at the light that was shining in his eyes, but his expression looked more annoyed than actually concerned.

"You don't scare me!" he snarled, "I can easily tear down both of those monsters!"

"Not before I damage you!" Gin countered. "Since the Ninja Kid equipped with Fuhma Shuriken is no longer on my field, Fuhma Shuriken goes to the graveyard and inflicts seven-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

Rushing forward, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja pulled a pair of shurikens from the folds of his robes before throwing them at an angry Kuma, lowering the massive duelist's Life Points to 3300.

"I set one card face-down." Gin declared, bracing herself for Kuma's counterattack. "Turn end."

Above their heads, the score counters showed Kuma's Speed Counters rise to seven, Akio's rise to three, and Gin's rise to five. Gripping the handles of his bike as he gained another burst of speed, Kuma raced forward, rage and concentration hardening his features, until his bike blasted through the checkpoint, raising his Life Points to 3800 and his Speed Counters to eight.

"You Top scum have just made the biggest mistake of your lives." Kuma growled, looking back at his two opponents. "I've had enough of you thinking you can just take from us without giving anything back! I was willing to let you both walk away unharmed, but now you've crossed a line! If you hurt my friends, then I hurt you, badly! DRAW!" he roared, before yanking a card from the top of his deck.

"You're going to pay Top dog, and pay dearly!" Kuma repeated, stretching his hand towards his Black Shaman. "First, I use my Black Shaman's effect to Special Summon my Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero from my graveyard!"

Growling a chant in an archaic language, Black Shaman shook his staff in the air, summoning a black portal in the ground through which Grizzly Hero appeared to Kuma's field. Raising his battle axe into the air, Grizzly Hero let out a mighty war cry as his ATK rose to 2200 with the effect of War Bear Banner.

"I next activate the effect of my War Bear Encampment!" Kuma declared. "Using my Field Spell, I Normal Summon my Level four Warlord-Bear Forge Master from my hand! Come forth now!"

From the distance, Gin heard the sound of a massive animal charging through the forest. As Sun Shadow Armor Ninja turned himself around to face the direction Gin was looking, the light from his armor revealed a burly Andean Bear wearing a blacksmith apron and carrying a massive iron hammer in its hand, lumbering through the woods, plowing through branches as it foamed at the mouth and charged in the direction of the other riders. Bursting through the trees lining the track, Forge Master raised its hammer into the air, bellowing loudly as an indicator displayed an ATK of 1600, which rose to 1800 due to the effect of War Bear Banner.

"Next…" Kuma continued, "…I will further augment my forces by Normal Summoning Warlord-Bear Panda Swordsman from my hand!"

From the tops of one of the trees, a large panda wearing a conical hat, bamboo mask, and ragged bandit robes flipped onto Kuma's field before unsheathing a set of large curved Japanese broadswords with long chains attached to the end of the handles and coiled around its wrists. Twirling the swords around by their chains, Kuma's monster seemed to be taunting Akio and Gin's monsters as indicators displayed an ATK of 1900, which rose to 2100.

"Do whatever it takes to get to the next checkpoint before Kuma!" Akio warned, speeding towards Kuma on his own bike. "I'll hold him off while you do!"

"SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL SHE'S PAID FOR WHAT HER ILK HAVE DONE!" Kuma roared, savagely moving his bike directly in front of Gin's path in order to block her off. "I activate the effect of my Warlord-Bear Forge Master! Once per turn, I can pay one-thousand Life Points in order to add one War Bear Magic or Trap Card from my deck to my hand."

"Useless!" Akio retorted. "I have sealed off your Magic and Trap Cards, and I am not about to undo that seal!"

"I'm not that big of an idiot, Top's Dog!" Kuma growled, "I'm not doing this just to get a card I can't use, I'm taking back what the Tops have stolen from us! Or did you forget about the effect of my Black Shaman?"

Akio's eyes suddenly widened as he realized what Kuma was about to do.

"That's right." Kuma sneered, "It's time for another taste of my Warlord-Bear's hospitality! Just like my other Warlord-Bear monsters, if I control a Warchief-Bear monster, I can make my opponent pay five-hundred Life Points for the effect instead, and with Black Shaman's power, the cost is doubled! GIVE BACK WHAT YOU STOLE FROM US NOW, TOPS SLIME!" Kuma roared, "NOBLE THIEVERY!"

Kuma's Warlord-Bear Forge Master charged towards Gin, raising his hammer into the air like a club. In desperation, Akio tried to maneuver his bike in front of Gin, but Kuma's monster bashed Akio aside, causing Gin's butler to nearly lose control as the monster smacked his hammer against Gin's bike, reducing her Life Points to 2000.

"GIN!" Akio called out, face torn between feelings of rage and concern.

"I'm okay!" Gin gasped, struggling to right her bike after getting smacked by Kuma's monster. She had to tell herself that she and Akio still held an advantage over Kuma. They just couldn't let him intimidate them with his monsters.

"I'm not done yet!" Kuma roared, causing Gin to flinch despite her efforts to compose herself, "It's time to behold the true ace of my deck! In order to Synchro Summon with Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero, I have to pay one-thousand life points. However, thanks to Black Shaman, you will be paying those Life Points instead!" he snarled, pointing at Gin, "GO GRIZZLY HERO! BRING JUSTICE DOWN UPON THE PRIVELEGED FEW! NOBLE THIEVERY!"

"STOP!" Akio roared, swerving his bike in front of Kuma's monster. Snarling with rage, Grizzly Hero quickly bashed Akio aside with a swing of its mighty battle-axe, causing Akio to swerve out of control once again, before the large grizzly bear pounced forward, bashed both of Gin's Ninja's aside with two blows from his weapon, and slammed against Gin's bike, causing Gin to almost fall off as her Life Points dropped to 1000.

"THE TIME IS AT HAND! JUSTICE WILL NOW BE DISPENSED!" Kuma bellowed, raising his hands into the air as Grizzly Hero morphed into a column of four green rings which descended on his Warlord-Bear Forge Master as he began his summoning chant:

"WARRIORS OF PRIMAL FURY, CONJURE FORTH THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER WHO BRAVELY LEADS THE ATTACK OF EVERY BATTLE! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! WARCHIEF BEAR WHITE CHAMPION!"

The force of the roar that emanated from the center of the column of white light that erupted onto the field caused the surrounding trees of the forest to rock from the sheer force of its fury. Stomping onto the field, a massive fifteen foot tall polar bear wearing bright steel armor, a scratched bronze helmet, and an enormous ragged black cape, raised a pair of massive chipped battle axes into the air before letting out another furious roar. Many patches of its fur were marked with scars and purple war paint and several patches of skin even carried the shafts of long broken arrows. On its back it carried the banner of the War Bears, a pair of two-handed swords, and a massive satchel filled to the brim with plunder. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 3400 which quickly rose to 3600 due to the effect of War Bear Banner.

"YOU'RE BOTH FINISHED!" Kuma roared.

"Not yet!" Gin hollered back, steadying her bike. "Trap activate! Ninjitsu Art of Rust Mist! Now the monster you just Special Summoned has its ATK halved!"

In front of Gin, a trap card flipped open. From the center of the trap card, a thick cloud of dark watery mist billowed outwards until the field was completely covered in wet fog. Straining his eyes, Kuma managed to make out the forms of his War Bears on the field and the distant shimmering of Gin's Sun Shadow Armor Ninja. Bellowing with fury, Warchief-Bear White Champion braced himself as Sun Shadow Armor Ninja charged forward. When the glowing ninja was just a few feet from White Champion, White Champion raised his battle axe to cut the puny ninja in half, when suddenly, the mist directly between White Champion and Sun Shadow dispersed. Howling in agony as the sudden flash of sunlight burned his eyes, White Champion dropped his axes to the ground, not even noticing Silver Shadow Armor Ninja suddenly appear on the massive Polar Bears back before strapping a crackling bomb to the back of White Champion's breast-plate. Kuma roared at the silent ninja, who regarded the enraged duelist for only a moment before raising his finger to his hooded lips in a "shh" gesture and disappearing along with Sun Shadow Armor Ninja in a swirling cloud of dark mist. Not realizing what was happening, White Champion recovered from his blindness and made a grab for his axes, only to howl in even more agony when the bomb on his back exploded, stripping him of his chest plate and leaving a smoking wound in his back. When the mist cleared, the rest of White Champion's armor had cankered with rust, reducing his ATK to a mere 1800.

"You hurt… my… ace?" Kuma exclaimed, staring at his wounded Synchro Monster in stunned disbelief.

"You're plan has failed." Akio declared, pulling forward on his bike. "Your strongest monster now only has average strength. Gin and I are NOT interested in fighting you or any of your companions. Leave now and we will leave you alone."

Kuma, however, didn't seem to be listening to them.

"Why?" he murmured to himself. "Why does this always happen to us? Why after I give my all do I always come up short? Why couldn't I save mom? Why couldn't I save dad? Why can't I help Neya!?"

"Neya?" Gin asked, listening to what Kuma was muttering, "Who's Neya?"

Kuma clenched his fist, peering through his helmet, Gin could almost swear she saw tears in his eyes. "You never gave up after they left us. You did everything you could to provide for us. I wish I could be like you. I wish I could face this world with optimism like you can."

He paused before glaring at Gin and Akio.

"You never gave up, no matter how hard things got for us, SO NEITHER WILL I!"

"There's no point in fighting!" Akio roared, "We're not your enemies!"

"I'll never stop fighting you until the Tops are taken down and I can give Neya the city she deserves!" Kuma roared back. "You'll never understand the life of a Common until you've had EVERYTHING taken from you! Once you lose everything, you learn that it's fight for the little you need to survive or die with nothing! So until I draw my last breath, I won't stop fighting! And I can STILL fight! I activate the effect of my Warchief-Bear White Champion! Even if he has been weakened, he is still not defeated! Once per turn, I can destroy cards my opponent controls up to the number of Warlord-Bear and Warchief-Bear monsters I control! Using this effect, I target your Great Shogun Shien, Legendary Six Samurai Shi En, and Gateway of the Six!"

Roaring with renewed vigor, White Champion hefted his axes into the air before charging towards Akio and his monsters, throwing his axes towards both of Akio's monsters once he was within eight meters of them.

"Akio!" Gin cried, not wanting him to nearly get knocked off his bike again.

"I activate the effects of both my Legendary Six Samurai Shi En and Great Shogun Shien!" Akio declared, extending his hand towards his monsters. "If either of them would be destroyed, I can tribute another Six Samurai monster I control instead. Using their effects I tribute Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Legendary Six Samurai Kizan instead!"

Bravely sprinting forward, Grandmaster and Kizan each leaped in front of Great Shogun Shien and Shi En, taking the blows of the axes instead before disintegrating into bursts of yellow holographic sparks. However, after surviving the attack from White Champion, Akio's remaining monsters were unable to stop White Champion as he leaped over Akio's bike before smashing Gateway of the Six into rubble with his massive bear paws.

"Thanks to the second effect of White Champion…" Kuma declared, "…I can set one of the cards I destroyed with his effect to my field. So using this effect, I will set Gateway of the Six to my side of the field, face-down."

"That card will do you no good!" Akio countered, watching as the rubble from his gate transformed into a stream of light that flew over to Kuma's field before materializing into a face-down card as White Champion leaped back behind Kuma's bike.

"Maybe not." Kuma agreed, "But it sure felt good."

"We don't want to fight you!" Gin protested. "Just stop. Well leave you alone and-…"

"Your hand has been in my life since the day I was born." Kuma growled, glaring at Gin. "You and your kind have been crushing me, squeezing me, and doing everything else you can do to keep me down. No more. I'm breaking the shackles. I'm taking back what's ours, for me and EVERYONE else I care about!"

He looked up at the holographic indicators showing each player's Speed Counters and grinned to himself.

"Commons like me have stayed in this game because we've been willing to give everything to continue fighting! I activate the effect of Speed World Acceleration! By paying two speed counters, I increase the attack of my Warchief-Bear Black Shaman by one-thousand until the end of this turn! Furthermore, I will pay two more Speed Counters to increase White Champion's attack to twenty-eight hundred, and one more Speed Counter to increase Panda Swordsman's attack to twenty-six hundred!"

Letting out three unified roars, all three of Kuma's monsters began glowing with auras of red energy as their attacks increased thanks to the effect of the turbo field.

"I'm tearing you from your throne, little girl." Kuma breathed, eyes burning with fury. "Warchief-Bear Black Shaman! Destroy Gin's Sun Shadow Armor Ninja!"

"Trap activate!" Akio countered, extending his hand towards his field. "Honorable Sacrifice of the Six Samurai! Until the end of this turn, the attack and defense of my Legendary Six Samurai Shi En is cut in half, however, you can only select Shi En now as an attack target and it cannot be destroyed by battle once per turn!"

"AKIO!" Gin cried, realizing what he was doing.

"FOCUS EVERYTHING ON GETTING AHEAD OF KUMA AND GETTING TO THE CHECKPOINT FIRST!" Akio roared, "I'LL HOLD HIM OFF HERE!"

"IF YOU THINK I'LL LET YOU-…" Kuma began.

Suddenly, roaring with the fury of a lion, Akio and his monsters charged forward, coming face-to-face with Kuma and his monsters and effectively boxing Kuma in as his monsters held Akio's assault back.

"GO!" Akio ordered, golden eyes burning with intensity.

Gin looked on with horror, tears welling up in her eyes. Clamping her hands together and bowing her head while holding back sobs, she slammed down on her bikes accelerator and roared forward, ignoring the battle between Akio and Kuma.

"BLACK SHAMAN, ATTACK SHI EN!" Kuma roared, nearly foaming at the mouth with rage.

"SPEED WORLD ACCELERATION!" Akio countered as the massive Black Bear swung his staff down at Akio and Shi En, "I PAY TWO SPEED COUNTERS TO NEGATE THE ATTACK!"

Gin's bike was only a few feet away from Kuma and Akio's position now.

"I PAY TWO MORE SPEED COUNTERS TO INCREASE WHITE CHAMPION'S ATTACK TO THIRTY-EIGHT HUNDRED!" Kuma bellowed, matching the volume of his ace monster's roar as it unsheathed its massive battle-axes. "ATTACK SHI EN! JUSTIFIED PLUNDER!"

"I pay my last Speed Counter to increase Shi En's attack to one-thousand seven hundred and fifty!" Akio countered, riding up alongside Shi En as his samurai barely managed to parry White Champion's massive blows with well-timed blocks from his flaming sword. However, thanks to the force of White Champion's assault, Akio was unable to evade the damage as he was nearly thrown off his bike from the force of the impact and his Life Points were reduced to 1950.

Gin managed to pull ahead, zooming past the other two duelists as Kuma managed to bust up Akio's wall of monster's with White Champion's attack. Slamming down on the accelerator, Kuma attempted to pull ahead and knock Gin away with his bike, but Akio had already managed to speed forward once again with his monsters and engage Kuma, taking the massive duelist's attention away from Gin as she sped forward.

"TRAITOR!" Kuma yelled, intentionally slamming the rear of his own bike against the front of Akio's smaller bike. "I'LL MAKE YOU GIVE BACK WHAT YOU'VE STOLEN AS WELL! As long as Panda Swordsman is on the field, any time my opponent takes battle-damage, I gain Life Points equal to the damage he took! Go Panda Swordsman! SOCIAL EQUALIZER!"

Panda Swordsman blocked a sword blow from Shi En before kicking the samurai away with a kick below the belt. Quickly clamping its paws together, it began chanting to itself until a green aura surrounded both Panda Swordsman and Kuma as his Life Points rose to 5850.

"I pay my last speed counter…" Kuma growled, "…and increase Panda Swordsman's attack to thirty-one hundred! GO PANDA SWORDSMAN! ATTACK AND DESTROY LEGENDARY SIX SAMURAI SHI EN!"

Slamming into each other, Akio's samurai and Kuma's Warlord-Bear each met in the center of the two duelists, swords pressing against each other as they contended against the strength of their respective opponent. Baring its teeth, Panda Swordsman let out a low growl before bashing its massive head against Shi En, knocking the Samurai back before Kuma's monster delivered a spinning kick to Shi En's chest, knocking the monster against Akio's bike and causing both Akio and his monster to nearly tumble onto the highway. Shi En managed to quickly leap to his feet, but the second he had steadied himself, Panda Swordsman swung his blade against Shi En's katana with a powerful blow, disarming the samurai before Panda Swordsman brought his bear fists down on Shi En's helmeted head and knocked the samurai to his knees. Raising his sword into the air like an executioner, Panda Swordsman prepared to deliver the final blow.

"I sacrifice Enishi…" Akio groaned, "…in order to prevent the destruction of Legendary Six Samurai Shi En." Glancing over to his right, Akio sighed with pain and satisfaction as Gin sped through the checkpoint, raising her Life Points to 1500 and increasing her Speed Counters to six. She was now far in the lead, safe from Kuma's efforts to try and ram her.

Upon hearing Akio's command, Enishi flipped forward in front of the gasping Shi En, taking Panda Swordsman's blow in the neck as the massive bear warrior brought his blade down. As Enishi exploded in a shower of sparks, Akio and his remaining two monsters were blown back as his Life Points dropped to 600 while Kuma's rose to 7200.

Upon finishing his attack, Kuma roared with frustration as he saw Gin far in the lead.

"Victory will still be mine." He threatened. "Even if I have to wait till my next turn to get it. I've been waiting all my life for the Tops to receive the justice they deserve. I can wait just a little while longer. TURN END!" Kuma barked as he and Akio's Speed Counters rose to one while Gin's Speed Counters rose to seven.

"Watash-…" Akio groaned, panting from the blows of the previous battle but wearing a satisfied smile on his somewhat bloodied and bruised face, "…watashi no turn… DRAW!"

Wiping some blood from his lips, Akio commenced his turn, smiling with the confidence of a general who knew that victory was assured.

"What are you so happy about!?" Kuma snarled, glaring down at Akio with suspicion.

"This is…" Akio panted, "…this is your last chance to walk away without getting hurt… Kuma-san."

"WHAT!?" Kuma exclaimed, looking down at Akio with an incredulous expression on his face. "YOU'RE INSANE! I have the advantage here in case you haven't noticed! Even if you managed to drain my Speed Counters, I still have the advantage in Life Points and my monsters are strong! Even if Gin chooses to use her Speed Counters to power up her own monsters, she would still need to pay 1000 Life Points to attack any of my monsters with War Bear Encampment on the field! Furthermore, thanks to my Black Shaman, I won't even need to attack any of you! I can just drain each of your Life Points by making you both pay for my card effects!"

"Then it's a good thing I'll be getting rid of one avenue for your extortion." Akio grinned. "I normal summon to the field the Level three monster, The Six Samurai Kamon!"

Through a blue portal, a smaller samurai in plain brown armor appeared to Akio's field. In one of his hands, he carried a bomb with a lit fuse. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 1500.

"Kamon's effect activates!" Akio triumphantly declared, "Since I control another Six Samurai monster, I can target one face-up Magic or Trap Card and destroy it! With this effect, I destroy your War Bear Encampment!"

Leaping high into the air, Kamon pulled out a set of eight bombs, one bomb between each finger of his hands, and began throwing them into segments of the forest. Within the forest, Akio saw numerous tents and trees get blown to splinters as each bomb went off. Through the gaps Kamon created in the dark forest, sunlight streamed onto the track-way, illuminating the path forward.

"TRAITOR!" Kuma roared again, "TOPS DOGS LIKE YOU DESERVE NO MERCY!"

"Thieves without honor deserve no respect!" Akio countered, "I pay one speed counter to increase my Great Shogun Shien's attack to three-thousand! Attack Kuma's Panda Swordsman!"

"I pay one speed counter to increase my own monster's attack to twenty-six hundred!" Kuma countered. "Furthermore, none of my monsters can be destroyed by battle!"

"But you'll still take the damage." Akio replied as Great Shogun Shien charged towards Panda Swordsman, blue flames billowing out from the end of his sword. Spinning his swords around by the chains, Panda Swordsman managed to keep Great Shogun Shien at bay, but not before Akio's monster managed to send a slash of flame towards Kuma, reducing his Life Points to 6800.

"Legendary Six Samurai Shi En…" Akio ordered, "…attack Warlord-Bear Panda Swordsman!"

"WHAT!?" Kuma sputtered, eyes widening in disbelief. "Why would you do that!? Even if Shi En's attack is back to twenty-five hundred now, it's still lower than Panda Swordsman's attack! Plus, you don't even have any more Speed Counters to boost its attack!"

"YES HE DOES!" Gin roared, staring back at Kuma with a murderous expression on her face. "I'm not going to let you hurt him anymore! I pay one of my own Speed Counters in order to increase Legendary Six Samurai Shi En's attack to three-thousand!"

Kuma gawked at Gin in disbelief. "You… gave your own Speed Counters… for him?"

Gin nodded her head, fury evident on her face.

"Loyalty and respect can transcend classes." Akio explained. "Unlike you, who selfishly kept your Speed Counters to yourself when you could have saved Benji or Unagi, all the while claiming to be a champion for the weak, Gin has showed true selflessness in this duel and showed that the Tops and Commons can indeed work together. And now I shall put her gift to good use! Continue with the attack, Blue Flame Katana!"

Leaping forward, Shi En began engaging Panda Swordsman, using his own flaming katana to disarm Panda Swordsman of its weapons by thrusting his sword forward, wrapping Panda Swordsman's chains around the blade, and pulling forward to remove the weapon from each arm. Casting the weapons aside and slashing through the air, Shi En sent a burst of blue flame into Panda Swordsman, knocking the bear back and reducing Kuma's Life Points to 6400.

Kuma's head darted back and forth between Gin and Akio, staring at the Top child and Common butler in disbelief. Looking at his expression, Akio could see that Kuma looked almost touched by the apparent teamwork. However, clenching his fist and bearing his teeth, he quickly shrugged off whatever he was feeling and resumed his aggressive stance.

"You think you can indoctrinate me?" he asked, eyes thinning into slits. "All she did was throw you one Speed Counter out of pity, when she could have given you a lot more. You, on the other hand, let yourself get beaten to a pulp just to protect a spoiled brat! I don't need that kind of lopsided charity. It's not going to ever help the Commons, and it won't help you win this duel."

"I may not be able to beat you now." Akio agreed. "But Gin and I knew what we were doing. Helping her obtain her current number of Speed Counters was essential to our united victory. Gin knows I have always been willing to care for her, without any thought of reward, and was willing to even sacrifice myself for her sake. However…" he observed, looking over at Gin, who was still glaring furiously at Kuma, "…I don't think she appreciates it when someone lays a hand on any of her friends. Turn end." Akio finished, nodding his head to Gin as he and Kuma's Speed Counters rose to one While Gin's rose to seven.

Gin's face had darkened significantly. Her expression, which had once been scared and timid, now looked fierce, furious, and determined.

"Atashi no turn…" she hissed, "…DRAW!"

Yanking a card from the top of her deck with far more force than was necessary, she continued with her turn.

"I activate the effect of Sun Shadow Armor Ninja!" Gin declared, "Once per turn, I can Special Summon one Ninja Monster from my hand, and if I do, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja is destroyed! So come forth, my Level two Tuner Monster, Ninja Trainee!"

Leaping into the air, Sun Shadow Armor Ninja spread out his arms, Sun crests on his armor glowing with brilliant golden light. Vanishing in a flash of light, Sun Shadow was immediately replaced by a younger female Ninja just a few years older than Gin with long black hair tied into a ponytail, black robes with a red sash, and a silver headband with a crescent moon mark over her forehead. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 400, which quickly rose to 1400.

"Ninja Trainee gains five-hundred attack for each Ninja monster I control." Gin explained. "But her most important effect comes when she is Special Summoned. When Ninja Trainee is Special Summoned, I can target one Ninja Monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it in either face-up attack position or face-down defense position! So come forth! Ninja Kid in attack position!"

Putting her finger to her forehead, Ninja Trainee closed her eyes in concentration until a black portal appeared and Ninja Kid rose to Gin's field in a column of white light.

"You hurt my friend…" Gin growled at Kuma, "…even when he tried to show you mercy! You're cruel and evil and I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else anymore! I tune my Level one Ninja Kid with my Level Six Silver Shadow Armor Ninja in order to summon my ultimate ninja!" she declared, raising her hands into the air.

Ninja Kid and Ninja Trainee nodded their heads towards each other before backing away. Running forward, Ninja Kid leaped towards Ninja Trainee, who caught Ninja Kid's foot in her open palms before throwing the diminutive ninja into the air. Spinning into the air before assuming a crane stance mid-air, Ninja Kid morphed into a single ring of green light which descended onto Silver Shadow Armor Ninja, causing a massive pillar of golden light to appear around Gin's Synchro Monster as she commenced her summoning chant:

"Masters of the ways of shadows, allow the dark shadows of the night to depart now and reveal the glory and honor of the warrior in the golden light of a new day! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! ARAWAYO! LEVEL SEVEN! GOLDEN SHADOW ARMOR NINJA!"

In a haze of brilliant golden mist, Gin's new Synchro Monster rose to the field. His elegant golden armor glinted with the light of the sunlight and bore the crest of a rising sun on its chest and head piece. White cloth concealed the lower half of the Ninja's face, leaving only a pair of brilliant glowing golden eyes and a long mane of glowing white hair revealed. In each of the Ninja's hands, he carried an elegant golden katana which seemed to burn with the intensity of the sun's heat itself. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed an ATK of 2800.

"Sun Shadow Armor Ninja's effect activates!" Gin declared, "Once per turn, if he is in the graveyard, I can equip him to one Warrior Type Monster I control! I equip him to Golden Shadow Armor Ninja!"

Over Golden Shadow Armor Ninja's shoulders, a brilliant gold-and-white cape with the crest of the sun appeared. Raising his swords into the air, Golden Shadow let out a mighty war cry as the intensity of his glow grew.

"But I'm not done yet!" Gin declared, "I also use my Ninjitsu Art of Coordinated Attack to banish Silver Shadow from my graveyard in order to increase my Golden Shadow's attack by one-thousand and grant him Silver Shadow's abilities!"

As Golden Shadow Armor Ninja's ATK rose to 3800, Kuma snarled at Gin's monster before throwing his arms out and baring his massive chest at Gin.

"Come at me then!" Kuma dared. "You Tops have never held back before! Why not squash me like every other Common in your path!?"

"I activate Speed World Acceleration's effect…" Gin hissed, "…I pay all Seven of my Speed Counters in order to increase Golden Shadow Armor Ninja's attack to seventy-three hundred!"

"Even if you attack my weakest monster…" Kuma snarled, "…that attack STILL won't be enough to finish me! I WILL end you!"

"I activate Golden Shadow Armor Ninja's effect!" Gin countered, "By tributing my Ninjitsu Art of Rust Mist, I can negate the effect of your Warchief-Bear Black Shaman and change its attack to zero!"

"YOU CAN'T!" Kuma protested, "NOT ANOTHER ONE OF MY MONSTERS!"

Gin's trap card transformed into a cloud of mist. Absorbing the mist in each of his golden swords, Golden Shadow Armor Ninja charged forward with the speed of light, and with just two slashes of golden light from his swords, cut Warchief-Bear Black Shaman's Armor and staff into tiny ribbons before the massive black bear could even register what had happened as its ATK dropped to 0.

"GOLDEN SHADOW ARMOR NINJA!" Gin roared, "ATTACK WARCHIEF-BEAR BLACK SHAMAN! GOLDEN ASSASSINATION STRIKE!"

Charging forward in a blue of blinding golden light, Golden Shadow Armor raised his swords into the air, ready to finish the battle. Suddenly, however, just as he was about to bring his swords down, Black Shaman seemed to sneer at the ninja before vanishing in a flash of black mist and leaving Golden Shadow Armor Ninja to instead bury his swords in the empty track.

"You fell for my trap." Kuma sneered. "I activate the Counter Trap Card! War Bear Deception! Since it's a Spell Speed Three effect, it cannot be negated by Shi En! By paying one-thousand Life Points, I can negate the destruction of one of my Warlord-Bears or Warchief-Bears and reduce any damage I might take to zero! Furthermore, if I control a Warchief-Bear Monster, I can make my opponent pay five-hundred Life Points instead! So go once more my Black Shaman! NOBLE THIEVERY!"

Appearing behind Gin in a cloud of the same black mist he disappeared in, Black Shaman slammed his claws down on Gin and her bike, causing her shriek with pain and fury as her Life Points dropped to 500. However, when she looked back up at Kuma, Kuma was surprised to see that far from frightening Gin, the damage only seemed to have made her even more furious.

"While Sun Shadow Armor Ninja is equipped to Golden Shadow Armor Ninja…" Gin breathed, voice seething with fury, "…Golden Shadow Armor Ninja can attack each monster my opponent controls once each."

"What?" Kuma asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Finish him." Gin growled. "Golden Assassination Strike."

Tugging his two golden swords out of the track, Golden Shadow nodded to Gin once before charging straight towards Warlord-Bear Panda Swordsman and Warchief-Bear White Champion. Panda Swordsman met Golden Shadow first, but was quickly and effortlessly dispatched as Golden Shadow sliced his swords and chains to tiny metal pieces with a series of rapid slashes from his blades before kicking the shocked panda in the gut and sending him flying fifty meters into the air. Determined not to be done in, White Champion bravely met Golden Shadow on the field, Kuma granting his Ace Monster some extra attack with the effect of Speed World Acceleration. Bringing down both his axes with extreme fury, White Champion attempted to bisect the much smaller Ninja, but only managed to bury his axes into the track-way as Golden Shadow leaped into the air, dodged the axe blades, and then used the handles of White Champion's axes to run up White Champion's arm, leap over his back, and bring down both his blades against Kuma's bike, reducing the massive duelist's Life Points to zero before White Champion could stop him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kuma screamed as his bike screeched to a sudden halt and the two riders sped away. As the two riders vanished into the distance, Kuma got off on his bike and fell to his knees, hanging his head down in despair and banging his fists against the track-way in frustration.

"No!" he roared, "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"

Exhausting himself as his fists began to bleed from being repeatedly slammed into the track, Kuma began shuddering as he struggled to hold back tears.

"No…" he breathed with much less fury and much more sorrow. Reaching into his suit, he pulled a locket from his chest and opened it up. Inside the locket was a picture of him holding a younger girl with purple hair.

"Neya…" he croaked, "…I couldn't do it. I'm still not strong enough. Please… please…" he pleaded to nobody in particular, "…somebody… anybody… help me find the strength to protect and provide for Neya."

…

As Lilly watched the two Security vehicles begin to net the Commons with impunity like fishermen, her feelings of shock and horror almost immediately simmered into a raging storm of hatred, agony, and despair she had been trying to suppress for that entire day.

They'd already taken Lucy three years ago! They shipped her and her friends off to the underground and threatened to do the same to Lilly if they suspected she was trying to establish ties with the Neo-Arcadia movement. She'd learned her lesson! They'd marked her and sent her off to the streets to wander alone, without even any parents to care for her. Who'd want a potential psychic for a daughter anyway?

They'd been breathing down her neck ever since then. Stopping and frisking her whenever she held a bag of anything, making her take drugs to suppress any potential abilities she might have, and interrogating her whenever she attempted to join any gang so that everyone would avoid her like a plague. She'd tried obeying them, submitting to them, doing everything they told her to do.

So why were they here now!? What had she or any of these other Commons done to deserve this!?

"ATTENTION DUELISTS!" An office inside one of the large trucks called, "YOU ARE HEREBY ORDERED TO STAND DOWN AND COMPLY WITH DIRECTIVE ALEKHINE'S GUN! RESISTANCE TO THIS DIRECTIVE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!"

Lilly couldn't take it anymore. First they punished her and her sister for merely having the POTENTIAL to commit a crime, purely based on the fact that they had traces of psychic powers, and now they were going to punish her and every other Common for not complying with a law she had never even heard of! This was the last straw! She'd tried to not make any trouble for herself. Now she didn't care how much trouble she got in. All she wanted to do was hit them back! Hit them back as hard as they had hit her!

"YOU CHUMPS THINK I CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID LAWS!?" Lilly taunted, bellowing at the top of her lungs so they could hear her. "YOU COPPERS REMEMBER WHO I AM RIGHT? HAVEN'T YOUR LITTLE SCANNERS ALREADY IDENTIFIED MY MARK!? I'M LILLY HOSHI! I'M A CRIMINAL AND A POTENTIAL PSYCHIC! YOU THINK I'M SCARED OF YOU!? YOU THINK I'VE GOT ANYTHING TO LOSE!? IF YOUR GONNA PUNISH ME THEN YOU'D BETTER MAKE IT SEVERE, JUST LIKE YOU DID WITH LUCY! GO ON! FINISH ME! I DARE YOU! SHIP ME OFF TO THE FACILITY AND WORK ME TO DEATH LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER SLAVES!"

"And then maybe…" Lilly thought to herself, a tear streaming down her cheek as the two vehicles trained their turrets on her and Neya, "…maybe I'll be able to be with Lucy again."

"Lilly!" Neya called, looking utterly and completely horrified, "What in the Crimson Dragon's mythical name is going on here!?"

Lilly wiped a tear from her cheek before speaking to Neya in a low tone.

"You wanted to know why I was acting so depressed earlier?" Lilly asked.

"I DON'T THINK NOW'S THE TIME!" Neya protested, dodging a shot from a holographic net, which nearly ensnared both herself and her monster.

"Security took my sister away from me three years ago on this exact day!" Lilly snarled, ignoring Neya's protestations while dodging her own net. "Since then, I've been able to do nothing to help her. I've tried to just move on, make new friends, and make no trouble for myself, but I can never forget about her, especially not on this day, and Security never leaves me alone!"

"AGAIN!" Neya screamed, diving under the water before resurfacing again, "HOW IS THIS RELEVANT!?"

"Have you been wronged by Security?" Lilly asked, ordering her Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen to blast away another net with a burst of water from her two water lilies. "No matter what you do? Are you sick and tired of them stomping on us when they're supposed to protect us!?"

"SURE!" Neya called back, clinging to her Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion as it knocked away another net with a flick of its tail. "What's your point!?"

"THEY'RE NOT GONNA SHOW US ANY MERCY!" Lilly roared, "NO MATTER WHAT WE DO! I SAY WE FIGHT THEM! TOGETHER!"

Neya seemed to consider her words for a moment as she and her monster dodged a pair of nets.

"Are you talking about a rebellion?" she asked, sounding hesitant.

"OF COURSE!" Lilly replied, a furious and almost excited expression coming over her face. "What? Are you scared? Do you think Security's gonna forgive you if you let yourself get arrested for no reason?"

Neya seemed to consider her words for a second before shaking her head "no."

"I'm not gonna throw myself at their mercy." She replied, "And if my brother were here, he'd fight them. He'd do anything to protect me."

"You with me then!?" Lilly asked as her Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin caught a net in its mouth and tore it to pieces.

"I aint gonna start a rebellion." Neya clarified, looking down at the water, "I don't believe in that kind of thing. That'd probably just make things worse. But this is wrong. I'll definitely help you save these people, and I won't let them take you."

"Not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but okay." Lilly shrugged, assuming a defensive Kung-Fu stance as she faced the two Security vehicles.

"You got a plan?" Neya asked, holding up her Duel Disk and preparing to duel the Security forces.

"Smash em?" Lilly asked.

Neya shook her head in annoyance.

"These guys are pretty much cheating." She explained. "It's technically one of their turns according to my Duel Disk, but they're using all their time to just net us instead of actually risking dueling us."

"And what's YOUR point?" Lilly asked, throwing Neya's question back at her.

"Considering they're already cheating…" Neya replied, squeezing some water from her purple hair, "…I say we cheat as well."

Lilly grinned at this. "That's the best thing you've said all day!" she laughed, grinning with excitement.

"You're looking a lot sunnier now." Neya smirked.

"I'm pretty sure my meds have worn off by now." Lilly shrugged.

"Meds?" Neya asked.

"Weird stuff Security makes me take." Lilly replied, waving Neya's question away with a shake of her hand, "I'll tell you about it later. For right now, what's the plan?"

Neya dived under the water, barely avoiding another net as it whistled over the water. Resurfacing with her monster, she gasped for air before turning to Lilly and explaining her plan.

"Our monsters are pretty good at blocking their nets, but if this keeps up, we're gonna slip up one of these times. We need to take those turrets out. If you could send your dragon ahead, I'll go with your monster and try to knock away their nets while you stay back with your other monster and try to disable those turrets. If you hit them hard enough with the Real Solid Vision water, we might be able to damage those things for long enough for our monsters to free the Commons who have been captured."

"Way ahead of you!" Lilly called, surfing forward with her Reef Queen before ordering her monster to fire at one of the turrets located on top of the vehicle. The torrent of water barely caused the heavy vehicle to nudge, but the turret began sparking as the torrent of water damaged its systems. As Lilly prepared to fire at the other turret with Reef Queen, the other vehicle blasted another net in Lilly's direction. However, before it could even come close to hitting Lilly, Neya and her Star Sea Lion had already charged forward and knocked away the net as Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin began engaging the two Goyo Kings standing in front of the netted Commons. With another powerful blast from Lilly's monster, the second turret was quickly taken out of commission.

"MAGIC CARD ACTIVATE!" an officer from one of the Vehicles called. "RAIGEKI! THIS DESTROYS ALL OUR OPPONENT'S MONSTERS!"

Above the duel field, a dark cloud appeared in the sky, lightning crackling inside the swirling mist.

"Now you start dueling!" Neya snarled before extending her hand towards her face-down monster. I activate Aquaperformer Flip in order to immediately Flip Summon my face-down Aquaperformer Design Beaver!"

Leaping out of the water, a female beaver dressed like a fashion consultant twirled through the air before landing in front of Neya. In its hands it carried various pieces of measuring tape, thread, needles, and a single pair of scissors. Shaking its head in disapproval, the monster began examining the duel field as if wanting to fix it up. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator displayed a Level of five and a DEF of 2100.

"Even if my monsters might get taken down…" Neya declared, "That doesn't mean I'm not taking you down with me! When Design Beaver is Flip Summoned, I can destroy one card my opponent controls and activate one Aquaperfomer Oceanarium directly from my deck! With this effect, I'll destroy your Goyo King and then, once Oceanarium is activated and your Raigeki resolves, you'll be destroying some of my Equip Spell Cards, which will let me Special Summon another Aquaperformer monster from my deck in face-down defense position thanks to Oceanarium's effect!"

"TRAP ACTIVATE!" An officer countered, voice booming over the duel field through the vehicle's mounted microphones. "GOYO OPPRESSION! IF A MONSTER EFFECT IS ACTIVATED WHILE WE CONTROL A GOYO MONSTER, WE CAN NEGATE THAT MONSTER'S EFFECT UNTIL THE END-PHASE!"

"What!?" Neya exclaimed as a massive net launched from the trap card, which slammed into Design Beaver and Star Sea Lion. Frightened by the attack, Star Sea Lion accidentally bucked Neya off its back, causing the young girl to fly into the air above the water. Just as she was about to slam into the water, Lilly and her monster rushed forward, Reef Queen catching a stunned Neya in her arms before Lilly extended her hand towards her face-down card.

"Trap activate!" She declared, "Legendary Martial Art - Hung Gar! While this card is face-up, players cannot target monsters for attacks except the monster his/her opponent controls with the highest defense, and once per turn, if a monster is selected as an attack target, the controller of that monster can change the battle position of the monster being attacked. Furthermore, if a monster battles a defense position monster with a higher defense than the attacking monster's attack, the attacking monster is destroyed at the end of the Damage Step. Finally, if a player controls no monsters, any damage he/she takes is halved!"

"What are you doing?" Neya asked.

"You're wide open for an attack." Lilly explained. "I'm not gonna let them hurt you. Not when you still owe me a rematch after this mess is taken care of!"

"Can we talk about that later!?" Neya asked, desperately clinging to Lilly's monster as it sped across the water while looking nervously up at the dark cloud hanging over their heads. "Their Raigeki is still going to activate!"

"Not before I do this!" Lilly countered, pulling a card from her hand. "I next chain my Aqua Avatar – Benthic Drifter to the effect of my Trap Card! By sacrificing my Seagrass Lilly and discarding this monster, I can change the attack of all monsters my opponent controls to zero!"

Bursting from the sea in a swirling column of water, Lilly's ghostly Benthic Drifter raised her liquid hands into the air, the light sacs of her sea plants glowing with bright light, before causing a massive tidal wave of water to rise up as she prepared to throw it at Security's monsters.

"TRAP ACTIVATE!" The other Security vehicle countered, "GOYO OPPRESSION! THE EFFECT OF YOUR MONSTER IS NEGATED AND NOW RAIGEKI CAN RESOLVE!"

From the trap card, another net blasted towards Lilly's Benthic Drifter, tangling the water sprite in its cords and causing the wave of water to fall back down. Above the heads of Neya and Lilly, Lightning bolts began flashing onto the duel field, threatening to destroy their monsters.

"I activate the effects of both Aqua Avatar – Reef Queen, and Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin, who shares Reef Queen's effect! During either player's turn, I can send one Level three or lower LIGHT or WATER monster from my side of the field, hand, or deck to my graveyard in order to make my monsters immune to destruction by card effects until the end of this turn! With this effect, I send Aqua Avatar – Seaweed Lily and Aqua Avatar – Seagrass Lily from my deck to the graveyard to protect both my monsters!"

Raising her hands into the air, Reef Queen caused a large bubble of water to surround herself and the two duelists before clenching her hands and causing the sphere of water to harden into a sphere of ice just as a lightning bolt struck. With a massive explosion, the ice sphere was shattered, but Reef Queen, Neya, and Lilly remained unharmed. Hearing a mighty roar, Neya turned her head to see that Lilly's dragon had managed to protect itself with the same trick.

Neya's other monsters, however, were not so lucky.

Hearing a panicked yelp, Neya turned her head just in time to witness with dismay the destruction of each of her monsters as, one by one, they were each struck by a bolt of lightning and blown into sparks of holographic dust.

"NO!" Neya protested, tears coming to her eyes after witnessing the destruction of the monsters who had acted as her companions and fellow performers.

"We'll get back at them!" Lilly promised, gritting her teeth. "I promise you, I'll beat them, even if I have to-…"

"BATTLE!" the first Security Vehicle declared, "THANKS TO THE EFFECT OF MY GOYO KING'S EQUIPPED GOYO SASUMATA, GOYO KING CAN ATTACK DIRECTLY! FURTHERMORE, GOYO SODEGARAMI PREVENTS MY OPPONENT FROM ACTIVATING ANY CARDS OR EFFECTS WHEN MY GOYO KING ATTACKS, MY GOYO TSUKUBO INCREASES GOYO KING'S ATTACK BY EIGHT-HUNDRED, AND GOYO KING GAINS ANOTHER FOUR-HUNDRED ATTACK FOR EACH GOYO MONSTER WE CONTROL! GO GOYO KING! ATTACK CRIMINAL, LILLY HOSHI'S, LIFEPOINT'S DIRECTLY!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Neya exclaimed, staring with wide eyes as one of Security's Goyo Kings rocketed forward, a massive spear pointing towards them. "LILLY! YOU HAVE TO-…"

The rest of Neya's sentence was cut off as Lilly quickly had her monster race towards the shore before throwing Neya onto the sandy bank, several meters away from the two Security vehicles.

"GET THE FREAK OUT OF HERE!" Lilly called, "FIND SOMEWHERE TO HIDE AND-…"

Before she could say any more, Goyo King slammed his spear against Lilly, Knocking her off her monster and sending her flying into the ocean with a violent splash as her Life Points dropped to 0. As Lilly slowly sank beneath the surface of the water, her two monsters faded away, unable to remain on the field with the loss of their master. Neya stared back, unable to believe what was going on, before noticing that Lilly hadn't surfaced for air.

"LILLY!" Neya called, leaping into the sea and swimming towards Lilly's position as fast as she could.

"ORE NO TURN!" The second Security vehicle called, "DRAW!"

Neya had managed to reach Lilly, who had been slowly sinking to the bottom, the last attack having knocked her out. Kicking off from the sandy bottom, Neya surfaced with Lilly before struggling to swim back to shore.

"BATTLE!" the second Security vehicle declared, "DESTROY THE SECOND COMMON! DIRECT ATTACK!"

Neya managed to reach the shore and throw Lilly onto the bank before collapsing to the ground with exhaustion. Wasting no time, the second Goyo King pounced on Neya, lifting her up into the air and slamming her back down against the sand, incapacitating her and dropping her Life Points to 0 with a single blow.

"Readying extraction." Neya heard one of the vehicles declare. Craning her head the best she could as the Goyo King shifted position to hold both her and Lilly firmly to the ground, she saw the back doors of the Security vehicles open before two teams of four Security officers exited and began gathering the groups of netted commons, pressing a strange device up to the head of each Common and pressing down on a trigger before hauling the nets into the back of the trucks. Next to Neya, Lilly began stirring.

"N-Neya?" Lilly gasped, a thin trickle of blood flowing down her forehead and over her right eye as she turned her head to look at her captive companion.

"INSERT A CHIP INTO THE PSYCHIC, NOW!" One of the officers barked after hearing Lilly speak.

Stomping forward, a pair of Security officers approached Neya and Lilly, holding the strange devices aloft as they did so. However, just as they were about to place the devices against each of their foreheads, a youthful and mellow voice called out to them from across the beach.

"Let them go." The young voice demanded.

Neya craned her neck to look behind herself, noticing Lilly do the same. Walking along the sandy beach, a very young boy who couldn't even be in his teens, was briskly strolling up to the Security officers. He had short green hair, blue eyes, a white shirt and jacket slightly too big for him, and a pair of brown cargo pants. Over his right arm, Neya noticed a crimson claw-shaped mark burning through the sleeve of his jacket with luminous red light.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Neya called, "HURRY! BEFORE THEY GET YOU TOO!"

"Don't worry…" the boy replied, "…we're here to save you!"

"WE!?" Neya exclaimed, "WHO'S WE!?"

"There's someone walking next to him!" Lilly exclaimed, left eye widening while the right eye remained tightly shut in order to prevent the blood from flowing inside.

"What are you talking about!?" Neya replied, seeing nobody next to the boy.

"You can't see her?" Lilly asked, glancing at Neya with an incredulous expression before turning her attention back to the taller green-haired girl walking right next to the boy, an identical but much brighter claw-shaped mark burning against her own right arm.

"Are you ready for this, Jeremiah?" The green-haired girl asked the boy, placing her hand over his shoulder and smiling warmly at him.

"So long as you're here to help me, Ruka." The boy replied, holding his right arm in front of the Security officers.

"Who are you two!?" Lilly called, before her face got slammed into the ground by Goyo King.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" an officer snarled before turning his attention to the boy. "Citizen, you are in violation of directive Alekhine's gun. Surrender now and we will not resort to force!"

"Let… them… go." The boy repeated, voice a little more forceful.

"You can't do anything! What are you? Eight!?" Neya protested before getting her own face slammed into the sand.

"Nope." The boy replied, shaking his head. "I'm ten in a half."

"Great…" Neya groaned internally, "…I'm captured by Security, I've got a crazy kid thinking he's superman, and as if both those things weren't bad enough, Lilly's seeing invisible people!"

"THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" the Security officer called as a squadron of five other Security officers surrounded him on either side before pulling out their own net guns. "SURRENDER NOW OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"

"They're getting ready to attack." Lilly heard the green-haired girl instruct the boy. "Unleash the energy in your mark like I showed you earlier and you should be able to defend yourself and save these people."

"THREE!" the officer began counting down.

"Got it!" the boy replied with a nod of his head.

"TWO!"

Scrunching up his face in concentration, the mark on the Boy's arm began growing in brightness.

"ONE!"

The Security officer pointed his finger towards the boy, giving the command to fire. The second the other officers fired their nets, however, the boy suddenly opened up his hands, causing a massive flash of crimson light to envelop the beach, momentarily blinding Neya, Lilly, and all the other officers. When the light faded, Neya choked on her own breath when she saw the same boy standing over a pile of shredded nets, a pair of massive semi-translucent crimson dragon claws made of red light resting over each of his hands like oven mitts. Flexing the fingers of his hands, the boy caused the dragon claws to move in tandem with his own hands as the Security officers slowly backed away.

"A disciple!" one of the officers exclaimed.

"Nope." The boy corrected, taking a step forward, "Phoenix Guard!"

Letting out a small ten-year-old battle-cry, the green-haired boy charged forward, slicing apart holographic nets with his claws as the Security officers attempted to capture him, and flicking away officers with superhuman strength once he got close enough to touch them with his claws. Seeing the other officers get attacked, Goyo King leaped off of Neya and Lilly, freeing the two girl's faces from the sand.

"A psychic!?" Neya sputtered as she pried her head from the ground while trying to remember everything she had heard about the supposed telekinetic powers they wielded.

"He's not a psychic." Lilly groaned, wiping the blood from her face before turning to the green haired girl. "Who are you?" she called, grabbing the attention of the tall teenage girl, who was observing the battle between the little boy and Security. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you helping?"

The girl regarded Lilly for a moment before addressing her, smiling faintly as she did. Lilly noticed for the first time as she spoke, that the girl's feet were not touching the ground.

"I'm not really part of this world." The girl explained. "Except on rare occasions, I'm unable to interact with either the physical elements of the mortal world or the people who live within it. But it's nice to see that there are still some people who can see me." She continued, offering Lilly her hand.

"Lilly…" Neya asked, "…what… the heck… is going on!?"

Lilly attempted to take the girl's hand, but was surprised to see her hand pass right through her open palm. Frowning, the girl sighed before withdrawing her hand and muttering, "Only a psychic with very minimal powers. Heightened perception, but no ability to truly interact with spirits." She glanced over at the green-haired boy who was using his claws to hold off both Goyo Kings, much to the other officer's incredulity. "You two should go now. I'll stay here to help Jeremiah defeat the Security squadrons here and free the captured Commons. Find a safe place to hide and stay there. This city isn't safe, and I fear it will soon become even more dangerous."

"But…!" Lilly protested, managing to stand up.

"Go." The green-haired girl gently but firmly instructed. "Your safety is what matters now, and besides, I think your friend will think you're crazy if you keep talking to me."

The girl then left them, walking briskly towards the green-haired boy while holding up the mark on her right arm. Looking back at her, Lilly noticed the light of her mark fade ever-so-slightly while the mark on the boy's arm rapidly grew in intensity.

"LILLY! EARTH TO LILLY!" Neya called, angrily snapping her fingers in front of the bluenette's face. "Don't you dare go insane on me! I did NOT drag you out of that ocean so you could go nuts!"

"Huh?" Lilly asked, eyes blinking as she gradually regained focus.

"What's going on!?" Neya asked, looking extremely agitated.

Lilly shook her head, remembering what the girl had said to her, but still struggling to process what was going on.

"We need to leave." Lilly managed to get out, wiping some sand from her shirt. "I don't know what's going on, but it's not safe for us to be here anymore."

Neya slowly nodded her head, glancing back over at the boy and seeing him activate a Duel Disk before taking the intrusion penalty. "Do you think he'll make it?" Neya asked, before realizing that Lilly was already walking away.

"HEY!" Neya called, "I thought we were going together!"

"There's someone I need to find!" Lilly called back, scrambling over some rocks, "And besides, you'll be safer if you're not next to a criminal Security can track! Just find somewhere to hide and stay there!"

"But!" Neya called.

"GO!" Lilly barked, before climbing onto the road above the beach. "I'll squash you in a rematch later!"

Neya opened her mouth to protest, but stopped once Lilly had disappeared in the distance. Deciding that there would be no point in waiting to be captured, she began running away from the beach, hoping to reach her home and her brother before Security found her again.

The boy named Jeremiah, meanwhile, had begun his first turn, all the while fending off multiple Security officers and the two Goyo Kings as they attempted to capture him.

"I activate the Magic Card…" Jeremiah began, dodging a blow from a Goyo King with supernatural speed, "…Start Game. This card lets me add one Video Games Hero monster or one Level Up from my deck to my hand!"

Next to Jeremiah, a holographic START button appeared in the air before Jeremiah pushed it with his hands. Upon pushing the button, a card popped out of Jeremiah's deck, which he quickly added to his hand before continuing with his turn.

"Using this card, I'll add one Video Games Hero LV 1 to my hand before summoning it in attack position!"

Flipping onto the field, a small boy about Jeremiah's size in cubic blue armor appeared to the field, dodging a blow from an angry Goyo King with Jeremiah's same skill. Back flipping away with Jeremiah in order to avoid a blow from the second Goyo King, a holographic indicator appeared next to the monster, displaying a Level of one and an ATK of 600.

"STAND DOWN, DISCIPLE!" an officer roared, "You do not have the ability to defeat us! We will be receiving reinforcements in moments and then our field will be even stronger than before!"

"I told you! I'm not a disciple!" Jeremiah protested, slicing through another net. "But speaking of getting stronger, check this out! I activate the magic card, Level Up, from my hand in order to send my Video Games Hero LV 1 to the graveyard and Special Summon Video Games Hero LV 6!"

As he slammed down the magic card, Jeremiah's monster began glowing with white light before expanding in size. When the light dimmed a taller warrior in upgraded blue armor stood in front of Jeremiah, a serious expression on his face. His head was covered with a large blue helmet, his chest bore a Label with the words "LV 6" written on the front, his left arm was shaped like a cannon, and his large armored boots each housed a pair of rockets on the sides. Raising his right arm into the air, the warrior let out a triumphant laugh before a holographic indicator appeared and showed a Level of six and an ATK of 2400.

"Video Games Hero Level Six's effect activates!" Jeremiah enthusiastically called, charging right alongside his monster towards one of the Goyo Kings. "If it is Special Summoned successfully, I can target one card my opponent controls and destroy it! And I choose Goyo King!"

Leaping into the air with a blast from its rocket boots, Video Games Hero LV 6 leveled his cannon at one of the Goyo Kings before firing a concentrated burst of energy at the monster, destroying it instantly with its effect.

"TRAP ACTIVATE!" an officer called, "CALL OF THE HAUNTED! WITH THIS CARD, I WILL REVIVE OUR GOYO KING!"

"Whoa!" Jeremiah exclaimed as Goyo King suddenly rose from a black portal in the ground before taking a swipe at Jeremiah. Jeremiah managed to block the blow with his phantasmal claws, but not before getting knocked back several feet by the force of the blow.

"CAREFUL!" Ruka called to him, as she clutched at the mark on her arm, "If you use too much energy, I'll have to withdraw from you."

"Sorry Ruka…" Jeremiah apologized, pulling another card from his hand, "…I'll try to make this quick!"

"Just try not to use so much energy so quickly." Ruka cautioned. "Once you beat them, I'll need your help if we're going to remove the chips in these people's brains."

"Got it!" Jeremiah agreed, slamming down another card onto his Duel Disk, while dodging another blow from Goyo King.

"I activate a second Level Up!" Jeremiah declared. "By sending my Video Games Hero LV 6 to the graveyard, I can Special Summon Video Games Hero LV 8 from my deck!"

Once again, Jeremiah's monster was bathed in white light as it slowly grew in size and upgraded. When the light faded, Jeremiah's monster looked even stronger, with sleek heavy duty metal armor that looked like it could withstand a blow from a tank. A pair of airplane-like wings projected from its back, each carrying a set of rocket boosters on the end. Over its chest, the label "LV 8" showed in clear gold letters, while a pair of powerful cannons rested above the wrists of his powerful gauntleted hands. His feet each housed a pair of wheels on the sides and a set of powerful rocket jets on the bottom of the boots and back of the heels, enabling the monster to zoom across the field at incredible speeds. Next to the new monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a Level of eight and an ATK of 3000.

"When Video Games Hero LV 8 is successfully Special Summoned…" Jeremiah explained, rolling out of the way as yet another officer attempted to ensnare him with a net gun, "…I can target three cards my opponent controls and destroy them! Using this effect, I'm targeting both Goyo Kings and the last face-down card on your field in order to destroy them!"

Nodding his helmeted head, Video Games Hero LV 8 sped around the field, rapidly firing from its mounted wrist cannons until it had cleared away both Goyo Kings and Security's face-down card.

"I'm almost done, Ruka!" Jeremiah called, pulling out two cards from his hand. "I next equip my Video Games Hero LV 8 with two Spell Cards, Megasword Power Up and Double Fist Power Up! The first card gives my monster one-thousand extra attack points and the second one lets my monster attack twice!"

Over the gloves of Jeremiah's monster, a pair of massive blue cestus appeared before a single massive two-handed sword made of blue light appeared in the armored warrior's hand.

"Go Video Games Hero LV 8!" Jeremiah commanded, a triumphant expression on his face, "Attack both my opponents directly!"

Turning their attention away from Jeremiah, the remaining Security officers attempted to stop Jeremiah's charging monster with their nets. However, they were no match for the monster as it proceeded to bisect each of the nets they launched at it with its sword before knocking each officer out with a blow to the head. Once the last officer had fallen, Video Games Hero LV 8 leaped into the air with a burst from its rockets. Slicing its massive sword through the air, it sent a massive crescent-shaped mass of energy into both Security vehicles, blasting both vehicles onto their sides as the Life Points of each dueling officer was reduced to 0.

"I love being a Phoenix Guard." Jeremiah sighed

"Good work!" Ruka congratulated, running up next to Jeremiah and giving him a big hug once he had finished, much to the little boy's horror.

"Aww… gross!" Jeremiah whined, pulling away from Ruka and brushing himself off as if he were infected.

"Someday…" Ruka sighed, slowly shaking her head, "…you'll like it." She pointed over to the various Common citizens trapped in the nets. Most were lying on the ground completely comatose, but a few were struggling against their bindings, attempting to free themselves from the energy netting.

"Hurry and free them." Ruka instructed. "Security will be arriving with reinforcements."

"Okay, coz." Jeremiah sighed, walking up to each net and slicing them open with a slash of his claws. Most of the Commons, upon being freed, immediately ran off, scattering in different directions as they attempted to get themselves as far away from the incident as possible. One, however, stayed behind, nervously shaking a woman who was lying limply in his arms.

"Margaret?" the man called, "Margaret!? What's wrong Margaret!? Why won't you move!?"

"Ruka says she's got a chip in her brain." Jeremiah explained, walking up next to the man.

"R-Ruka?" the man asked, looking around but seeing nobody.

"Never mind." The boy shrugged. "Just give me a second. I'm gonna need her help for this one."

Confused and a little worried, the man watched as the little boy who had miraculously managed to fend off an entire Security force began closing his eyes in concentration. Slowly, the boy and his mark began glowing with brilliant white and red light before the entire field was bathed in his glow.

"We Activate the Field Magic Card, Archaic Forest, and then Special Summon, Archaic Tuner…" the boy declared, in an odd voice that sounded like a strange mixture between his own voice and a teenage girl's voice. "…with this card, I can target my Video Games Hero LV 8 in order to change its Level to six before Synchro Summoning!"

The boy's eyes were glowing white now as he raised his arms to the sky. Around the beach, a large forest sprang into existence before a small pixie with long white hair and old brown garments appeared to the field. Fluttering its tiny wings, the pixie morphed into a ring of white light before encompassing the now Level six Video Games Hero LV 8 in its glow.

"Ancient and eternal guardian of the sacred and unseen realm of spirits…" the boy chanted in the same odd mixed voice, "…manifest thy holy form now to purify and protect the natural world from the dark forces that would corrupt and destroy! Synchro Shokan! Appear now! Level seven! Archaic Faery Dragon!"

Suddenly, the entire beach was bathed in a gentle white light more radiant than the boy's own light. Despite the intensity of the light, the man found he could look on the boy without being blinded and see a massive dragon next to the boy with white butterfly-like wings and a serpentine blue body with a pair of humanoid arms and hands. Spreading out its wings, a stream of shimmering dust poured from the monster's wings before each trail touched the forehead of each unconscious person on the beach, including the Security officers. For a brief moment, the head of each unconscious person glowed white before they all slowly began moving, some of them struggling to get up.

Slowly, the light and the dragon faded away, leaving the boy behind, the mark on his arm glowing with only a faint red light now. When the light was gone, the man looked down at the woman in his arms, who slowly began opening her eyes, coughing slightly as she did.

"Margaret?" the man called again, overjoyed to see her moving.

"Gareth?" the woman asked, "What… happened?"

"We should all probably go." The boy instructed, voice sounding normal now as he began sprinting away from the rest of the group.

"What!" the man called, "Who are-…?"

But before he could finish his question, the boy was already too far away for his voice to reach him.

…

Neya was sprinting as fast as she could, down the deepest darkest alleyway she could find. Normally, she tried to stay away from shady parts of the neighborhood, but right now, after the harrowing experience she had just had with Security, she felt like the darker, shadier, and more concealed the hiding place, the better.

When she came to a very dark and shadowed corner, she quickly pulled out her Duel Disk and began dialing her brother's number, panting heavily from the exertion of her previous sprint.

"Come on… pick up…" she panted.

"Neya?" Kuma's voice called from the other end. "Where are you? Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me!" Neya panted. "Where are you!? What are you doing!? Who are you with!?"

"I'm… working." Kuma replied, sounding somewhat exasperated. "What's wrong Neya? You don't sound good."

"Please don't tell me you're with Benji and Unagi again!" Neya pleaded.

"Answer the question." Kuma replied, "What is going on? Have you been hurt?"

"I'm… I'm…" Neya panted, wondering what in the heck she was going to say about the crazy situation she was just in, "…just listen Kuma! Security is going crazy, and there are a lot of weird people out right now… you have to-…"

Suddenly, a gloved hand shot out from within the shadows and grabbed Neya by the throat before she could continue speaking. Choking from the firmness of the grip, Neya nearly dropped her Duel Disk to the ground before another gloved hand shot out and grabbed the Disk.

"HELLO!" Kuma called from the other end, "WHAT'S GOING ON!? WHO'S ON THE LINE!?"

"Annoying Synchro Scum." A male voice droned before pressing the Hang-Up button on the Disk. As the man held Neya in the air, the alleyway was suddenly illuminated by a large multi-colored spiral shaped mark, which blazed to life on the person's chest. Adjusting her eyes to the sudden illumination, Neya could see a tall individual wearing what looked like a creepy Halloween costume with a skull helmet, a green suit of armor with skeletal decorations, and a shield shaped Duel Disk over his left arm. Bringing Neya up to his face, the man began speaking to her.

"I know this might be sudden." He droned, ignoring Neya's Duel Disk as it began furiously ringing. "But I just barely got to this dimension and I'm needing some of its inhabitants to help me. Got it? Gag once for 'yes,' gag twice for 'no.'"

Neya tried to pry herself from the man's grip, but his fingers were like hydraulic presses.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" The man smirked. "No doubt you're wondering who I am-…"

"No she's not!" a mocking sing-song voice called from behind the man. Struggling to breathe, Neya was able to make out the form of a man with long blue hair and a large white lab coat over his body just behind the man who was strangling her. On his chest, the same multi-colored spiral mark shone glowed with eerie ghostly light.

"Right now…" the second man continued in a very matter-of-fact voice, "…the little girl is thinking, and I quote, 'AAAAAAA GAH GAH GAH! OXYGEN! OXYGEN! AAAAAAAHHHHH GAH GAH GAH! STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER! I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S REAR END WHO GENERAL TARLETON IS BECAUSE ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IS THE FACT THAT I'M SLOWLY BEING ASPHYXIATED! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Bleh!'" The man finished, head nodding over as he pretended to die. When the man opened his eyes again, Neya noticed with horror that his eyes were a deep pitch black with glowing green irises.

Tarleton didn't seem amused.

"Shove off, Satoru." He snarled, "I was in the middle of recruiting this malformed runt!"

"And I was in the middle of hacking into Security's mainframe, seizing control of all monitoring equipment within the tri-state area, downloading all of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau data in a single file on my Duel Disk, and possibly accessing the nuclear codes of this world's nations just to troll them!" Satoru indignantly replied, holding up a small handheld computer and typing furiously at the screen. "Oh… and by the way…" he continued, as Tarleton's angry expression worsened, "…you're about to make her functionally brain dead. I'd advise slackening that big strong Dreadroot force grip of yours just a teensy bit so you don't lose your oh-so-precious makeshift spy."

"Fine!" Tarleton seethed, dropping Neya to the ground and letting her take a few gasps of air before planting his boot firmly against her small chest.

"Wh-Who are you!?" Neya whimpered, shielding her face with her hands, thoughts of weird Earthbound ghost stories flooding her mind as she stared up at the strange individuals. "What do you want with me!?"

"I DON'T KNOW YET!" Tarelton snapped, pressing his boot harder against Neya's chest before leaning down until his face was nearly touching hers. "I just need you around here, at my beck and call, ready to do whatever I say whenever I say it. Understand!?"

Neya nodded her head, hoping in vain that another person would save her from the situation she was in.

"Good!" Tarleton sneered. "I'm glad these misshapen monkeys have a little bit of brain in their heads. Now then, hold still!" he ordered, clamping his gloved palm against her chest.

Neya looked down at her chest, noticing a brief flash of multi-colored spiral shaped light appear over her shirt before instantaneously fading away. As the mark vanished, Neya suddenly felt a sinking sensation in her chest, as if something was worming its way inside of her.

"Good job." Tarleton congratulated, condescendingly patting Neya on the head. "This little mark I gave you is just a little something that will allow me to know exactly where you are whenever I please. It'll help me keep an eye on you, see what you see, hear what you hear, and best of all, it is almost completely invisible to everyone else, including some people with… special training." He grabbed Neya's cheeks, pulling her head towards him so she was facing him. As he continued speaking, Neya could smell his pungent breath, which smelled unimaginably noxious, like the breath of a corpse. "I just need you to be around." Tarleton explained, "Speak to people, see the sights, and do whatever it is you normally do. But if you hear my melodious voice in your head… you'd better do EXACTLY what I say! Try to run away from me, try to rat me out, even if you so much as mention meeting a stranger today… and I will hunt you down, and kill you! Understand?"

Neya nodded her head, unimaginable terror gripping her.

"Good…" Tarleton whispered in her ear, "…and remember… I'm watching you."

"Oooooooh… creepy!" Satoru smirked, continuing to tap away at his hand-held device.

"Yes." Tarleton grunted, removing his boot from Neya's chest. "So run along little one." He instructed, dropping her Duel Disk on her chest. "Whoever you were talking to sounds worried about you. If he asks, just say you lost the connection for a moment. It'll be best for both of you if you know what I mean."

Neya inched away from the man, slowly picking her Duel Disk up from off her chest before sprinting away from the two individuals with all her might. When she was gone, Tarleton turned back to Satoru, who continued to type at his device, mark glowing with intense light as he continued his work.

"How is it coming?" Tarelton asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"Better than a computer noob like you could possibly understand!" Satoru enthused, a maniacal grin spreading over his face as he continued his work. "You know… I would have suspected, given how ancient they were, that the Earthbound would be utterly confused by modern technology. But their knowledge of the technological arts dwarfs even mine! Or at least, it dwarfs the knowledge I had when I was alive. Perhaps to beings who routinely shape the very reality of the universe with miracles, the puny technological marvels we hail as the pinnacle of advancement seem as a caveman's rock and stick would seem to us." He sighed to himself. "Ah philosophy." He mused. "Thou art always there to help me see just how insignificant I truly am… which I don't like so I'll go back to focusing on that which helps me see myself as an unparalleled genius! Computer technology!"

"Any word from our allies here?" Tarleton asked.

"I've gotten nothing from Yuu-Sama yet." Satoru replied, taking a sip from a can of soda resting in a pocket of his lab coat. "But I did contact Mr. Abrams, and he says he will meet us later before giving us some instructions."

"Why not meet us now?" Tarleton interrogated.

"Apparently a new disciple from the Standard Dimension just arrived here…" Satoru explained, tossing aside a can of soda before cracking open another one. "…mmmmmm cherry flavored." He muttered, "Not that I'd know of course." He added, looking mournfully at the label.

"And?" Tarleton pressed, wishing to get back on topic.

"Abrams is doing his usual thing with that disciple." Satoru explained. "According to him, she was completely insane and not really ready to perform her assigned mission."

"And what assigned mission is that?" Tarleton asked.

"Oooh, you might be interested in this." Satoru enthused, "Apparently, the little girl was designed by Yuu specifically to be used as an assassin against the professor's son, Reiji Akaba!"

"An assassin for the professor's son?" Tarleton asked. "Why would Yuu-Sama be interested in that?"

"Don't you know?" Satoru sneered, "I thought the news would have gotten to you by now with all the, oh… eighty-four or so spies you've sent out. Ah well…" He sighed melodramatically while Tarleton gritted his teeth, "…I suppose I'll just have to share what I learned with you when I employed a bit more sophisticated and efficient espionage. Reiji Akaba is here! Currently held in the custody of this Dimension's leader, Roger, but nevertheless here. It is Yuu's express will that the son of the professor should die, and thus, to that end, Abrams is working at this very moment to recalibrate our dear sister disciple and transform her into the beautiful mindless killing machine she was designed to be."

He took a long slow sip from his soda can once he finished before resuming his work. Suddenly, after a few more moments of typing, Satoru suddenly stopped, eyes growing wide with astonishment.

"Could it be…" he exclaimed, furiously tapping at the screen of his device.

"What is it?" Tarleton asked, suddenly feeling on edge.

"It can't be…" Satoru continued, scrolling through the screen of his device.

"WHAT IS IT!" Tarleton repeated, quickly losing his temper.

"OH JOY!" Satoru exclaimed, suddenly leaping forward and giving Tarleton a great big hug, much to Tarleton's chagrin. "I FOUND HIM TARLETON! I FOUND HIM!"

"Let me guess…" Tarleton grunted, trying to pry himself away from the overenthusiastic disciple.

"I HAVE FOUND SORA!" Satoru whooped, "I FOUND HIM! I FOUND HIM! I FOUND HIM! Oh this is just wonderful! Can you believe this Tarleton!?"

"I'm only barely managing to contain my joy." Tarleton dryly replied, finally managing to pry himself from Satoru's grasp. "So… why is Sora so important to you?" Tarleton asked, brushing himself off.

"What kind of question is that?" Satoru protested, "I thought the worth of family love needed no explaining! It's what I've been fighting for ever since I joined the Earthbound Disciples! Wouldn't you give anything if you could just be with your family again?"

"My family hated me." Tarleton growled, tone of voice warning Satoru to not go any further. "Especially my brother."

"Never had a brother." Satoru shrugged, "Or a sister for that matter. As for my parents… they weren't really there for me… Academia duties and all that. But whenever I visited the Shiunins…" he paused for a moment and sighed with contentment as if recalling sweet memoires, "…if it weren't for all of them… my aunt, uncle, and cousins… I'd have never learned how to experience true joy." He finished, all mockery from his voice gone, replaced with grave sincerity.

"True happiness…" Tarleton countered, "…comes independently of others. I'm done trying to please others, whether it's Academia, my father, or my brother."

"I pity you." Satoru sniffed, taking another sip from his can of soda. "I sincerely do. However…" he continued, putting away his soda and handheld device, "…I don't honestly care what happens to you. So if you don't mind…" he threw his left arm forward, activating his large glowing metallic sword-shaped Duel Disk, "…I'm going to pay my cousin a little visit. Go entertain yourself. Have fun watching Shun's duel against Crow. I'll meet you later when Isaac Abrams has finished with his work."

"Good riddance." Tarleton replied, turning his back to his companion as the two walked away from each other.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Name: Gin Tami / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Ninja/Ninjitsu / Allegiance: Her friends and family / Status: Active

Name: Akio Fujimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Six Samurai / Allegiance: The Tami Family / Status: Active

Name: Kuma Mizuki / Original concept by: thetiger39 / Deck: Warlord Bear / Allegiance: Kuma's Gang / Status: Active

Name: Benji / Original concept by: Donjusticia (name contributed by Nox Descious) / Deck: Warriors / Allegiance: Kuma's Gang / Status: Active

Name: Neya Mizuki / Original concept by: thetiger39 / Deck: Aquaperformer / Allegiance: None: Synchro Dimension Civilian / Status: Active

Name: Lilly Hoshi / Original concept by: Greninja / Deck: Aqua Avatar / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active

Name: Jeremiah Frisk / Original concept by: Solphage / Deck: Video Games Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Aaron Tarleton / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gears / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Satoru Shishido / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Procesystem / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Featured Fanfic Cards

Gin's Monsters

Ninja Kid/ DARK/ Level 1/ Warrior/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 100/ DEF 100/ If this card is normal summoned, you can Special Summon any number of "Ninja Kid" from your hand or deck to your side of the field in face-up ATK position. This card gains 500 ATK for each face-up "Ninja" monster you control. If this card destroys a monster by battle, you can banish this card: Special Summon 1 "Ninja" monster from your deck or graveyard in face-up attack position or face-down defense position.

Ninja Trainee/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Warrior/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 400/ DEF 300/ If this card is Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Ninja" monster (except "Ninja Trainee) from your hand, deck, or graveyard in face-up attack position or face-down defense position. This card gains 500 ATK for each "Ninja" monster you control.

(Original concept by Nox Descious.)

Terra Cotta Ninja/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 1800/ If you control a "Ninja" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.

Gin's Extra Deck

Sun Shadow Armor Ninja/ LIGHT/ Level 5/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2300/ DEF 100/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

You can Special Summon 1 Warrior-Type monster from your hand, and if you do, destroy this card. Once per turn, during either player's turn, if this card is in the graveyard or you Special Summon a Warrior-Type Monster while this card is equipped to another Warrior-Type monster you control, you can equip this card to 1 Warrior-Type monster you control as an Equip Spell Card. The equipped monster can attack each monster your opponent controls, once each. Also, if it would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.

Silver Shadow Armor Ninja/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2500/ DEF 1200/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners

"Ninja" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn.

Golden Shadow Armor Ninja/ LIGHT/ Level 7/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2000/ 1 Warrior Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners  
Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can tribute 1 "Ninjitsu" card from your side of the field or hand: Negate the effects of 1 monster your opponent controls, and if you do, change its ATK and DEF to 0 until the End-Phase of this turn. During the End-Phase of your turn, if a "Ninja" monster battled an opponent's monster, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Ninjitsu" card from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Gin's Spells

Ninjitsu Art of Coordinated Attack/ Spell/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can banish one "Ninja" Monster from your Graveyard: Target one Ninja Monster you control. That target gains 1000 ATK. Also, it gains the effects of the Ninja Monster banished for this effect, until the End Phase of this turn. If you do not control a "Ninja" Monster, destroy this card.

(Original concept by Nox Descious.)

Akio's Traps

Honorable Sacrifice of the Six Samurai/ Trap/ Normal/ Target 1 "Six Samurai" monster you control: This turn that monster's ATK and DEF are halved, also, your opponent can only select that monster as an attack target but it cannot be destroyed by battle once per turn during this turn. During either player's turn, you can banish this card from your graveyard and tribute 1 face-up "Six Samurai" monster you control: Increase your LP by the ATK of the monster tributed for this effect. Kuma's Monsters

(Original concept by Nox Descious.)

Warlord-Bear Panda Swordsman/ WIND/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 1900/ Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Any time your opponent takes Battle Damage, increase your LP by the amount of Battle Damage your opponent took. If this card is destroyed by a card effect, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your hand.

Warlord-Bear Forge Master/ FIRE/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2200/ Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Once per turn, you can pay 1000 LP: Add 1 "War Bear" Spell/Trap Card from your deck or graveyard to your hand. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP to activate this effect instead).

Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Beast/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2000/ Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). The controller of this card must pay 1000 LP to Synchro Summon with this card. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP instead).

Kuma's Extra Deck

Warchief-Bear Black Shaman/ DARK/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your hand or graveyard in face-up attack position or face-down defense position. If your opponent pays LP for a card effect, double the amount of LP he/she must pay.

Warchief-Bear White Champion/ WATER/ Level 8/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3400/ DEF 3200/ Warlord-Bear Grizzly Hero + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Cannot be destroyed by battle. (This card is always also treated as a Beast-Warrior-Type monster). Once per turn, you can destroy cards your opponent controls up to the number of "Warlord-Bear" and "Warchief-Bear" monsters you control, and if you do, set 1 of those destroyed cards to your side of the field.

Kuma's Spells

War Bear Encampment/ Spell/ Field/ Once per turn, you can Normal Summon/Set 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. Once per turn, if your opponent declares an attack on a "Warlord-Bear" or "Warchief-Bear" monster you control, you can pay 1000 LP: Negate that attack. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP to activate this effect instead).

War Bear Banner/ Spell/ Continuous/ When this card is activated, you can add 1 "Warlord-Bear" monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand. Increase the ATK and DEF of all "Warlord-Bear" and "Warchief-Bear" monsters you control by 200. If a Beast or Beast-Warrior-Type monster you control would be destroyed, you can destroy this card instead.

Kuma's Traps

War Bar Deception/ Trap/ Counter/ If a "Warlord-Bear" or "Warchief-Bear" monster you control would be destroyed by an opponent's attacking monster or an opponent's card effect, pay 1000 LP: Negate the destruction of that card, and any battle damage you would have received, and if you do, destroy 1 card your opponent controls. (If you control a "Warchief-Bear" monster, you can make your opponent pay 500 LP to activate this card instead).

Neya's Monsters

Aquaperformer Design Beaver/WATER/Level 5/Beast/FLIP/Effect/ATK: 1500/DEF: 2100  
FLIP: Destroy 1 card on the field, then, if it is not face-up on the field, activate from your deck or graveyard, 1 "Aquaperformer Oceanarium". Its activation cannot be negated. If "Aquaperformer Oceanarium" is face-up on the field, this card cannot be destroyed by battle, also, you can set this card face-down.

You can send 1 Set card on the field to the graveyard to Special Summon this card from your hand in face-down Defense Position. Once per turn, if an "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card equipped to this card would be destroyed via a card effect, negate the destruction.

(Original concept by Epsilon Tarantula.)

Neya's Extra Deck

Aquaperformer Star Sea Lion/ WATER/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2000/ 1 "Aquaperformer" Tuner + 1 or more WATER monsters  
Any Battle Damage this card inflicts is halved. This card gains 200 ATK for each differently named "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Card you control and in your graveyard. If this card has 3 or more "Aquaperformer" Equip Spell Cards equipped to itself, this card can attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card would be destroyed, Destroy 1 Equip Spell Card you control instead.

Lilly's Extra Deck

Aqua Avatar Reef Queen/ WATER/ Level 6/ Plant/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 2000/ 1 "Aqua Avatar" Tuner + 1 Non-Tuner

Each time the ATK or DEF of a monster(s) changes (except by the effect of this card), increase the ATK and DEF of this card by 500. Once per turn, during either players, you can send 1 Level 3 or lower LIGHT or WATER monster from your side of the field, hand, or deck to the graveyard: This turn, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Aqua Dragon Ryu Jin/ WATER/ Level 6/ Dragon/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

When this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can target 1 monster on the field: Change that Target's ATK and DEF to 0. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can equip 1 Level 6 or lower WATER Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck or graveyard to this card: This card gains the effects of that card. (Only 1 monster can be equipped to this card at a time with this effect). If this card is destroyed by battle, you can banish 2 WATER monsters from your graveyard: Special Summon this card from your graveyard.

Lilly's Traps

Legendary Martial Art – Hung Gar/ (This card is always treated as a "Ninjitsu" card) Players cannot target monsters for attacks except the monster his/her opponent controls with the highest defense. Once per turn, if a monster is selected as an attack target, the controller of that monster can change the battle position of the monster being attacked. If a monster battles a defense position monster with a higher DEF than the attacking monster's ATK, destroy the attacking monster at the end of the Damage Step. If a player controls no monsters, any damage he/she takes is halved.

Security's Spells

Goyo Sasumata/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster you control. The Equipped monster can attack your opponent's LP directly.

Goyo Sodegarami/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster. If it attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage-Step. Once per turn, if the equipped monster attacked an opponent's monster, you can banish 1 "Goyo" monster on your side of the field or graveyard: The equipped monster can attack once again in a row.

Goyo Tsukubo/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Goyo" monster. That monster gains ATK equal to its Level X 100. If the equipped monster attacks a monster with a lower Level than its own, reduce the ATK and DEF of the attack target by the Level of the attack target X 100. If the equipped monster attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent's LP.

Jeremiah's Monsters

Video Games Hero LV 1/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 600/ You can Special Summon this card from your deck if you control no cards. You cannot Special Summon monsters or conduct your Battle-Phase the turn you activate this effect. During your next Standby-Phase, you can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Video Games Hero LV 6" from your Hand or Deck.

Video Games Hero LV 6/ LIGHT/ Level 6/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ When this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can target 1 card your opponent controls: Destroy it. Once per turn, during either player's turn, if exactly 1 card would be destroyed, and no other cards, you can negate the destruction of that card. During the End-Phase of a turn in which this card destroyed a monster as a result of battle, you can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Video Games Hero LV 8" from your hand or deck.

Video Games Hero LV 8/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ Must first be Special Summoned with the effect of "Video Games Hero LV 6". When this card is Special Summoned successfully, you can target up to 3 cards your opponent controls: Destroy them. During either player's turn, if a card(s) would be destroyed, you can pay 500 LP: Negate the destruction of that card(s). Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Negate the effects of that monster.

Jeremiah's Spells

START game/ Spell/ Normal/ Add 1 "Video Games Hero" monster or "Level-Up" card from your deck to your hand. If you control a "Video Games Hero" monster, you can activate this card from your deck. (You can only activate 1 "START game" per turn).

Mega-Sword Power-Up/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Video Games Hero" monster. Increase its ATK by 1000. Also, if that monster attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent's LP. If this card is in your graveyard while you control a face-up "Video Games Hero" monster, you can pay 1000 LP: Set this card from your graveyard.

Double Fist Power-Up/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to a "Video Games Hero" monster. That monster can make up to 2 attacks per Battle-Phase. If this card is in your graveyard while you control a face-up "Video Games Hero" monster, you can pay 1000 LP: Set this card from your graveyard.

Ruka's Monsters

Archaic Tuner/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects not fully revealed_

Ruka's Extra Deck

Archaic Faery Dragon/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_

Ruka's Spells

Archaic Forest/ Spell/ Field/ _Effects unrevealed_

 **Thank you all very much for your continued support for this series. I can't tell you all how much it means to me that you continue following this work which I and many others have contributed so much to make.**

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 **The policy of weekly update chapters will be discontinued. However, update chapters will not cease altogether. Instead, I will only release an update chapter once I hit a large milestone in this work OR if it really is necessary to inform you all of some major change, and I feel like releasing a small chapter along with it. In making this decision, I have consulted with my co-authors and have decided that due to my growing schedule, I won't be able to release chapters at nearly the rate at which I did in the past. If I continued making weekly update chapters, not only would I divert all my remaining time and energy from the official chapters, but this story would soon become "Signs and More Signs of More Updates," if it hasn't ALREADY become that by now. So expect MUCH fewer update chapters.**

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	24. Part 1: Chapter 12

Part 1: Chapter 12 – Folktales

Yuya had been utterly and completely deprived of most of his senses. After defeating him in the duel, Security had cuffed him, bounded him, muzzled him, placed a sack on his head, and assigned a squad of officers to keep him contained after tasering him a couple times when he still threatened to fight back. It was a good thing they had. After seeing what they had done to Yuzu, all he wanted to do was get back at them and hurt them as much as they had begun hurting Yuzu.

He had felt exactly like he had back in the Miami Championship when…Yuya didn't want to think about what he had become after seeing what the Obelisk Force did. But he remembered the darkness rising up in him once again when he saw them attack Yuzu. He had struggled against the fury, torn between the fear of possession and the hatred he felt against Security for what they had done. Perhaps that hesitation was what ended up preventing Yuya from losing control at that time.

After he was thoroughly subdued, his uncontrollable rage slowly faded, gradually getting replaced by a feeling of hopeless impotency as he awaited Security's next move. Even with the knowledge of what the darkness had done to him in the past, as he thought about what Security had done to Yuzu, Yuya wondered if he should have just given in.

"What had they done to her?" he thought to himself. "Was she alright?"

Yuzu had said she was not even alive when he had last met her. What could that possibly mean? It didn't mean she didn't feel pain; he had seen her suffering, both when Security had attacked her and when she was struggling with her own despair. She was still Yuzu. She had emotions, feelings, and needs. She was not a monster.

So why was Security afraid of her? Why were they attacking her like they did? Were they _that_ determined to send her to the underground _even_ after she had been so obviously injured in her last duel? Or was their another reason?

Suddenly, the vehicle came to a stop.

"ON YOUR FEET!" One of the officers gruffly ordered, roughly grabbing Yuya by the arm and yanking him out of his seat before shoving him forward, without even having the decency to remove the sack over his head.

Instead, Yuya was only allowed awareness of a violent series of shoves, blows to his back and sides, and sudden pulls forward as the various Security officers surrounding him began shepherding their blind escort into what Yuya assumed must have been a building.

Yuya heard a set of doors slide open before another set of rough shoves pushed him onto a smooth floor. Through the hood, Yuya could hear the sound of thousands of people speaking and working, and see and feel the bright indoor lights shining against his face.

As the officers continued shoving him forward, Yuya heard no protests or sounds of shock from the surrounding people. Apparently, whatever was happening to him must have been a common occurrence.

Eventually, after ascending up several elevators and crossing several hallways, Yuya and his escorts came to a stop. Yuya heard the faint beeping sounds of an officer punching a code into a keypad before a set of doors opened.

"Set the Fortune Cup participant in the chair across from me and undo all his bindings other than the cuffs," a familiar voice ordered.

As the officers hastened to comply with the orders they had been given, Yuya felt his captors untie him before removing the hood from his head. Blinking tears out of his eyes as the bright light of the room blazed against his eyes, Yuya's vision slowly adjusted until he was able to clearly see the Chief of Security, Jean-Michell Roger sitting in front of him.

His tone of voice and expression seemed to suggest that the Chief was remarkably pleased with something, but Yuya was able to see that he wasn't quite relaxed. There were dark circles under his eyes, his fingers were constantly fidgeting, and his forehead was practically sparkling with sweat in the bright light.

With a wave of his hand, he motioned for the guards to remove Yuya's muzzle before motioning for his guards to exit the room.

When they had all left and the door had shut, Roger took a moment to lean back in his office chair before addressing Yuya.

"My apologies for the rough treatment." Roger began in what he must have thought was a sympathetic voice. The insincere tone, however, only made Yuya cringe. "However, given recent events, you must understand that the security of this city is of the utmost importance."

"Where is Yuzu?" Yuya breathed, barely managing to hold down his growing anger enough to form a complete sentence. He was not interested in any of Roger's pleasantries. He and Yuzu had been greatly abused and he was not going to even speak with Roger any more than he had to until the man had paid for what he had done.

Roger smirked at him, seemingly amused by Yuya's poor attempts to hide his obvious emotional state, before wiping some sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.

"Straight to the point," he sighed. "Yuzu is safely in my custody. She will remain unharmed in my custody, but only if you cooperate with me."

Yuya clenched his fists in growing rage, thinking about just how unharmed Yuzu had been when they had begun electrocuting her. Roger, however, seemed completely unfazed and possibly even more amused by Yuya's display of anger.

"Since you've brought up the topic of Yuzu," Roger continued, rhythmically tapping his finger against the side of his chair. "Let us discuss her current situation, shall we?"

"Is she hurt!?" Yuya growled.

Roger snorted. "I suppose that depends on what you define as 'hurt', but if you are asking about anything we have done, don't fret. She ceased resisting us after her capture, and I am not interested in inflicting on her any more harm than is necessary."

So she was alright...for now, at least. Did that mean Security had shipped her off to the facility? Or was Roger holding her in a cell? Of course, at this point, Yuya could only hope that Roger was telling him the truth, but given the fact that he had taken the time to drag the boy into his office, perhaps the Chief of Security wanted something from him.

Yuya began thinking ruefully of some comic books and shows he had watched where the villain kept the hero's friend hostage in order to make the hero cooperate.

"If Roger thinks he can do the same by keeping Yuzu imprisoned…" Yuya thought to himself, his jaw clenching with rage, "then I will never forgive him!"

Roger leaned in to Yuya, causing him to snap back to attention. "What has she told you, Yuya?"

Yuya looked back into Roger's eyes, unsure of what to say. "What?" he asked.

"I need to know the details of your recent conversation you have had with Yuzu." Roger clarified. "Anything you tell us can help us protect her from a very dangerous terrorist organization, which, as I understand, has plans for Yuzu, and could very well be a threat to her wellbeing...and your own."

"Terrorist organization?" Yuya questioned. What was Roger talking about? Yuzu had said she had met with Ruri after her crash. That, in and of itself, was extraordinary, but Yuya could think of nothing Yuzu had said that evenly remotely hinted at some powerful organization, much less a terrorist organization.

Even the thought of Ruri, Shun's little sister, being a part of some terrorist organization seemed like a joke. Perhaps if Ruri could get as intensely angry as her brother at times…

Yuya shook his head at the stupid thought. True, he hadn't met Ruri, but he had met her brother. Even if she was just like her brother, with all his potential for rage and even vengeance, Yuya couldn't see either Shun or Ruri becoming some kind of terrorist, much less a terrorist to the Synchro Dimension.

Roger seemed to be studying Yuya's reaction. "What...did she tell you?" he repeated, a dangerous edge creeping into his voice.

Yuya glared back at Roger, keeping his mouth shut. Even if he could trust him, Yuya didn't think he would tell him anything Yuzu had told him, not if she had not answered any of the questions Roger must've surely asked her himself after he had captured her.

"Where's Yuzu!?" Yuya shot back, refusing to answer the question. Roger had promised him that Yuzu was unharmed, but Yuya needed more. He needed to see her alive and…well…Yuya's head throbbed from thinking of how Yuzu had said she was dead, but nevertheless, however she looked at herself now, Yuya couldn't be satisfied by Roger's words alone.

He needed to see her. He needed to see that she was okay, not just hear that she was okay. If Roger refused to show her to him, he would find a way to see her, even if he had to fight Roger and all his Security to do it!

"I told you," Roget sneered, seemingly understanding what Yuya was thinking. "Or did you not hear me? Yuzu is safely in my custody. Is that not good enough for you? I would remind you that she has had an unfortunate encounter with a VERY dangerous criminal organization and if you really want her to be safe, I suggest you cooperate with me, starting by answering my questions. WHAT…did she tell you?"

"We talked about how relieved we were that she was still alive after you did nothing to save her," Yuya spat, refusing to say any more.

"Yes, I'm sure she was very happy to see you," Roger dryly replied, looking uninterested before allowing himself to smile faintly. "You two do seem very close," he commented, leaning in a little closer, that same sickly insincere smile plastered over his tired face, "Did she voice any concerns to you? Had anything happened to her since the crash? I must admit, I'm very interested to know what happened. Not many people could survive a fall like that."

"She's a tough girl." Yuya replied.

"Some might argue unnaturally so." Roger said, his voice sounding somewhat annoyed. "So how did she find you after surviving that death-inducing fall through sheer grit, determination, and endurance?"

"I don't know." Yuya replied, speaking truthfully this time.

"Was there anyone with her?" Roger continued. "Possibly watching from a distance?"

"There was no one with-…" Yuya began before stopping himself. Why should he let Roger know that?

Roger smirked at his reply. "Just you two, then? She had no help after her crash? My, my, my, Yuya. I have not really had the pleasure of getting to know Yuzu all that well, but she seems like quite the individual if she could survive that fall without any outside help. Did her hobbies in her home dimension include jumping off cliffs with no bungee cords?"

Yuya almost wanted to reply with a "yes," just to see how Roger would react, but he kept his mouth shut.  
Roger let out a slow exhale.

"Yuya…do you really think it's wise to lie to me?" he asked, shaking his head with disappointment.

Roger was trying to threaten him now. It was pretty clear to Yuya at this point that the Chief knew more than what he was letting on, enough for him to see through any lies that he might attempt.

But what could Yuya tell him? Yuzu had told him she had died and risen back from the dead through Ruri's help. Was that what Roger wanted to hear? Yuya was pretty certain that if Roger hadn't believed his story of Yuzu managing to survive the fall through her physical endurance, then he was most certainly _not_ going to believe Yuzu's account of what happened.

"What if that's what happened to Yuzu?" Yuya bitterly thought. "What if Roger dragged her in here first for interrogation? What if she had told him the truth about what had happened to her, but Roger didn't believe her, so he dragged me in here to know?" Yuya grit his teeth, wondering how Roger would have treated Yuzu if he thought she was lying to him.

"If Roger didn't believe you…" Yuya silently promised, "or if you chose to keep that information hidden from him, then I promise I will not betray you or Ruri! I will keep my mouth shut and find a way to save you, Yuzu! No matter what it takes!"

"I don't know any more than what I've already told you." Yuya spoke up, locking his eyes with Roger. "Like I said, Yuzu and I were both glad just to be back together."

"Did you ask if she was okay after surviving the fall?" Roger interrogated, steadily tapping his chair more rapidly.

"Of course!" Yuya nearly snapped, struggling to keep his tone even. Hadn't he already told Roger just as much? Why did Roger need to hear it again?

"And you maintain that she told you she managed to not only survive the fall, but walk right out of that building with absolutely no outside help?" Roger pressed, looking like he was straining to not lash out at Yuya.

Yuya nodded his head, trying to not let any flash of emotion betray either himself, Yuzu, or Ruri, who had saved her.

"You were not even remotely suspicious of her?" Roger asked, "Or even the least bit curious as to HOW she performed such a singular feet?"

Yuya stayed silent, refusing to say more. How could Roger sit there and insinuate that Yuzu was a liar Yuya couldn't trust!? She was his friend! Unlike Roger, Yuzu was someone Yuya could listen to and believe WITHOUT needing to question everything she told him!

"You are not protecting Yuzu by staying silent." Roger growled. "I know you know more than what you are letting on! So for the last time!" he snarled, grabbing Yuya by the collar. "What…did…Yuzu…tell…you!?"

"She gave me a love confession!" Yuya snarled back, unable to resist the urge to annoy Roger. "Happy?!"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I'M IN THE MOOD FOR JOKES!?" Roger roared, getting up from his chair, his eyes burning with fury. "WHY DID SHE COME TO YOU!? WHAT DID SHE TALK TO YOU ABOUT!? WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? TELL ME, OR I WILL EXTRACT THE INFORMATION FROM YUZU...FORCEFULLY! DO YOU WANT THAT!?"

"I'D NEVER TELL YOU ANYTHING EVEN IF I KNEW!" Yuya snarled back, his own fury rising. Just a little more and he wouldn't be able to hold back any more. Just a little more, and Yuya was certain he would snap.

"So you do know something, then!" Roger leered, a triumphant smile spreading across his face.

"Why is Yuzu so important to you!?" Yuya growled, his body quivering with fury. "What are you afraid of!?"

"I'm not afraid!" Roger retorted, clenching his fist in anger. Yuya felt a demonic rush of satisfaction from Roger's reaction. He could see that despite Roger's posturing, he really was afraid, so afraid that he was even going to lengths as great as capturing children.

Still, despite Roger's obvious horror, he continued his pointless charade of calm control.

"I merely wish…to maintain the security of this city…" Roger breathed, his voice quivering as he fought to control his own emotions, "and to do that, I need you...and Yuzu…to cooperate with me! Whether I get your cooperation willingly, or if I have to force that cooperation is up to you, but do not test me any further!"

"If you're not afraid of us, then let us go!" Yuya protested, stamping his feet on the floor. "We can't do ANYTHING against you! We're not your enemies!"

Yuya paused for just a moment, thinking about the last statement he had made. It was so very true! Neither he, nor Yuzu, nor any of his other friends had come as enemies to the Synchro Dimension. Quite the contrary, all of them wanted to help the people of Synchro. So why was Roger treating them all as enemies? Could he really not see that they were here to help?

Yuya thought about how he had been reacting to Roger's treatment of him and decided to try a different tact. Perhaps, just maybe, if Yuya could control his own emotions, allow himself to be the bigger man in the room, then maybe, just maybe, he could get through to Roger, who was obviously afraid and foolishly acting on his fear.

"All I want to do…" Yuya resumed in a much more even voice, taking a deep breath to force down his utter rage, "is end the dimensional war and protect this world just like you said you do. I want peace for this world. Nothing more. We're not here to harm you. I can help you and everyone else in this dimension. But I need you to let me and Yuzu go."

Roger paused after hearing Yuya's words, fixing him with a steady gaze from his shrewd eyes.

"I suppose at least one of those statements is true." Roger muttered. "You, at least, can help me with my little problem."

He frowned to himself in thought, pacing back and forth while rubbing his chin. Finally, he stopped and looked down at Yuya, letting a little smile creep onto his face.

"Tell me…Yuya…" he began, "have you ever had the chance to hear some of the charming folktales the people of this dimension tell each other?"

"Folktales?" Yuya asked, growing confused and suspicious by the sudden tone shift.

"I was introduced to them shortly after I came to this city," Roger continued, settling into his chair. "Intriguing little urban legends mostly told by the Commons, but shared with a few members of the Tops as well, about a strange race of spirits known as the Earthbound. Have you ever heard of the Earthbound, Yuya?" he asked, leaning forward and studying the boy while wearing a smug expression on his face.

Yuya shook his head, wondering what any of this had to do with anything.

"Why don't I share with you one of my favorite tales, then?" Roger offered, the tone of his voice suggesting he wasn't making a request. Yuya stared back at him with confusion, wondering where Roger was going with his comments. He had never heard of the Earthbound before, but even if he had, he had no idea how they had to do with anything that was going on.

Still, Roger seemed intent on telling his story. He was settling in his chair like a story-teller, readying himself for what seemed like a particularly long oration.

"Let's see now…where to begin…" he muttered, scratching his head somewhat melodramatically, "the Quechuan names always confuse me…ah! Yes…that's right! This is known as the tale of the Signer, Vitcos, and the Dark Signer, Akllasisa."

"Signer?" Yuya stuttered, confused by the strange names and terms Roger was using. "Vitcos? Dark Signer? Aklassisa? Wh-...?"

"Akllasisa means 'chosen flower' in Quechuan, if I remember correctly," Roger curtly replied, interrupting Yuya mid-sentence. "The name is most likely symbolic, as you will find out later. As for your questions about Signers and Dark Signers, well…why don't you listen to the tale and find out?"

Yuya kept silent, curious despite himself, and sensing that what Roger was about to tell him had far more significance than just being a fairy tale. Clearing his throat, Roger began his story.

 _"Ages before our civilization existed, there was once a people blessed by the mighty Gods to know the will of the ancient spirits we now call Duel Monsters. These people were known as 'The People of the Stars', for their powers came from a divine source known to them as Quetzalcoatl, the divine, crimson dragon serpent who protected their world and all other worlds from the wrath of Evil Gods who had once ruled the primordial universe…"  
_  
"What do you mean by primordial universe?" Yuya asked.

"Supposedly…" Roger shrugged, "there was a universe that existed before this one. A universe that existed at the beginning of time. Accounts vary, but most myths agree that it was a world in which human and the spirits of what we now call 'Duel Monsters' lived side by side.

"So anyway…" he continued.

 _"who had once ruled the primordial universe, but had long since fallen from their glory in a great and calamitous war that had pitted the forces of destruction and the forces of creation against one another. The primordial universe was eventually destroyed, split into four fragments, which were separated from one another by a great veil. But though this calamity had cleaved apart the primordial universe, the Evil Gods continued their battle, eventually gathering their forces into one of the scattered fragments of the original universe in order to secure one fragment for themselves before moving on to conquer the others._

 _"The Evil Gods might have won, but the Crimson Dragon, Quetzalcoatl, had long ago allied with a number of mighty Gods, monsters, and humans in order to defeat the evil gods before using the living, cosmic, elemental, and spiritual energies of all four worlds to seal most of these Evil Gods into the earth they attempted to conquer, in the place we now call...the Nazca Lines."  
_  
"The Nazca Lines?" Yuya asked, certain he had heard the term from Yuzu before. Weren't they some kind of massive drawing that could be seen from space?

"Yes," Roger nodded, glaring back at Yuya with a condescending look. "The ancient civilization which first told this story used to believe that the geoglyphs secretly held the essence of powerful spirits within them. For that matter," he laughed, "there are still some superstitious idiots who would believe that kind of thing. But anyway…moving on.

 _"Bound within the mystical stone prisons, which were further strengthened by the abundant energy of the other worlds, the Evil Gods faded to mere ghosts of themselves. Prisoners who could not exercise the power or authority they had once wielded. They became...Earthbound, because their souls were cursed to be trapped beneath the Earth they had tried to conquer and in the dark confines of the Underworld for all of eternity!"  
_  
Roget paused for a moment, letting his words sink in before continuing. Yuya was feeling uneasy. The air in Roget's office seemed to have become heavier and colder, and there was a deathly silence permeating every corner as if the room had somehow become...haunted.

But there was another question in Yuya's mind, something about what Roget had said about the primordial universe being cleaved into four sounded familiar to Yuya. Letting out a loud gasp as he realized what it was, he turned to Roget before asking:

"Did the people who told this story know of the four worlds?"

"Perhaps," Roget shrugged. "But I doubt it. It's probably just one more piece of their silly mythology, but then again, who knows how much of the original legend has survived through the ages and how accurate this version is? At any rate, the version I heard included this detail. So anyway...

 _"The ancient battle to seal the Evil Gods within their prisons was costly. Thousands had died, including some divine Gods, in order to defeat the strength of the ancient evil, and though the Crimson Dragon had been triumphant at the end, he had been severely weakened by the effort. Few of his divine servants remained, most of them either killed or corrupted by the Earthbound, but among the surviving servants were the dragon guardians, sacred creatures charged with guarding the barriers between the mortal and spiritual worlds."  
_  
There was something stirring in Yuya now. Feeling a great discomfort in his chest, Yuya could almost swear he felt Yuto feeling the exact same pain he was feeling. It was similar to the pain he had felt whenever the Darkness tried to take over...only, this time, it was not trying to overwhelm him as much as it seemed…aware. It was as if, Yuya thought, something within Roger's tale had stirred a remembrance within whatever thoughts lay hidden beneath his inner darkness.

 _"The Crimson Dragon knew that the Earthbound would try to free themselves, for they had sworn an oath long ago that they would oversee the destruction of the world we know today and the building of a new world in their image. And so, in order to combat the threat he knew would come, The Crimson Dragon granted his powers to the civilization that had begun developing near the Nazca Prison, The People of the Stars, giving them the gift to converse with monster spirits...and the power to call them forth to battle, should there be a need._

 _Among the people of this civilization, The Crimson Dragon granted seven individuals the ability to access his divine powers directly, by means of splitting his essence among them in the form of certain divine signs which shone on their skin like birthmarks. With these marks, the seven individuals formed bonds with the dragon guardians, both dragon and human becoming stronger as a result of the union. And thus…the seven Signers were born!"  
_  
"So the Signers…" Yuya clarified, "they are the guardians of this world?"

"And all others," Roger agreed. "But you are speaking as if this myth is true, Yuya!" he exclaimed with a chuckle. "I wouldn't let myself get caught up in believing a silly myth from a people that have been extinct for ages!"

Yuya stared back at Roger, feeling the insincerity in his voice. There was more to this myth...he knew it. Roger, however, for the moment at least, didn't seem intent on letting on what more he must have known.

 _"Over the ages, the Earthbound and Signers would fight many battles against each other. Most of the time, the Earthbound would merely send their legions of spiritual servants to harass the inhabitants of the mortal world, but once every five thousand years, a period of time would open up in which the Crimson Dragon's curse against the Earthbound would be at its weakest. That time was when the four ancient worlds would drift furthest apart, subsequently weakening the united energy the four worlds contributed to maintaining the strength of the stone seals. When that happened, the Earthbound Gods would have the strength to break free of their prisons, and the Crimson Dragon would have to fight them again._

 _When the seal over the prisons broke for the first time, the Earthbound Gods rose to the mortal world, ready to slay the Crimson Dragon and his servants once and for all with their renewed might. However, they were astonished when, instead of a handful of divine servants and their weakened God, the Earthbound met a force of stalwart humans and monsters standing with the Crimson Dragon and his servants, ready to repel them and preserve the sanctity of the mortal world. To their utter astonishment, the Earthbound were driven back to their seals, and were forced to wait another five thousand years for the four fragments of the primordial universe to drift apart once again._

 _The People of the Stars, meanwhile, prospered. Their civilization gradually grew to be one of the greatest civilizations in the known world as they grew, expanded, and passed their sacred mystical arts on to their children. While other civilizations would rise and fall, The People of the Stars endured for thousands upon thousands of years, occasionally threatened with destruction as corrupt leaders and vengeful Earthbound sent their servants to undermine them, but the Singers would always be there to drive back the evil and preserve the peace of their civilization."  
_  
Roger reclined in his chair, staring thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "Oh, if only such a perfect utopia could exist," he mused before once again resuming his story.

 _"Eventually, after many failures, the Earthbound decided to do the unthinkable for the sheer sake of obtaining an advantage over the Crimson Dragon. Despite their utter loathing of the human race, they eventually sought to recreate the powerful bond Quetzalcoatl had forged with The People of the Stars. And so, in an act of what must have seemed extreme condescension to them, the Earthbound Gods sought out humans who were discontent with their lives, humans who would be willing to fight against The People of the Stars for the sake of power. Reaching out with their spiritual familiars, they seduced certain powerful and vengeful humans to join their cause, luring these humans to their domains in order for the Earthbound Gods to merge their own essence within the essence of the humans and become something stronger, something that stood as an antithesis to what the Crimson Dragon had created with the Signers. The Earthbound had successfully created...Dark Signers."  
_  
"Dark Signers…" Yuya thought, feeling a cold pain grip his body. He had never heard the term before, much less learned what it had meant, but somehow he could feel a great evil behind the mere mention of the name. It was as if by merely speaking the name, Roger had invoked the presence of a dark evil in the room they were sitting in.

Roger, who was smiling smugly at Yuya's discomfort, seemingly unbothered by the dark turn his story was taking, continued.

 _"Though equal in power to their Signer counterparts, the Dark Signers were fundamentally different in many ways. While the Crimson Dragon had been careful not to overwhelm his human Signers with his power, the Earthbound had poured all their essence into their chosen vessels, overshadowing and consuming their mortal frames until the Dark Signers became little more than walking corpses filled with the power of the Earthbound. Similarly, while the Crimson Dragon had directed the humans to form mutual bonds with his servants, the Earthbound maintained a strict master and servant pact with their vessels, exercising total power over their human vessels in order for their own interests to be carried out without opposition._

 _But the Dark Signers were exactly what the Earthbound desired. In addition to becoming an almighty force that could stand against even the mightiest Signer, the Dark Signers provided an additional benefit. Through their human vessels, the Earthbound could effectively bypass the strictures of the Crimson Dragon's curse and travel freely upon the mortal and spiritual planes by transferring their respective geoglyph prisons into the souls of their hosts, causing their respective marks to appear on the bearer's skin as their own dark sign."  
_  
Yuya's eyes had been widening as Roger described the Dark Signers. It couldn't be...Yuzu couldn't be that! But he had seen it, the mark that had been glowing on her arm. She had claimed she was dead, but it was impossible! Yuzu wasn't some kind of evil, greedy, dark lord making deals with primordial evil gods to take over the world!

But he had seen it; the description fit. Roger seemed to notice Yuya's discomfort.

"It's a pretty ridiculous tale, isn't it?" Roger smirked. "Imagine if such things actually existed? It would be pretty shell-shocking to anyone who actually knew the person who became the Dark Signer. Especially if they knew just a little bit about some of the deeds the Dark Signers performed."

Yuya realized with horror and fury that Roger was trying to egg him on, trying to get him to say something that would reveal more. Yuya couldn't believe it! Roger actually believed Yuzu was a Dark Signer! For that matter, he was almost convincing him that Yuzu was a Dark Signer. But he was not going to fall for Roger's tricks; he was not going to betray her, no matter what the man claimed she was!

Roger paused for a moment, as if waiting for Yuya to say or do something incriminating. Yuya, however, struggling with all his might, managed to compose himself and remain quiet, looking on as if he was hoping for Roger to say more. Obliging, Roger continued.

 _"When the seals broke once again, the Signers and their followers were astonished to find not an army of rampaging Gods attempting to destroy their civilization as they had in the past, but an army of humans like themselves with marks similar to their own and the power to command the spirits of Duel Monsters and their corrupted Earthbound Familiar counterparts. When the battle began, the Dark Signers unleashed their full power, calling upon the strength of their masters, the Earthbound Gods. As a new entity with neither the weaknesses of an Earthbound God spirit nor a fragile mortal human, the Dark Signers overwhelmed the Signers and their followers, managing to even slay two Signers and severely wound two others with only minor casualties on their own side._

 _Exultant in their triumph, the Earthbound Gods directed their Dark Signers to lay waste to every city under the control of The People of the Stars, slaughtering tens of thousands and raising many proud and ancient structures to the ground until only the capital city remained, where the Signers waited to make their final stand. To many of The People of the Star's high priests and priestesses, it seemed that the end of the world was finally at hand._

 _However, despite their losses, three Signers remained ready to stand against the opposing darkness. Their names were Akllasumaq, the eldest Signer, renowned for her singular beauty and strange, ethereal pale skin and blue eyes, which the People marked as a further sign of her divinity, Yapanqui, the most powerful out of all the Signers, an actual demigod who bore an immense power the People called 'Burning Soul,' and Vitcos, regarded as the least skilled in battle out of all his brethren, but also one of the most spiritually-minded of the seven Signers. Two other Signers, Umaq, and his sister, Huch'Uykilla, remained, but were so critically wounded that they would soon reach the door of death without the constant aid of healers._

 _With seven Dark Signers and all their mighty forces still remaining, the situation looked dire. But Vitcos, the same Signer who was regarded as the weakest of the Signers, came to his Signer brethren and sisters with a plan. In his spiritual meditations, he had been in communion with the Crimson Dragon himself, and had come up with a final plan to defeat the Dark Signers. He told his brethren and sisters that while four of their brethren could not be with them in body, the blessing of the Crimson Dragon still rested in their souls, and that that power could be called upon to defeat the Dark Signers._

 _Although many scoffed at Vitcos's proposal, Akllasumaq, Yapanqui, and Huch'Uykilla all agreed with Vitcos's plan, with the latter convincing her brother, Umaq, to begrudgingly support Vitcos, for Umaq and Vitcos had long been rivals for the hand of Akllasumaq's younger sister, Akllasisa."_

"There was the name Roger had mentioned." Yuya thought. "So she was basically a girl two Signers were fighting over?" Her role seemed fairly minor to Yuya, but Roger had mentioned that this tale was called, "The Tale of Vitcos and Akllasisa," so she must have played a bigger role somehow.

 _"As the Dark Singers and their forces approached the capital city for their final assault against The People of the Stars, they were met by the last three Signers who could fight, with Vitcos in the lead. Confident in their power, the Dark Signers discounted the last remaining Signers as a minor inconvenience. However, when they met the Signers in battle, they were astonished to find that they had learned how to use a new power. By sharing their marks with each other, the Signers and their dragon companions could ascend to higher levels of power than even the individual Earthbound Gods. Even the two Signers who had been killed and the two who had been incapacitated were able to share their immense spiritual power with the remaining Signers, until, after much bloodshed on both sides, the Dark Signers and their servants were finally defeated, leaving only one very badly wounded Dark Signer and a few hundred servants to flee into the wilderness._

 _With the four worlds converging on each other once again, the Nazca seals regained their strength, and The People of the Stars celebrated their victory. The dead were mourned and buried, refugees returned to rebuild their broken cities, and order was gradually restored throughout the nation. Returning to his home as an honored hero, Vitcos was promised the hand of Akllasisa to be his wife."_

"So she became his wife," Yuya thought, smiling to himself despite the presence of Roger in the room. "Maybe this story isn't so bad after all."

Yet even as Yuya thought this, Roger's tone shifted once again.

 _"But the Signers were naïve. They still did not understand that the nature of their conflict against the Earthbound had fundamentally changed. Even though the seals had regained their strength, the last remaining Dark Signer, a young woman named Qhawa, did not lose her power, and she wanted revenge against the Signers and The People of the Stars, especially Vitcos, who had personally destroyed her lover, the leader of the Dark Signers, Ucumari, he who had the strength of a bear and who had borne the serpent mark of the Crimson Devil."_

Yuya felt a strange twinge of pity for the Dark Signers now. It had been one thing to imagine them as faceless and emotionless demons out to destroy the world, but once Roger had named two of them, and implied that there was even a romantic relationship between the two of them, Yuya couldn't help feeling sorry for the Dark Signer who had lost everything. He couldn't condone her for trying to destroy so many, but he couldn't help but feel that she had met a tragic fate.

 _"And so, resolving to carry out her vengeance, Qhawa used what little power she had left to walk amongst The People of the Stars in a magical disguise, watching and waiting for her chance to take her revenge. She did not have to wait long._

 _The Signer, Umaq, felt humiliated and greatly dishonored by Vitcos's victory against the Dark Signers. He had opposed Vitcos's plan from the beginning and had only participated in the battle indirectly by granting his energy to the other Signers. Now, with the Signers returning victorious against their enemies, with Vitcos celebrated as a great hero, Umaq felt as if each word of praise for Vitcos was a word of mockery and condemnation against him. It was, to Umaq, as if the glory of Vitcos was causing him to shrink away and fade into the shadows as a failed Signer. But all of this pain and humiliation did not compare to the pain and humiliation Umaq felt when Akllasisa gladly and joyfully accepted Vitcos as her betrothed._

 _With this final insult, whatever camaraderie Umaq might have felt towards Vitcos in the past quickly evaporated, and was instead replaced with a deep and utter loathing, a loathing which was overshadowed only by the despair the poor cripple felt at having forever lost his former glory and chance for Akllasisa's love."_

Yuya wondered how that might feel, wondered how he might feel if someone he had romantically loved had chosen to be with someone else. He couldn't say that he had ever loved someone in that way, but he could imagine that such pain must be very great indeed.

 _"Qhawa watched and listened from the shadows, drinking in Umaq's despair and misery as a spider drinks the innards of a fly. Maintaining her disguise, she approached Umaq as a local healer and began tending to his physical wounds. But even as she soothed and mended the Signer's broken body, with her silken words, she tortured and twisted the young Signer's mind, convincing him that Vitcos deserved to be punished for his betrayal in marrying the object of Umaq's affection, and that Akllasisa deserved to be slain for betraying him in a similar fashion._

 _Umaq drank in her poisonous words as a hummingbird drinks in sweet nectar. With the spell Qhawa had weaved with her words, all the despair Umaq felt at once ignited into a fiery rage and thirst for vengeance. Entrusting Qhawa with his secret, he sought council with her for ways to achieve both his desires in punishing Vitcos and Akllasisa together. Qhawa promised to maintain secrecy, and told Umaq how it was to be done._

 _On the day of Vitcos and Akllasisa's wedding, there was a great feast in celebration of the union. All the living Signers were in attendance, including Umaq and his sister, Huch'Uykilla, who was unaware of her brother's intended betrayal. At the head of the feast were Vitcos and Akllasisa, who greeted each of the honored Signer guests with open arms._

 _And that was when the betrayal was made._

 _Although Qhawa's power remained weak, she had managed to fashion a completely undetectable and powerful poison for Umaq to use in his plot, enough for the killing of exactly one person. She would not be able to attend the feast and use the poison against the Signers herself, for Vitcos, Akllasumaq, and Huch'Uykilla were spiritually aware individuals and might have detected her, even in disguise. So instead, she instructed Umaq to use his status and friendship with the other Signers to get right up close to Vitcos and Akllasisa and enact his vengeance._

 _So consumed with vengeance was Umaq that he readily agreed to her plan, regardless of the swift punishment he knew would come upon him for his actions. And so, when Vitcos came to embrace him as a friend, Umaq approached Akllasisa as if to honor her, before quickly lashing out and stabbing her in the neck with a small spiked ring, which contained Qhawa's deadly poison."_

Yuya jerked back his head in shock. "Umaq…killed…Akllasisa?" He was expecting him to kill Vitcos, not the woman he supposedly loved.

The corners of Roger's mouth twitched upward. "One final embrace," he chuckled. "It's kind of romantic once you stop to think about it."

Yuya didn't want to think about it, and he certainly didn't consider it romantic in any way, shape, manner, or form. The thought of him approaching some girl he had loved but who had decided to marry someone else entered his mind.

"Hey, _, I love you…" he said to the imaginary girl, "so instead of respecting your decision to be with someone else, I'm gonna stab you in the neck and kill you with this poison. Romantic, right?"

Feeling utterly sick at the thought, Yuya wanted to ignore the rest of the story, but was, at the same time, so engrossed by the details of the story that he was unable to ignore Roger as he continued the account.

 _"Akllasisa was dead before anyone could react. As her limp body dropped to the floor, Vitcos, Akllasumaq, and the rest of Akllasisa's family immediately rushed forward, cradling her dead body and vainly trying to rouse her from the eternal sleep of death. Umaq, feeling exhilarated by his success, loudly boasted of his betrayal to everyone in attendance before trying to obtain further satisfaction by killing Vitcos where he knelt over the body of his dead wife. However, the mighty Yapanqui intervened, easily overpowering the still weak Signer and brutally bashing Umaq's head against a nearby pillar until the traitor had perished._

 _Caught up in his wrath, Yapanqui next lunged for Umaq's sister, Huch'Uykilla, who could offer no resistance against him, weakened as she was._

 _However, just as Yapanqui was about to kill Huch'Uykilla in a similar manner, Vitcos and Akllasumaq intervened, insisting that Huch'Uykilla could not be guilty of aiding in such a murder, for Akllasisa and Huch'Uykilla had been intimate friends. Yapanqui grudgingly let Huch'Uykilla go and instead ordered for a thorough investigation to be made and for all men, women, and children involved in the vicious murder to be slain without mercy and for their houses to be burned to the ground as an example to others, so great was the wrath of Yapanqui."_

"That was... harsh." Yuya mumbled, not knowing what else to say. He felt like a different word was needed to describe how he felt towards the brutal vengeance of Yapanqui, but he couldn't think of any.

"The ancient justice system is alien to what most of us know today." Roger smirked. "Believe me, the story only gets better from here."

Yuya didn't want to think what Roger meant by that.

 _"An investigation was made, but Qhawa was never found, for she had disguised herself once again and snuck out of the Signer's temple without incident. Vitcos, Akllasumaq, and the rest of Akllasisa's friends and family were left to mourn her death and burial as Yapanqui continued his zealous investigations._

 _But Akllasisa had another visitor to her tomb. Qhawa had remained close to the capitol city and had watched her plot unfold with satisfaction. When the other mourners had left Akllasisa to rest, Qhawa approached Akllasisa's tomb to pay her own respects."  
_  
Yuya's stomach began to squirm, certain that something even more unpleasant was about to transpire.

 _"Using every ounce of her remaining power, Qhawa managed to allow her spirit to pass from the mortal plane and into the plane of the Underworld, where she found Akllasisa. Contrary to what her friends and family might have hoped, Akllasisa was not at peace with her death. She was scared, confused, angry, and lost in the vast emptiness of the Underworld. Rejoicing inwardly at Akllasisa's misery, Qhawa donned a new disguise and approached Akllasisa as if she were a fellow spirit, sympathetic to Akllasisa's tragedy and desirous to help and comfort her like a friend. Akllasisa quickly latched on to Qhawa, clinging to her and eagerly listening to every word she said as a drowning man clings to a piece of driftwood. Qhawa promised Akllasisa that she could raise her from the dead in order for her to regain her promised husband and take vengeance on the other Signers, who Qhawa claimed had all been involved in plotting Akllasisa's murder._

 _Akllasisa was shocked to hear that her older sister and her friend, Huch'Uykilla had been involved in her murder, but instead of questioning Qhawa's claims, Akllasisa grew enraged by the revelation and vowed vengeance against the other Signers, after she reclaimed Vitcos to be her own, so cunning was Qhawa with her words._

 _Listening sympathetically as a mother does with her daughter, Qhawa encouraged Akllasisa's twisted desires and told her how she may accomplish them. There was only one thing Akllasisa needed to promise in return: her allegiance to the Earthbound Gods._

 _This Akllasisa gave._

 _With the deal made, Qhawa used her remaining powers to raise Akllasisa from the grave, reborn as a new Dark Signer and bearing the mark of the flower that bears fruit, Cavillace Muru. Through the influence of Cavillace Muru, what little mercy and innocence that was left in Akllasisa was quickly extinguished as the Earthbound God took hold over her soul._

 _Akllasisa's first desire was to slay her treacherous friend, Huch'Uykilla, and elder sister, Akllasumaq. And so, walking as a vengeful ghost in the dead of night, Akllasisa made her way to the temple of the Signers._

 _Once inside, she crept into the room of Huch'Uykilla, who was still mourning the loss of her brother and best friend. As Akllasisa approached, Huch'Uykilla sensed the dark presence of the Earthbound God, Cavillace Muru, and was shocked to see the twisted dark form of her resurrected friend approaching her, the dark geoglyph of Cavillace Muru on her arm. Huch'Uykilla did not believe her eyes at first, but Akllasisa quickly made it clear that it was indeed her and that she had come to kill her._

 _Weakened as she still was, Huch'Uykilla knew she could not stand against a Dark Signer at its full power. She called for help as Akllasisa and her Earthbound God rose up and began viciously wounding her until she bled out from her wounds. However, just as Huch'Uykilla perished, help came._

 _Akllasisa's father had been nearby when the cry was heard. Hastening into Huch'Uykilla's room, he was shocked to see the daughter he had recently buried standing over the body of Huch'Uykilla. Thinking the apparition was a strange Earthbound familiar sent by the defeated wicked Gods to take vengeance on the Signers, Akllasisa's father sought to use his knowledge to banish the spirit."_

"Akllasisa's father could do that?" Yuya asked.

"Yes," Roger replied, "He was, what we would now call…what…an exorcist? At any rate, according to the myth, he was a very spiritual man who had fought alongside the Signers before, performing such tasks as banishing Earthbound familiars from the mortal world whenever they tried to threaten the peace of The People of the Stars.

 _"Akllasisa hesitated when she saw her father, for even as corrupted as she had become, she still had love for her family and only suspected her elder sister of betrayal. But when her father began using his magic against her, Cavillace Muru quickly took over Akllasisa's mind and forced her to overwhelm and kill her father with her own powers._

 _By this time, the other Signers came, only to find that they had arrived too late. They were stunned into utter disbelief to see both Huch'Uykilla and Akllasisa's father lying in their blood on the floor and none other than Akllasisa herself standing over their bodies, their blood dripping from her stained robes and the mark of Cavillace Muru glowing against her arm with unholy light._

 _Akllasisa, horrified by what she had done, and unwilling to face Vitcos at that time, immediately fled from the presence of the other Signers and hid in the wilderness, where Cavillace Muru began to further torment and corrupt the soul of Akllasisa. Yapanqui vowed to exterminate Akllasisa and rid the world of the Earthbound threat once and for all, but Vitcos, still in love with her despite her death and resurrection as a Dark Signer, and knowing of the zealous wrath of Yapanqui, convinced Akllasumaq and Yapanqui to allow him to face Akllasisa alone, arguing that as her husband, he might be able to reach out to her._

 _Eventually, Vitcos and Akllasisa met. Vitcos tried desperately to reason with Akllasisa, offering to exorcise the soul of the wicked Earthbound God from Akllasisa, but Cavillace Muru's hold on Akllasisa was too strong. The cunning god convinced Akllasisa that Vitcos saw her as a monster, and that the only way for her to win his heart now was to make him a Dark Signer like she was. And so, despite the protestations of Vitcos, Akllasisa began attacking her promised husband.  
Vitcos grudgingly defended himself and the battle between the two lovers became exceedingly fierce._

 _Eventually, Akllasisa summoned the physical form of Cavillace Muru to the world and began swiftly overpowering Vitcos. But Vitcos was determined to save his bride. Calling upon every ounce of his own strength and the strength of the other Signers both living and dead, Vitcos summoned the physical form of his dragon companion before granting his dragon the power of Quetzalcoatl himself. With the power, Vitcos was able to overwhelm Cavillace Muru and Akllasisa and could have slain them both. But he hesitated and instead only destroyed the physical form of Cavillace Muru, leaving only the flower spirit's wrinkling fruit on the ground, while leaving Akllasisa alive. Cradling his weakened wife in his arms, Vitcos attempted to exorcise Cavillace Muru, but was stunned when Akllasisa began resisting him._

 _Using her powers, Akllasisa resummoned the physical form of her Earthbound God, which arose from the husk of the wrinkled fruit, and ensnared Vitcos in the clutches of its many roots and vines. Speaking as one in the grip of madness, Akllasisa didn't hesitate to reward Vitcos's mercy by killing him slowly and intimately with her own two hands."_

Yuya looked back at Roger incredulously, his head dropping to the ground as he began feeling horrifically sick.

"She…killed…him?" Yuya hoarsely whispered, trying to understand what the point of such a brutal and gruesome story was.

"And ate him." Roger replied matter-of-factly, as if he were describing what yesterday's weather was like.

"Ate…him?" Yuya gasped, wondering if Roger was just trying to make a sick joke at this point. It was bad enough that the poor girl had already killed her best friend, dad, and lover. Now Roger was claiming she was a cannibal?

"Yes, his heart...to be exact." Roger explained with a smug expression on his face.

"Why?" Yuya asked, unable to believe someone could become so perverse that they would even think of doing such a thing to a person they once cared for.

Roger shrugged. "Some of the civilizations that bandied around this myth held a superstition that by imbibing the heart of a defeated enemy, one gained that person's strength and power. Perhaps that is what the tellers of this story had in mind, that Cavillace Muru sought the power of the Signer for itself. Or perhaps Akllasisa saw in her act, as insane as it was, something romantic, like she was ensuring that she and Vitcos would never be apart again once she devoured his heart. Then again...maybe the undead maniac was just hungry," Roger added, chortling to himself before continuing.

"At any rate…" he mused, "the story ends by saying that Akllasisa did get her wish. She raised Vitcos from the dead and made him her own Dark Signer. Together, they began destroying human civilization until Yapanqui destroyed his former friend, Vitcos, and Akllasumaq destroyed her own sister. But as if that wasn't tragic enough," Roger snorted, "the story further continues by stating that Yapanqui had become so paranoid and distrustful...that he began indiscriminately killing everyone and anyone he suspected to be potential traitors, eventually attempted to kill Akllasumaq herself.

 _"Akllasumaq managed to survive Yapanqui's purges with her family, but she and the rest of her pale relatives lived out the rest of their lives as vagabonds who were continuously hunted by the orders of Yapanqui, who had seized total control over the civilization of The People of the Stars. Witnessing the corruption, the Crimson Dragon withdrew his blessings from The People, and the last remnants of their civilization fell when Yapanqui's subjects eventually rose up against their tyrant and murdered him in cold blood, leaving the rest of the kingdom to disintegrate into anarchy, civil war, and famine."_

Yuya listened to the rest of the tale with growing horror and disgust, trying to think what Roger's message to him was. How could people be so vengeful like that? How could a once proud people come to complete ruin in so short a time? These questions greatly disturbed Yuya, whether or not the legend was true, but one detail made Yuya feel the most uneasy.

"What happened to…to…?" he struggled to remember the name, "…to the Dark Signer who raised Akllasisa?"

"Qhawa?" Roget asked, raising an eyebrow. He seemed to pause before continuing, as if pondering how to answer Yuya's question.

Finally, smiling smugly at the boy, he replied with, "Who knows, Yuya? There are, after all, many versions of this same myth! Most versions of the myth I've heard state that the effort to transform Akllasisa into a Dark Signer was so taxing on Qhawa... that she disintegrated into dust soon after completing her work. Others say she wandered the wilderness as a lonely spirit for the rest of her existence and still wanders to this day, sort of like a glorified Sasquatch.

"Still others…" Roger paused, a grim smile coming over his face, "suggest that Qhawa dwelt among the descendants of Akllasumaq, gradually convincing her children to hate the Crimson Dragon before passing on her own evil mark to a worthy successor." Roger waved his hand dismissively. "But that is irrelevant."

Why? Why was that irrelevant? Why was Roger telling him this gruesome tale? It couldn't just be that Roger was spending some friendly story-telling time with him. He had abused and kidnapped Yuzu, as if she was exactly the kind of Dark Signer monster he had described in the story. Did Roger believe his own tale? It was just a fairy tale; it had to be...right?

Yuya wanted to believe that. He wanted to think that Roger's story was just an absurd myth. But something about that tale, something about what Roger had said felt…familiar to him. Why? Why did Yuya have the nagging sense that none of what Roger had told him had been a fantasy? Why did he get the sense that the man believed the story himself?

"Why are you telling me this?" Yuya hoarsely breathed, surprised by how dry and pained his throat had become.

"Why am I telling you this?" Roger chortled, getting up from his chair and pacing the room. The answer had not been addressed to Yuya; he was talking loudly to himself, chuckling and snorting to himself like a lunatic being tortured.

"After all…it can't be real…NO! It can't be real…hee hee hee! No, of course it isn't real!" he angrily snarled to himself, "Sergey is just a crazy idiot. Who would believe the ravings of a lunatic?"

"Sergey!?" Yuya exclaimed, remembering the brutal duelist who had hurt Yuzu in the first place. "You heard this story from Sergey!?"

Roger didn't seem to hear Yuya. It was almost as if he thought he was alone in his office.

"Sergey spoke this story…" he murmured, looking down at the ground and laughing with another mirthless laugh that sounded more like the weeping of a dying man, "but he was not the true teller. It was…someone else speaking. That…mark…" he shook his head, "I did what it asked…so why?"

"Mark?" Yuya asked, his confusion and fear growing. Roger was acting utterly insane now, far from the sharp and calculating person he had first met. "What are you talking about?"

Roger stared back at Yuya with a mask-like face, allowing silence to linger in the room for an uncomfortably long time. Slowly but surely, a thin sickly smile crept over his pale face.

"Why do you care?" Roger breathed, his voice sounding like the whispering of disembodied ghost. "I told you already. This is nothing but a silly children's story, with a half-baked moral lesson thrown in. It's just like any other fable your mother would have told you. That's all. 'Don't be too greedy,' the elders would say after telling this story. 'Do what you're told,' 'Don't be vengeful,' 'Don't go off into the wilderness alone at night..."

He paused, his smile growing into a menacing leer. "…'Don't make deals with evil demons'," he finished, whispering into Yuya's ear.

Roger leaned back, assuming a more relaxed and controlled expression as he commenced pacing across the floor of his office once again.

"Some of course, believe the tales," he commented, placing his hands behind his back. "Some speak of strange ghosts in the shapes of animals, plants, and geometric figures, and some even claim to witness dark signs burning against the skin of duelists who use strange summoning techniques."

He casually flicked his wrist out and pressed a button on his desk as he continued pacing. The screen of a large computer at the end of the room lit up to show a video of Sergey Volkov surrounded by twenty Security officers. They were all dueling, with the Security officers pressing on him with an army of Goyo monsters. Sergey, however, was just staring coldly back at his attackers, seemingly unafraid of them.

"Earthbound Warden Demon Executioner's effect!" Sergey proclaimed, raising his hands into the air. Above his head, a massive ghostly man with glowing red war-paint all over its buff body and a black hood over its head... raised a massive glowing executioner's axe into the air before leaping onto what looked like a massive chained griffon with glowing green marks over its body.

With a mighty grunt, the executioner brought its axe down on the griffon, decapitating the beast in one blow. However, instead of disintegrating into holographic dust like most monsters who got destroyed, the body of the griffon suddenly turned transparent, a set of seven glowing white orbs flying from its body and flying into a gaping hole inside the executioner's hood, where its mouth must have been. Letting out a demonic wail, the executioner's body exploded into a set of eleven glowing white spheres, which sunk into the translucent corpse of the griffon, until its body completely disappeared and ten black spheres crackling with pitch-black electricity began orbiting an area of empty space in front of Sergey.

"DARK SYNCHRO!" Sergey roared, before, to Yuya's astonishment, a massive multi-colored spiral mark blazed to life on his massive bare chest. There was a massive black explosion that emanated from the center of the space from which the black spheres were orbiting, before the screen suddenly changed to static with the message, "Signal Lost," in the upper right corner.

"I had to send sixty the second time." Roger sighed, flicking off the screen with a push of a button as Yuya watched with stunned disbelief. "But most know better than to believe such things," he smirked, apparently unaware of what he had just shown Yuya. "I certainly would not waste Security's resources or time on protecting this city from a mere fantasy."

He turned around to look down at Yuya, a smug expression on his face. "But you know, Yuya, if by sheer happenstance I was ever to…oh…find out that there was some truth to these tales…"

He then lunged forward, slamming the palms of his hands against Yuya's shoulders, grabbing his chair, and pushing the stunned entertainment duelist back.

"Then you can bet," he growled, his face so close to Yuya that the boy could gag on his hot musty breath "that I would do WHATEVER it takes to NOT let such demons ravage my city!"

"Yuzu…is not…a DEMON!" Yuya snarled back, feeling immense rage come over him. He couldn't believe this… this scum was talking like this! Talking like he was some righteous knight in shining armor when all he had done was oppress his own people and hurt Yuzu. Some part of Yuya had been hoping Roger could be reasoned with, but now he was certain that Roger was one of those people he could NEVER forgive!

"No matter what you do…" Yuya went on, "know that I will NEVER help you! I made Yuzu a promise! I promised to end this dimensional war and bring her home! And if that means I have to defeat you in order to prevent this city's future from falling into your hands, then I will do it! I don't care if you think she's a…Dark Earthbound Signer Demon…or whatever you called it! I KNOW who Yuzu is, much better than you ever could! I will NOT betray her!"

Roger laughed at Yuya's declaration, slamming the legs of his chair back onto the ground as he did. Still shaking with uncontrollable laughter, Roger fell onto the panel in front of his computer, breathing heavily as he tried to calm down. When he had finally relaxed a little, he turned back to Yuya.

"I'll get your help, Yuya, one way or another." Roger breathed, his voice still somewhat shaking with suppressed laughter. "We'll see each other…very soon."

He pressed a button on his desk and called to some guards, who almost immediately appeared as the door outside his office opened. As the guards began roughly dragging Yuya from the office, Roger offered one final bit of advice.

"I would think long and hard on the morals of the tale." Roger smirked. "Especially on the fate of a certain hero within that tale. That man suffered a rather…" he chuckled to himself, "…heart-wrenching fate, and I CERTAINLY wouldn't want anything like that to happen to you."

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Name: Vitcos / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Signers (Later Dark Signers) / Status: Inactive (Deceased)

Name: Akllasisa / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Inactive (Deceased)

Name: Akllasumaq / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Signers / Status: Inactive (Deceased) / Trivia: Akllasumaq means "beautiful chosen one" from, Quechuan _akllakuy_ , "to choose" and _sumaq_ , "beautiful."

Name: Yapanqui / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Signers / Status: Inactive (Deceased) / Trivia: Yapanqui is a Quechuan male name that means, "he who honors his ancestors."

Name: Huch'Uykilla / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Signers / Status: Inactive (Deceased) / Trivia: Huch'Uykilla means "little moon," from Quechuan _huchuy_ , meaning "small," and _killa_ , meaning "moon."

Name: Umaq / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Signers (before betrayal) / Status: Inactive (Deceased) / Trivia: Umaq means "betrayer" or "traitor" in Quechuan.

Name: Ucumari / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Inactive (Deceased) / Trivia: Ucumari means "One who has the strength of a bear," in Quechuan.

Name: Qhawa / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Unknown / Trivia / In Quechuan, Qhawa means, "one who watches."

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Akllasisa's Deck

Earthbound God Cavillace Muru/ _Stats unknown._ / _Effects unknown._

Trivia: Cavillace is the name of an Incan goddess who became impregnated after consuming a fruit fashioned by the Moon God, Coniraya. Muru is the Quechuan word for fruit.

Sergey's Monsters

Earthbound Warden Demon Executioner/ _Stats unknown._ / _Effects unknown._

Sergey's Extra Deck

 _Unknown Dark Synchro Monster_ / _Stats unknown._ / _Effects unknown._


	25. Part 1: Chapter 13 (Part 1)

**Crow's theme song for this chapter, "Adrenaline," by Shinedown.**

 **Shun's theme song for this chapter, "The Phoenix," by Fall Out Boy.**

Part 1: Chapter 13 – Shadow of the Ravager (Part 1) 

Despite the trepidation some Commons had felt towards watching another duel that included Shun, the one who had not too long ago destroyed the Duel Palace, the crowds that were to watch the next round of the Friendship Cup were nevertheless immense. In fact, were one to take the trouble to count the observers, one would have found that the spectators far exceeded the spectators from any previous duel thus far. Thousands upon thousands of Tops and Commons alike were packing the available seats, some of them anticipating a duel as fiery and destructive as Shun's last duel against Dennis.

Among the crowds of Commons on one of the stands overlooking a large holographic screen, an odd mixture of individuals had gathered, very few similarities between them save for the fact that, were they allowing themselves to show it, each of them bore a special, glowing red mark on their right arm.

Lizette had arrived first at the stand, closely followed by Kiryu and Natsumi. Lizette and Kiryu were sitting with a few feet between them, neither of them looking at each other, while Natsumi's head hung between them as she hung upside down with her feet gripping the benches directly above them. Lizette had made good on her word, and Natsumi looked like she couldn't be any happier than she was, drooling over her raspberry cheesecake on a stick while fan-girling over the upcoming duel between Shun and Crow.

Lydia and Joho had arrived to the meeting place a little while afterwards and had taken their seats a little to the right of Kiryu. Kiryu and Joho were having a somewhat one sided conversation, with Kiryu asking questions and Joho answering them briefly and politely, while Lydia seemed to be pushing all surrounding people away from herself as she wrapped herself in her black cloak and kept her face concealed with her bandages, a pair of sunglasses, and a wide brimmed black hat.

Semal and Adeel had been the last to arrive, having unsuccessfully attempted to find the Disciple who had escaped from Standard. Semal was sitting next to Lizette, reclining against the benches behind him as he attempted to rest from his weariness, while Adeel was sitting on the other end with his German Shepherd seeing-eye dog, Fluffals, who was being fed a stick of raw butter by Adeel.

"You'll kill that dog within a year, feeding it like that." Lizette remarked, looking completely disgusted as Fluffals snapped up the stick of butter in one gulp before panting at Adeel with a smiley dog face that made it look like she wanted more.

"She's been good to me," Adeel cooed, affectionately patting Fluffals on the neck before grimacing and rubbing one of the bandages on his chest.

"How are you doing?" Lizette asked, looking concerned.

"Adeel took a beating trying to reason with a disciple," Semal explained, patting his brother on the back, causing Lizette to look at Adeel with both shock and worry.

"Why would you risk yourself like that!?" Lizette exclaimed. "You promised me you wouldn't do that again after that disciple blinded you!"

"I promised not to walk right up to a disciple's face." Adeel clarified, rummaging through a sack while Fluffals wagged her tail with excitement. "I kept my distance this time."

"And what good did that do!?" Lizette protested, leaning over to examine the many bandages over Adeel's body. "You'll get killed taking that many risks!"

"You know I'll never give up on trying to save a disciple," Adeel replied, "not after what happened with Magnus, and not after getting to know Katashi. If those two could be redeemed, then I say there is nobody beyond redemption."

"Here, here." Kiryu agreed, nodding his head.

Lizette glared at Kiryu before turning her attention back to Adeel with a concerned expression on her face.  
"Look…I know you want to help these people, but…It's like trying to help a wounded tiger. Sometimes you have miracle stories where you help them and don't get hurt, but the vast majority of the time…" Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes, a pained expression coming over her face. "Most of the time, despite your intentions, the only way to help them is to put them down. Otherwise, they'll just maul you."

"Sometimes that is the only way." Adeel agreed. "But ever since I tortured that one disciple's body forcefully exorcising him, I promised I'd never do that again, except as a last resort when all other methods have failed."

Lizette sighed as Adeel fished another stick of butter from his sack, unwrapped it, and tossed it into Fluffal's mouth.

"At least listen to me when it comes to feeding the dog." Lizette sighed as Fluffals gulped the butter down so fast, it looked like she wasn't even tasting it.

Adeel chuckled before scratching behind Fluffal's ears while his dog closed her eyes with pleasure. "It doesn't hurt to indulge every once in a while. Right, Natsumi?" he asked, turning his head in the direction of the girl hanging upside-down.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…raspberry…" Natsumi purred, sucking on the end of her cheesecake with her eyes closed in ecstasy, seemingly unaware of the people around her.

"You know you're gonna fall right on your head." Semal said with a small smirk on his face, looking up at Natsumi as her jacket slowly slid down her midriff. "And when you do, I'm not gonna bail you out like I did with those Pelican familiars."

"I was handling those familiars perfectly well, thank you very much." Natsumi sniffed, attempting to take a bite out of her cheesecake before her jacket flopped over her face, causing her to flail her arms around and smear some of the cake on her clothing as she slapped her jacket back onto her upper body.

"You let those things travel to the Standard Dimension and then nearly got swallowed up by one of them when you tried to bait them by holding up a giant tuna." Lizette dryly commented, folding her arms over her chest as she watched the countdown to Shun's duel against Crow count down to just a few minutes left.

"She did what?" Kiryu asked, looking up at Natsumi with a bewildered expression on his face.

"I'm very creative on my missions." Natsumi beamed.

"You're an idiot." Lizette quipped.

Natsumi glared at the blonde haired girl. "Oh? So that's what you think, is it? Well, then, I guess we're not friends anymore!" she snapped before her jacket fell over her face once again. "GAH! BLAH! JACKET NO TASTE GOOD!" she hollered, flailing around her arms to put her jacket back up.

Once she had finished adjusting her jacket, she leaned back her head and moved her hand forward to take a bite out of her cheesecake…only to bite her own hand, which no longer held the cheesecake Lizette had bought for her.

"AW…OUCH…BLEH…YUCK…" Natsumi sputtered, first in pain and then in disgust, "…that tasted like…like…" she eyed her empty hand with horror and began whipping her head around, smacking herself against Lizette and Kiryu, much to their annoyance, as she searched for her cheesecake.

"Where'd it go!? Where'd it go!? Where'd it-...?" Her legs slipped off the bench she was hanging on, causing her to let out a panicked scream before falling right between Lizette and Kiryu with a loud "bang" against her head.

All around, the surrounding Commons turned their heads to stare at her, some with concern and others with annoyance.

"That sounded like it hurt." Adeel idly commented while Semal shook his head with a melodramatically disapproving expression on his face. Kiryu face-palmed.

"A-are you alright?" Joho stuttered, looking concerned.

"I lost my cheesecake!" Natsumi wept. "How do you think I feel!?"

"Oh…uhm…" Joho nervously stammered, not knowing what he should say.

"She's okay." Lizette snorted, rolling her eyes. "I've learned a long time ago that it's completely impossible for her to lose any more brain cells." She smiled to herself. "But don't worry Natsumi, I'll still love you."

"Buy me another cheesecake then!" Natsumi whined, still lying with her head buried against the floor and her jacket covering up her face while exposing her shiny midriff.

"You lost it." Lizette scolded, ignoring the puppy dog sounds Natsumi was making. Hearing her whining, Fluffals threw back her head and began howling before Adeel quickly clamped his hands over her muzzle as the surrounding Commons turned some angry looks toward him.

"Get me a new one!" Natsumi insisted.

"No." Lizette repeated.

"You promised!" Natsumi asserted, angrily kicking her legs between Kiryu and Lizette.

"Nope." Lizette replied, remaining firm.

"Please!"

"Nope."

"Please!"

"Nope."

"PLEASE!"

"Nope."

"PLEASE!"

"Nope."

"PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"SHUT UP!" Lydia suddenly snarled, her left eye glowing red beneath her sunglasses and bandages as she turned her head towards Lizette and Natsumi, who immediately shut up.

"You wouldn't hurt a kawaii little potato like me…would you?" Natsumi squeaked, peeking back at Lydia from beneath her jacket.

"You guys called us here," Lydia continued in a low tone, "So what are we waiting for? Why are we watching this stupid match?"

"We're mostly blending in." Kiryu replied in an even tone, confident that they wouldn't be overheard with the many conversations going on around them. "Once Emma and Kazama come back, we'll receive our assignments from them."

"Who put them in charge?" Lydia asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"Jack Atlas made Kazama something like a second-in-command beneath the Signers." Lizette replied. "And Emma's got a lot of experience, so they've been in charge of training us."

"Sort of like Headmaster Stephan in Standard." Adeel clarified, scratching behind Fluffal's ears.

"Yes, except I've had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own since they're away a lot." Lizette replied before mumbling, "Not that I have managed to even come close to figuring out A LOT of important things."

"You'll get it." Natsumi encouraged. Lizette, however, just looked off into the distance as if something were bothering her.

"Didn't you have a master that taught you?" Kiryu asked, turning to Joho and Lydia.

"We were caught by some Earthbound familiars when Asuka helped us.' Joho explained. "After we helped her out a bit and passed some tests, she introduced us to Seijun and Ruka, who gave us our marks. I guess you could consider Asuka our master, but we didn't really think of each other as student and teacher."

"We were all too busy surviving against Academia." Lydia agreed. "And besides, I never had much trust for teachers," she added darkly, looking off at the holographic screen.

"I heard that you guys in the Fusion Dimension had a Psychic like me who was part of the Phoenix Guard." Natsumi piped up. "What was his name again?"

"Takuma Saio?" Lydia asked. "I heard about him from Asuka and Johan, but I never met him and I don't know anything else about him except the bits I got from the data files Joho managed to steal from Academia."He's crazy. He and his sister, Mizuchi, are apparently the same people who trained Jorq, Isaac, and Moriah."

"The traitors?" Lizette asked.

"The very same ones." Lydia agreed. "They used to be part of Saio's cult, The Society of Light, before they joined Academia. Now they're some kind of commanders over some of the Professor's Special Forces. Last I heard, Jorq and his companions were leading an invasion force in Joho's home, Heartland."

"Has anyone tried to stop him?" Lizette asked.

"We've been having our own problems in Fusion." Joho muttered, clasping his hands together in thought. "And with the Earthbound as active as they have been in every other dimension…there's just been no way we could fight them AND Academia's armies at the same time."

"That hasn't stopped us." Lydia muttered.

"They've separated us from O'Brien and Johan." Joho mumbled, looking sorrowful, "And Clarisse, Hayden, Allen, Ursula, and Trisha…" his eyes fell to the ground.

"Akato…" Lydia breathed, clenching her fist, while her right eye squinted shut, almost as if she were about to cry.

A hushed silence fell over the other Phoenix Guardsmen. Adeel and Semal were both looking down at the ground, Lizette was gritting her teeth, Kiryu was looking sadly off into the distance, and Natsumi had sat up, taken a seat between Kiryu and Lizette, and had begun picking at the sleeves of her jacket.

Even Flufflals, sensing the melancholy from the other humans, had begun whining mournfully.

Adeel was the first to break the silence between the Phoenix Guardsmen. "None of us have escaped losing someone," he murmured.

"No, we haven't." Semal agreed. "Our parents."

"My parents and my sister, Sherry." Lizette growled, squeezing her eyes shut.

Natsumi remained silent.

"My dad." Kiryu whispered.

"My dad, too." Joho muttered, looking off into the distance.

"Everyone." Lydia sighed, looking down at the ground. "Academia took everyone from me. My father, my mother…" she paused for a long time, "… and my brother," she growled the last part, furiously wiping her nose on the sleeve of her jacket.

Natsumi looked back and forth between the row of depressed Phoenix Guardsmen she was sitting between before letting out a slow exhale.

"Hey…it's okay." She said, smiling weakly while putting her arms around Kiryu and Lizette. "We ain't suckers, we're lollipops. There's a difference."

"What?" Lydia asked, looking confused. From the reactions from the other Phoenix Guardsmen, it didn't look like she was the only confused person.

Lizette exhaled with exasperation. "She's trying to cheer us up." She explained. "Other than that…don't even try to make sense of what she says."

"Did it work?" Natsumi nervously asked, patting Lizette on the back.

"Nothing will work until Nozomi is gone." Lizette breathed, taking out a set of two decks from a deck holder strapped to her side and looking through the cards before putting them away again. "But you are right, Natsumi," she continued, looking back at Natsumi with a grateful expression on her face. "Mourning Sherry won't do anything to bring her back. Thank you for trying to cheer me up. I don't know how you've managed to cope after losing Miku, but I admire you for it."

She tried smiling at Natsumi, but she looked away from her, almost as if she were ignoring her.

"We might as well enjoy the Friendship Cup while we're waiting." Natsumi whispered.

Semal and Kiryu were both looking at Natsumi as she stared intently at the track-way. Eventually, Semal spoke up.

"So…what exactly is this Friendship Cup?" he asked. "I think you've explained it to me before…but how does it work?"

Natsumi's stony face instantly melted away as she became animated once more.

"It's this SUPER cool tournament that they've thrown every year for about…how long?" She asked Lizette.

"I think it's been ten years." Lizette shrugged.

"Yeah! Yeah! That's right!" Natsumi agreed, "It's a special tournament that's been going on for ten years, where people from the Tops AND the Commons can get together and…"

"…and have all the Commons lose to the Tops, because the Tops have better decks, before the Commons get sent to the underground once they lose," Lizette interrupted, causing Natsumi's face to droop once again.

"Oh…sorry, Natsumi." Lizette apologized. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just…" her voice trailed off.

"It's okay." Natsumi mumbled. "I know."

"Wasn't your family one of the Tops?" Joho asked.

Lizette glared at him.

"Oh…um…sorry…I…" Joho stammered.

"My family earned their wealth through hard work and then used their wealth to help everyone in the city, Tops and Commons alike. We never considered ourselves part of the Top clique then and I refuse to associate my family with them now." Lizette huffed.

"I didn't mean to…" Joho tried to apologize, "…I just…"

"Forget it, Joho, I know you meant nothing by it." Lydia added, placing her hand on Joho's shoulder before glaring at Lizette. "And I'd appreciate it if you would give my friend the benefit of the doubt before I stop doing the same for you."

"Well, you're awfully protective of him." Lizette growled. "I'm sure Joho must be happy thinking you're always gonna be there to protect him like a big sister…or girlfriend."

"SO ANYWAY!" Natsumi chimed in before either Lyida or Lizette could say anything more. "Aside from the…political stuff…this Friendship Cup has been SUPER interesting! We've actually got people from other dimensions showing up this year! Can you believe it!? We might even be able to convince more people of the existence of the Earthbound now that people can see we're not totally nuts!"

"Most of the people here don't believe they're from other dimensions." Kiryu commented. "They just think that the Tops have been creating some new summoning techniques to make the games more interesting."

"I hope they do learn about the other dimensions." Semal assured, looking over at the gathering crowds with a grim and determined expression on his face. "It's been impossible for the Phoenix Guard to counter Academia's actions AND fight the Earthbound at the same time with the numbers we have. And with the way Academia went after Xyz…" his voice trailed off.

"We'll need all the help we can get." Joho agreed, before turning towards Natsumi. "Did you say that there were people in this tournament from Xyz?"

"Shun is from Xyz." Natsumi answered with a grin. "And he's the best one!"

"Shun…" Joho contemplated thoughtfully, "…maybe I've heard of him but…I'm not sure. Still, I'm glad he escaped from Xyz. Apparently, there were quite a few people who managed to warp away from the invasion to other dimensions by stealing Duel Disks from Obelisk Soldiers. Almost wish I could have gone with them, but my Dad and I were captured before the Invasion even began. I wonder what this Shun guy is doing here? Blending in? Hiding?"

"Like you'd hide behind your girlfriend?" Lizette idly asked, earning her another angry look from Lydia.

"Oh, no, he's not hiding!" Natsumi vehemently denied, interrupting another potential argument. "He's revealed where he's from! He's not here just to hide! He's a hero!"

"How's he a hero?" Semal asked, looking at Natsumi with a skeptical expression on his face.

Natsumi let out a little squeal of delight, causing her fellow Guardsmen and a few Commons to give her another look.

"Are you kidding me!?" she exclaimed, looking like she would explode with excitement. "Not only is he one of the best…no…THE BEST AND SMARTEST…duelist in this whole tournament, but he is also the most caring, the most brave, just, you know...AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she squealed, hugging herself with ecstasy.

"Are you okay?" Kiryu asked, watching as Natsumi began rubbing her hands together with crazed excitement.

"I have never been happier!" Natsumi squealed. "Oh, you guys just wait! Once he begins dueling…he's just…oh…HE'S FREAKING AMAZING! And he's doing it all for his little sister!"

"His little sister?" Joho asked, looking concerned. "What happened to her?"

"Hold on a sec!" Natsumi mumbled, reaching inside her massive coat and fumbling around the pockets lining the inside. After rifling through the miscellaneous contents of her pockets which included her collection of kitties, a bag of bottle caps, a pair of purple kid's scissors, quite a few key chains without any keys, one with a frog on the end, another with a plastic orange on the end, which she took the time to squish like a stress ball, several old paper wristbands, a large spoon, a plastic bag full of baby carrots…

"Who wants some carrots?" she asked, holding up the bag and attempting to shake some carrots into her hand before about half of them dumped onto the ground.

"The floor wants carrots!" she decided, before popping one of the carrots in her own mouth, throwing one to Adeel, who held out his hand and managed to catch it despite his blindness, and stuffing the rest back inside her pocket.

"I thought carrots made you sick." Lizette commented, regarding Natsumi narrowly.

"I am ninety-nine percent certain I will not get nauseous tomorrow!" Natsumi replied confidently, pumping a fistful of carrots into the air before putting them back inside the bag and tossing it onto Lizette's lap, much to her annoyance.

Resuming her search, she pulled out a single silver locket, which she paused to look at before carefully placing it back inside her pocket. With a final bit of rifling through her pockets, she finally withdrew a wad of papers with some illustrations and crudely written paragraphs before unfolding them.

"What is that?" Lizette asked, peering at the stack of papers Natsumi was rearranging.

"It's my true to life, updated daily, fan chronicle of Shun's adventures throughout the dimensions!" Natsumi explained.

"What!?" Kiryu asked, wondering how much weirder Natsumi could get. He hadn't had the opportunity to work with her before, having spent most of his time in Satisfaction Town, but he was beginning to feel grateful they hadn't been assigned together for anything.

"Ok, ok!" Natsumi hastily exclaimed, thumbing through the papers, "Listen to this!" she cleared her throat and began reading from the papers.

 _"Shun and Ruri had lived peaceful lives in the beautiful city of Heartland. Shun had just bought her a birthday present because he loved her."  
_  
She flipped over one of the pages, showing a fairly well-drawn picture of Shun's face, drawn with what looked like black coal.

"That's…actually pretty good." Kiryu commented, looking impressed.

"I've got a few more just like it!" Natsumi enthused, pulling out a stack of about fifty more pages and handing them to Kiryu, who looked at them with an increasingly uncomfortable expression as he scanned through the MANY depictions of Shun drawn from various angles as if she had been following him with a camera ever since the Friendship Cup began.

While he looked through the pictures, Natsumi continued with her story.

 _"'What is Academia doing here!?' Ruri cried, as they dragged her away._

 _"'Noooooooo!' Shun cried. "'I will save you!' he promised._

 _"And so, fighting against his evil dark side, Shun…"  
_  
"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!" Semal protested, interrupting Natsumi mid-sentence. "Evil dark side? You're…you're moving WAY too fast! First, Shun is buying Ruri a birthday present, and then she's just inexplicably being carried away by Academia for no reason, and then Shun has a dark side which has never been established previously and…"

"Bear with me, guys!" Natsumi instructed, holding up a finger to quiet Semal and the other Guardsmen who were all giving her confused looks, save for Joho who had slipped into a contemplative expression upon Natsumi's mention of Heartland, and Adeel, who actually looked like he was enjoying the story. "This is just the first part in a three part series. All shall be revealed in time!"

"Three part series?" Semal questioned, "I thought you said this was more like a…how did you put it? Daily updated documentary of Shun?"

"Let her keep going," Adeel encouraged, cocking his ears in Natsumi's direction. "This is the first written story I've been able to enjoy since that Disciple blinded me."

"I'm afraid you kids are gonna have to wait a little longer for story time," Emma's voice barked from below.

Looking down, the other Phoenix Guardsmen saw Emma and Kazama walking up the stands to where they were seating. Walking between them, a small ten-year-old boy with short green hair was conversing with an area of empty air just next to him.

"Hey, Ruka!" Natsumi called to the same empty space of air. "How are things in the spirit world?"

"You're going to make people stare at us!" Kiryu hissed.

"Oh, come on, you can see her too, right?" Natsumi protested, putting her hands on her hips.

"I can." Kiryu whispered, "But everyone else will think we're lunatics! It's bad enough we're spouting nonsense about other dimensions to these people. The last thing they need to hear is us talking to people who don't exist."

"We don't need to act like Ruka doesn't exist." Adeel rebuked, staring in the general direction of the empty space of air Natsumi had been talking to with his milky white eyes. "But it might be smart to be discreet about it."

"Especially since not all of us can see her, even if we're Phoenix Guard." Lizette added, looking somewhat resentfully at Kiryu and Natsumi.

"I can see her." Joho remarked.

Semal stared forward, squinting his eyes as if to make out something very small before shaking his head. "I still can't."

Lydia said nothing, but stood at strict attention like a soldier awaiting her commander's orders as Emma, Kazama, and the boy between them approached.

"We await our assignments," she said in an emotionless voice once Emma, Kazama, and the boy had reached them. One of her hands twitched, as if getting ready to make a salute, but she caught herself just in time and let her hands stay at her side.

"You don't have to worry about formality." Kazama reassured Lydia, giving her his own salute. "This isn't the Public Maintenance Security Bureau, and it's certainly not the Academia military."

Lydia looked embarrassed as she slowly nodded her head. She opened her mouth as if to apologize, but Kazama cut her off with a light-hearted laugh.

"So what are our assignments?" Joho hastily asked, sparing Lydia from further embarrassment.

Kazama and Emma both gestured towards the benches, indicating for the others to sit down. Once they were all seated and had effectively blended in with the rest of the crowd, Kazama began speaking.

"I've been in contact with Aki," he explained. "She's arrived at the Nazca lines along with two of our allies, Bakari and Lupa."

"Lupa?" Lizette asked. "That mercenary?"

"Pretty much." Emma snorted.

"Like I said." Kazama repeated, "She's an ally to us, and not just because she's being paid. In fact, she came here of her own free will after Aki contacted her."

"Good thing, too." Emma grunted. "We're gonna need all the help we can get. Apparently, things are really bad down at the Nazca Lines. We've got literally tens of thousands of Earthbound Familiars gathered there, swarming the place as if they were…"

"They're gathering an army!" Kiryu exclaimed, looking disturbed.

Emma glared at Kiryu. "Don't interrupt me, junior, or it's back to the orphanage for you. But yeah. Basically we've got a whole army of spiritual familiars gathered at the Nazca Lines."

"Are they preparing for an attack?" Adeel asked.

Kazama turned to a blank space of air as if listening to an invisible person before turning to Adeel.

"Ruka thinks-…" Kazama began.

"Don't worry." Adeel reassured Kazama. "I can hear her just fine, I just can't see her. For obvious reasons..." he grimaced, waving his hand in front of his milky-white eyes.

"Excuse me, but not all of us can hear her like you! What did she say?" Lizette huffed.

"Ruka thinks they're guarding someone." Jeremiah piped in, smiling innocently at Lizette, who regarded the little boy with skepticism and annoyance.

"Who would they be guarding?" Joho asked the blank space of air, before quietly holding his gaze towards the invisible person while nodding his head as if listening.

"He's managed to create a Dark Signer…?" Adeel breathed, before nodding his head at the blank space of air.

"But I thought he was bound by his own mark." Joho added, before listening to the blank area of space with rapt attention.

"What did she say?" Semal whispered to Adeel, before Adeel quickly whispered into Semal's ear and Semal nodded his head in understanding.

"We'll be ready to do that." Kazama replied, nodding his head.

"Understood." Emma added a few moments later.

Lydia and Lizette, meanwhile, were looking increasingly frustrated.

"We'll tell them." Kiryu agreed.

"Tell us what!?" Lizette snapped. From the tone of her voice, it seemed that she was upset at more than just being left out of the conversation the others were having with the invisible girl.

"Not now." Said Emma, "Ruka's talking. Have someone else who can hear her whisper to you if you need to hear now. Otherwise, just hold your horses."

"Permission to speak, please!" Lydia asked, causing the others to look at her. She was not particularly angry, but Joho could see that she was getting annoyed, and felt guilty over not whispering to her about what Ruka was saying like Adeel had with Semal.

"What is it?" Kazama asked, looking concerned. Lydia opened her mouth to speak, but Lizette cut her off.

"WE CAN'T HEAR HER!" Lizette roared. "I don't know if you have noticed, but not all of us, even after YEARS of practicing, have figured out how to do all the things you guys can do! Isn't there a way we can hear what she says!?"

"We were gonna tell you what she was say-…" Kiryu began.

"I mean hear her directly!" Lizette snapped, quivering with rage and some other emotion that was hard to make out.

"Ruka says that if you can learn to-…" Jeremiah began.

"WELL, I HAVEN'T!" Lizette roared, startling the little boy as she stood up from her bench. "Do you think I haven't been practicing!? Don't you think that if I could have worked hard enough to learn how to see spirits that I would have done so forever ago and spoken to Sherry!?"

Lizette continued ranting at the boy, causing him to clutch at the empty space of air, which only seemed to make Lizette angrier.

"Ok, look!" Lydia snarled, standing up from her own seat and interrupting Lizette's rant. "I'm not really concerned about anyone's difference in abilities right now, alright!? I was just gonna ask if there was a way Lizette and I could hear Ruka, but if there is not, that's just fine! SO SHUT UP, LIZETTE AND JUST WAIT FOR THE OTHERS TO TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON!"

"JUST LIKE YOU WOULD LISTEN TO YOUR ACADEMIA SUPERIORS!?" Lizette snarled, turning her attention towards Lydia, who opened her mouth in shock before clenching her mouth and hands together in an enraged grimace.

"I rebelled against my Academia superiors…" Lydia quivered, the knuckles of her right hand cracking while a strange hydraulic whirring sound came from her left hand, "and promised never to be a mindless machine again!" she added, pointing to the left side of her bandaged face. "Don't…ever…insinuate that I blindly follow anyone ever again! I trust the Phoenix Guard! If they say that we have to wait, then I am fine with waiting!"

"That might be fine for you!" Lizette hissed, not backing down. "But you haven't been spending literally years trying to figure out how to do it, how to see the spirits, only to end up failing to ever say even one word to anyone you've loved who's passed on."

"Do you think I'm not just as upset as you are!?" Lydia growled, causing Joho to get up before Lydia pushed him back down with her left arm. "After I learned about that ability, I TRIED to contact my parents! Don't think I don't care; I'm just as upset as you are! I just choose not to have a temper tantrum!" Lydia snapped back, before Lizette advanced on her, their eyes leveling and noses nearly touching.

"NO, YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE NOT NEARLY AS UPSET AS I AM!" Lizette roared, causing some nearby Commons to demand her to shut up. Lizette, however, ignored them. "You haven't spent ages trying to reconnect with a lost sibling like I have! You haven't been trying to contact your parents like I have! You say you've tried to contact your parents? I know better! After you cut off ties with Academia, you just buried your past along with your parents and cut off ties with your brother when he went crazy!"

"What did you say!?" Lydia hissed, her bandaged eye glowing an intense red, causing Joho to open his mouth in protest.

"ENOUGH!" Emma barked, standing up from her own seat, and bringing both her fists down on the two girl's heads.

"OUCH!" Lydia protested, taking off her hat to rub the violet hair that rested just above the spot she had been hit.

"You stay out of…!" Lizette growled, before Emma grabbed her by the ear.

"I've had it up to here…" Emma snarled, giving Lizette's ear an upward tug, "with your attitude!"

"Emma!" Kazama began, before he was suddenly interrupted by Jeremiah, whose mark had lit up and whose eyes had begun to glow with intense white light.

"STOP!" Jeremiah commanded in an oddly feminine voice that ought to have caused the surrounding Commons to stop and stare. Fortunately, due to the arrival of Shun and Crow at the starting line, the odd changes that had come over Jeremiah went unnoticed as the surrounding Commons began standing and shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Emma, please…" Jeremiah continued in a gentle but firm feminine voice, "…let me speak with her."

Emma grunted and let go of Lizette's ear before taking her seat on the bench. Blinking away tears, Lizette sat back down on the bench, keeping her head turned away from Jeremiah who began speaking to her.

"She wants to speak with you." Jeremiah reassured her in the same feminine voice, "And she knows how hard you are trying to see her again. But you must be patient, and you can't let yourself get angry with yourself."

"Drop it!" Lizette snapped, keeping her face turned from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah sighed. "Lizette, whether or not you wish to speak about this now, you should know that you are not alone. Sherry and countless others continue to watch over you, lending you as much strength as they can."

"Shut up." Lizette mumbled, burying her face in her arms.

"They want to speak to you as much as you wish to speak to them, but such a thing is not possible for most, and exceedingly difficult for others, even for a Signer. This method I am using now is exceedingly straining to both myself and Jeremiah. I will have to leave very soon, but please never forget that you are loved by many, both living and dead."

Jeremiah reached over to pat Lizette on the back, who was now softly weeping into her arms.

Lydia looked over at Jeremiah, noticing that he had started to develop a nosebleed. His face was also sweating, and the mark on his arm was beginning to dim.

"I'm sorry, Ruka." Lydia apologized, "I didn't realize it was such a strain. I didn't mean to…to…" She looked down at the ground, not knowing what to say.

"You did not know." Said Jeremiah, smiling weakly back at Lydia. "I wish your training in Fusion could have been more thorough, but as things are over in that dimension, it's been difficult for us to assign you a skilled mentor, but know that Seijun, my brother, Rua, and I are also thinking about you. Your struggles have not gone unnoticed by us, but we can't do everything we want to do to help you."

She looked over at Lizette and then at Lydia. "You will all need to support each other. This is the strength of the Phoenix Guard. Even if we may at times feel like we are alone, separated by dimensions, distance, or death, we can all reach out to one another, regardless of location or status, and endow each other with majestic power!"

For a brief moment, the mark on Jeremiah's arm disappeared before a larger circular mark of a dragon appeared on his back. On top of the circular mark, two elegant dragon wings stretched over each shoulder. On the far left of the mark, a dragon head with jagged teach rested against Jeremiah's lower back, while a mask-like tail glowed against the right of Jeremiah's back opposite the dragon head. Above the head, a set of claws held a rounded heart-shaped object, while a set of feet opposite the claws held a circular yin-yang mark. Just as quickly as the mark appeared, it vanished before Jeremiah's usual claw-shaped mark reappeared on his right arm. Jeremiah let out a sigh, seemingly exhausted by the effort he was exerting.

"You all need each other." Jeremiah repeated. "You can all support each other. You will NEED to support each other. Lydia, Lizette," she said turning her head to look at each individual, "I need you both to be leaders who can unite the Phoenix Guard. I need you to be leaders who can support each other, because if we become divided, we shall fall, as the People of the Stars fell so long ago. Lydia, Lizette, can you do this? Semal, Adeel, Kiryu, Natsumi, Joho, Emma, Kazama, can you all do this? Can you support one another?"

"Yes!" Natsumi agreed, vigorously shaking her head.

"I will." Kazama agreed with a smile.

Emma nodded her head along with Adeel and Semal.

"I will." Kiryu confirmed.

"Me too!" Jeremiah enthused in his regular voice.

Joho nodded his head before turning to Lydia with an apologetic expression on his face.

"I'm s-sorry I…I'm sorry I d-didn't…you know…" he shrugged, "tell you w-what she was…s-saying."

"It's okay." Lydia whispered back, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You've supported me in so many other ways already." She looked over at Jeremiah. "I WILL serve the Phoenix Guard and uphold every one of their beliefs for the sake of freedom in ALL dimensions!"

Lizette had sat back down in her section of the bench, firmly grasping her knees as she looked down at the ground with what looked like utter shame. Slowly, she shook her head, "Yes," while keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Thank you, Lizette, Lydia, Joho, Kiryu, Natsumi, Adeel, Semal, Emma, Kazama, and Jeremiah." Jeremiah answered, in the same strange feminine voice. "Now, then…" he continued, spreading out his fingers, "Jeremiah's going to let me out of his body now, but I will continue sitting next to him, watching and listening to all of you. The first thing I want to see is for you and Lizette to sincerely apologize to one another before Kiryu kindly explains to the rest of the group what I spoke about and Kazama gives everyone their assignments."

Lydia, Kazama, and Kiryu nodded their heads towards Jeremiah, while Lizette weakly rubbed away the tears from her eyes before bringing her knees up to her chin and burying her face in them, her face stained wine-red from her recent stress and shame. Jeremiah blinked once, before wiping away the blood from his nose, his eyes having returned to their normal color.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you, Lizette." Lydia quickly apologized, sounding in the manner of someone wanting to get something over with. "I should have seen you were upset and not let myself get riled up. I know…" she paused, "I know you're not my enemy, so I shouldn't let a little…disagreement…divide us. So sorry," she finished, turning her face away.

Lizette remained silent, but nobody made any move to press her into responding.

"If it's any consolation…" Natsumi nervously began, her eyes glancing up and down between the hunched form of Lizette and the jacket sleeve she was picking at, "...when I…well…when Miku…passed away… and Jack let me join the Phoenix Guard, I also tried to speak with her. I figured it would be easy for me since I had my psychic powers and could already see Rua, Ruka, and Seijun without any difficulty. But whenever I tried to speak to her…"

Natsumi's voice trailed off as she attempted to maintain a smile on her face, "…I thought she must've been busy with something very important, and I still think that must be the case now. I think that's the case with a lot of the people who…move on. They're doing very important things in the spirit world, and that's why even Rua, Ruka, and Seijun aren't able to see or speak to all of them, including Miku. But I know she's still out there. I can feel her watching me sometimes, when I'm alone, or sad, or scared. I know it's the same for my parents too. And I know Sherry and your mom and dad are watching out for you."

Lizette slowly lifted her head from her knees and stared at Natsumi, who looked back at her uncertainly, as if bracing herself for another one of Lizette's angry tirades.

Suddenly, Lizette lunged towards Natsumi, passing above Jeremiah and the space Ruka was sitting, before grasping a stunned Natsumi in a tight hug. Smiling weakly, Natsumi began patting Lizette back, before motioning for Lydia to join in.

"Oh…uhm…" Lydia stammered, looking on the scene with confusion.

"Just do it." Semal instructed, looking somewhat exasperated. Lydia, however, looked hesitant. She was fiddling with her left arm, as if trying to hide it away, while fumbling with her jacket to make sure the left side of her chest was well covered.

"It's okay." Joho reassured her with a nod of his head. Nodding nervously back at him, Lydia slowly moved forward as if her legs had stiffened into solid iron, before shakily reaching out her right arm and patting Lizette on the back. Letting out a sigh, Natsumi whipped out her arms and pulled Lizette and Lydia into a massive bear hug, with Lizette and Lydia looking somewhat apprehensive, but not resisting the close proximity.

"Beautiful." Emma muttered. "An absolutely fantastic reconciliation. Now, then!" she barked, "Can we PLEASE get back to what we were doing before!? Kiryu, tell everybody what Ruka just told us!"

Lizette, Lydia, and Natsumi both hurried back to their seats, Lydia anxiously checking the bandages over her face, and the clothing over her left arm and the left side of her chest, Lizette looking embarrassed, and Natsumi gently humming "We Are Family," to herself. Clearing his throat, Kiryu commenced summarizing what Ruka had told them.

"Okay, so long story short…" he explained. "…as we are right now, we are pretty much outgunned. We don't know how, but somehow, despite Yuu's curse, he has somehow managed to create at least one Dark Signer. However, we think that there may be more, with the added threat of even more Dark Signers rising up should any of the Dark Signers Yuu created have enough energy.

"Right now, Aki, Bakari, and Lupa should be able to hold out in Nazca, but they'll need help if we're to have any hope of purifying the Earthbound Prison. Jack is going to stay in this city and continue coordinating the forces we have here.

"So in the meantime, in addition to providing this city security against the Disciples and Familiars we'll probably be encountering in not too long, we'll need to send some of our allies out to the other dimensions to gather what allies we have there. Once we have gathered those allies, the plan is to have everyone meet up at the Nazca Lines in order to purify the Familiars there before they can be unleashed on the world, and if possible, find out what they were guarding."

"So we don't have any idea what they are doing there at this time?" Lydia asked.

"No." Kiryu agreed. "Yuu wouldn't need any protection right now, so it's unlikely that they're guarding him. He's stuck in the Underworld, and any living person, even a Signer, that goes inside of that place would die pretty quickly without expending massive energy-…"

"Or unless that special armor we've talked about making got completed." Natsumi added, looking over at Lizette.

Lizette wiped at her eyes before nodding her head, still looking flushed. "It's far from complete." Lizette apologized. "I've been trying to work on it…but without Magnus to help us now…it's missing a lot. As it is…I doubt I will be able to make a breakthrough any time soon."

"Which is alright." Kazama reassured her, "Since we're not currently planning a campaign into the Underworld."

"But we do want to know why such a large force has been called into the Nazca Lines." Emma added. "If I'm right, the Earthbound don't have a limitless supply of familiars any more than they do Disciples."

"Correct." Kazama agreed. "We need to find out what's going on there, but we also need to make sure that we aren't so distracted by what's going on there, that we neglect the city and let whatever Signers and Disciples here roll over everyone."

"Akato came here." Joho added. "Do you think he knew about what was happening here?"

"He always loved chaos." Lydia mused. "Coming here when the city is about to be attacked by a legion of Disciples and Familiars probably sounded like Christmas morning to him."

"But we'll show him what true Christmas morning feels like!" Natsumi enthused, earning her some confused looks from Adeel, Semal, Kiryu, and Joho.

"Yes, we will." Lizette agreed, patting Natsumi on the back. "Yes, we will."

"But first, we need to strengthen our forces here." Kazama instructed. "Which is why some of us are going to need to go to the other dimensions to gather our forces there."

"Forget about the Fusion Dimension." Lydia huffed, blowing some of her violet hair out of her right eye. "Most of the guardsmen there would help us defeat the Dark Signers and then generously bring along Academia's armies to conquer what's left of this dimension after that war was finished up."

"Asuka is still on our side." Joho remarked. "And we don't know about Johan or O'Brien."

"Right." Lydia sighed. "All the Phoenix Guardsmen in Fusion who are being hunted down by both Academia AND the Earthbound are on our side. Everyone else…not so much."

"Ruka says that her brother, Rua and Seijun went to the Fusion Dimension shortly after they learned of the Dark Signer's presence in this city. They should be coming back this afternoon." Jeremiah contributed.

"Asuka would be able to see them, so communication shouldn't be a problem." Lydia mused, "And Academia wouldn't be able to stop either of them, so they should be able to spread the message to anyone left who's not loyal to Academia."

"Which leaves Standard and Xyz." Kiryu summed up.

"We'd need a lot of people to go to the Xyz Dimension." Joho muttered. "I haven't been there in a while, but I know it's extremely dangerous."

"What about Standard?" Emma asked, looking towards Adeel and Semal.

"That place is mostly secure." Adeel reassured Emma. "One guardsman could easily enter that place without any hiccups."

"There's actually an entire Phoenix Guard school now." Semal added. "The Phoenix Boarding School. It's run by Stephan, Katashi, and Subaru. If you go there, you'll be able to find a lot of help."

"So Stephan actually started that school." Kazama smirked. "And he's working with Subaru? Oh, man! I wonder how many times he has to prevent that guy from burning the building to the ground!"

"It's decided, then." Emma sighed. "We'll send one Guardsman to go to Standard, while a sizeable force stays here, and the rest head to the Xyz Dimension."

"I can go to Xyz!" Jeremiah volunteered.

Emma looked down at Jeremiah warily.

"I was thinking you should be the one to go to Standard, actually." Emma replied. "What do you think, Ruka?" she asked.

Jeremiah stared up at the blank space of air next to him, his eyes widening in protest as he listened to what Ruka was saying.

"Wha-bu…?" he protested.

"You heard her." Emma smirked.

"Fine!" Jeremiah pouted. "But only because I want to see the school."

"What about you, Ruka?" Kazama asked. After listening for a few moments, he turned to the others and announced, "She'll be staying here to watch over the city. So that just leaves figuring out who will be going to Xyz and who will be staying here."

The other Guardsmen looked at each other, Adeel and Semal nodding to each other while the others looked thoughtful.

"We'll stay here." Semal decided, indicating himself and his brother. "We came here to help a Disciple, and we'll keep looking for her before she hurts herself or anyone else."

"I'll stay, too." Kiryu agreed. "I know Rin, and so long as I'm here, I won't stop fighting until she's saved."

"I'm staying wherever Kiryu stays." Emma said, nodding towards Kiryu.

Kazama scratched his head. "So that's four staying. Shall I go to Xyz, then?"

"You should stay here." Lydia intruded. "Tactically it makes sense. You know more about this dimension than you do about the others. Joho and I, on the other hand, are both familiar with the Xyz Dimension, so we would be best suited there."

"I'll go wherever Joho is going!" Natsumi exclaimed, smiling at Joho who nervously smiled back at her while Lydia glared at her.

Lizette scratched her head in thought before exhaling slowly. "Support the Phoenix Guard," she muttered to herself before adding. "If Natsumi is going with you, then I'd better come along to make sure she doesn't kill herself."

Lydia looked over at Lizette, looking somewhat surprised. Lizette, however, did not return her gaze.

"So we have Jeremiah heading over to Standard while Lydia, Joho, Natsumi, and Lizette head over to Xyz and the rest of us stay here." Kazama summarized.

"I like how people assume I've volunteered when I haven't said anything." Joho grimaced.

"You ARE volunteering." Lydia snapped. "We're a team, remember?"

"And I'll be lonely without you." Natsumi added, earning her another glare from Lydia.

"Are we decided, then?" Emma asked.

"I'll go to Xyz." Joho sighed, while everyone else nodded.

"Great." Kazama sighed. "Then we have a game plan. Everyone who is gathering allies will meet at the Nazca Lines when they have succeeded in their various missions. Once both parties have contacted us, we'll coordinate our forces to ensure that a sufficient force remains to protect the city while the rest go to the Nazca Lines. Any questions?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Jeremiah asked, squirming his hips back and forth.

"Any OTHER questions?" Emma asked.

Everyone shook their heads "no."

"Excellent." Said Kazama, nodding his head. "Everyone staying to protect the city, stay here and you'll receive your assignments from us. Everyone heading to a different dimension, gather what energy you need and head out now!"

"What…NOW!?" Natsumi whined. "But the match just got started! I need to be here to support Shun!"

Kazama looked taken aback.

"Listen…" Lizette reassured Natsumi, "…you'll be supporting Shun more than you ever could here by helping out the Xyz Dimension."

"But I won't see him!" Natsumi pouted. "Can't we wait for the match to be over!?"

"Oh, just come on!" Lydia snarled, grabbing Natsumi with her left arm and dragging her off her seat with surprisingly immense strength.

"Good luck with those three girls." Semal winked at Joho, who quickly looked away and began blushing heavily.

"You coming, Joho?" Lydia called, as she and Natsumi began leaving the stand.

Joho limped after them, still blushing heavily from Semal's last comment. Once they had gone, Adeel, Semal, and Kiryu began speaking amongst themselves.

"How long do you think the poor guy's gonna last?" Adeel asked.

"Poor guy?" Semal exclaimed, "I'd kill to be in his position right now! One guy in a group of three beautiful girls…well…yeah…Lydia could count, not like Natsumi and Lizette though. Still… what more could a guy ask for?"

"Poor guy's gonna get killed with those three crazy girls." Kiryu snorted. "If Lydia and Natsumi don't tear him apart fighting over him amongst themselves, then Lizette will kill the rest of them once one of them manages to tick her off."

"That's only if Lydia doesn't kill Lizette first." Adeel grimly added.

"Glad to see you three are all so familiar with each other," Kazama commented, interrupting Adeel, Semal, and Kiryu's conversation, "because I'm assigning you three together. Kiryu, show Adeel and Semal where we keep some of the spare bikes and riding equipment and begin sweeping through the government sector of the city near the Friendship Cup Stadium. Rin was near that area if I remember correctly."

"Got it." Kiryu agreed, before motioning for Adeel and Semal to follow him.

"Here, Fluffals!" Adeel called, grabbing the leash of his dog before following the other two guardsman out of the Stadium.

As the trio disappeared into the distance, Kazama turned to Emma, a concerned expression on his face.

"When are you gonna tell Kiryu that his dad used to be a Dark Signer?"

"He doesn't need to know." Emma whispered. "That was never his true legacy, and I promised to keep that information private. I don't think that promise is rendered invalid after his death."

Kazama looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped himself.

"Come on, Jeremiah." Emma sighed, "Come with us and we'll show you how to get to Standard."

"That's okay." Jeremiah replied, getting up from his seat. "Ruka will show me. You two stay in this stand and watch the game."

"Why?" Emma asked.

"I was talking to Ruka." Jeremiah explained, "And she thinks there might be a Dark Signer here."  
…

When Ruri had first heard early that morning the news of Shun's duel against a duelist named Crow, the prospect of seeing her brother again, even if it was from a distance, had filled her with happiness.

But now, as she sat atop one of the pillars overlooking the stadium while using her powers to keep herself concealed, her initial feelings of joy had become much more bittersweet. True, she was overjoyed to know that Shun was still alive and continuing to fight against Academia, but the fact that she couldn't reveal herself to him, when all she wanted to do was run up to him, embrace him, and be with him again, had filled her with sorrow.

It would have been dangerous to go to him now. Roger was looking for her, and would most certainly attack both her and her brother the second she showed up next to him. She couldn't risk hurting Shun like that for the sake of a selfish desire, not when he had selflessly given so much to continue looking for her...even as she sat watching him.

"How ironic," she thought bitterly, "that the one thing I could do to ease his pain...is also the worst thing I could do for him now."

But there was another reason Ruri was not showing herself to Shun, a reason she didn't want to think about and so thought about all the more forcefully, even as she tried to ignore her thoughts.

What would Shun think of her when he saw her now? Would he be proud of her decision to return as a Dark Signer? Would he support her in her desire to end Academia's reign and create a new universe where threats like Academia could not exist?

Ruri wasn't sure about the answers to these questions, but she knew he would be worried. How could she tell him she died, and what would he think of that revelation when he heard it? Ruri didn't think he would reject her or turn her away for becoming...

She looked down at herself, at her long black robes with white trimmings, at her cold pallid skin, and at the strange ethereal wings she had wrapped around herself like a blanket. Shun would be worried about her transformation, and who could blame him for it?

Sometimes, despite her growing certainty that her plan to change the universe was necessary, she wondered if instead of accepting the offer to be resurrected, she should have just…

What would Shun say? Would he tell her she shouldn't have done what she did? Would he have been worried about Yuu trying to take advantage of her? Would he try to dissuade her from her mission? Tell her it was too dangerous? How would she handle the situation if he responded that way?

Ruri glanced down at her elegant Duel Disk and began contemplating the duels she had been involved with since her resurrection. It was strange. For so long, she had had faith in her brother's dueling skills, in his ability to excel and protect her if need be. But now, with the immense power flowing through her, a power which seemed to only be growing stronger as she gathered more followers, she felt certain that she could defeat him with ease...should they ever come into conflict.

Wait…

Ruri shook her head in shock and frustration. Where had that thought come from? Why would she ever even think of fighting her brother? Sure, him being against her decisions was a possibility, but she wouldn't ever need to fight him over them, or at least, not in a duel. Still, the thought of earning her brother's disapproval and hurting him more in that way filled her with dread. But even as she feared his resentment, she knew that what she was doing needed to be done.

Jatun Waqar, the god that resided within her, had been speaking to her of the necessity of their plan. If they did not renew the dimensions and convert the inhabitants to a path of peace, then even if Academia was utterly destroyed from the roots up, other factions like it would rise up again. Wars would escalate as technology and dueling continued to advance, and in the end, all civilizations would suffer a fate similar to the Xyz Dimension.

Ruri had refused some of Jatun Waqar's suggestions, even as the spirit protested that she would soon run out of energy if she continued to resurrect the dead and raise disciples without needed replenishment for her rapidly draining power. Those methods the spirit suggested could not be used, not if they would end up hurting people, including innocent people.

But still, Ruri could understand Jatun Waqar's growing sense of urgency. Further war and chaos had to be prevented, even if some sacrifices had to be made to do it. There was no more time to waste, and nobody else who had the power to accomplish what she could now do.

The thoughts of one of her Disciples interrupted Ruri from her introspection.

 _"Ruri-Sama…"_ the voice of one of her Security Disciples, Nevan Bourne, called, _"...we've secured the injured Security officers in a hospital like you told us while managing to maintain cover. There's no sign of the anomaly that attacked our own members, but there is…other news I thought you might want to hear."_

 _"You know about those…Academia guys you told us about?"_ Nevan's partner, Garret Kinsley asked.

Ruri sighed before closing her eyes and relaying her own thoughts to her two disciples. Jatun Waqar had been extremely helpful assisting Ruri in coordinating her various forces of disciples on a moment-by-moment basis, but Ruri still felt somewhat strained as she tried to keep up with the many tasks that had to be done in so short a period of time.

 _"Yes."_ Ruri replied to Nevan and Garret. _"I am aware that Academia is most likely trying to infiltrate here. Have you found one of their agents?"_

 _"We believe so."_ Nevan replied. _"We saw a young boy riding one of our vehicles, blue hair, green eyes, looked pretty badly wounded, but he was wearing the blue jacket you described some of the Academia soldiers wearing…"_

 _"…plus he had the shield-shaped Duel Disk you said they use."_ Garret added.

Ruri let out a small exhale, recognizing the description of the boy she had dueled earlier that day. So he was still alive. Strangely, however, the news of his survival seemed utterly unimportant to her now, even with her knowledge that his survival could mean him calling in potentially dangerous backup. There were other more important things pressing upon her so much that she couldn't even feel hatred towards the merciless child soldier. All she could muster now was a stifling indifference towards the boy and his fate.

Still, it would have been imprudent to leave a loose end like that.

 _"Thank you, Garret and Nevan,"_ she replied, _"That agent is wounded, but still a potential threat. Coordinate with your companions and have them capture the agent if possible. If he resists capture…you'll have to put him out of his misery."_

 _"Understood."_ Nevan replied.

 _"Wait…are you saying we might have to…kill him?"_ Garret asked.

 _"Yes, you idiot!"_ Nevan angrily replied, _"Unless you want to have this dimension destroyed like Heartland! You saw what Ruri-Sama showed us."_

 _"Yeah…but…"_ Garret protested.

 _"It is enough."_ Ruri sighed, silencing her two disciples. _"Hopefully, nobody will have to die, but know that neither he nor any other Academia agent will show you any mercy. We need to be prepared to defend ourselves. If they fight us, we have to fight back harder. I need you all to be ready to do what needs to be done, or a lot more people's lives will be destroyed."  
_  
 _"Yes, Ruri-Sama."_ Nevan acknowledged without a second's hesitation.

Garret seemed to think for a moment before replying. _"I'll protect this dimension."_

 _"That's all I ask for."_ Ruri replied with a nod before returning her attention to the duelists, who were lining up towards the starting line. Both her brother and Crow were eager to begin dueling, their faces hardened with determination.

That face her brother was wearing, one so fierce, enduring, and resolute... it brought to Ruri's mind the face of another she had seen since arriving in the Synchro Dimension. One that ought to have brought her joy, but now was tormenting her even more than her anguish at being unable to reunite with her brother.

Ruri brought her knees up to her face, and hugged her legs as she thought of him. Why had she seen Yuto when she had been watching Yuya's duel? She had put out of her mind the absurd possibility of Yuto pretending to be Yuya, using an entirely different deck, and fooling Yuzu into thinking he was Yuya for no reason. They looked exactly the same physically, just as she looked identical to her counterparts, but she knew well enough from her experience getting to know Rin that the counterparts' individual personalities were a different matter. Those differences in personalities left identifying marks in the individual faces of the counterparts. She had looked into Yuya's face and seen that he was most definitely not Yuto. Furthermore, when she had looked at the ghostly companion floating next to him, there was no mistaking the person for her long lost friend. He was right there, somehow bound to Yuya as a spirit.

But how?

She tried recalling what Yuzu had said about meeting Yuto. Ruri did not feel that Yuzu had lied to her about anything, or otherwise attempted to misrepresent past events. Quite the contrary, everything she had said about sometimes seeing Yuto in Yuya's eyes had been confirmed to be true. Somehow, Yuto was no longer a part of the mortal plane…or, at least…not as corporeal as he had been before. Jatun Waqar had confirmed that what she had seen was indeed the spirit of Yuto, so there was no doubt that Yuto had somehow passed away.

But how!?

That question continued tormenting her. Who had killed Yuto? Had he died looking for her? Had Academia cornered him and killed him? How was Yuya involved?

She had the sickening image of Yuya being Yuto's killer momentarily flash in her head before brushing it off as ridiculous. Yuya was an entertainment duelist like Yuzu. Something like murder would be something he would be incapable of. Right?

But what if there was a misunderstanding?

The face of Yuri flashed into Ruri's mind. According to Yuzu's account, Yuto had mistaken Yuzu for Ruri when he first met her. What if he had made a similar mistake with Yuya? What if he had somehow learned of Yuri, and then, when he met Yuya, a fight had broken out? Ruri didn't want to think of Yuto acting in such a vengeful fashion, but how could she blame him if he had? She had felt those same feelings, and even now, as she thought on Yuri's cruelty, couldn't help but feel a sadistic desire to face the arrogant boy who dared to mimic Yuto's looks, and use her new powers to give that Fusion monkey exactly the payback he deserved.

What if Yuto had felt the same way? What if, in his desire to find her, he had gotten into a fight with Yuya, thinking he was Yuri, and then…?

Ruri's jaw clenched as she thought of Yuto being overpowered in some way and then killed. She still couldn't picture how Yuya could have ended up killing Yuto and binding him to himself as a ghost, and at any rate, Ruri couldn't just automatically assume Yuya's guilt like that, especially not when Yuzu had vouched for him so sincerely.

But the fact still remained. No matter what she chose to believe, Yuto was still there, bound to Yuya somehow and forced to live his existence as a spirit.

But did he really have to live that way?

Ruri began thinking of Rin and Yuzu, who had also died. She had raised them from the dead with her powers. Should she do the same with Yuto? Could that have been the reason she was chosen to bear this power? Was she to be the means of giving her loved ones a second chance at life?

The thought of Yuto standing by her side, clad in her same dark robes, bearing a mark similar to hers upon his own body filled her head, but this time, it felt more like a vision than a simple daydream, like the thoughts she had had in the Underworld shortly before accepting Yuu's offer to become a Dark Signer. She saw the two of them, holding hands while looking upon a Heartland that had been liberated from Academia's oppression and which was slowly being rebuilt. As she looked upon the vision, she felt in her heart that her homeland had been liberated because the two of them had fought Academia.

Together.

If Ruri's heart had been alive, it would have been hammering against her chest, so powerful were the emotions flooding through her at the moment. She felt at once, hope, uncertainty, anxiousness, eagerness, desire, and even, ever-so-slightly...guilt.

"Yuto!" she breathed, reaching out her hand as if to grab him from Yuya and pull him into her arms.

But he was nowhere to be seen. He was still lost to her. He had been taken from his life and forced to endure an existence Ruri was almost certain he could not have desired.

"But now…" Ruri thought with a smile, joyful tears streaming down her eyes, "with the gift I have been given, I can bring you back! Just like I did with Rin and Yuzu."

Suddenly, even as she began feeling comfort from the thought of raising Yuto from death, the thought of Rin's suffering after her resurrection immediately caused Ruri to recoil from the thought.

What she, Rin, and Yuzu had was not life. It was, Ruri thought, perhaps better than total death, but their new existence had caused them all to suffer. She couldn't just rip Yuto from the grave against his will just because she wanted him. That would be unbelievably selfish.

And what if Yuto really was content with his current existence? "What if…" Ruri thought, fear rising within her, "…he doesn't really want to be with me again?"

Ruri wiped the tears from her face and exhaled slowly, thinking about how she had approached the resurrection of Rin and Yuzu. Both of them had chosen to bear the mantle of Dark Signer by their own free will. She could give Yuto the same opportunity.

"If he accepts my offer…" Ruri said to herself, "…I will embrace him with all my heart and stand by his side forever as he copes with the changes over himself." She closed her eyes. "And if he refuses…" she swallowed painfully, "…then I will still care for him. I will thank him for all the happiness he gave me, and wish him complete happiness and contentment in his new existence."

She stood up from her pillar, nodding her head with determination, despite the anxious feelings still nagging at her. Thinking on how Yuto had continued fighting for what he believed in as he looked for her, she resolved to do the same as she sought to reclaim him.

She would continue fighting against Academia just as he had, and help others do exactly the same.

"Starting…" she whispered, looking down at Shun, "...with you, brother."

…

As Shun burst onto the track-way alongside his opponent, Crow, he couldn't have felt more filled with purpose. Academia, and other enemy factions were all around him. Dennis had turned out to be an Academia spy, the corrupt government of Synchro could not be trusted, and Sergey had recently killed an ally to the Lancers. The Lancers themselves, even if most of its members were the allies they claimed to be, had shown that they could not be relied upon. Yuto and his other friends in the Resistance had been the only comrades he could depend upon, and now, with them all gone, he was truly the last person who could accomplish the task of defeating Academia and saving his sister.

But despite his loneliness, far from feeling deterred, Shun felt driven more than ever to continue in his fight, knowing that all would fail should he fall.

His opponent, Crow, pulled up right alongside him in his shiny black-and-orange D-wheel, Blackbird.

"Just so you know…" Crow called, pulling up the visor on his helmet to look at Shun, "…even if Shinji's been defeated, I will still carry on his legacy and defeat you just like he would!"

"Today, I will determine if you are truly a friend or an enemy." Shun curtly replied, not even bothering to look at Crow, but instead keeping his attention directed forward at the track ahead.

"Same to you!" Crow retorted, turning his own head towards the upcoming track. "I'm definitely defeating you!"

From up above their heads, Melissa Clair's distinctive voice rang out.

"Our contestants are eager to begin!" she called, "This will surely be one exciting match, and one you have waited a long time for! Field activate!" she declared, snapping her fingers into the air. "Crossover Axel!"

From holographic projectors all across the city, holographic energy was spread out along with the Action Cards for Crow and Shun's duel. In front of the two duelists, a countdown timer began counting down.

3…

2…

1…

GO!

Slamming down on their accelerators, Shun and Crow rushed forward both of them, staying neck and neck with each other as they each fought to ignore Melissa Clair's commentary on the special track reserved for their duel, due to Shun's destruction of the last track, and the roar of the crowd. Each of them, instead focused all their attention on winning the duel as they fought to accomplish their respective goals.

Eventually, Shun began inching ahead of Crow, who continued fighting hard, determined not to give up the chance to go first. However, with an extra push on the accelerator, Shun blasted forward, inching ever and ever closer to the beginning line.

That's when the lane suddenly changed.

"Nani!?" Crow and Shun exclaimed in unison as, without warning, the track-way ahead suddenly rose up like a draw bridge before an adjacent pair of tracks lowered to form a completely new path. Instinctively, Shun began simultaneously pulling on his breaks and leaning to the right in order to turn his bike around and not fall of the track.

Due to his quick actions, he succeeded in evading a deadly crash, but not before Crow had managed to use Shun's loss of momentum to his advantage and pull past the track-way's checkpoint and gain the first turn.

"DUEL!" Crow triumphantly called, pulling out his opening hand.

"DUEL!" Shun angrily called back, furiously struggling to not let the strange event of the lane inexplicably changing distract him from his duel.

Meanwhile, in his office, Jean-Michell Roger watched the Duel with increasing anxiousness and trepidation.

"Make sure Shun is not harmed!" he angrily called to one of his subordinates. "I need him to lose this duel, but I need him alive if my plan is going to work!"

"Apologies, chief." His subordinate called back. "We will make sure Shun's bike does not go off the track during future lane changes."

"See that you do." Roger snarled back, before wiping some sweat from his brow. All things considered, he felt he ought to have been more relaxed with some of his plans finally going through without any pesky resistance from the Earthbound and their infernal servants.

Sergey's augmentation was nearing completion, his engineer had successfully prepared six G.H.O.S.T. for a field test, and had further promised that more were well on the way. He had Yuya as well and was preparing him for surgery as he watched the duel. His forces were also approaching Rin's orphanage, and soon he would have Shun in his custody.

However, despite this progress, he still could not rest easy. Not until the Earthbound were defeated, and, to a lesser extent, until Academia's invasion had been repelled.

"Strange…" Roger thought, "…that I'm not nearly as worried about Academia now as much as I was first thing this morning."

Ruri was also thinking the situation was strange. She, of course, had only seen two duels in the Friendship Cup, but in neither of those duels had there been such a change in the lanes. The suddenness of it struck her as dangerous. Still, both duelists had been okay, and now Crow was beginning his turn.

"The first move is mine!" Crow declared, rubbing in his initial victory even more by snagging an Action Card from the track while Shun fought to keep up. "Now the Commons' voice will be heard!"

"Oh, gee..." Melissa complained, "…can we please not do this again!? The last thing we need is for the audience to be riled up with such hateful rhetoric!"

Inwardly, she began wondering if she'd need to cut out the audio once again. Fortunately, Crow didn't launch into a passionate speech about revolution, and instead proceeded with his turn.

"I'll start by Normal Summoning the Level two monster, Black Feather - Fane the Steel Chain!" Crow declared, slamming down a card in his hand.

Alongside his bike, a blue portal opened up and a small humanoid blackbird, who was wearing ninja clothing, appeared, letting out a little raven caw before assuming a martial art pose, a holographic indicator showing an ATK of 500.

"And now…" Crow continued, holding up two cards as he and Shun passed into an area filled with overhanging skyscrapers, "…since I control a Black Feather monster, I can summon these two monsters from my hand! Come forth, Black Feather – Oroshi the Squall and Black Feather – Harmattan the Sandstorm!"

Next to Fane, two more monsters appeared through two new blue portals. Oroshi appeared as a small blackbird with feathery blue eyebrows and a large red wattle under his beak, while Harmattan appeared as a larger blackbird with heron-like legs, orange tipped wings, and a large red feathery crown over its head. Next to Oroshi, a holographic indicator showed a Level of one and an ATK of 400, while an indicator next to Harmattan showed a Level of two and an ATK of 800.

"I now activate Harmattan's effect!" Crow declared, "This little bird of mine can target one of my Black Feather monsters and increase its Level by that monster's Level! So targeting the Level two Black Feather – Fane the Steel Chain, I increase Harmattan's Level from two to four!"

Around Crow's Harmattan, a swirling cloud of sand enveloped the monster, which let out a low shriek as its Level rose from two to four.

"The stage is now set for a Synchro Summon!" Crow declared, extending his hand towards his monsters, "I tune my Level two Fane and my Level four Harmattan with my Level one Oroshi the Squall!"

Shrieking in unison, all three of Crow's monsters spread out their wings before taking flight, Oroshi taking the lead, before Oroshi morphed into a single green ring which enveloped the other two birds as Crow began his summoning chant:

"Spread your jet black wings and slice across the air with the force of a storm! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! LEVEL SEVEN! ASSAULT BLACK FEATHER - RAIKIRI THE SUDDEN SHOWER!"

Above Crow, the skies darkened as a pillar of white light from the Synchro Summon shot into the dark clouds before disappearing. In a massive thunder clap, Crow's Synchro Monster, a large humanoid bird man in heavy armor, with one metallic white wing and one feathery black wing, descended to his field. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed a Level of seven and an ATK of 2600.

"Summon as many monsters as you want." Shun taunted, using Crow's momentary diversion of attention towards his own monster to obtain a lead, "I will tear them all down."

"Not if I tear you down first!" Crow retorted, throwing down a Spell Card. "I next equip my Raikiri with Spinning Blade of the Trailblazer!"

In each of Raikiri's hands, a large crescent-moon-shaped blade appeared, which Raikiri expertly twirled around before posing with one blade outstretched and one blade held back, ready to strike. Next to Crow's monster, a holographic indicator showed its ATK rise to 3400.

"Spinning Blade of the Trailblazer gives Raikiri 800 more attack points, but that's not all it does!" Crow explained with a smug expression on his face as Shun continued pressing his small lead. "Once per turn, I can inflict 400 points of damage to you for every Synchro Material I used to summon him! That's three materials so you take 1200 Points of damage! GO RAIKIRI! TRAILBLAZER TORNADO!"

Shun heard Crow's explanation, but he was focused on something else. His small lead against Crow hadn't been wasted, for up ahead, just within his reach, an Action Card rested on the trackway, light reflecting off the bubble in which it was suspended.

Slamming down on the accelerator, Shun launched his bike forward, gunning for the Action Card with all his might even as Raikiri began pursuing him, slashing its crescent blades through the air and sending three blasts of air his direction.

Shun leaned over, reaching his hand out for the Action Card…

When the lane changed again.

Eyes widening with shock, Shun was forced to quickly right himself as the lane ahead rose up and the Action Card disappeared before an adjacent lane formed to his and Crow's left. With a grunt, Shun noticed his bike's autopilot automatically guide his vehicle into a slower left turn, giving Crow the ability to pass by him while Shun simultaneously received three violent blasts of wind against his face, nearly knocking him off his bike while reducing his Life Points to 2800.

Shun, however, though frustrated, remained undaunted. He had faced far worse hardships during the invasion, and none of that had succeeded in breaking him. And he was about to show Crow why.

"Monster effect activate!" Shun angrily retaliated, slamming a card onto his Duel Disk. "Raid Raptor - Avenge Vulture can Special Summon itself from my hand since I took damage!"

Next to Shun's bike, a large sleek robotic vulture appeared to his field before a holographic indicator appeared next to the monster, showing a Level of four and an ATK of 1700. Flying silently and invisibly above the two duelists heads, Ruri couldn't help but smile with pride at her brother's quick recovery.

"Remember this, Crow." She thought to herself, "No matter how much you damage my brother, he will NEVER stop fighting!"

 _"You place a lot of faith in Shun."_ A mature feminine voice mused within Ruri's mind.

Ruri nodded her head in agreement. Although it had been shocking at first to hear Jatun Waqar speak, she had gradually gotten used to the spirit's council and commentary.

 _"You know of my thoughts towards him."_ Ruri replied. _"I mean every bit of them. He_ is _the greatest man I have ever known."  
_  
 _"Including when compared with Yuto?"_ the spirit teased.

Ruri smiled wryly at the comment. _"That, my dear Jatun, is none of your business."_

The spirit seemed to chuckle at her comment. Most likely, she was perfectly aware of the full extent of Ruri's feelings towards both individuals and had no real need to speak with Ruri to know of them. It wasn't an arrangement Ruri particularly enjoyed, but she had managed to tolerate the inconvenient breach in privacy out of respect for the spirit and because the spirit, unlike other companions, could be completely and utterly discreet.

Meanwhile, on the duel lane beneath Ruri, Crow had already managed to come up with a counter of his own.

"Ha! Did you forget about Raikiri's effect?!" Crow asked with a smug grin, as he pulled his bike in front of Shun to keep him from passing him. Above his head, Raikiri readied his weapons as if preparing to strike once again. "Once per turn, I can destroy cards on the field equal to the Number of Black Feather monsters I control. So with one Black Feather on my field, I can destroy that Vulture of yours right away!"

 _"A shame your brother's play was countered so quickly."_ Jatun Waqar commented as she and Ruri watched Raikiri toss both of his crescent blades into Shun's Avenge Vulture. Whirling through the air, the blades easily sliced through the thin joints connecting the robotic vulture with its metallic wings. crashing to the ground, the robotic vulture shattered into shards of scrap metal before exploding in a burst of sparks.

However, neither Shun nor Ruri looked concerned. On the contrary, Shun was giving Crow a hardened but calm look, as if he had expected his vulture to be destroyed.

 _"Wait for it."_ Ruri instructed as she felt Jatun's puzzlement.

 _"I can see it in your mind now."_ Jatun replied.

"I did not forget about your monster's effect." Shun retorted, pulling another card from his hand, "My vulture was bait!"

"WHAT?!" Crow exclaimed, looking back at Shun with a stunned expression on his face.

"Monster effect activate!" Shun declared, slamming down his card with a calm and calculating expression on his face before extending his hand forward towards where a blue portal had opened up. Through the portal, a pitch-black robotic bird with wings like a spy drone, a pair of missiles tucked under the wings, and a set of six, large, red robotic eyes, appeared to Shun's field, a holographic indicator showing an ATK of 1200.

"Since you destroyed my Vulture…" Shun explained as Crow continued to look on with stunned disbelief, "I can Special Summon Raidraptor - Ambush Lanius from my hand, and when I do, you take 1000 points of damage!"

"Oh, come on!" Crow protested, "Does everything I do enable you to summon another monster!?"

"Ever since the invasion," Shun explained, "My life has been a never-ending battlefield! I am always prepared for the worst! Raidraptor – Ambush Lanius!" Shun ordered, pointing his fingers at Crow, "Surprise strike!"

Letting out a high-pitched shriek, Ambush Lanius let loose the pair of missiles tucked under its wings, launching both of them straight at Crow as he leaned on his bike to make an upcoming turn.

"ACTION MAGIC! STRENGTH TRAINING!" Crow countered, slamming the Action Card he had picked up earlier. "Up to twice per turn, during this turn, if I take any effect damage, I can reduce that damage to zero and then add that damage to Raikiri's attack points!"

Crow's Raikiri launched himself in front of the two missiles and braced himself for impact. Holding out his armored left arm, he knocked aside one of the missiles before it could hit Crow, causing the missile to spin uselessly away from its target, before bringing both his crescent blades down on the other missiles, slicing it into three segments which exploded into holographic dust. Letting out a mighty roar, Raikiri flexed his feathery muscles as his ATK rose from 3400 to 4400.

"Turn end!" Crow declared, turning his attention back towards the road. "I've faced a lot worse than that as a Common," Crow recounted. "You'll have to fight a lot harder if you're going to defeat me."

"The Resistance has faced far more than mere oppression." Shun retorted, earning him a nod of approval from Ruri. "But no matter how great our trials have been, we have always managed to overcome! I will defeat you, for the sake of every one of my comrades, living and dead, and for the sake of my family! ORE NO TURN! DRAW!"

"I'm here for you, Shun." Ruri whispered from overhead, "Whether you know it or not."

"Summoning Monster!" Shun declared, slapping a card onto his Duel Disk. "Raidraptor - Napalm Dragonius from my hand!"

Over Shun's head, a large robotic bird with a very long serpentine metallic tail, a blue head, and a pair of smaller bird wings appeared to the field. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator showed an ATK of 1000.

"I will next activate the magic card, Raidraptor Call!" Shun declared, throwing down a spell card. "With this card, I can Special Summon a Second Napalm Dragonius from my deck!"

Twisting its long serpentine body through the blue portal, a second Napalm Dragonius joined its brother before opening its mouth and letting out a shrill cry that was accompanied with a small breath of fire from its mouth.

"Those look more like dragons than birds." Crow commented, giving Shun's two new monsters an appraising look.

"And for good reason." Shun replied, stretching his hand towards his monsters. "I next use both of their effects! Each Raidraptor – Napalm Dragonius can inflict 600 points of damage to my opponent's Life Points! Go! Napalm Firestorm!"

Flying parallel with each other, each of Shun's Napalm Dragonius rose into the air before arching back their heads simultaneously and letting loose a fire-hose blast of orange flame from each of their large beaks as the thrusters on their wings pushed them forward towards Crow's bike.

"Direct Crow to H-827." Roger ordered as he monitored the duel.

Just as the wall of flames was about to reach Crow, the two Napalm Dragonius suddenly halted their coordinated attack as the track in front of the two duelists rose up before both duelists were forced into an abrupt right turn through a pair of large skyscrapers.

Gripping the handle of his bike tightly with his right hand, Shun stretched his left hand forward towards his two monsters.

"Continue with the attack!" he ordered, managing to stay upright.

Obediently, the two Napalm Dragonius looped back around before charging towards Crow and releasing another jet of flame towards his bike. However, not too long after making the turn, Crow managed to grab an Action Card.

"ACTION MAGIC! ENCORE!" Crow called out, as he felt the heat from Shun's attack steadily increasing. "This lets me target an Action Card in my Graveyard and use its effect again! The card I choose is Strength Training! So now, I will reduce the damage from your two Napalm Dragonius to zero and add that damage to Raikiri's Attack Power!"

Once again, rather than take damage, Crow's monster quickly jumped forward. This time, however, rather than attempting to swat away the flames, Raikiri began performing a quick barrel roll through the air, holding out his two crescent blades and generating a massive tornado, which blew back the flames and scattered the two Napalm Dragonius, who retreated back to Shun's bike.

Resuming its original position, Raikiri struck a muscular pose before his already massive ATK of 4400 rose to 5600.

"Why do the lanes keep changing?" Ruri asked herself, looking on with frustration as the erratic change in the duel lane messed with her brother's strategy once again. Was this supposed to make the duel more exciting, or were the managers of the duel worried about Shun destroying something important and trying to redirect his explosive attacks to another area?

Either way, it was becoming very annoying. Still, even with this latest inconvenience, Ruri was confident her brother would still achieve victory like he always did.

"You can make your monster as strong as you want…" Shun remarked, pressing down on the accelerator in order to catch up to Crow, "…but in the end, it won't matter!" he extended his hands towards his three Level four monsters. "I overlay my two Napalm Dragonius with My Ambush Lanius! With these three Level four Monsters, I construct the overlay network!" Shun proclaimed, watching as each of his three monsters changed into three separate streams of purple light before draining into a large galaxy-shaped black-and-gold Xyz Portal that appeared on the ground in front of Shun before exploding into a blast of multi-colored light, as he commenced his summoning chant:

"Mighty Falcon Lurking in the Shadows, extend your talons, sharpened by adversity and spread the wings of your rebellion! XYZ SHOKAN! APPEAR NOW! RAIDRAPTOR - RISE FALCON!"

Letting out a mighty high-pitched shriek, Shun's signature ace-monster descended from the sky, flapping its metallic wings through the air as it extended its massive metallic talons towards Crow and his monster. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator appeared and showed a small ATK of 100.

"You went to all that trouble just to summon that monster?" Crow asked incredulously, staring at the Xyz monster's insignificant ATK.

"Equip Spell, Activate!" Shun continued, ignoring Crow's comment, "Raptor's Ultimate Talons! By equipping Rise Falcon with this card, it gains 700 ATK and it cannot be destroyed by card effects!"

Over Rise Falcon's feet, a set of massive crimson talons with glistening chrome points on the end appeared.

Lowering one foot to the ground, Rise Falcon seemed to test out one of the blades, letting out a pleased shriek as the sharp claws smoothly and effortlessly left a gash in the track-way like a diamond on glass. Next to the monster, indicators showed its ATK rise to 800.

"Rise Falcon effect's activates!" Shun declared, pointing up to his bird, which absorbed one of its glowing overlay units into its chest before letting out another high pitched shriek and soaring high into the air. "I detach one Overlay Unit to have it gain attack power equal to the combined attack of all Special Summoned monsters you control!"

"NANI!?" Crow exclaimed in disbelief as Shun's Rise Falcon burst into flames like a phoenix as its ATK rose to 6400.

"It doesn't matter how weak we appear." Ruri murmered.  
"No matter how powerful our enemies become, the resistance will always overcome!" Shun proclaimed, unknowingly finishing his sister's sentence. "BATTLE! EKAY, RISE FALCON! ATTACK RAIKIRI THE SUDDEN SHOWER! BRAVE CLAW REVOLUTION!"

Swooping into a rapid dive, Rise Falcon extended its flaming talons towards Crow's Raikiri, intent on destroying the monster. Crow sped his bike forward, attempting to reach a distant Action Card, but both Shun and Ruri could easily see that he would never make it to the distant bubble in time.

However, as Rise Falcon approached Crow, the lanes changed once again, causing both Ruri and Shun to gasp with shock as, with the miraculous and timely change in the lanes, Crow was immediately redirected to a nearby Action Card, which he was able to easily pick up while Rise Falcon was forced to pull up and recommence its attack anew.

"Something's wrong!" Ruri silently hissed, eyes narrowing at Crow's unbelievable luck. It had been one thing to notice the lanes frequently changing during the duel, but now Ruri was beginning to notice a pattern in the changes. Was it just coincidence that every one of the track changes had occurred whenever Crow had been threatened?

"I will not be deterred!" Shun roared, "Rise Falcon, continue your attack! BRAVE CLAW REVOLUTION!"

Crow watched as Rise Falcon ignited into a flaming bird once again and swooped down towards his monster before looking at the Action Card he had drawn.

Unfortunately, despite his luck, the Action Card was a card called Nullify, something that couldn't help him now.  
Raikiri raised up his blades to parry the attack from Shun's charging falcon, but before he could even do anything, Rise Falcon quickly swiped past Crow's monster, slicing apart Raikiri's blades and leaving a massive flaming gash in the monster's chest as it raked across the monster with its sharp burning talons. Letting out an anguished cry, Crow's monster exploded in a fiery blast, scattering feathers everywhere as shockwaves from the attack slammed into Crow, reducing his Life points to 3200.

"Looks like your Action Card couldn't save you this time." Shun commented, fixing Crow with a hard glare from his eagle-like eyes.

Crow brushed aside the comment, looking away from Shun before placing the Action Card in his card holder for later.

"I don't need Action Cards to beat you." Crow retorted. "My true strength can be found in the bonds I share with my Common friends! With the strength of those bonds, I will certainly defeat you!"

Shun glared back at Crow, saying nothing in return.  
"Ultimate Talon's Effect Activates." Shun finally continued, staring up at his Rise Falcon, who had returned to his side, "Since Rise Falcon inflicted Battle Damage to you, I can add one Rank-Up-Magic Quick-Play Spell Card from my deck to my hand!" He added a card to his hand before shuffling it in with the rest of the cards. "Setting one card face down! Turn End!" Shun declared, as his Rise Falcon's ATK dropped back to 800.

"Just wait Shinji, Damon, Tony, Frank, Amanda, Tanner." Crow thought to himself. "I haven't forgotten why I'm fighting. I will certainly win this tournament for you!"

…

"Hurry!" Tanner called to his companions, Amanda and Frank, as they struggled to keep up with him. Despite his much smaller size and shorter legs, it seemed like the small round-faced child had developed super-speed as he raced forward and jumped down a tall stone wall in his attempts to get to the track-way where Crow was dueling.

"Be careful!" Amanda warned, following behind Frank as he jumped down the wall. "Security is still out! If we're not careful, we might get caught!"

"But I need to get to Crow!" Tanner insisted, ducking underneath a gap in a chain-link fence before Frank and Amanda followed behind, with her tearing another hole in the bottom of her already ragged dress as she did, much to her annoyance.

"We'll get to him." Frank reassured the hyperactive little boy, as they dashed across a street, passing by a patrol of Security officers before they could notice them. "Don't worry, we'll be able to support him like we promised we would!"

"Do you think Crow has the card I gave him?" Tanner asked, as they clambered up the steps of a very tall and wide overpass, at least twenty-five meters tall and seventy-five meters wide.

"Scapegoat?" Frank asked, picking Tanner up and carrying the little boy up the stairs when he had stopped in front of them to pant for breath. "I actually hope he isn't using that one. It's not that good."

"Frank!" Amanda scolded, putting her hands on her hips as Tanner began looking upset.

"I'm just saying!" Frank protested. "It's good for stalling, but it can't really do that much."

Tanner started to cry.

"Now look what you've done!" Amanda scolded, bonking Frank on the head, who was looking a little guilty, if not somewhat pained by her blow, before taking Tanner from him and giving the boy a little hug.

"Don't worry…" she soothed, "…Scapegoat is a great card, remember what Crow showed you when Frank was beating you with Colossal Fighter?"

Tanner blinked at Amanda, wiping away some tears with his pudgy hand before nodding his head.

"You were getting beaten by Colossal Fighter." Amanda recounted as she carried Tanner up the steps. "The only thing you had protecting you were your Scapegoat tokens, and Colossal Fighter had already destroyed one of them. You summoned Genex Controller, but it didn't have much attack, and we all thought you were gonna lose because Colossal Fighter had thirty-six hundred attack. Do you remember what happened, then?"

Tanner nodded. "Crow showed me that even if my monsters weren't that strong when they were apart, if they were united, they could become stronger."

Amanda nodded her head. "Remember how surprised we were when you drew United We Stand and beat Colossal Fighter with Genex Controller after you equipped your monster with that card?"

Tanner nodded his head, smiling proudly to himself.  
"I still beat you though…" Frank began, "…I had a copy of De-Spell, so I was able to…"

Amanda gave him an angry look.

"But…it was still a really good move." Frank hastily corrected, as all three of them clambered on top of the overpass before looking down at the distant track-way. "I guess Scapegoat can be pretty good if you use it right."

"Crow will have that card." Amanda reassured Tanner, "And he'll be able to win with it."

Tanner happily nodded his head before rushing over to the edge of the overpass to lean over the railing. As he anxiously awaited the arrival of Crow, Tanner thought hopefully on the strength Crow had shown him when his monsters became united. Just like he had helped them stay strong when they were together, Tanner would be here to help Crow stay strong as he faced his new opponent.

…

"Ore no turn! DRAW!" Crow declared with determination, yanking a card from the top of his deck. Looking at the card he just drew, he grinned.

"No matter how many times we Commons are beaten down…" Crow confidently explained, "we will always be able to come right back! And I'm about to show you how! Since I control no monsters, I can Special Summon the tuner monster, Black Feather - Gofu the Hazy Shadow, and when I do, two Hazy Shadow Tokens are Special Summoned to the field with it!"

Above Crow's bike, a massive tornado burst onto the track-way, knocking Shun's bike back and forcing the Xyz duelist to close his eyes as dust was blown into his face. In the center of the tornado, a small birdman bound in chains sneered at Shun through a hazy mist before stretching out his two wings and summoning two transparent ghosts shaped like birds. Holographic indicators showed that Gofu had a Level of five and a DEF of 0, while the two Hazy Shadow Tokens had a Level of one and a DEF of 0.

"Gofu is a bit different from other tuner monsters!" Crow explained with a smug expression on his face, "You see, instead of Synchro Summoning a monster from the Extra Deck, Gofu can use his effect to allow me to Synchro Summon a monster that's in my Graveyard!"

"WHAT?! YOUR GRAVEYARD!" Shun exclaimed, looking shocked.

"Correct!" Crow affirmed, a determined expression coming over his face as the two ghostly birds whirled around Gofu like a tornado as they, Gofu, and Crow become obscured by a swirling vortex of hazy dust.

"This is the power of Commons! This is the power of Phantom Synchro Summoning! I tune Gofu with my two Hazy Tokens!" he declared, extending his hand towards his monsters as Gofu vanished inside the mist with a shrill cry, before Crow began his Synchro Summoning chant:

"Spread your jet-black wings once again and rise from the grave with the force of a rain storm! PHANTOM SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! APPEAR NOW! ASSAULT BLACK FEATHER - RAIKIRI THE SUDDEN SHOWER!"

Bursting forth from the phantasmal haze of dust, Raikiri rose to the field once again, spreading out his powerful heterochromatic wings and roaring loudly, as Rise Falcon shrieked right back at the monster.

"Since that Talon Card prevents your Rise Falcon from being destroyed by card effects, I'll just destroy your equip card instead with Raikiri's Effect!" Crow declared, extending his hand towards his monster, "Ekay, Raikiri!"

Unsheathing his sword, Raikiri sliced the blade through the air, sending a shockwave of electrically-charged wind straight into Shun's monster, slicing off the sharp ends of Rise Falcon's upgraded talons before the rest of the equip card exploded in a shower of holographic sparks and Rise Falcon's ATK dropped to 100.

"NOW! GO, RAIKIRI, ATTACK RISE FALCON!" Crow ordered, extending his hand towards Shun. Raising his sword into the air, Raikiri charged forward, wings propelling him forward with immense speed as he prepared to cleave the robotic falcon in two. Shun, however, looked ready to meet the attack.

"Monster Effect Activate! Raidraptor - Booster Strix!" Shun countered, showing a card in his hand. "By banishing this card from my hand, Raikiri is destroyed!"

A small, blue robotic owl with large rocket boosters for feet appeared behind Shun's Rise Falcon before igniting both its thrusters, causing Shun's monster to rocket forward to meet Crow's monster.

"He is quite persistent." Jatun Waqar commented as Ruri watched Shun's counterattack. "I can see why you admire him as you do. I wonder…" the spirit mused before her voice slowly faded into the back of Ruri's mind.

But Ruri wasn't listening to what her spirit was saying, for she was watching the track. Now, with Shun about to gain the advantage once again, she would be able to see if the theory that had formed in her mind on the nature of the duel was correct.

"ACTION CARD ACTIVATE! NULLIFY!" Crow declared, throwing down the Action Card he had picked up earlier. "I can activate this card once per turn if you activate a card or effect! This will negate the effect of your Booster Strix and hit you with 500 points of damage!"

Just as Rise Falcon was about to ram into Crow's Raikiri, the effect of Crow's Action Card sent out a blast of energy into Shun's monster, knocking back the robotic falcon before causing the attached Booster Strix to malfunction and explode. Shrieking in pain, Rise Falcon flailed through the air, desperately flapping its somewhat damaged metallic wings as it attempted to right itself.

Shun was faring no better as the blast from Crow's Action Card slammed against his bike, causing Shun to grit his teeth in pain as his Life Points dropped to 2300. However, leaning forward on his bike, Shun took advantage of Crow's focus on his attack to speed forward and pass Crow, heading towards an Action card up ahead.

Anticipating what would happen next, Ruri swooped down, heading for the same Action Card her brother was heading towards.

Sure enough, just as Shun was about to reach the Action Card, the track ahead rose into the air, cutting off Shun's chance at survival before a new track formed to the left, with no Action Cards ahead for many meters.

"What's going on!?" Shun exclaimed, staring in utter disbelief at the track-way ahead as yet another lane change thwarted his plans.

Even Crow was looking confused, however, thinking of the people he was fighting for, he brushed aside the concerns arising in his mind and refocused his attention on his attack.

"Continue the attack, Raikiri!" Crow ordered, "Finish this duel!"

"YOU WILL NOT GAIN A VICTORY YOU DIDN'T EARN!" Ruri mentally roared as she swooped down and grabbed the Action Card Shun was headed towards before it disappeared. Flapping her translucent wings through the air with all her might, she raced ahead of her brother, cursing the unfairness of the situation.

"How dare Roget do this!" Ruri snarled, shaking some hair from her face as the speed of her flight blew it into her eyes. "Were you planning on getting to me by striking at my brother!? Well, congratulations!" she hissed, a sadistic smile coming over her face. "You've managed to tick me off! Now you're about to learn what happens when I stoop to your level and decide to cheat!"

She dropped the Action Card, which reformed its floating bubble, onto the track ahead of Shun, before launching herself back into the air and praying for Shun to make it in time.

 _"You helped him."_ Jatun commented, _"Even though it was technically against the rules."  
_  
"I wouldn't have done it if this duel wasn't already rigged." Ruri replied. "I'm not going to let Roget win here!"

Jatun Waqar seemed to be considering her words.

 _"I wish to assist you in this,"_ the spirit finally whispered. _"I have seen your brother's nobility for myself and have seen the opposition he has faced. He has remained a powerful force even as others have tried to knock him down. He is driven in his goals, ruthless towards his enemies, and eternally loyal to his allies."_

"He is." Ruri whispered, watching with growing anticipation as Shun charged forward.

Down on the track, Shun was fighting desperately to find a way to escape defeat, but he could think of nothing he could do. His Booster Strix had been countered, leaving him with no other options but finding an Action Card.

However, when he had tried to obtain the Action Card, the lane had changed and led to a lane where there was no…

…No…

Shun's yellow eyes widened as he spotted it up ahead. Where there had once been empty air, just a few feet from him, there was an Action Card suspended in its bubble. Reactively slamming down on the accelerator of his bike, Shun rocketed forward, snagging the Action Card and playing it just as Raikiri sliced through his Rise Falcon, causing the massive robotic bird to explode in a massive fireball.

"ACTION MAGIC! RECOVERY!" Shun declared, glowing with an aura of golden energy just as shockwaves from Raikiri's attack slammed into his bike, causing Shun to get enveloped in a massive explosion.

Racing ahead, Crow zipped through the explosion while Melissa Clair declared his victory from up ahead.

However, contrary to what Melissa reported, instead of the smoke clearing away to reveal a defeated Shun, Shun's bike suddenly rocketed out of the smoke, a holographic indicator displaying his Life Points at 2400 instead of at 0 like everyone was expecting.

"Before the damage went through," Shun explained before Crow could protest, "I activated the effect of the Recovery I obtained! This card enabled me to gain Life Points equal to the ATK of the attacking monster, raising my Life Points to forty-nine hundred before I lost twenty-five hundred from Raikiri's attack. With this card, I have enough Life Points to continue the duel!"

Up above, Ruri silently rejoiced that her brother was still undefeated.

Over in Roger's office, it was a different story.

"HOW DID SHUN GET AN ACTION CARD!?" Roger roared over the intercom at his subordinates, who were supposed to be monitoring the duel and making sure Crow's victory was assured.

It was absolutely unbelievable! He had Shun! HE HAD SHUN! He was just about to quickly and smoothly take Shun into his custody WITHOUT having to resort to interrupting the Friendship Cup to arrest the teenage boy on the spot, subsequently risking a riot from the Commons. But now, because of a brilliant display of incompetence from his subordinates, who had ASSURED him that the lane change led to no Action Cards for Shun, Shun had, beyond the Chief of Security's wildest beliefs, obtained an Action Card, one that not only allowed him to barely stay in the game, but one that could potentially enable him to turn the game around with the Rank-Up card Roger KNEW he had set!

Sure enough, just as Roger had predicted, Shun activated it.

"Now for my true recovery...and my victory!" Shun declared, extending his hand towards his face-down card. "Quick-Play Magic Card, Activate! Rank-Up-Magic - Death Double Force! With this card, I can Special Summon Rise Falcon back from my Graveyard and then Rank It up for a monster whose Rank is Double that of my Falcon! NOW, RISE FALCON! OVERLAY!" Shun ordered, triumphantly raising his hand into the air as his Rise Falcon rose up from the graveyard through a black portal in the ground.

Shun began his summoning chant: "Dauntless falcon, hoist up the flame of anger, become the flash of light that burns the land to ash! RANK UP, XYZ CHANGE! RISE UP AND SOAR! RAIDRAPTOR - SATELLITE CANNON FALCON!"

As the Xyz Portal burst into a blast of multi-colored light after Rise Falcon completed its transformation, Ruri looked on in wondrous awe upon the brilliant white robotic bird, remembering with fondness how Shun had used the monster in his last duel to defeat Dennis and avenge both herself and their fallen comrades.

She was not the only one who remembered the monster.

"I remember that monster!" said Crow ominously, as the sunlight glinted off Satellite Cannon's brilliant crimson and white armor. "You may have beaten that Dennis kid with that monster, but you won't beat me! Not so long as I have the bonds I share with my friends! I set two cards face down! Turn end!" Crow declared, setting down two cards from his hand.

 _"Do you think your brother can win now, even if Roger still controls this track-way?"_ Jatun Waqar asked Ruri as she continued flying above the two contestants.

 _"He would have won long ago if Roget wasn't intervening,"_ Ruri replied. _"But if he tries to rig this duel again, I'll be here to thwart his plan once again!"_ she resolved, clenching her fist in anger.

 _"I will be there to help you."_ The spirit agreed before seeming to almost smile to herself. _"And there is another who has agreed to help us at this time. With his help, I believe we can not only help Shun win this rigged duel, but take control of this entire match from Roget's unworthy hands."  
_  
Ruri's eyes widened at Jatun Waqar's statement. As she continued flying, she felt as if there was another distant presence that had entered her being. Her body felt colder and darker, but also stronger and more empowered as the presence took hold.

 _"Who are you talking about?"_ Ruri asked, nervously fingering her bracelet.

 _"My father."_ Jatun Waqar replied simply.

 _"You have a father?"_ Ruri asked, surprised that the godly entity that lived within her had family.

 _"He is currently bound, just as I was bound before I found you."_ Jatun Waqar explained, _"But we remain close, just as you remain close with your own brother. That despicable Dark Signer, Yuu Hashimoto…"_ the spirit snarled, surprising Ruri with the immense rage that began flooding her body, _"…has consistently blocked him from enacting His will. But thanks to your power, He finally has an opening through which He can exercise His power!"_

 _"What are you talking about?"_ Ruri asked, wondering what the spirit was talking about. Yuu had introduced himself as a servant of the Earthbound. How was he holding a god equal to Jatun Waqar back?

Jatun Waqar seemed to read Ruri's thoughts.

 _"Have you never wondered…"_ Jatun Waqar asked, _"…why Yuu Hashimoto bears so many marks upon his body when you, Rin, and Yuzu each bear only one?"  
_  
Ruri blinked as she remembered the many marks that had adorned Yuu's body when she had first met him. At the time of her resurrection as a Dark Signer, she hadn't thought much on the fact that she had been endowed with only one mark…no…with one spirit, Jatun Waqar.

But now… it did seem rather strange that Yuu had borne so many marks. Every time she had used her power to resurrect someone as a Dark Signer, that person had been bound to one Earthbound God. Just ONE Earthbound God. She thought again on the dozens of marks all over Yuu's body. Was he really binding THAT many spirits inside himself all at once!?

Ruri felt a shudder of discomfort pass through her body. She had not minded Jatun Waqar's presence, and had even slowly come to grow close to the spirit who shared her vision of defeating Academia. At times, her godly way of thinking seemed foreign to Ruri, but she could not deny that Jatun Waqar possessed immense wisdom. Still, the concept of having that many spirits inside one person seemed like an unnatural arrangement to Ruri...like trying to ride a dozen horses at the same time rather than forming a bond with just one.

 _"Where you bound to Yuu before?"_ Ruri cautiously asked, _"What is happening with Yuu? Why does he have that many spirits bound to his body?"  
_  
Ruri felt feelings of immense displeasure and fury from Jatun Waqar, none of it directed towards her, but instead, directed towards the Dark Signer who had first enabled Ruri to rise from the dead.

 _"I will tell you later, but I do not wish to speak of it now."_ Jatun Waqar sullenly mumbled. _"For now, understand that where we were once gravely limited, through you, many of us have found our path to freedom. Through you, I and my father can now give Shun the power he has long deserved."_

Ruri swallowed as she slowly processed the spirit's words before returning her attention to the duel.

 _"We'll see if it comes to that."_ She whispered.

 _"I will be here when you make that decision, and will support you whatever decision you make."_ Jatun Waqar promised, fading once again from Ruri's immediate consciousness.

"ORE NO TURN! DRAW!" Shun proclaimed, yanking a card from the top of his deck before extending his hand towards his large monster. "Satellite Cannon Falcon effect activate! By detaching one Overlay Unit, Raikiri loses 800 attack points for every Raidraptor in my Graveyard. I count Rise Falcon, Avenge Vulture, Ambush Lanius, and my two Napalm Dragonius, so your monster loses 4000 attack points!"

In front of Satellite Cannon Falcon, the ghostly images of each of Shun's fallen monsters appeared before transforming into dust and getting absorbed into Satellite Cannon Falcon's central orb. Letting out a high-pitched shriek, Satellite Cannon Falcon aimed a set of six forward-facing cannons towards Raikiri before unleashing six intense bursts of energy into Crow's monster, sending Raikiri flying backwards as his ATK dropped to 0.

"BATTLE! SATELLITE CANNON FALCON! ATTACK RAIKIRI! AVENGING LIGHT!" Shun ordered as Satellite Cannon Falcon launched itself into the air with its large green thrusters. However, unlike in his duel with Dennis, Satellite Cannon Falcon didn't fly all the way up into space, but simply rocketed about five miles into the atmosphere before unfolding the panels on its back and charging up its cannon for a devastating attack, the large golden energy mark of the Raidraptors materializing over its back.

'Trap Card Activate!" Crow countered, extending his hand towards his Trap Card, "Black Feather Surprise Assault! When you attack a tuner monster I control, which Raikiri is thanks to its effect, I can Special Summon one Level five or Lower Assault Black Feather Synchro Monster from my Extra Deck by negating its effects and changing its ATK and DEF to 0! So give a warm welcome for Assault Black Feather - Sohaya the Summer Rain!"

From up above Crow's head, a thunderbolt slammed into the field, bathing the surrounding area in a momentary flash of light. When the light dimmed, a smaller bird man with dark blue wings appeared next to Raikiri, letting out a determined "Ha!" as a holographic indicator appeared next to it and showed an ATK of 1500, which quickly dropped to 0.

"It doesn't change anything." Shun retorted, pointing his finger at the still weakened Raikiri. "Satellite Cannon Falcon, continue the attack!"

"It changes everything!" Crow bellowed, raising his fist into the air. "Witness the true power of the bonds we Commons share! With the power of Surprise Assault, I can immediately perform a Synchro Summon using my Level seven Raikiri and my Level five Sohaya!"

Letting out a loud shriek, Satellite Cannon Falcon fired a massive beam of energy down at Raikiri, blasting a hole into a nearby sign as the column of energy descended to the field below. However, before the energy blast could connect with Raikiri, Raikiri and Sohaya both launched out of the way of the blast before Raikiri morphed into a set of seven green rings, all of which enveloped Sohaya as Crow commenced a new summoning chant:

"Legendary Jet-Black Wings! Soar through the sky and strike down with the almighty power of a thunderstorm! SYNCHRO SHOKAN! APPEAR NOW! ASSAULT BLACK FEATHER - ONIMARU THE DIVINE THUNDERBOLT!"

As Crow's new Synchro Monster burst free from the column of light, the entire sky above Crow's head was bathed in lightning. Crow's new bird man wore elegant black-and-orange metallic armor with lightning-themed patterns. His right wing was bare, with pitch-black feathers, while his left wing was metallic. In his hands, the monster wielded a large lightning-bolt shaped sword which crackled with intense electricity as he sliced it through the clouds. Letting out a thunderous roar, Crow's new monster flexed its muscles as a holographic indicator appeared next to it and showed an ATK of 3000.

Shun looked around the field after the monster appeared, trying to spy an Action Card, but found none.

"So now you have a monster whose power is equal to mine." Shun reluctantly admitted, gripping the handles of his bike. "Very well, then. I end my turn!"

"They won't be even for long!" said Crow, placing his hand on top of his deck. "THIS IS FOR ALL OF MY COMRADES! ORE NO TURN! DRAW!" he roared, yanking a card from the top of his deck. Looking down at the card he had just drawn, he smiled when he saw what it was.

"Scapegoat." He murmured, remembering the good-luck card Tanner had given him. "Thank you, Tanner, I will not let your feelings go wasted!"

"I set one card face-down!" Crow declared, setting Scapegoat face-down. "And now, BATTLE! ASSAULT BLACK FEATHER – ONIMARU THE DIVINE SWELL, ATTACK RAIDRAPTOR SATELLITE CANNON FALCON! BLACK LIGHTNING STRIKE!"

"But our monster's attack powers are equal!" Shun protested, "They will just destroy each other!"

"Not with Onimaru's effect, they won't!" Crow countered. "You see, because I used only Synchro Monsters to summon him, Onimaru gains a whopping three-thousand attack when he battles your monster! GO, ONIMARU! ATTACK AND END THIS DUEL!"

"NO!" Ruri protested from up above as Crow's monster began charging up towards Satellite Cannon Falcon with extreme speed. Knowing that Shun would not be able to obtain an Action Card with Roger interfering with the duel, Ruri raced towards the nearest Action Card.

 _"It is time, Ruri!"_ Jatun Waqar called from within Ruri. _"Will you accept our help!?"  
_  
Ruri hesitated for only a moment as Onimaru came just a few feet from connecting with Satellite Cannon Falcon, who tried in vain to evade the swift attack as Onimaru's ATK swelled to 6000.

"DO IT!" Ruri called back, "Let's defeat Roger, TOGETHER!"

Ruri snagged an Action Card from a track-way separate from the one Shun and Crow were riding on before feeling immense power from an outside source flow into her mark before coursing through the veins in her arm and into the card she had plucked from the track-way.

As she carried the card towards her brother, she felt the card transforming in her hand as the card became enshrouded in shadows and the picture and text changed.

 _"The Action Card will not be enough!"_ Jatun warned. _"Extend your hand towards your brother! Unleash the energy I and my father have given you into his deck and grant Shun the power he needs to obtain victory!"  
_  
Ruri did as Jatun Waqar instructed, holding out the hand not holding the Action Card and launching a stream of black shadow into Shun's deck before depositing the transformed Action Card in front of Shun. Shun, alert as ever, did not fail to notice the sudden appearance of the Action Card, and though surprised once again by its sudden appearance, did not hesitate to lean over and snag it from the track-way.

Above his head, his Satellite Cannon Falcon was desperately struggling to evade Onimaru's furious attacks, launching energy blast after energy blast at the lightning swift bird man as Onimaru continued damaging Satellite Cannon Falcon's metal armor with swift strikes from his blade and bolts of lightning he summoned from the surrounding clouds. Shun would need to activate the Action Card now if he had any hope to stay in the duel.

However, once Shun had raised the Action Card to his face and looked at it, he stared at it with confusion.

Earthbound Shroud.

Its effect wouldn't save him, but even with this disappointment, Shun was still determined to not lose, as hopeless as it looked for him. There was still a path to victory. If he activated the Action Card quickly, perhaps he could find another Action Card and activate that one before he lost.

"ACTION CARD, ACTIVATE!" Shun declared, "EARTHBOUND SHROUD! With this card, I can target one Earthbound or Enshrouding Spell Card in my deck and activate it immediately!"

"What good will that do?" Crow asked, fairly certain he had neither heard of Shun using either Earthbound or Enshrouding cards (whatever those were).

Roger was similarly confused, though any confusion he felt was greatly overshadowed by his complete and utter disbelief.

"EARTHBOUND? EARTHBOUND!?" He shrieked, hopping up and down from one foot to another like a madman dancing a jig. "WHAT'S GOING ON!? HOW!? WHY!?"

"…Chief?" One of his subordinates nervously asked.

"STOP THE DUEL!" Roger roared. "STOP THE DUEL, STOP THE DUEL, STOP THE DUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!" he bellowed, tearing at his hair as his face became a pale mask of complete and utter horror.

Meanwhile, on the track-way, Shun continued his turn.

"Even if it can't do anything…" Shun replied, "…I can still…"

Shun was suddenly interrupted when, to his complete and utter surprise, a lone card popped out of his deck before glowing with intense electric-yellow energy.

Curious, Shun pulled the card from his deck and stared at it.

What was it?

Upon looking at it, Shun suddenly felt as if a massive dark cloud had overshadowed him and the rest of the field. All time around Shun seemed to slow to a standstill as the entire world darkened and a deep male voice filled his head.

 _"I have heard your cries, child."_ The voice rumbled with the deep rumbling of a thunderstorm.

Shun looked around in stunned disbelief, trying to make sense of what was going on. All around him, he saw the city in utter ruin. Looking desperately around, Shun saw with horror the terrifying forms of Antique Gear Chaos Giants rampaging through the Synchro Dimension city, legions of Academia Soldiers marching through the streets and carding every Synchro soldier and civilian in sight.

Shun tried to speak, but all he managed to get out was a hoarse, "What…?"

 _"I have watched you, child."_ The voice continued, _"I have beheld all your struggles, all your pain, and all your fears. I know what is to come. I have foreseen the dangers the people of this dimension are blind to!"  
_  
"Who…are…?" Shun gagged, struggling to comprehend the madness that had suddenly gripped him, but feeling unable to speak. He was in a lot of pain, feeling as if a massive surge of energy had entered his body and was threatening to make him explode.

But it was not just physical pain. Emotionally, he was feeling intense rage and fear, the kind he felt on the battlefields of Heartland, only this was even more intense. He was sweating, clutching at his chest, feeling like he would, at any second, get caught by his enemies and destroyed unless he destroyed them first!

 _"Your enemies are all around you."_ The voice continued, _"One is before you even as we speak! Remember what your enemies have done to your homeland!"_ The voice instructed as the scene of the city around Shun instantly transformed into an image of Shun's ruined home of Heartland.

Shun's eyes widened with shock.

"What's happening!?" Shun bellowed, panic flooding through him now. "Who are you!?"

The voice however, didn't respond with words. Instead, Shun caught glimpses of something powerful. Something massive. It was bathed in thick black clouds, which rumbled with angry thunder. Appearance wise, it looked avian, like a massive ancient and ghostly vulture. Even as Shun caught glimpses of the creature, Shun could feel the creature staring down at him.

 _"Remember what they have done to your friends!"_

Images of Shun's comrades in Synchro getting transformed into cards before getting collected by Academia filled Shun's mind. Reliving the scene in his mind, Shun couldn't ignore the intense wrath rising inside him like a raging fire. Why was he seeing this!? Was this about to happen again!? No! He couldn't let it happen! He HAD to stop it!

 _"Remember what they have done to your sister!"  
_  
Ruri's face flashed before him.

"RURI!" Shun called in horror, before a set of demonic hands grabbed away the image, roughly dragging his sister into the shadows. Inside him, the fire of Shun's rage intensified into the fires of a raging volcano, threatening to break free and destroy everything in its path.

 _"Remember these things."_ The voice instructed. _"And accept my miracle I have given to you! Rejoice, my child! For you have the power to stop this evil! You have the power to avenge your homeland, friends, and family against your enemies! Rage against the ones who destroyed your home!"_

Shun could feel it, the rage was there, growing ever stronger!

 _"_ _Rage against the ones who destroyed your friends!"_

They were gone. Slain by his enemies. Shun saw and heard them laughing. Not an ounce of remorse for the people they'd murdered! Not an ounce of justice brought against them!

 _"_ _Rage against the ones who took your sister!"_

They had taken her! She who had done nothing to deserve her fate! Someone completely good and innocent! Why had she suffered!? Why weren't they suffering!?

 _"_ _RAGE!"_

It was growing! The rage was growing! 

_"_ _RAGE!"_

It hurt now! But Shun welcomed it, embraced it! He would have his enemies suffer the same! Let THEM feel this pain!

 _"_ _RAGE!"_

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Shun screamed.

 _"_ _RAGE!"_

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

 _"_ _RAGE!"_

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Shun bellowed, feeling like he would explode.

 _"_ _RAGE AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES AND SMITE THEM ALL WITH MY POWER!"  
_  
Shun felt renewed purpose and power coursing through his veins. He looked down the dark track-way at his distant opponent, Crow, who had been frozen in time, and clenched his fists with fury. He saw him now for what he was. He had had his suspicions before, but now he was absolutely certain!

He was an enemy. Just like Dennis had been. He was another opponent he had to tear down in order to defeat Academia and save his sister! Everywhere was a battlefield for Shun, ever since that horrific day of the invasion so long ago! But Shun knew that no matter how many enemies bore down against him, he HAD to destroy them all! And with the card he had been given, whether by miracle or not, Shun somehow knew with absolute certainty that he COULD win!

There was only one thing that was still bothering him.

"Who are you?" he called to the voice, this time with much more strength and purpose than fear.

 _"I am your future."_ The voice replied. _"I have chosen you to carry out MY will! Through me, you shall obtain your victory against ALL your enemies! Take the card I have given you, and grasp that future NOW!"  
_  
Shun's head jerked back as he awoke on his bike. He felt blood leaking from both his nostrils and both his ear openings, his throat was dry and raw, and an immense pounding headache was thundering against his skull.

But despite his pain, Shun felt extremely energized and empowered, as if he could destroy all of Academia with his bare hands if he chose to.

And he did choose to.

"RANK-UP-MAGIC: ENSHROUDING FORCE ACTIVATE!" Shun roared, eyes glowing with electric-yellow light as he slammed the card onto his Duel Disk. "With this card, I can multiply my Satellite Cannon Falcon's Rank by Negative One and then I can Dark Xyz Summon one monster from my Extra Deck with a rank that's two ranks higher!"

"Shun?" Crow nervously asked, noticing the blood trickling down Shun's face and the mad glow in his enraged eyes. Roaring like a tortured demon, Shun threw back his head as a column of shadow exploded around his bike, rocketing up towards his Satellite Cannon Falcon, which became engulfed in a sphere of thick black shadows. As the shadows grew in size, Onimaru was thrown back from Shun's monster.

"SHUN!" Ruri called, her voice filled with concern as she watched her brother's pain.

"Fear not!" Jatun Waqar reassured Ruri, "He is becoming empowered! Soon, his pain will grant him the power to overcome all of our enemies!"

"WHY IS HE BLEEDING!?" Ruri panicked, eyes clamping over her mouth as she witnessed the terrible effects of the card she had given her brother in the hopes that it would help him.

 _"_ _You must have faith!"_ Jatun instructed. _"My father shall not allow Shun to die, and neither will my father! Because Shun is neither Dark Signer nor Disciple, he is suffering much strain upon his mortal body, but the sacrifice MUST be made! You know this, Ruri! Remember the pain you have endured! If this is not done, then Shun will fall into Roger's hands, and soon, all of our plans will be for naught!"_

"I can't leave Shun like this!" Ruri wept.

 _"_ _Look more closely upon your brother."_ The spirit reassured Ruri. _"See for yourself. He is not in true distress. He welcomes the power you have given him, despite his pain. Respect his wish to struggle and let him overcome the pain in order to gain the ultimate victory!"_

Ruri looked down upon her brother, noticing that Jatun had spoken truthfully. Shun was bleeding from the strain, but he didn't look tortured or distressed. Riding his bike with a godly aura of energy emenating from his body, Shun looked more mighty and godly than Ruri had ever imagined him to be. She was still concerned, but Ruri nevertheless decided to hold back as Shun's monster began transforming, promising herself that she would intervene if Shun's condition worsened.

Within the sphere of darkness, Shun's Satellite Cannon Falcon began shrieking in pain as its body turned translucent, revealing eight gold-black spheres inside of its body, which slowly changed to a creamy translucent color before Satellite Cannon Falcon's body once again became opaque.

"With this…" Shun groaned, pain tearing through his body even as he felt immense strength and power coursing through his veins, "…my path to victory begins!" From one of his eyes, Shun felt a trickle of blood run down his nose like a tear.

"You're hurt!" Crow exclaimed, pulling back his bike as Shun continued bleeding.

"SILENCE, ENEMY!" Shun roared, voice gaining strength and power as it took on a godly quality. "I HAVE NO NEED FOR YOUR PITY! ALL THE PAIN, ALL THE SUFFERING, ALL THE DEATH WE HAVE ENDURED, I SHALL AVENGE IT ALL NOW WITH YOUR BLOOD! GO, MY SATELLITE CANNON FALCON! OVERLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

Roaring like a demon, black lightning began ripping through Shun's body as he arched his head up to look upon his Satellite Cannon Falcon, which began shifting shape within its sphere of shadow as the sphere of darkness dragged his monster down to just above his own head. Once the sphere of darkness had descended, the surrounding shadows slowly dissipated, revealing, to Shun and Crow's utter surprise, Shun's Raidraptor – Revolution Falcon, flying above Shun's head.

"What?" Shun asked, looking upon his Xyz Monster with confusion.

But there was something wrong with Revolution Falcon. Its armor looked blackened and rusted, as if it had been decaying for thousands of years. The monster was quivering with what looked like fear, bolts holding its metallic body together rattling as it trembled and let out weak croaks of pain. Despite the intense rage Shun was feeling, and his determination to sweep away his enemies, Shun couldn't help feel horror at his monster's suffering. Looking into his monster's robotic eyes, Shun could almost swear his monster was pleading with him to stop.

It got worse.

Letting out a shriek of terror, Revolution Falcon threw back its head, rending the air with its cries as Shun, Ruri, Crow, and the rest of the audience looked on, some with horror and others with excitement. In an explosion of dust and rusty metal, the outer casing of Revolution Falcon's metallic body blew apart, revealing something that took Shun's breath, and the breath of almost every other onlooker away.

Beneath the metal armor of Shun's monster was the emaciated and wounded body of a large featherless cyborg falcon. A massive life-support system was hooked up to its chest, pumping blood through its thin body like a heart, while another device expanded and contracted over the bird's chest like a pair of mechanical lungs. Its thin wrinkly flesh was covered in scars, and its two feet were completely missing, replaced with small metallic prosthetics.

"Why?" Shun murmured, trying to understand what he was seeing. Why was this wrinkled and emaciated creature living inside his proud and majestic Revolution Falcon?

Shun's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as, without warning, a massive golden mark, which Shun couldn't quite make out, appeared over Revolution Falcon's bare chest, causing the emaciated cyborg to roar with even more pain as its body slowly turned translucent, and it compacted into a singularity that began forming in the center of its body.

Shun felt another wave of intense pain, but it was quickly overshadowed with feelings of rage, determination, and empowerment as he raised both his hands into the air and commenced his summoning chant in a deep and powerful voice that sounded like two people talking instead of one:

"Restless and persecuted falcon imprisoned for too long within a hard metal shell, shed the cold metallic prison from your scarred and wounded body, enter the black void, and rise up again in flames as a ruthless predator whose fiery vengeance obliterates all in your path! RANK UP, DARK XYZ CHANGE! UNLEASH HELL! RAVAGE RAPTOR CARPET BOMB CONDOR!"

From the center of the singularity, massive bolts of black lightning launched themselves into the sky and into the surrounding area, blowing holes into buildings, streets, and cars as more and more of the surrounding space seemed to get sucked into the vortex in space and time.

Imprisoned within the Executive Council building, Reiji, Reira, and the Executive Council watched the duel, some with worry on their faces, some, like Reiji, keeping their faces impassive, and others, like the Chairman, looking delighted.

"You did not mention Shun possessed the ability to Dark Xyz Summon." The Chairman smiled, delighted by the variety of new summoning methods the tournament was showing.

"Shun has never possessed that ability." Reiji curtly replied, narrowing his eyes at the scene of destruction.

"Pardon?" The Chairman asked, looking confused.

Reiji, however, was not listening to the Chairman, his attention was focused on someone else.

"Hurts!" his adopted brother, Reira, cried out in agony, eyes bugging out of his head as he clutched the sides of his blue hood with his hands. "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts so much! Stop it! Stop hurting it! Stop hurting it!"

"Reira!" Reiji called, kneeling down to hug his brother against his chest in order to comfort him. But nothing seemed to be able to calm the boy's distress.

"They hurt!" Reira continued, "But they're angry! So angry! Stop it! Stop it! Stooooooooooooooooop iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" he screamed, rending the air with his agonized cries.

"WHY HAVEN'T YOU STOPPED THE DUEL!?" Roger raged, at his subordinates.

"The controls aren't working!" one of the subordinates panicked.

"Our computers won't respond!" another one replied.

Suddenly, all the power in the Public Security Maintenance Bureau Headquarters abruptly went out, leaving everyone inside in total darkness, before the power switched on again.

However, when the computers flickered back into life, they had changed.

The screens of every computer in the facility had darkened, their entire surface dominated by a large golden mark-shaped vaguely like a vulture. Its wings were broad and tall, like a set of two tombstones, while its feet were spread out over a large triangle-shaped tail on the bottom. Its head was thrown back, with the beak reaching into the air, as the entire mark glowed with intense light.

"CHILDREN OF SYNCHRO!" A deep and powerful voice boomed across the intercom of the building, causing everyone working inside the facility, including Roger, to stop and stare with their mouths agape. "YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE FIRST TO TAKE PART IN THE GREAT ASCENSION! REJOICE, OH CHILDREN OF SYNCHRO, FOR YOU SHALL BE PART OF A NEW UNIVERSAL ORDER!"

"What's going on!?" Roger breathed, looking desperately around. One of his subordinates, a brown-haired lady, entered the room.

"Chief!" She exclaimed, "We don't know how it happened, but somehow somebody has seized control over our system! Whoever they are, they're broadcasting this message throughout the city!"

Roger screamed at the subordinate, who ducked out of the room as he threw his chessboard at her in sheer fury.

But her words were true, all throughout the city, Commons and Tops alike were watching the duel with their mouths agape as the voice continued to address them.

"YOUR LEADERS HAVE LIED TO YOU, THINKING THAT THEY COULD RIGHTFULLY RULE THIS WORLD! BUT YOU ARE LEAD FAR ASTRAY BY THEIR FOOLISHNESS!"

"Uhm…" Melissa Clair murmured, not sure what to say. "…it seems that Shun's new summoning method…Dark Xyz Summoning…has quite a few surprises."

"What's going on?" A Common in the stands whispered.

"Earthbound!" another elderly man whispered.

"What is going on!?" Ruri whispered to her spirit, panic entering her voice once again.

 _"_ _Be still my child."_ Jatun reassured Ruri. _"My father simply likes to have a bit of dramatic flair accompany each of his entrances, even if he is merely exhibiting the tiniest bit of his essence and power at this time."_

"The voice!" Ruri protested.

 _"_ _It is like when you and I have spoken as one."_ Jatun explained. _"Right now, my father and your brother are in sync. Their wills align. Look upon your brother if you have doubt."_

Ruri looked down at her brother and gasped with a mixture of shock, surprise, worry, and awe as she gazed upon him.

Meanwhile, Shun was surprised to find that despite the loudness of the voice addressing the entire city, the source of the voice...was himself. Despite his shock, however, he continued his address, feeling empowered and elated, like it was his very purpose to carry forth the message of the voice.

"AT THIS TIME, MANY OF YOU DOUBT MY WORDS, MANY OF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU HEAR…NAY…MANY OF YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN TRUTHS YOU ONCE KNEW ALL TOO WELL! BUT YOU SHALL SOON LEARN! YOU SHALL ALL SOON SEE! I HAVE CHOSEN THIS ONE TO OPEN YOUR EYES! NOW, BEHOLD THE POWER OF A TRUE GOD'S SERVANT!"

Above Shun's head, the growing singularity expanded into a raging hole in time and space as the surrounding space seemed to collapse into itself, sucking in the surrounding loose matter. From within his Extra Deck, Shun pulled out a clear translucent card with six crème-colored stars on the right side of the card.

Slamming the card over his Satellite Cannon Falcon Card, Shun let loose a massive shockwave from the center of his card, slamming into Crow's bike and blasting out the glass of the nearby skyscrapers as a massive black monster unfolded from the center of the singularity.

Letting out a demonic ear-splitting raptor shriek, Shun's new monster caused Crow to cover his ears in agony as it drowned out the other sounds of the city. Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor looked like a cross between a B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber and a massive flaming robotic condor. Its broad metal wings, just short of the length of a football field, were a deep black with fiery orange-red tips glowing like metal straight from the furnace.

Its wings were flexible, enabling the monster to flap them through the air as a set of fiery-red thrusters propelled the monster silently through the air at supersonic speeds. Its talons were massive, a single foot big enough to pick up an entire bus. On its chest, a red symbol similar to the double R's of the Raidraptor blazed against its chest with burning yellow flames, but this mark was larger and spikier than the standard Raidraptor mark.

From the front of its plane-like body, a massive, metallic black neck stretched out, crowned by a black robotic head shaped like a condor's head. On top of its head, a large, metallic crown adorned the top of its head and ran down its metallic beak, while a small metallic fin shaped like a wattle ran under its beak and neck.

Unlike most beaks, the beak of Carpet Bomb Condor was lined with jagged teeth like a T-Rex, while a fire burned deep within its gullet. Over its face was a massive metallic mask with three V-shaped robotic eyes stacked atop one another, which glowed with burning red light like lasers. All over its body, lines of red-hot magma burned against its metallic body with a lurid orange glow, like the monster had recently bathed in a volcano. In the center of the monster's chest, a single patch of translucent metal revealed a large, shiny black crystal inside its body.

Letting out another loud cry, the monster spread out its wings, fiery lines burning against its skin, before a wave of shadow emanated from the center of the monster's body.

In defiance of the midday sunlight, the entire track-way was bathed in a deep darkness, causing Crow to cry out in astonishment. Along the edges of the track-way, purple flames erupted into existence, some of them tearing apart cars and buildings beneath the track-way as they cut through the ground.

Standing on the overpass, Frank, Tanner, and Amanda stood frozen in fear as the same wall of flame roared past the sides of the overpass, cutting away the stairs on either side and trapping the three children within a massive wall of purple flames.

"Emma…" Kazama murmured in stunned surprise, watching as the devastation to the track-way and surrounding city grew, "…what do we tell Natsumi about Shun?"

"What…the heck…is going…on!?" Emma heaved, barely able to breathe as the words of the demonic message and the reality of what was happening on the track slowly sunk in.

"This is my gift to you, brother." Ruri murmured as she watched the events unfold, staring up at Shun's and his new monster with a mixture of silent fear and awe. "Please be safe. Please let it help you. Please forgive me if I have hurt you in any way!"

Shun was not feeling hurt at all now. Shun was feeling elated, far more elated than he had ever felt in his entire life! Looking down at Crow with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, he regarded his opponent as an insect, an insect he would soon sweep aside.

"Now…" Shun breathed in his normal voice, an ecstatic smile coming over his features, "…now after all this time, we shall finally have our revenge! Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, rain down death!"

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Name: Adeel Haddad / Original concept by: AngeLight952 / Deck: Canine / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Semal Haddad / Original concept by: kaploblast / Deck: Celestial Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Lizette Leblanc / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Angelic Armor (other deck unrevealed) / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Natsumi Kazuki / Original concept by: Shimmering-Sky / Deck: Celestial / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard (when she's not too busy with the Shun fangirl club) / Status: Still mourning the loss of her cheesecake

Name: Joho Okubyona / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Freedom Fighters / Status: Active

Name: Lydia Shiunin / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Unrevealed / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and Freedom Fighters / Status: Active

Name: Jeremiah Frisk / Original concept by: Solphage / Deck: Video Games Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Nevan Bourne / Original concept by: Maes Lawliet / Deck: Graydle / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Garret Kinsley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Survivor / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Fluffals / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: ? / Allegiance: ? / Status: Happy to be a dog?

FEATURED FAN CARDS

Crow's Traps

Black Feather - Surprise Assault/ Trap/ Normal/ When your opponent declares an attack on a face up "Assault Black Feather" Tuner Monster you control, you can Special Summon one Level 5 or lower "Assault Black Feather" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck or Graveyard. Its effects are negated and its ATK and DEF become zero. Immediately after this effect resolves: Synchro Summon one "Assault Blackwing" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck using only those monsters as Synchro Materials. (If you cannot Synchro Summon a "Black Feather" monster from your Extra Deck using those monsters, banish those face-up monsters).

(Original concept by: Nox Descious)

Shun's Monsters

Raidraptor - Ambush Falcon/ DARK/ Level 4/ Winged-Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1500/ When a "Raidraptor" Monster you control is destroyed by battle or by an opponent's card effect, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent

(Original Concept by: Nox Descious)

Shun's Extra Deck

Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor/ _Stats unrevealed_ / _Effects unrevealed_

Shun's Spells

Raptor's Ultimate Talons/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip to a "Raidraptor" Monster you control. It gains 700 ATK. Also, it cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn, when the equipped monster inflicts battle damage to your opponent, you can add one "Rank-Up-Magic" Quick Play Spell Card from your deck to your hand.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious).

Rank-Up-Magic Enshrouding Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Multiply its Rank by -1. Then, you can Dark Xyz Summon 1 Dark Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck that is two Ranks higher than the targeted monster, using the targeted monster as a Dark Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that monster become Dark Xyz Materials on the summoned monster). _Other effects unrevealed._

(Original concept by: Donjusticia. Modifications contributed by: Nox Descious).

Action Cards

Nullify/ Spell/ Action/ When a card effect is activated, negate the activation of that effect and inflict 500 damage to your opponent. (You can only activate 1 "Nullify" per turn).

(Original concept by: Nox Descious).

Recovery/ Spell/ Action/ Target one monster on the field. Gain LPs equal to its ATK.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious).

Strength Training/ Spell/ Action/ Up to twice per turn, during this turn, if you would take effect damage, you can change the damage to 0, and if you do, you can target one monster you control: That target gains ATK equal to the damage you would have taken.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious).

Earthbound Shroud/ Spell/ Action/ Target 1 "Earthbound" Spell Card OR 1 "Enshrouding" Spell Card in your deck and, if the activation timing is correct, activate the targeted card immediately with this card's effect.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious).

 **Special thanks goes out once again to the "Signs of Renewal" team. Thank you Nox Descious for creating Shun's Duel against Crow and to CorinnetheAnime for proofreading and editing. Special thanks also goes to Shimmering-Sky for helping me get Natsumi's character just right. God bless you all everyone and stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to this duel! Until next time, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!**


	26. Part 1: Chapter 13 (Part 2)

**Welcome back everyone.**

 **It has been a long seven month hiatus, but I am not dead and this series is not over. We return in our adventure to the Phoenix Guardsmen who left to gather their allies in Xyz. What will they find there, and what enemies await them? Thank you all for your patience as you awaited this next chapter. Without further ado, enjoy.**

 **Part 1: Chapter 13 – Shadow of the Ravager (Part 2)**

 **Xyz Dimension**

"Did you hear something?"

Fang leaned back harder against the ruined wall of the stone building he was hiding behind when he heard the voice of the Academia patrol officer. The good news was that he would soon be leaving the accursed ghost-filled city with the valuable supplies he had gathered for both himself and a fellow Xyz survivor, Lee. The bad news was, that as he neared the city limits, the Academia quarantine patrols would grow thicker, with dozens upon dozens of soldiers looking for a chance to either collect on a bounty or receive a promotion.

Fang, however, had been fighting Academia for a long time now, both for his own survival and the survival of literally dozens of others who looked up to him as a leader. As a professional duelist, many had hoped his skills would protect them from the encroaching enemy who had so quickly overwhelmed the defenses of the entire world. He had organized his own branch of the resistance, and they had begun their own guerilla war against Academia in the hopes that the occupying forces would eventually give up after a consecutive stream of sabotage missions and ambushes.

They had failed.

After so many months of enduring loss after loss after loss, the war had taught Fang one lesson: Give up on beating them. It's impossible. The only victory you can win now is surviving.

And that was precisely what Fang was determined to do, at any cost.

Fang waited for what seemed like an eternity as the patrol swept through the nearby buildings with their powerful flashlights, necessary tools thanks to the thick layers of smog that had blocked out the sun over the ruined city since General Tarleton's genocidal campaign. After several heartbeats, one of the soldiers, a Slifer Red, turned to his Ra Yellow team leader.

"Do you think it was one of the ghosts?" the Slifer Red soldier trembled.

"Shut up!" the Ra leader hissed. "I already told you before. Those things don't exist. The only thing we have to worry about is Xyz scum scrambling out of the containment zone."

"But I saw one of them!" the Slifer soldier protested.

"What you saw was a holographic trick those Xyz scum have been trying to use to scare us. And unless you want to be court-marshalled, I suggest you never bring it up again!"

Fang felt the gashes that had torn open his left leg and hip. If only those ghosts really were fake.

After a few more heartbeats, the Ra leader finally motioned for the soldiers under his command to leave.

"We've been here all night. Let's head back to camp." He grumbled. "I hate this city more every day."

"Won't we be returning early?" one of the soldiers asked. "What if Commander Jorq finds out? He's bad enough to be around when he's in a good mood! My arms and legs can't handle any more forced drills!"

"I don't want to be on the receiving end of his temper." Another soldier agreed. "Did you hear he sent another squad on a forced retrieval mission against Kaito!? We could be next!"

The Ra leader seemed to consider this.

"We'll take the long way back." The Ra leader replied. "He'll never know."

"I don't know, Kurtis." One of the soldiers replied. "He's caught everything before. It's like you can't hide anything from him!"

"Jorq can get carded for all I care!" the Ra leader snarled before a knowing smile crept over his face, "And in just a little bit, he might someone might do us that favor."

"What do you mean?" one of the soldiers asked.

"I've been hearing some things from the Obelisk Force." The Ra leader explained. "Let's just say that we might soon be under someone else's command before too long."

"Are we getting transferred?"

"Only if we choose the right side." The Ra leader whispered before motioning for the others to follow him.

Fang listened to the conversation with little interest. Such cut-throat shifts in power were fairly commonplace and made little difference in the end. Even if dozens of cruel and ruthless Academia leaders were taken down, they would just be replaced the next day with even crueler and more ruthless leaders who would continue their genocidal war against Fang's world. Hoping for some kind of destabilization of Academia's chain-of-command was foolhardy. All that mattered to Fang now was waiting for the soldiers to get far enough away for him to exit the city limits with his supplies and live for another week.

When the coast was clear, Fang took the opportunity to lean forward and examine his leg and hip. As he had feared, he was bleeding copious amounts of blood from his wounds. He had had no time to tend to his gashes after being attacked by those…things, instead opting to put as much distance between himself and his attackers as possible. He had succeeded in escaping for now, but if he didn't want a blood trail guaranteeing further pursuit, he would have to stop the bleeding immediately. And to do that, he'd need some bandages.

Fang reached for the crimson resistance band he used to tie his long brown hair into a pony-tail before stopping himself.

"The resistance is dead." he thought to himself. "There's no point in keeping it."

So why couldn't he take it off?

For a moment, Fang saw the faces of all the people he had taken under his wing, every one of them wearing the crimson band of the resistance until the day they had been carded.

"You'll get yourself killed thinking like they did." He thought to himself.

Using a nearby dusty wooden stool, Fang elevated his wounded leg before extracting a hunting knife from his pocket and cutting fabric from the trouser of his left leg. Using the fabric, he did his best to clean the wounds before extracting the tip of a long black claw decorated with multi-colored patterns of lines and swirls from one of his gashes. The claw was unnaturally cold, as if it was sucking up all surrounding heat into a bottomless vacuum, but it didn't last for long. After removing it from his leg, Fang quickly cast the foreign object aside, watching as the claw dispersed into a cloud of black mist before disappearing completely.

Fang shoved a piece of fabric into his mouth before pulling out some medical supplies he had stolen from Academia soldiers. He had already used up almost everything else, but he still had a spool of thread and a needle.

A groan almost escaped Fang's lips when he had finished with his leg, but he managed to suppress it by biting down hard on the rag he kept between his teeth. Using the remaining pieces of fabric he had cut from his trousers, Fang finished bandaging up his wounded leg before carefully looking around the corners of the ruined wall and standing up once he had confirmed that the coast was clear.

Before rushing out, Fang cupped his hand to his ear. In the distance, he could hear the distinctive thumping of Antique Gear Golems, and the robotic howling of Antique Gear Hound Dogs. Several meters away in the other direction, Fang could make out the bright beams of light coming from another patrol of Academia solders and Antique Gear Search Hounds.

Taking advantage of the ruined state of the building, he used the crumbled wall as a stairway in order to boost himself onto a nearby low-hanging roof of another dilapidated building before ducking behind a charred chimney as a beam of light from a snarling robotic hound swept the area he had been hiding in. Forcing himself to count for ten seconds before moving, Fang quietly slid down the roof of the building before diving off the building and rolling onto the ground in order to reduce noise. Rather than get up immediately, Fang threw his long dull cloak over himself just as he heard the thumping of a massive Antique Gear Golem approach. The massive machine paused for just a moment to sweep the area with a beam of light from its robotic eye. Holding completely still, Fang briefly felt the heat of the light against his cloak as it swept across the ground before the light left him. There was a moment's pause, and then he heard the footsteps of the monster thundering off into the distance, with a squad of soldiers following close behind.

Fang waited until the sounds of the monster had completely faded into the distance before rising up from the ground and continuing his escape from the city, weaving over, under, and through various dilapidated buildings in complex, zig-zagging patterns as he did. After several blocks of ruined buildings, Fang finally made it to the empty sewage pipes he had used to enter the ruined city undetected in the first place.

Fang quickly ducked inside one of the pipes and began moving quietly and carefully through the cramped metal structure, cradling the valuable supplies in his arm as he did. For now, at least, he was safe. The pipes would take him on a long winding route far away from any Academia patrols, and once he exited, he would only need to travel just less than a kilometer more before he reached his hideout.

Coming to the pipe entrance, which lay just beneath a circular bowl-shaped hill, Fang took a quick glance around the area before emerging from the entrance.

The second his feet touched the ground, Fang immediately froze when he picked up the sound of heavy boots coming from the hill just to his left.

"I thought there were some rats skulking about in the sewers!" the voice of a Ra commander with spikey black hair and thick sideburns sneered.

Fang made a dash for some ruined buildings opposite the direction of his hideout, hoping to escape the commander, but his wounded leg hobbled his movements.

"I wouldn't try running." The Ra commander leered, making a small motion with his hand.

Growling in pain and frustration, Fang saw two Slifer Soldiers, one a short girl with brown hair and a headband in her hair, and the second an equally short boy with blonde hair, both of whom most likely under the Ra leader's command, surround him on the other side of the hill, Duel Disks out and ready to card him.

Fang caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers, the blonde-haired boy, pointing his disk at him and preparing to card him on the spot, but Fang was too quick, before the carding process could be initiated, Fang activated his own disk, forcing a duel to commence between the four players.

"So you're wanting to fight?" the Ra commander chuckled. "Well I suppose I can respect that. At the very least, it will be much more entertaining for us before we card you."

"DUEL!" Fang snarled, hoping to get things finished before things became even worse for him. Giving a quick look-through of the soldiers who had surrounded him, Fang could see that these were not any of Academia's professional operatives. More likely than not, these were simple bounty hunters, student soldiers fresh out of Academia who had gone off to the Xyz Dimension in order to make a quick buck and gain some recognition from their peers. His odds of beating all of them weren't too good, but Fang had sometimes managed to end duels quickly by scaring such undisciplined marauders away with his tactics.

"I'll start!" the Ra commander barked, drawing his opening hand first. "And just to make sure you don't try to run off again, I activate the Magic Card, Bounty Hunter Chains!"

"Yep, they're bounty hunters all right." Fang grimaced, remembering the effects of the horrible weapon the Ra leader had already activated. Instantly, from the central orb of the leader's duel disk, a webbing of chains crackling with electricity shot out before wrapping around Fang's own Duel Disk, hindering his movements. Next to the wrapping of chains around his arm, Fang noticed a holographic indicator show an ATK of 0.

 **Chain Token / EARTH / Level 4 / Machine / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Bounty Hunter Chains Special Summons one Chain Token to my opponent's field." The Ra leader explained with a bored expression on his face, as if he had already had to do this fifty times today, "In addition, while that token is on my opponent's field, my opponent cannot normal summon or set monsters. Furthermore, during each player's end phases, my magic card will inflict six-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points."

"I know how it works!" Fang growled, pulling back against the chains.

"Do you now?" the Ra leader replied with a smirk. "Well then maybe we can expect some worthwhile sport from you, assuming you can survive past your first turn that is."

That earned some laughs from the two Slifer students who had gathered around to watch.

Fang stood his ground, making no response, he had to encourage the leader to hurry before anyone else came, and exchanging banter with him was exactly the way NOT to end the duel quickly.

It worked. Looking unsatisfied with the lack of reception from his victim, the Ra leader decided to let his cards do the talking.

"I Normal Summon the Level two monster, Antique Gear Search Hound!" The Ra leader continued, slamming down his monster card. Through a blue portal next to the leader, a small black robotic dog with a long black snout and a search light on its back hopped onto the field before letting out a series of high-pitched robotic barks as it growled at Fang.

 **Antique Gear Search Hound / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200**

"Do you know how this monster works?" the Ra leader snickered, assuming the demeanor of a host on a quiz show.

"Yes." Fang blandly replied, knowing perfectly well how Academia's endless waves of mechanized monstrosities operated.

"You do!?" the Ra commander mocked, earning some more laughs from the Slifer Students. "Well then I guess I'll just activate its effect then!"

Antique Gear Search Hound let out a high pitched howl. Reaching into his deck, the Ra leader pulled out a copy of Antique Gear Hound Dog before slamming the monster onto his Duel Disk.

"Come forth!" he ordered, "Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

Through a second blue portal, a larger robotic hound with a broad tusked mouth leaped onto the field before roaring at Fang. Next to the monster, a holographic indicator displayed an ATK of 1000.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 3 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"And since you are clearly an expert on how all our cards work…" the Ra leader continued, "then how about I just activate this card's effect? Since you control the Chain Token monster, I can inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points! Hound Flame!"

The robotic hound opened its mouth and sprayed out a column of flame from its gullet. Yanking against the chain as the Ra leader and his subordinates laughed with glee, Fang managed to dodge out of the way of the main blast, but not without some of the flames singeing his right arm and sleeve, causing his Life Points to drop to 3400.

"I will next activate the effect of Antique Gear Hound Dog!" the Ra leader continued, "Since I control an Antique Gear monster other than itself, I can fuse the two Antique Gear Hound Dogs in my hand with the Antique Gear Hound Dog on my field in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Come forth now! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

Rising into the air, three copies of the Ra leader's mechanized hound dogs changed colors before blending together in the fusion portal in a swirl of red, yellow, and blue light. When they had finished combining, a larger three-headed robotic dog emerged from the portal, three robotic heads roaring in unison as it glared down at Fang.

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

"But my monster won't be staying for long." The Ra Leader sneered. "I learned this trick back at the Academy! Watch this! I activate De-Fusion in order to shuffle my Triple Bite Hound Dog into the Extra Deck and Special Summon all three of my Antique Gear Hound Dogs in defense position! Return to me now!"

Letting out a small roar, the Ra leader's mechanized hound dog transformed into a blur of light before splitting into three segments, which reshaped themselves into his three copies of Antique Gear Hound Dog.

"Triple Hound Flame!" the Ra leader ordered, activating each of his monster's effects.

Fang instinctively fell to the ground, covering the top of his head with his unchained arm as all three of the Ra leaders monsters unleashed a blast of flame at Fang. Fang was thrown into the air by the blast, dragging the Ra leader a few meters forward with him, before the physically fit Ra leader yanked on his chain and slammed Fang into the ground, laughing as he did so.

Fang struggled to lift himself off the ground as his Life Points dropped to 1600. It was standard Academia procedure. Weaken and discourage the opponent on the very first turn. If Fang had to bet, the next step would be offering him a chance to surrender.

"You're outclassed." The Ra leader boasted. "Give up now and you won't have to suffer anymore."

Fang shook the dirt from himself before glaring at the Ra leader, assuming a solid battle stance as he did.

The Ra leader didn't look pleased.

"I gave you a chance." He grunted, before continuing with a grin. "But I guess you could still provide us with some entertainment. I end my turn and subsequently activate the effect of my Bounty Hunter Chain!"

Instantly, bolts of electricity shot down the line of the chain and into Fang's body, causing the Xyz survivor to scream out in pain is his Life Points were knocked down to 1000. The pain forced Fang down to his knees, but thankfully, he still managed to stand."

"When you're done writing on the ground," the Ra leader leered, "Why don't you impress me?"

"My turn!" Fang growled, yanking a card from the top of his deck.

Wasting no time, Fang began his turn.

"From my hand, I activate the Magic Card, Super Soldier Origin!" he began. "This card enables me to Ritual Summon 1 "Black Luster Soldier" monster from my hand by sending 1 LIGHT or DARK monster from my hand and 1 LIGHT or DARK monster from my deck whose total Levels exactly equal the Level of the monster being Ritual Summoned!"

"Ritual Summon!?" the Ra leader protested, "But I thought you Xyz Scum used Xyz summons!"

"Using this effect," Fang continued, ignoring his opponent's reaction, "I tribute Beginning Knight from my hand and Twilight Knight from my deck in order to Ritual Summon Black Luster Soldier!"

Above Fang's head the image of a large dark galaxy appeared, a massive singularity raging in the center of the galaxy. On either side of the galaxy, two knights, one garbed in glowing white armor and the other clad in shadowy black armor appeared above Fang's head before getting sucked into the center of the singularity.

"Envoys of light and dark, creation and destruction, the beginning and the end, distill your essence into the soul of the warrior who shines with a black luster and become an agent of chaos! GISHIKI SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Black Luster Soldier!"

From the center of the singularity, a tall and mighty warrior with golden-and-black armor, a brown ponytail similar to Fang's, and a massive sword and shield leaped onto the field, swinging its sword through the air is it surveyed its opponents. Next to the monster, an indicator showed its ATK at 3000.

 **Black Luster Soldier / EARTH / Level 8 / Warrior / Ritual / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500**

"Three-thousand attack!?" the girl exclaimed, backing away in shock.

"Hold your ground!" the Ra leader angrily ordered. "He can only attack me since you two haven't gone yet, and almost all my hound dogs are in defense position. Even if he attacks my Search Hound, that's only twenty-four hundred damage!"

"And besides that," the boy sneered, "that monster doesn't even have an effect. We'll be able to get him with effect damage next turn."

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card, Chaos Current," Fang continued, causing a Spell Card depicting an image of a river of darkness and light flowing across the cosmos, "While this card is face-up on the field, any time a "Black Luster" monster I control banishes a monster with its effect, I gain Life Points equal to the attack of the monster it banished. Furthermore, any time a "Black Luster" monster I control would be destroyed, I can return one of my banished monsters to the graveyard instead. With that done, I activate the effect of Black Luster Soldier." Fang growled, glowering at the Ra leader with pure venom.

"What effect!?" the blonde-haired boy hissed. "That thing's just an overgrown non-effect Ritual Monster!"

"Since Twilight Knight was used in this card's Ritual Summon," Fang explained, not even bothering to look in the direction of the blonde-haired boy, "Black Luster Soldier can banish one random card from my opponent's hand until my opponent's next End-Phase! And since you won't shut up," he continued, pointing his finger at the blonde-haired boy without looking at him, "I choose to banish one card from your hand! Twilight Flash!"

Glowing with brilliant white light, Black Luster Soldier raised his sword above his head before slicing it through the air, opening up a dimensional hole that sucked a card from the blonde-haired boy's hand into its depths.

"Pfft. That's a useless trick." The Ra leader scoffed. "And besides, all you banished was a copy of Fusion, so you don't even gain Life Points with your card's effect."

"I will now activate the other effects of Black Luster Soldier!" Fang continued, pointing in the Ra Leader's direction, "Both Twilight Knight and Beginning Knight enable my monster to banish one monster you control! I banish two of your defense position Antique Gear Hound Dogs!"

"What!?" The Ra Leader exclaimed, genuinely shocked.

"BLACK CHAOS ERADICATION!" Fang ordered, watching as his Ritual Monster leaped forward to quickly cleave two of the mechanical hound dogs into pieces with its sword, before the pieces of the monsters slowly faded from existence. With both monsters banished, Fang's Spell Card began glowing with light before his Life Points rose to 3000.

The Ra leader was sweating now.

"It doesn't matter!" he spat, "I've still got a monster in defense!"

"Next, I banish my Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight from my graveyard in order to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the End!" Fang continued, completely ignoring the protests of his opponents.

"You can't do that!" the girl exclaimed, watching in disbelief as the spectral forms of Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight rose from the graveyard.

"Where did he get those cards!?" the boy sputtered, jaw hanging agape as the forms of Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight merged together in a vortex of light and darkness.

"W-what?" the Ra Leader gasped in disbelief.

"Envoy of creation's dawn, rise up from the primordial chaos of light and darkness and become a mighty warrior with the power to create and destroy! Come forth, Black Luster Solder – Envoy of the End!" Fang chanted, raising his hand to the air as a massive warrior in blue-and-gold armor emerged from a spherical portal made of light and darkness. Shining with a gentle morning light, the new monster took up position next to Black Luster Soldier, a holographic indicator showing an ATK of 3000.

 **Black Luster Solder – Envoy of the End / LIGHT / Level 8 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500**

"Another monster with three-thousand attack?" the Ra commander breathed in disbelief before violently shaking his head. "It doesn't make a difference! You can still only inflict twenty-four hundred damage to my life points! I'll survive this turn!"

"Since Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight were each banished, I will activate their effects." Fang continued, seemingly taking no interest in his opponents. "I add the Ritual Spell Card "Super Soldier End" and the Ritual Monster, "Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier" from my deck to my hand."

"Do you think acting cool is going to save you?" The Ra leader growled. "You're strong, surprisingly strong, I'll give you that. But you're not stronger than me!"

"I will next use the effect of my Envoy of the Beginning to banish your last Antique Gear Hound Dog." Fang replied, once again ignoring the comments of the Academia soldiers. "BLACK CHAOS ERADICATION!"

This time, none of the soldiers had anything to say. Sweat beading on his forehead, the Ra Leader could only watch helplessly as Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning leaped forward before annihilating his last defense position Antique Gear Hound Dog. With yet another monster banished, Fang's Spell Card glowed with light once again before his Life Points rose to 4000.

"You monsters aren't even worthy to be addressed as human beings," Fang growled, a murderous look in his eyes, "not after how you killed my comrades! This is for them! Black Luster Soldier, attack and destroy Antique Gear Search Hound! Sword of Light and Darkness!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The Ra Leader ejaculated, trying to run away as Fang's Black Luster Soldier charged forward. The long-snouted mechanical dog leaped forward, fangs bared, but with a furious blow from Black Luster Soldier's shield, the snarling mechanical dog was sent flying through the air before the massive warrior cleaved it in two with one swipe of his blade, destroying the monster and blasting back the Ra leader before reducing his Life Points to 1600.

"My Black Luster Soldier can make a second attack during each battle phase after it destroys a monster." Fang growled, not an ounce of pity in his voice.

"Please! Stop!" the Ra Commander wailed, crawling backward, a look of pure horror on his face as Black Luster Soldier advanced on him. A sudden pull on his arm, prevented him from retreating further. Looking down towards Fang, he noticed the Xyz remnant using his own chain to keep the Ra Leader from escaping.

"GO! The second attack!" Fang ordered, teeth bared, "CHAOS BLADE!"

"Commander!" the two Slifer Soldiers exclaimed in unison as Black Luster Soldier charged forward one more time, sending the pathetic Ra Leader flying through the air with one swipe of its blade, solid vision managing to open up an actual gash in the commander's shirt and skin. Life Points dropping to 0, the automatic return function warped the Ra Leader back to his home dimension before Fang could card him with his Duel Disk. With the leader gone, the chain around Fang's arm dissipated, leaving him free to move without restriction.

"Turn…end." Fang breathed, feeling a primal rage building up in his chest. He had been hoping to end the Duel quickly in the beginning, but now, after remembering how Academia had wiped out all of his friends and family in that battle, and not even having the satisfaction of avenging their deaths by carding the leader, Fang was almost hoping the other two soldiers would stay and fight so he could destroy them as mercilessly as he had their leader. Were it not for his competing desire to stay alive, he might have prevented the two Slifer Students from retreating.

"We have to go!" the girl exclaimed, grabbing the boy's hand.

"He defeated the commander!" the boy breathed, face pale with astonishment.

"We'll avenge him!" The girl promised. "Once we get some reinforcements well come back and finish this guy! Do you hear me!?" she screamed, "We'll never forgive you for this! We'll get some reinforcements and-…"

"Reinforcements?" a condescending feminine voice called out in reply, silencing the girl in her taunt.

Fang and both the Slifer soldiers turned their heads in the direction of the voice, the primal fury leaving Fang when he saw the speaker.

Another Ra Leader, this one a woman with short silver hair and blue eyes advanced on the group, Duel Disks drawn. Flanking the woman were two other Slifer Soldiers, one a girl with short spikey green hair, and another with half her head shaved and shoulder-length brown hair over the other half of her head. Their school uniforms were different from the standard jackets of Academia, spike accessories adorning thick shoulder pads and the knuckles of their gloves like they were part of a gang.

"You…" Fang hissed, eyes narrowing with fury.

"So this is what's left of the great leader of the diamond branch of the resistance." The girl with silver hair smirked. "I'm surprised you've managed to last this long. How's the rest of your team doing?"

Fang clenched his fists with fury, earning another smirk from the girl.

"This guy took out our leader!" the girl snarled, "He needs to be carded!"

"I can see that, you dolt." The silver-haired girl snapped, a look of annoyance spreading over her face. "I told Jethro that he wasn't ready for field work, but it looks like he chose not to listen to me. Too bad for him. It looks like it's going to be me advancing in the ranks after I collect the bounty on another resistance leader."

Both Fang and his two monsters assumed a battle stance, preparing themselves for the upcoming assault. Knowing that he would likely lose the battle anyway, Fang couldn't resist the urge to speak to one of the enemies directly responsible for the downfall of his team.

"You've been demoted since I last saw you, Felicity." Fang observed, earning him a glare from the silver-haired girl.

"I have you to thank for that." Felicity replied, eyes narrowed in an expression of pure hate. "I honestly thought that between the Tyler sisters and my own forces that we would have crushed your pathetic resistance without a single loss. But you proved more than capable enough of carding my teammates."

"It was a pleasure." Fang smiled, his resignation to his own inevitable defeat enabling him to enjoy every second of tormenting his enemy.

Felicity snorted, "I suppose I only have myself to blame for that. I indirectly taught you the pleasure of the hunting games with my own brutality, and then you turned our own tactics against us. I lost my team, my deck, my rank, and my standing with the professor. Seems only just that you lost everything in return."

"What goes around, comes around." Fang observed.

"Don't tell me you've embraced the idea of cosmic justice." Felicity smirked.

"I only hope the universe treats you with the same kindness you treated us with." Fang growled.

"It's about to be very kind to me." Felicity purred. "Once I card you, I will have not only redeemed myself, but I will have destroyed one of the last leaders of the resistance in the entire Xyz Dimension…or at least…former leader, all things considered."

"You're not claiming that bounty!" the blonde-haired boy protested, earning him a glare from Felicity.

"Go back to Academia, Slifer." She hissed, "You and your pathetic team leader have already botched this up enough."

"We're still standing!" the boy argued, "We'll finish the job!"

"That's right!" the girl agreed, "We can take him down!"

"You were getting ready to retreat just seconds ago." Felicity scoffed.

"We were regrouping for reinforcements!" the girl hastily replied, the tone of her voice making it sound like she was making up her story on the spot, "But now that you're here, there's no way we can lose."

"We'll get him!" the boy promised.

Felicity paused, seeming to consider the boy before nodding her head. "Fine then. We'll give you both a chance. Finish off Fang and the bounty is yours."

"It will be!" the boy snarled. "It's my turn, draw!"

Yanking a card from the top of his deck, he nodded to himself before continuing with his turn.

"I'll start by activating the Continuous Magic Card, Antique Gear Castle!" the boy began, activating a Spell Card which depicted a large clockwork castle. "As long as this card is on my field all Antique Gear monsters we control gain three-hundred attack, and it gains a counter every time a monster is Normal Summoned or Set. With that done, I will normal summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

Through a blue portal, the Slifer Soldier's mechanical hound dog leaped onto the field, roaring with a robotic voice as its ATK rose to 1300.

"Really?" Felicity frowned, clearly disappointed.

The boy clenched his teeth, but continued with his turn.

"Antique Gear Castle gains one counter, and because you control a monster, I can activate my Hound Dog's effect. Hound Flame! This is for Jethro!"

Shielding his eyes, Fang braced himself against the flames, gritting his teeth in pain as his Life Points dropped to 3400.

"I will now activate Mystical Space Typhoon in order to destroy your face-up magic card!" the boy declared, using his Spell Card to send a gust of wind into Fang's Chaos Current, shattering the Spell Card into pieces.

"With that done, I set one card face down and end my turn. And since it's the end of my turn, I get back the card you banished from my hand." The boy finished, eliciting a roar of laughter from Felicity and the two Slifer Soldiers accompanying her.

"No wonder you idiots lost!" Felicity gawked. "If that's your strategy, then it's going to take you seven turns before you beat this guy!"

"This is part of our teamwork!" the boy countered. "I've set us up so we can Fusion Summon now!"

"Hmm?" Felicity questioned, looking skeptical.

"He's right!" the girl with the headband agreed. "We developed this strategy together. Now watch this! I draw!"

Quickly adding a card from the top of her deck to her hand, the girl nodded her head before placing the card she just drew on her Duel Disk.

"I summon Antique Gear Soldier in attack position!" the girl began, summoning a clockwork robot with a skull-like face and mechanized rifle for its right arm.

"Bravo." Felicity sarcastically congratulated, "You've managed to Normal Summon, look at you!"

This earned a growl from the girl.

"Don't worry." The boy reassured her, "Our strategy is now set! I activate my face-down Antique Gear Armory!"

Upon activating the Trap Card, a large warehouse filled with clockwork explosives, rifles, flame-throwers, cannons, and other weapons of war appeared to the field. In the center of the warehouse on an assembly line, the empty shells of several Antique Gear androids, ranging from the humanoid to the draconic, formed an orderly line as if waiting to be completed.

"While Antique Gear Armory is on my field," the Slifer Soldier explained, "All players can fusion summon Antique Gear monsters using monsters on their side of the field or their hand as materials. Show this Xyz scum what we're made of!"

"On it!" the girl agreed. "Using my teammate's Antique Gear Armory, I fuse the Antique Gear in my hand with the Antique Gear Soldier on my field in order to Fusion Summon!"

"Ooh, are we actually going to see some competence now?" the girl with the shaved head asked Felicity, looking intrigued as the girl's Antique Gear Soldier, and a small clockwork robot consisting of several gears, two arms, and a wheel rose into the center of a Fusion Portal.

"We'll see, Sasha, we'll see." Felicity replied, looking uninterested.

"Mechanized soldiers containing the souls of the ancient," the girl chanted, "merge your bodies of steel together in the mystic whirlpool and ride forth into battle as a fearless raider! Yuugo Shoukan! Arawayo, level seven, Antique Gear Raider!"

From the center of the fusion portal, a clockwork humanoid robot riding on top of a large robotic beast with steel tusks and razor-sharp metal claws leaped onto the field. With its clawed left hand, the humanoid robot held onto its mount with a set of handholds welded into the beast's back, while its right hand was outfitted with a set of four mechanized harpoon launchers. In the center of its skull-like head, a single red robotic eye lit up while a holographic indicator displayed an ATK of 600.

 **Antique Gear Raider / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 2000**

Fang's eyes narrowed, recognizing the monster that had devastated many defenders of his homeland.

"Antique Gear Raider gains attack equal to one of the level four or lower Antique Gear monsters used in its Fusion Summon." The girl explained, "With its effect, I'll increase its attack by the attack of my Antique Gear Soldier."

The mechanical mount of Antique Gear Raider let out a robotic roar as its ATK rose to 1900, before rising to 2200 with the added effect of Antique Gear Castle.

"Now for the fun part." The girl sneered, "I will activate the second effect of Antique Gear Raider. Once per turn, I can target one Antique Gear monster in my graveyard in order to inflict damage to your Life Points equal to the Level of that monster times two-hundred, and increase my own Life Points by the amount of damage you took! Go! Brutal Pillaging!"

Both of Fang's monsters raised their shields into the air while Fang flipped out of the way as the girl's monster shot all four of its harpoons in Fang's direction. Two of them glanced off the shields of his monster, while Fang successfully dodged another one. However, with a high-pitched buzzing sound, one of the sharp harpoons glanced off of Fang's right shoulder, tearing open his shirt and leaving a scratch as his Life Points dropped to 2600. Grinning with satisfaction, the girl watched Fang let out an agonized yelp before ordering her monster to retract its harpoons with a set of cables attached to the end of each projectile while her Life Points rose to 4800.

"But I'm just getting started!" the girl continued. "I will next equip my Antique Gear Raider with Antique Gear Tank!"

Upon activating her Spell Card, her Antique Gear Raider began transforming, a solid metallic shell encompassing the mount and rider before a set of treads affixed themselves to the mount's legs and a large cannon appeared in the front of the monster. With the transformation complete, the monster's ATK rose to 2800.

"Impressed?" the girl asked, sneering at Fang, who ignored her comment, instead ripping off a bit of cloth from his shirt before using it to bind up his gash.

"Well I'm not done yet!" the girl continued, as if Fang had, responded to her. "I will next activate the Continuous Magic Card, Antique Gear Charger!"

Upon playing her Spell Card, a set of four clockwork pylons rose into the air, lightning crackling between the pylons.

"Antique Gear Charger enables me to destroy one face-up card I control in order to increase the attack of one Antique Gear monster I control by twelve-hundred and make it so it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects until the end of this turn. With this effect, I'll destroy my Antique Gear Tank and increase my monster's attack by twelve-hundred!"

"That's actually pretty good." The green-haired girl next to Felicity commented. "We may have just found another potential raider.

"That all depends on how well she does against Fang." Felicity mused, before casting a knowing look at Fang, who eyed her back with contempt, fully aware of real reason Felicity was letting these Slifer grunts take him on first.

Letting out a surge of electricity, the girl's Antique Gear Charger shot a bolt of lightning into Antique Gear Raider, destroying its tank accessories while causing the robotic raider to glow with intense electrical energy as its ATK rose to 3400.

"Since Antique Gear Tank was destroyed, you lose another six-hundred Life Points!" the girl mocked, as the effect of her spell card sent a bolt of flame into Fang's chest, knocking the Xyz remnant back and reducing his Life Points to 2000. "Not only that, but now my monster is stronger than yours! Go, Antique Gear Raider! Destroy his Black Luster Soldier!"

Fang got up from the ground just in time to see the girl's Antique Gear Raider charge forward, fangs and claws of its mouth stretched towards his Black Luster Soldier as it raised its shield in defense. Quickly tearing a card from his hand, Fang activated the final defense he had prepared for just such a moment.

"I activate the effect of Envoy of Chaos from my hand!" Fang countered, sending a monster card to his graveyard and causing his Black Luster Soldier to glow with white and black light just as Antique Gear Raider clashed against its shield. "By discarding this monster, I can increase the attack of my Black Luster Soldier by fifteen-hundred while changing the attack of your Antique Gear Raider to its original attack! Go my Black Luster Soldier! Counterattack with Chaos Blade!"

Roaring with renewed fury, Fang's monster, bashed against Antique Gear Raider with its shield, sending the mechanical monstrosity flying through the air before slicing at across the chest with its sword. Although Antique Gear Raider was not destroyed thanks to the effect of Antique Gear Charger, the effects of Black Luster Soldier's ATK rising to 4500 while Antique Gear Raider's ATK dropped to its original 600, caused a massive shockwave to blast into Fang's opponent, sending the girl flying through the air while her Life Points dropped to 900.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the girl screamed, almost perfectly mimicking her leader as she soared through the air. Unlike her leader, however, instead of conveniently getting warped away, she ended up crashing into the ground in a heap, a loud crack of a snapping rib resounding through the air.

"Cami!" the blonde-haired boy shouted, running over to her side. Had the situation been a little different, Fang might have felt sorry for the poor girl. Glaring at Felicity with contempt, who smirked knowingly back at him, he braced himself for the onslaught from her team, which he would now, thanks to Felicity's strategic sacrifice of Cami, be unable to counter.

"Pathetic." Felicity drawled as she and her team advanced on Fang. "I gave you both a chance to take this fool down, and all you two have managed to do is show a level of incompetence even greater than Jethro's."

"She needs help!" the boy pleaded as the girl shakily tried to get up to her feet.

"Have her end her turn and we'll finish things quickly for you!" Felicity barked. "Or is that so-called soldier of Academia so weak that I'll have to card her for shaming our empire!?"

"I-I can still…fight." Cami gasped, barely managing to stagger back to her feet. .

"End your turn!" Felicity ordered. "You've already proven yourself a failure as a fighter. Don't make things worse for yourself!"

Cami paled before slowly nodding her head. "I set…one card…face down…turn end." She panted.

"That's better." Felicity smirked before turning her attention to Fang. "You've proven a worthy adversary to me in the past, Fang." Felicity acknowledged, "But you've clearly lost most of your skill now. I doubt you could even get past one of my soldiers now. So, Lexi," she ordered, indicating the green-haired girl, "if you would please."

"Surely." The green-haired girl grinned, drawing a card from her deck before she, Sasha, and Felicity each took the intrusion penalty.

"Goodbye, Fang." Felicity whispered.

"So this is how it ends." Fang thought to himself, fully aware that he had absolutely no way to counter any of their plays now. "I die out here alone, all my comrades and family gone, having made no difference whatsoever. If there is a god out there…I could sure use somebody saving me right about now."

…

"PHOENIX GUARD AWAY!" Natsumi shouted at the top of her lungs as she, Lizette, Lydia, and Joho emerged from a portal and entered the desolate landscape of the Xyz Dimension.

"Shut up!" Lydia hissed, tackling Natsumi to the ground before clamping her left arm over Natsumi's mouth. "The point of leaving behind the motorbikes was so we could SNEAK into the Xyz Dimension, not announce our presence to all of Academia! Unless of course you WANT us to get caught!"

"Plnx grdwy." Natsumi mumbled.

"What?" Lydia asked, removing her hand from Natsumi's mouth.

"Bleck! Metal!" Natsumi gagged, wiping off her tongue with her hands. "I said, 'phoenix guard away.'" She whispered much more quietly.

"Whatever." Lydia sighed, letting go of Natsumi.

"So this is what's left of Xyz." Lizette observed, shaking her head at the wreckage. "Looks like Academia's done a real number on this place."

Joho stared at the vast expanse of ruins with wide eyes, slowly walking in the direction of the ruined city of Heartland.

"My home." He whispered.

"Joho?" Lydia asked, turning her head in the direction of her friend.

Joho didn't seem to hear her, he was constantly turning his head to examine the desolation, absorbed in the scene of destruction, as if unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Over in that town is where my dad's lab was." He said, pointing towards a distant cluster of ruined buildings. "And over there…that's where my mom grew up. Professor Lee…his classroom was over there…and…and…this can't be right…h-how…h-how?"

"This is what Academia did when they invaded." Lizette coldly replied. "They came in, killed everyone, and left everything to rot."

Joho collapsed to his knees, closing his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief. Lydia, seeing his distress, began walking towards him, but stopped when Joho reflexively turned from her.

"Why couldn't the Phoenix Guard save them?" Joho whispered, keeping his head turned from the others.

"Are you…okay?" Natsumi began before rapidly shaking her head and following up with, "I mean…sorry…stupid question, it's just…I…"

"Lydia and I did what we could to fight Academia in Fusion." Joho continued, cutting Natsumi off. "Asuka and Seijun told us that you guys were fighting Academia here. Why…how…why wasn't any of this stopped or, or…" he began fumbling with his words, "How were we defeated?"

"We tried to help them." Lizette explained, "But the Phoenix Guard wasn't united. There were traitors in our ranks. Quite a few of the Phoenix Guard in Fusion chose to fight alongside Academia, claiming that a unified inter-dimensional empire under Academia's control would be the key to defeating the Earthbound once and for all. And with all the Earthbound activity from Yuu's end, we just didn't have enough to turn the tide of the invasion."

Joho turned his head away, tears trickling down his cheeks as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Lydia stared in Joho's direction, almost looking like she wanted to offer some comfort, before turning her head away and looking down at the ground, right hand nervously stroking her Academia Duel Disk as she did.

Looking back and forth between Joho and Lydia, Natsumi decided to act.

"Huh?" Joho exclaimed, almost jumping from the ground as Natsumi tackled him from behind, tightly wrapping her arms around him while a tear trickled down her own cheek.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"What?" Joho asked, looking confused.

"Natsumi?" Lydia asked, looking as if she was trying to decide between ripping Natsumi off of Joho or just leave them alone.

"It's not our fault." Lizette reprimanded. "Just give him some time."

"We're here if you need us." Natsumi whispered, still holding on to Joho.

Joho slowly nodded his head before giving Natsumi's hand a light squeeze and rising from the ground, Natsumi backing away before looking between Joho and Lydia.

"Where are the Academia Soldiers?" Joho whispered.

"What is it?" Lydia asked, stepping closer.

"Where are they now?" Joho repeated. "The Academia soldiers?"

"We're here to find allies so we can fight the Earthbound, not mount a full counter-assault against Academia." Said Lizette, looking sternly at Joho.

"I know that!" Joho snapped, "It's just…" he clenched his fist, body shuddering as he looked at the ground.

Lydia nodded her head as if understanding. Surveying the area, she touched the bandaged left side of her face with one of her fingers, left eye glowing a bright red underneath the bandages.

"We will need to know where Academia is stationed, at the very least, so we don't get captured." Said Lydia, looking at Lizette, who looked like she was about to object. "And besides, odds are, if any of the Phoenix Guard have survived here, we'll have to fight through some Academia soldiers at some point in order to rescue them."

"We will find survivors." Natsumi whispered as Lydia continued to sweep the area with her left eye. "We have to."

After a few moments, Lydia removed her finger from the side of her head before turning towards her companions.

"Academia has set up several patrols around the outskirts of that city over there." Lydia explained, pointing to a distant ruined city. "Strange." She added, peering closer towards the city.

"What is it?" Joho asked, attempting to wipe away any signs that he had been crying.

"All the soldiers are stationed around the city, but there is absolutely nobody inside the city. It's like they're trying to quarantine it."

"From what?" Joho asked, looking concerned. "Are there survivors there?"

"Dark Disciples." Lizette muttered. "I can sense them. They're all over the place, but especially in that city. Their mere presence is creating a lot of dark energy around here."

Lydia nodded her head while Joho looked down at the ground, looking even more depressed.

"Well…it's not…it's not…as bad…as I thought it might be." Natsumi murmured, not sounding sure if she believed her own words. "I mean…I'm sure we'll find the Phoenix Guard here. Maybe we could even help them exorcise some of the Earthbound Servants around here."

"I could try contacting them." Joho offered, holding up his mark.

"I don't know if we'll be able to reach anyone." Lizette replied, "There's just too much dark energy here. It would probably interfere with any attempt to contact them. But what do you think, Natsumi? You're good with this sort of thing. Think we could contact them?"

Natsumi screwed up her face in concentration while feeling the air with her hands, occasionally flicking her tongue in the air as if tasting it. After a few moments she opened her eyes before shrugging her shoulders.

"There's not just dark energy here." Natsumi reported. "I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of it, but there are other spirits, lots of them, and a lot of them are good. We might as well try to reach the others."

The other three nodded their heads before all four raised their marks to their faces and began speaking into them.

"Ryouga, Rio, Gauche, Droite? Anybody there? This is the Phoenix Guard!" Lizette called. "Please respond!"

"Kotori, Cathy, Tetsuo?" Joho called, "Anybody? Are you there?"

"Byron, Christopher, Thomas, Michael? Do you read? This is the Phoenix Guard!" Lydia called.

"Fuya, Anna?" Natsumi called, "Come on, I know you're there! You both still owe me for not telling me when Tobio and Umimi's wedding was!"

Each of them called out several more names, repeating the message several additional times, Natsumi going a step further by waving her mark around and wandering the area as if trying to get a better signal, but no response came.

"Let's not waste our energy." Lydia sighed, lowering her arm. "If we're going to find anyone, we'll have to investigate the old fashioned way."

"I have to agree with you." Lizette nodded, lowering her own arm. "Do you remember where Anna used to live, Natsumi?"

"Anna! Anna! Anna!" Natsumi called again and again to her mark, getting the same silent response as before.

"Natsumi!" Lizette snapped, grabbing the attention of her fellow guardsman.

"I'm sorry." Natsumi replied, slowly lowering her arm. "It's just…I…I want them to be okay."

Joho looked around the desolate landscape.

"Academia really has destroyed my home." He whispered, shoulders sinking. "I knew they were planning to invade after they captured me but…I never imagined…"

Lydia put her hand on Joho's shoulder, a sorrowful expression coming over her face.

"Did we do the right thing?" Joho whispered, "Fighting Academia in Fusion when the invasion was taking place here?"

"We all tried to help your home dimension." Lizette sighed. "But even if you had left Fusion to fight here, in all likelihood, this place still would have been destroyed. Between all the activity on Yuu's end and Academia's invasions, it was hard enough for the Phoenix Guard to fight their battles in their own dimensions, let alone assist the others."

"But we did help." Natsumi whispered. "Lizette, myself, and other members. When we could, we sent supplies, helped people evacuate, and fought Earthbound of course, it's just…" she wiped a tear from her eye.

"Natsumi?" Joho asked, looking concerned. "I don't blame you. It's not your fault. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way."

"We'll make a difference here!" Natsumi replied, balling her fingers into fists, "I'm sure of it! We just can't give up! Not when we have each other!"

"Natsumi's right." Lizette agreed, giving her friend a reassuring hug before pulling away. "Even if we're receiving some interference from the Earthbound presence here, we still have a job to do. Even if there is just one guardsmen out there, we'll find them! We need as many guardsmen as we can if the Dark Signers are returning."

"Is it right for us to ask for their help when they've been going through all this?" Joho asked.

Lizette paused.

"They have gone through a lot." Lizette replied, choosing her words carefully, "But if we let the Dark Signers take control of the Synchro Dimension, then all of this…" she indicated the ruined landscape, "will be nothing compared to the apocalypse all dimensions will face from an Earthbound invasion."

"Let's go." Lydia whispered, leading the group as they marched towards the city.

Making their way through the wreckage, the four guardsmen slowly approached the distant city, keeping their eyes out for Academia patrols as they marched through the foggy landscape. Fortunately, thanks to the guidance of Lydia, the guardsmen were able to follow a path that steered them clear of the patrols. With no incursions from either the Earthbound or Academia, an oppressive silence hung over the group as they walked through the desolate landscape, a silence which Natsumi decided to break.

"So…" Natsumi began, trying to sound casual while keeping her voice silent. "Joho, what was your favorite thing to do in Heartland growing up before…uhm…well…what was your favorite thing to do here?"

Joho kept silent, hanging his head down while keeping his hands in his pockets as he hobbled across the landscape, one leg clearly injured. With a grunt of pain, he paused against the wall of a derelict barbershop to catch his breath.

"Uhm…right." Natsumi muttered, rubbing the back of her head and blushing. "Well, I never got to visit Heartland as much as I wanted to, but I remember you guys had some really cool skate parks and other places to drive those one-wheeled motorcycles you made. You guys really do have a lot of amazing technology. A lot of it was even better than the stuff we had in Synchro…well depending on whether you're comparing it to Tops or Common technology that is. I used to love to tinker with your technology, with the exception of that one pair of roller-blades that blew up in my face after I accidentally stabbed the quantum regulator with my screwdriver. Talk about a big mistake."

Joho's head drooped, averting his eyes from Natsumi. Natsumi, however, did not seem to notice this time.

"Oh, but the BEST thing I ever got to mess with was Anna's hovercraft. That thing was SO COOL! I don't know HOW she did it, well, I mean, I kind of have an idea, but, OH MY GOSH! She made a combination hovercraft, Duel Disk, and freaking cannon that was light enough to carry on your back, but at the same time, was able to morph into a larger vehicle that you could FLY in!? I've never really had much of a Christmas that I can remember, but OH MY GOSH! When I got to work on the stuff the Xyz Dimension made, it was like-…"

Lydia suddenly clamped her hand over Natsumi's mouth, causing Natsumi's face to screw up with a mixture of disgust and annoyance again over having to taste Lydia's hand.

After a few moments, Lydia removed her hand from Natsumi's mouth.

"Academia patrol." She whispered. "It's gone now, so we should be okay."

"Must you always muzzle my mouth?" Natsumi grumbled.

"Yes." Lizette replied matter-of-factly. "Because you're the only one who seems to have forgotten we're in enemy territory."

"What makes you say that?" Natsumi whined.

"Most people do NOT talk like you do when there are both Academia soldiers AND Earthbound servants in the same place!" Lydia hissed. "Would it kill you to focus on the mission?"

"Oh come on, Lydia!" Natsumi protested, "I am like…SUPER focused right now! Like, I'm like a laser…no I mean…I'm laser focused right now! There is no way I could get distracted by any, OH MY GOSH A KITTEN!" Natsumi suddenly screamed, causing all three of her companions to jump with shock and surprise before looking the direction Natsumi was pointing.

Sure enough, in the direction Natsumi was pointing at, while hyperventilating like she was about to explode, a tiny yellow kitten, half of its face and large patches of its fur completely covered in black soot, one yellow eye and one blue eye peeking out of its scraggly face, and a stump of a tail that looked like the end had been bitten off, crawled out from underneath a pile of rubble before approaching the group, a small bell jingling against a collar on its neck while the tiny wretch let out a series of obnoxious "MAW! MAW! MAW! MAW!" kitten calls like an alarm bell waiting to be fed. Judging by its scraggly fur and rather emaciated body, it looked like it hadn't eaten in a while.

"Great, just what we needed." Lydia grumbled.

"I could put it out of its misery." Lizette suggested.

"We could just leave it alone." Joho suggested, "It'll go away."

"It might follow us." Lizette sighed, placing a card on her duel disk and summoning a golden bow and arrow, which she leveled at the cat, "And it's not gonna last for very-…"

Before she could complete the statement, Natsumi shoved Lizette and Lydia away with a massive "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" before throwing herself onto the kitten, before either her companions or the starving beast could react. Scooping up the kitten in her arms, Natsumi cradled the stray like it was her own baby, shielding it from Lizette's aim.

"What are you doing?" Lizette groaned as Natsumi began stroking the whining kitten's fur while fishing through her coat pockets for scraps of meat to feed to the animal.

"Sky is one of us now which means she is part of the family!" Natsumi insisted, shoving a bit of meat into the kitten's mouth, which it greedily swallowed down. "And family members care for each other, so we will be caring for Sky!"

"Sky?" Lizette asked, looking perplexed.

"She named it." Lydia grumbled. "Already."

"Of course she did." Lizette sighed. "Natsumi, we don't know where that thing-…"

"Where Sky!" Natsumi angrily corrected.

"We don't know where the kitten has been." Lizette repeated. "It's sick, dying, heck, for all we know, it could have rabies!"

"Plus we aren't here to rescue stray cats anyway." Lydia added. "Especially not when it could give us away with its screaming."

"I'm not leaving Sky!" Natsumi insisted, hugging the kitten even closer to her chest.

Joho stepped between Lydia and Lizette, kneeling down to look closer at the cat.

"Please?" Natsumi begged, as Joho began examining the cat. After looking over the kitten, he got back on to his feet, albeit a little shakily, before shaking his head.

"Sky doesn't seem to have any disease." Joho sighed.

"You're naming it now?" Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Joho shrugged his shoulders. "I've learned it's pointless to argue with Natsumi."

"It's also pointless to argue with me." Lydia growled. "Or did you forget that?"

Joho paled.

"I…uh…well…" he sputtered.

"Don't answer that." Lydia sighed, "It was a rhetorical question."

"Were you making a joke?" Joho asked.

Lydia turned away, face reddening a little.

"You said Sky was okay though, right?" Natsumi asked.

"Uhm…yes." Joho quickly replied, sounding relieved. "She looks like she was a domesticated cat. She's been de-clawed and everything. Most likely her family was…well…it looks like she lost her family, and without her claws, she just couldn't fend for herself. As far as diseases go, I don't think she's got anything. She's just starving to death. I honestly don't know if we'll be able to save her at this point but…" he looked down at the ground, "It's better to try and save something than give up on it."

Lydia and Lizette fell silent.

"Thanks, Joho." Said Natsumi, getting a little teary-eyed.

"Well, okay then." Lizette sighed. "We'll keep it. But if it gets in the way, it has to go. Agreed?"

"You'll call her Sky, right?" Natsumi pressed.

"Don't push it." Lizette growled. "Just…put that thing in your backpack or something."

"Sounds good." Natsumi agreed, taking her pack off while holding on to the diminutive kitten with one hand. "I could give her some stuff to eat, crumple up some paper so she's warm…"

"STOP!" Lydia suddenly commanded, holding out her hand, while looking forward with a worried expression on her face, left eye glowing red underneath her bandages.

"Wha-?" Natsumi began, mid-way through putting Sky into her backpack.

"What is it?" Joho asked, limping towards her.

"A duel." Lydia whispered. "There's a duel going on not far from here. Three against one."

"A survivor!" Lizette gasped, "Academia's cornered a-…"

Before she could continue, Joho plowed through the group, limping in the direction Lydia had indicated as fast as he could go.

"Oh no you don't!" Lydia growled, crouching down like a runner, a strange whirring noise resounding within her chest, before she launched herself forward, sprinting with superhuman speed and rocketing past Joho.

"Cover us!" Lizette ordered, readying her Duel Disk before sprinting behind Lydia as fast as she could go.

Joho limped forward behind the two girls as fast as he could go, sweat beading on his forehead as he went, but as he stumbled along, it was pretty clear that he was not going to make it any time soon.

"Please…why…ERG!" Joho grimaced in pain, attempting to lurch forward.

Suddenly, from behind, Natsumi picked up Joho and slung the stunned duelist over her back next to the pack that contained the kitten she had found, a fierce expression in her eyes and a bright red aura glowing against her body.

"What the heck are you-…?" Joho sputtered, eyes as big as dinner plates.

"Just hold on tight." Natsumi instructed, "I haven't used my psychic powers to give me super-speed in a while."

"Psychic…super!?" Joho gasped, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"SUPER MEGA ULTRA TURBO HYPER PSYCHIC PHOENIX GUARD POWERS GO!" Natsumi thundered, suddenly exploding forward in a blast of red energy, causing Joho to scream with panic with the sudden surge in momentum.

"THIS…IS…REALLY…AWKWARD!" Joho yelped, as he clung to Natsumi's jacket.

"It doesn't have to be weird." Natsumi reassured Joho as she dodged past a piece of rubble and blew past Lizette and Lydia as she rocketed forward.

"Whoa!" Lizette exclaimed.

"What the!?" Lydia sputtered, catching sight of Joho riding on Natsumi's shoulder.

"Just think of this as a mommy kitten carrying her newborn baby kitten." Natsumi continued, eyes darting around as she tried to find the duel.

"This is nothing like that!" Joho yelped.

"Hold on, where was the duel?" Natsumi asked, zipping back and forth at superhuman speed, unsure of where to go.

"You mean we're lost!?" Joho shouted. "Where's Lydia and Lizette?"

"Not sure." Natsumi shrugged, leaving behind streaks of red light as she zoomed underneath a ruined building while trying to get her bearings. "But I'm sure we'll find them in time."

"We need to hurry." Joho pleaded. "We don't know how long the survivor will last!"

"Well make it!" Natsumi promised. "We'll be just like heroes rescuing someone just when all hope is lost!"

…

All hope was lost. Despite his best efforts, Fang knew that he was dead. Should he try to run, or face his death like a dignified duelist? Then again, did the question even matter?

The green-haired girl, Lexi, seemed to be enjoying his discomfort.

"How would you like your resistance leader boyfriend served, Felicity?" Lexi teased, "Skewered or fried?"

"It makes no difference to me." Felicity snapped, looking annoyed, "Just so long as you never refer to him as my boyfriend again."

"A little of both then." Lexi sighed, tossing back a lock of her green hair. "I'll start slow, Fang. That way, you'll have some time to prepare your obituary."

"Do your worst!" Fang growled, clenching his teeth and fists with hatred and resignation.

"With pleasure!" Lexi giggled. "How about I start with this. I summon Antique Gear Wyvern to my field!"

With a robotic dragon shriek, a green robotic dragon appeared to the field, angrily flapping its wings before landing on its clockwork dragon feet. Next to the monster, an indicator showed an ATK of 1700.

 **Antique Gear Wyvern / EARTH / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 500**

"When Antique Gear Wyvern is summoned," Lexi explained, "I can add 1 Antique Gear monster from my deck to my hand. Using this effect, I'll add Antique Gear Box to my hand, before using Antique Gear Box's own effect to add Antique Gear Knight to my hand."

"Where did you get that card?" the blonde-haired boy asked, looking incredulous.

"Well, it's pretty simple…if you're an actual Academia soldier that is." Lexi smirked.

"I AM an actual Academia soldier!" the blonde-haired boy protested.

"Right." Felicity sniffed, looking bored. "If you could please get on with it, Lexi."

Lexi nodded her head. "I will next use the effect of our Antique Gear Armory. Using its effect, I will fuse the Antique Gear Wyvern on my field with the Antique Gear Knight in my hand in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Raider!"

Clamping her hands together, Lexi bowed her head in respect as her own fusion monster leaped onto the field, mechanical mount roaring with fury while the robotic rider pointed his harpoons in Fang's direction.

 **Antique Gear Raider / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 2000**

"Since it was fusion summoned, I will increase its attack by the attack of one of the Level four or lower Antique Gear monsters used in its Fusion Summon, in this case, Antique Gear Knight. So between its own effect and the effect of castle, that means my monster's attack is now twenty-seven hundred."

"And now you will use its effect." Fang mumbled.

"In time." Lexi smirked, "But first I'm going to teach these fresh recruits a little something about the power of card combos! So watch this! I activate two Antique Gear Chargers and the Field Spell Card, Geartown!"

All around the duel field, clockwork buildings and skyscrapers rose into the sky, hundreds of gears twisting and turning as the mechanized city came to life in the midst of the ruined city of the Xyz Dimension. In the center of Geartown, two more Antique Gear Chargers appeared, crackling with electricity.

"Geartown allows me to normal summon Antique Gear monsters for one less tribute than required." Lexi explained. "Using its effect, I'll normal summon my Antique Gear Beast for no tributes!"

With a mighty mechanized roar, a massive mechanical beast, the same as the mount for Antique Gear Raider, leaped in front of Lexi, a holographic indicator displaying an ATK of 2000, which rose to 2300 due to the effect of Antique Gear Castle.

 **Antique Gear Beast / EARTH / Level 6 / Machine / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2000**

"Whoa!" the Cami exclaimed. "I didn't know you could do that! I need a Geartown in my deck."

"That's not the only thing Geartown can do." Said Lexi, stretching her hand towards one of her Antique Gear Chargers, "I will next use my Antique Gear Charger in order to destroy my Geartown and boost my Antique Gear Raider's attack by twelve-hundred!"

"Why would you do that?" the brown-haired boy asked as Antique Gear Raider's ATK rose to 3900, "Geartown was so good!"

"It's so I can do this!" Lexi declared, raising her hand into the air as the mechanized city began bursting into flames and collapsing all around her, a massive singularity opening up in the center of the city. "Since Geartown was destroyed, I can Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from my deck! So using this effect, I choose to Special Summon Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon! Come forth, my ace monster!"

In the sky above Lexi, a massive mechanical dragon materialized, rusted wings creaking as it flapped them through the air before landing in front of the duelist. Letting out a massive roar, the mechanized dragon leered down at Fang and his monsters before a holographic indicator appeared and displayed an ATK of 3000, which rose to 3300.

 **Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon / EARTH / Level 8 / Machine / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000**

"And now for the fun part." Lexi leered, face twisting into a crazier and crazier expression by the second. "Since my Gadjitron Dragon is only slightly stronger than your monsters in terms of attack power, I will next equip Antique Gear Fist to my Antique Gear Beast before destroying it with Antique Gear Charger, in order to boost my dragon's attack to forty-five hundred!"

Crackling with electricity, the giant robotic dragon roared even louder, clockwork gears of its body screaming as its power rose to immense levels.

"Watch this, Felicity!" Lexi roared, "I'm about to do what you and the Tyler Sisters could never do! I'm ending Fang with my own two hands on my first turn!"

"Are you trying to surpass me?" Felicity growled.

"I already have!" Lexi cackled, green hair beginning to stand on end from the bursts of electricity coming from her boosted Antique Gear Raider and Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon. "We'll see who gets the promotion from Edo when I bring in the bounty!"

Despite knowing that he was about to die, Fang couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction over seeing Felicity get put off-balance by one of her underlings. Granted, he knew full-well that Felicity was a far superior duelist than this Lexi, when allowed to use her own deck, but the thought of more in-fighting amongst the Academia ranks filled him with a kind of feral pleasure. Enough feral pleasure to do one last act of mischief.

"Careful, Felicity." Fang snickered. "She's right you know. All she has to do is single-handedly bring me in and how will that make you look by comparison? The failed Obelisk commander who couldn't do what a mere Slifer grunt did?"

"I will reclaim my honor." Felicity coldly replied, "No matter how many more of your Xyz comrades' bodies I have to trample under my feet. Watching you die here will be reward enough."

"Oh, Felicity." Fang sneered, "Once I'm gone, you'll have nobody else to talk to, seeing as your underlings are getting ready to abandon you that is."

"STOP IGNORING ME!" Lexi screamed, managing to catch the attention of Fang, who looked back at her with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Just kill me already." He growled. "You have the attack power and I have no cards to defend myself with. I'm all yours."

"And here I thought Fang was Felicity's boyfriend. Now he's pledging himself to Lexi?" Sasha snickered, causing Lexi to glare at her before turning her attention back to Fang.

"If you think I'm going to kill you quickly just because I want the bounty, then you've got another thing coming." She whispered in an all-too-soft voice, like a cat purring while playing with its prey. "You _are_ in my power, and so I'm going to enjoy killing you, nice and slowly."

Fang felt sweat beading on his forehead as his heart hammered in his chest. Clenching his fists together, he braced himself, wating for Lexi to continue her turn.

"Antique Gear Raider." Lexi purred, "Activate your ability. Brutal Pillaging."

…

"He's over there! Lydia's almost gotten to him!" Joho shouted as Natsumi rapidly made a corner, nearly careening into a building as she tried to maintain control over her powers.

"How much further!?" Natsumi shouted back, trying to pump her legs as fast as she could while her powers carried her forward at a supernatural pace.

"Lydia and Lizette will get there first at the rate we're going." Joho replied. "They might even end up dueling without us."

"NOT AN OPTION!" Natsumi roared. "YOU ARE GOING TO BE THERE TO PROTECT LYDIA AND THAT IS FINAL!"

"What the?" Joho sputtered. "What do you mean by that? How are you gonna-?"

The rest of Joho's sentence was cut off as Natsumi, glowing red with intense energy as her mark lit up like a lamp, threw Joho screaming through the air towards the distant duel with her combined Psychic and Phoenix Guard powers.

…

Fang desperately tried to dodge the harpoons flying towards him. Thanks to the quick blocks of his loyal Black Luster Soldier monsters, he managed to evade most of the deadly harpoons, before a single stray harpoon stuck him in the foot, causing Fang to scream in agony from more than just his Life Points dropping to 1200.

"Like at you!" Lexi cackled as her own Life Points rose to 2800. "You sound just like a stuck pig! Oh I am so glad the Professor did not ban the Real Solid Vision for this monster!"

"The Professor _did_ ban this kind of Solid Vision." Felicity drawled. "Personally I find it a bit boring to use the real damage it can inflict as a crutch when one's dueling."

"I'll show you." Lexi hissed as her monster retracted its harpoon, dragging Fang across the ditch before the point of the harpoon dislodged itself from his bleeding shoe. "When I'm commander, I'll have every one of my enemies bleeding out their lives from puncture wounds!"

"Please." Fang groaned, clutching at his foot in an effort to stop the bleeding. "Just kill me."

"Oh, but I'm not done yet!" Lexi protested. "After all, I did promise to serve you up skewered _and_ roasted, and I've only done half of those things! So how about I even you out and skewer your other foot before having my Gadjitron Dragon fry you up!?"

Above Lexi's head, Gadjitron Dragon's mouth opened, revealing a furnace of fire blazing within its gullet. Groaning with pain, Fang tried desperately to stand up, but the pain in his punctured foot and slashed leg caused him to stagger back to the ground, nearly falling flat on his face before he was caught by his Black Luster Soldier.

"Your monsters are pretty loyal to you." Lexi observed with a maniacal sneer. "How about I take them away from you? Antique Gear Raider, shish-kebab his Black Luster Soldier! Mechanized Javelin!"

Mechanical mount roaring with fury, the rider of Antique Gear Raider let out a robotic laugh before launching all four of its cruel harpoon weapons towards Fang and Black Luster Soldier. Charging forward with a determined battle-cry, Black Luster Soldier swiped away two harpoons with a bash of his shield, and the other two with a swipe of his sword. But just as he attempted to reform his stance, the massive metal beast of Antique Gear Raider pounced against Black Luster Soldier, pinning him to the ground before the robotic beast clamped its jaws over his throat. Screaming out a "No!" in protest as Black Luster Soldier dissolved into dust, Fang vainly limped forward in an effort to save his monster before getting himself knocked into the air with a furious backhand from Antique Gear Raider.

Flying through the air as his Life Points dropped to 300, Fang felt his consciousness slipping from him. Sure enough, as he looked off into the distance, he could swear he saw shapes like his resistance members running towards him. Two girls running towards the duel at breakneck speed, a very distant girl running at super-speed, and a boy…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Joho screamed as he slammed into Fang mid-flight. Fortunately, despite the collision, Joho managed to recover just in time to throw out his palm, letting out a burst of crimson energy that slowed their descent to the ground, managing to just collapse on top of Fang without either of them slamming into the ground at a deadly velocity.

Fang was confused, to say the least.

"What…" he groaned.

"…the…" Felicity exclaimed.

"F%^&!" Lexi bellowed, eyes bulging as wide as dinner plates at the unexpected intrusion.

"That's the last time I ride Natsumi." Joho groaned, getting up from the ground before facing the Academia soldiers as the intrusion penalty caused his Life Points to drop to 2000.

"What!?" Fang groaned, still completely dazed.

"Gross!" Cami gagged, looking like she would throw up while Felicity and Sasha both narrowed their eyes at Joho with disgust.

"Okay…th-th-that c-c-came out wrong." Joho stammered, throwing up his hands and backing away. "W-w-what I m-m-meant to say was-…"

"SHUT UP!" Lexi roared, "Just, SHUT UP! I don't care who the flip you are or what you are doing here, but after I card Fang I'm carding you too! Battle! Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon, attack his Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and finish this duel!"

"Get out of here, idiot, before you get killed!" Fang roared, struggling to stand on his wounded feet.

"We're not going anywhere and neither are you!" the voice of Lydia called from above as she leaped over the pit and landed in front of Fang and Joho, Life Points dropping to 2000 as she drew her opening hand and took the penalty.

"From my hand, I activate the effect of Golden Mist Luminous Sylph!" Lydia declared, revealing a glowing card in her hand. "By Discarding Golden Mist Glowing Eagle from my hand, I can Special Summon this card from my hand in order to negate your attack and end the Battle-Phase!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Lexi screamed as she got blinded by an intense flash of light. In front of Lydia, a shining phantasmal bird with wings made of gilded mist materialized in front of Lydia, a holographic indicator displaying a DEF of 1500. Spreading out its wings, Lyida's monster generated an explosion of golden mist, bathing the field in light and driving back Lexi's Antique Gear Gadjitron dragon.

 **Golden Mist Luminous Sylph / LIGHT / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 300 / DEF 1500**

"Thanks for the save, Lydia." Joho groaned, steading himself before offering his hand to a stunned Fang, who refused to take it.

"We're not done yet." Lydia warned. "I next activate the second effect of Golden Mist Luminous Sylph! If my monster is Special Summoned this way, I can Special Summon one Golden Mist monster from my graveyard in order to have all players gain Life Points equal to the ATK or DEF of the monster, whichever is higher. So come forth in defense position! Golden Mist Glowing Eagle!"

"Letting out a high-preached shriek, Lydia's second monster, a massive golden eagle with transparent feathers that looked like they were made of golden smoke, rose into the air, scattering golden dust over the players as their Life Points rose by 1800.

 **Golden Mist - Glowing Eagle / LIGHT / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1800**

 **Joho 2000 + 1800 = 3800**

 **Lydia 2000 + 1800 = 3800**

 **Fang 300 + 1800 = 2100**

 **Slifer 1 4000 + 1800 = 5800**

 **Cami 700 + 1800 = 2500**

 **Lexi 2800 + 1800 = 4600**

 **Sasha 2000 + 1800 = 3800**

 **Felicity 2000 + 1800 = 3800**

"No!" Lexi screamed, as if she ahd just been mortally wounded. "What the actual F*** is going on!?"

"It seems you've been holding out on me, Fang." Felicity growled. "How many more of your resistance friends are you hiding?"

"Th-there not resistance." Sasha quivered, finger pointed at Lydia as her eyes widened as she backed away.

"What?" Felicity snapped, "What do you mean they're not resistance?"

Sasha was shaking her head in disbelief, a look of naked horror on her face. "I-it can't be! I can't believe it!"

"What can't you believe!?" Felicity hissed, quickly losing her patience.

"Don't you recognize her!?" Sasha gaped, "It's her! That…that…machine! The one that would attack any village that resisted the professor's orders! She carded my family in front of me when they refused to send me to Academia! The conscriptor!"

"What!?" Felicity sputtered before taking a closer look at Lydia.

"I remember you." Felicity murmured, narrowing her eyes at Lydia. "You were one of the Professor's top agents."

"More like a mindless monster!" Sasha spat.

"I'm not the professor's anymore." Lydia spat back, left eye glowing a bright red underneath her bandages. "He can rot in hell for what he did to me!"

"Oh yeah, that's right." Felicity mused. "I read a file on you. You fell for some Xyz prisoner and ran off to start some kind of pathetic rebellion, if I'm remembering correctly. In fact…" she continued, eyes trailing towards Joho.

Lexi suddenly smiled.

"That's right!" she squealed. "I remember now! I can't believe I didn't recognize that idiot when I saw him! He's the idiot whose dad wandered into our dimension and helped us to discover the Xyz Dimension in the first place. I used to practice dueling this little punk just to learn how to take down Xyz monsters. How's my little Joho doing?"

"Very unhappy to meet you again." Joho grimaced, looking up at Lexi like he was getting reacquainted with an old bully.

"Well I'm happy to see you both." Lexi sneered. "This bounty just keeps getting better and better! Once we take all three of you down, we'll be accepted into Obelisk Force for sure!"

"Just shut up and end your turn!" Sasha bellowed, shoving her face into Lexi's.

"Hey!" Lexi protested, "Why are you looking at me like that!? I was only having fun!"

"I've been aching for this moment for years!" Sasha missed, a mixture of grief and fury in her face. "Nobody gets to take down the conscriptor but me!"

"But…" Lexi protested.

"Fine." Felicity replied, interrupting Lexi. "This duel has gone on long enough. End your turn, Lexi, and let Sasha finish them off."

For a moment, Lexi looked like she would continue protesting, but a look from Sasha caused her to back down.

"Turn end." Lexi muttered, hanging her head down.

"Atashi no turn!" Sasha growled, ripping a card from the top of her deck before adding it to her hand.

"She looks…pretty mad." Joho observed, nervously backing away. "Why can't you have made more friends at Academia?"

"There weren't many people worth being friends with." Lydia muttered. "And besides, The Professor didn't exactly care about perfecting my people skills."

"Do you care about any of the people you destroyed." Sasha hissed, glowering at Lydia. "Did you even feel any conflict whatsoever when you did it!?"

"I had no choice." Lydia murmured, "Even less than most people The Professor conscripted."

"Liar!" Sasha bellowed. "I saw you when you carded them! Cold! Unfeeling! You were just a killing machine that didn't care! Well now I'm gonna kill you! I activate the effect of Antique Gear Armory! I fuse my Antique Gear Soldier with my Antique Gear Gadjitron Chimera in order to Fusion Summon! Come forth! Antique Gear Raider!"

Mirroring Sasha's fury as it exited the Fusion Portal, the mount of Antique Gear Raider reared up on its hind legs before bellowing at Lydia, Joho, and Fang.

 **Antique Gear Raider / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 600 (+ 1300 + 300) = 2200 / DEF 2000**

"Go…away…idiots." Fang growled. "You can't win! Save yourself!"

"We're not leaving." Lydia replied.

"Good!" Sasha growled. "Because I won't let you leave anyway! I equip my Antique Gear Raider with Antique Gear Tank!"

 **Antique Gear Raider ATK 600 + 1300 + 600 + 300 = 2800 ATK**

"And next," Sasha continued, "I'll tribute our Antique Gear Castle in order to summon Antique Gear Golem without the need to sacrifice other monsters! Come forth, vanguard of the mechanized ancients!"

As the castle dissolved away into golden dust, a massive portal opened up above Lexi's head. From the portal, a massive mechanical giant, wearing armor like an ancient Greek soldier, descended to the field, a glowing red eye surveying the other duelists.

 **Antique Gear Golem / EARTH / Level 8 / Machine / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

Joho began visibly sweating at the sight of the creature while Lydia began bracing herself for the inevitable attack.

"RUN!" Fang ordered, getting up on his injured feet before attempting to shove Lydia and Joho away.

"NOBODY'S LEAVING!" Sasha bellowed, "NOT BEFORE I AVANGE MY FAMILY! I activate Antique Gear Charger! I destroy my Antique Gear Tank in order to increase Antique Gear Raider's ATK by 1200! And since Antique Gear Tank was destroyed, you will all lose six-hundred Life Points! Go! Gear overcharge!"

In an explosion of sparks, Antique Gear Charger destroyed the tank equipped to Antique Gear Raider, causing the raider to surge with energy before the effect of Antique Gear Tank blasted Lydia, Joho, and Fang back.

 **Antique Gear Raider ATK 600 + 1300 + 1200 = 3100**

 **Joho 3800 – 600 = 3200 LP**

 **Lydia 3800 – 600 = 3200 LP**

 **Fang 2100 – 600 = 1500 LP**

"I'll next activate the effect of Antique Gear Raider! I target the Antique Gear Gadjitron Chimera in our graveyard to inflict 1200 damage to your Life Points while increasing my own Life Points by 1200. Take this, Conscriptor! Brutal Pillaging!"

"This isn't good!" Joho exclaimed as Antique Gear Raider raised its weapon towards them.

"Get down!" Lydia bellowed, tackling Joho and Fang to the ground as the harpoons whizzed above them.

 **Joho 3200 – 1200 = 2000 LP**

 **Lydia 3200 – 1200 = 2000 LP**

 **Fang 1500 – 1200 = 300 LP**

 **Sasha 3800 + 1200 = 5000 LP**

"Now to finish you off, Conscriptor!" Sasha continued, "Even if you're hiding behind those defense position monsters, I can still easily finish you off!"

"No you can't." Felicity flatly replied.

"What!?" Sasha snapped, turning to Felicity, who remained unflinching.

"Even with Golem's piercing ability, you won't be able to finish Lydia off yet." Felicity calmly explained. "So please put away your romantic notions of avenging your family and think for a moment. Joho is open for a direct attack, and Fang's monster still poses the greatest threat to us."

"So?" Sasha snapped.

"So you will follow these orders to the letter." Felicity growled, causing Sasha to back down. "Destroy Fang's Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning with Antique Gear Raider and attack Joho directly with Antique Gear Golem. We'll be able to do a lot more damage that way than if you focus on that pathetic rebel. Understood?"

"But…" Sasha protested.

"Understood!?" Felicity repeated more forcefully.

"Yes." Sasha acquiesced, turning back towards her opponents.

"You will lose." Sasha promised, glaring vehemently at Lydia, who returned her gaze with an unwavering expression on her face.

"Battle!" Sasha declared. "Antique Gear Raider, Destroy Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning!"

"Where are the others!?" Joho exclaimed as Antique Gear Raider fired its weapons into Black Luster Soldier's chest, causing the tall warrior to cry out in agony before exploding in a shower of sparks.

 **Fang 300 – 100 = 200 LP**

"Now to finish you off, Joho!" Sasha continued.

"You stay away from him, or you'll see exactly what a real monster is!" Lydia threatened.

"So you care about him, then?" Sasha grinned. "Then this might be better revenge then what I was planning in the first place. Antique Gear Golem! Squash Joho like the bug he is! Mechanized melee!"

Pulling back its massive arm, Antique Gear Golem prepared to slam its mechanical fist into Joho when:

"INTRUSION PENALTY, 2000 LIFE POINTS!"

"Oh come on! What now!?" Felicity bellowed, head whipping in the direction of the newcomer, who leaped over the heads of the other duelists before drawing her opening hand and revealing a single card.

 **Lizette Leblanc 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

"I activate the effect of Angelic Trumpet from my hand!" Lizette declared. "During the Battle-Phase, I can reveal this card from my hand in order to Special Summon up to 3 "Angelic Armor" monsters form my hand and set this card from my hand after summoning those monsters! Come forth! Angelic Armor Breastplate, Angelic Armor Cloak, and Angelic Armor Shield!"

Antique Gear Golem launched its fist towards the players. But just as it did, a golden horn materialized in Lizettes hand, which she blew through, summoning three portals above her head before a golden breastplate with wing patterns over the chest, a golden cape, and a large golden shield with wings on the ends descended through the portals and affixed themselves to Lizette. Once equipped, Lizette leaped forward, and slammed her shield against, Antique Gear Golem's fist, knocking the massive robot back as if completely disregarding the law of physics.

 **Angelic Armor Breastplate/ EARTH/ Level 1/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 1500**

 **Angelic Armor Cloak/ FIRE/ Level 1/ Spellcaster/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0**

 **Angelic Armor Shield/ EARTH/ Level 1/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000**

"Why is everyone getting in my way!?" Sasha bellowed. "Since there was a replay just now, I'll have my Antique Gear Golem resume its attack on Joho! Mechanized Melee!"

"Impossible!" Lizette shot back, "While Angelic Armor Shield is in play, you cannot attack any monsters other than itself!"

"Thanks for the save." Joho sighed with relief.

"Shut up!" Lizette snapped. "If you were all better duelists I wouldn't have to save you!"

"Argh!" Sasha screamed. "Then if that's the case, I'll just destroy that stupid shield! And thanks to Antique Gear Golem's effect, you'll take Piercing battle damage! Mechanized Melee!"

Letting out a roar, Antique Gear Golem launched its massive fist down against Lizette, who managed to raise her shield, and block the blow from the monster's massive fist just in time. Like a hammer bouncing off a metal plate after hitting it, Antique Gear Golem's fist bounced off the golden shield with a high-pithed "ping" knocking the monster back again. Lizette, meanwhile, remained standing, life points dropping to 1000, but shield remaining completely undamaged.

 **Lizette 2000 – 1000 = 1000 LP**

"What!?" Sasha hissed, "Why didn't that shield get destroyed!?"

"While Angelic Armor Breastplate is on my field," Lizette explained, breastplate glowing with white light, "Angelic Armor Monsters I control cannot be destroyed by battle! You will _not_ be getting past me!"

"No!" Sasha screamed, growing hysterical. "This wasn't supposed to happen! This was my chance!"

"Shut up and end your turn!" Felicity ordered. "I'm finishing the job!"

"Turn end." Sasha groaned, clutching her head while tears welled up in her eyes.

"Atashi no turn, DRAW!" Felicity began, ripping a card from the top of her deck before beginning her turn.

"I may have been demoted since we last met, Fang." Felicity growled. "But before me, all of you pathetic interlopers and traitors are nothing but garbage for me to clear out! I activate the effect of Antique Gear Armory! By Fusing Antique Gear Golem and Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon in my hand Dragon together, I Fusion Summon Antique Gear Devil! Mechanical soldiers inheriting ancient souls, now form an allegiance and join! Be reborn together as a new force! Yuugo Shoukan! Come forth in defense position! Antique Gear Devil!"

Emerging from the Fusion Portal above Felicity's head, a massive demonic-looking machine with mechanical wings and claws descended to the field, wires and machinery within its metal frame humming with life as it surveyed the field.

 **Antique Gear Devil/ EARTH/ Level 8/ Machine/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1800**

"That monster doesn't suit you, Felicity." Fang involuntarily chuckled. "It's a little too…generic, don't you think?"

"I should have expected you to make one final quip before dying." Felicity sighed. "Believe me, I would have much rather defeated you differently, the blades of our monsters crossing against each other like they did before. But sometimes you have to embrace boring tactics to achieve victory. And I will _not_ be defeated again, Fang."

"Do your worst!" Fang growled.

"Some kind of bad history between you two?" Joho asked.

"Shut up!" Fang snarled.

"Plenty of history between us." Felicity replied. "None of which is going to bode well for the rest of you. I next equip Antique Gear Devil with Antique Gear Magic Shield and Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon!"

On top of the machine's back, between its two wings, a massive clockwork cannon mounted itself onto its metallic frame. In front of the monster, a large red shield shaped like a gear, materialized, before projecting a violet energy shield.

"Both of these cards make it so that my equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle." Felicity explained. "Furthermore, Antique Gear Cannon makes it so I take no damage from battles involving my monster while increasing its ATK by its own Level X 200, and Antique Gear Magic Shield increases my monster's DEF by 1200. Finally, as if that's not enough, while my Devil is equipped with a card, it is unaffected by my opponent's card effects.

 **Antique Gear Devil ATK 1000 + 1600 = 2600 ATK / DEF 1800 + 1200 = 3000 DEF**

"But that's the boring part." Felicity sighed. "What's important is Antique Gear Devil's second effect. Once per turn, it can inflict 1000 Damage to my opponents' LP for each face-up Magic Card we control. With Antique Gear Magic Shiled, Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon, Antique Gear Armory, and 3 Antique Gear Chargers, that's a total of 6000 damage. You lose."

Spreading out its mechanical claws, Antique Gear Devil, shot out beams of intense heat from the tips of each claw, Fang, Joho, Lydia, and Lizette between two walls of laser beams as it slowly brought its claws together.

"Do you have anything for this?" Lizette asked, Lydia.

"You're the one with the armor." Lydia replied. "I've got nothing.

"I have something." Joho replied, stepping forward, before pulling a card from his hand. "Even if your monster is unaffected by our card effects, we can still protect ourselves! I summon Tech-Beast – Fireflywall!"

Just as the beams of heat were about to touch the other duelists, a giant firefly, with a transparent exoskeleton filled with wires, two pairs of translucent wings filled with circuitry, and a pair of compound eyes with pixelated pupils in the center, appeared in front of Joho, before suddenly multiplying into three other Fireflies, which surrounded the players before projecting four energy shields, which blocked the beams as they enclosed the players in a protective box.

"If an opponent's monster, activates its effect, I can Equip Tech Beast Fireflywall from my hand to that monster." Joho explained. "And during the turn I use this effect, any effect damage we take is changed to zero, and any battle damage we take is halved!"

 **Tech-Beast – Fireflywall / FIRE / Level 4 / Insect / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

On either side Fang, Joho, Lydia, and Lizette, the lasers of Antique Gear Devil's claws scorched the surrounding area with intense heat, but thanks to the shields of Joho's monster, none of them were harmed.

To Joho's right, Fang began laughing with uproarious laughter.

"This…isn't…over!" Felicity, growled, clenching her fists. "You fools have to run out of hand traps eventually! And besides…" she continued, examining a card in her hand. "I'm still not done with my turn."

"You can't break through out defense!" Lizette replied. "We've withstood all your Antique Gear monsters up till now, and we'll withstand the rest!"

"Then perhaps it's time I use my true cards." Felicity replied, pulling out a card from her hand.

"So you did keep some of your cards." Fang observed.

"Just for you, Fang." Felicity breathed. "I may have lost my rank, but I refused to completely lose my dignity!"

"What a great thing for you to prioritize." Fang spat. "To think that you're dignity will last after all the people you've destroyed, when all we wanted to do was survive against you!"

"Not that you're going to survive for much longer." Felicity vowed. "Since I haven't yet Normal Summoned this turn, I next summon Armageddon Knight to my field!"

"Armageddon Knight!?" Joho exclaimed, as Felicity's monster, a knight in ragged black armor, appeared to the field, "Why would they play that? How is that supposed to help them?"

"It'll help her kill us all." Fang morosely muttered.

"Using Armageddon Knight's effect, I will send Nightblade Oracle from my deck to the graveyard!" Felicity continued, snagging a card from her deck and sending it to her graveyard. In front of her, a cloaked woman with a single black blade in her hand and a ring of moonstones around her hooded head appeared to the field before descending into a black portal.

"When Nightblade Oracle is sent to the graveyard by an effect, then I can add one Fusion or Nightblade Spell Card from my deck to my hand, and if I do, I can send one DARK Warrior-Type monster from my deck to the graveyard, other than Nightblade Oracle. Using this effect, I will add Nightblade Fusion from my deck to my hand and send Nightblade Swordsman from my deck to the graveyard" Felicity explained as an assassin wearing a cloak and black armor and wielding a short curved sword with a moonstone on the hilt, descended into the graveyard through a black portal.

"Here it comes." Fang growled. "I'm pretty much dead, but you fools can still try to run."

"We will never run!" Lizette vowed. "I'd rather die!"

"Then I will grant you your wish." Felicity replied. "Using the Nightblade Fusion I added to my hand, I fuse my Armageddon Knight with the Dark Crusader in my hand in order to Fusion Summon!"

Above Felicity's head, a black fusion portal with a shining moonstone in the center, appeared above her head before her two monsters appeared at the edges of the portal and began spiraling into the center as Felicity began her Fusion Chant.

"Silent warriors of the shadows! Cross your blades together and stand as one in the dark of the night! Yuugo Shoukan! Come forth to slay my enemies! Level 4! Nightblade Paladin!"

In a whirlwind of black smoke, Felicity's Fusion monster suddenly appeared to the field, a pale-skinned, silver-haired woman with a moonstone embedded in her forehead, a black hood over her head, shiny black armor, and a massive claymore in her hands. Slowly opening her eyelids to reveal blood-red eyes beneath, the warrior slowly grinned before assuming a battle stance.

 **Nightblade Paladin/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000**

"When Nightblade Paladin is Fusion Summoned successfully, I can target 1 Level 4 Dark Warrior-Type monster in my graveyard to give it that monster's effects. Using this effect, I will target Nightblade Swordsman, to give Nightblade Paladin its effect! During the turn it was summoned, I can send one Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster from my deck to the graveyard. Using this new effect, I'll send Nightblade Spearman from my deck to the graveyard!"

In front of Felicity, a spearman in a black robe, with a Moonstone brooch holding the robe together, silently descended into Felicity's graveyard.

"The other effect of Nightblade Swordsman, which my Nightblade Paladin inherited, now comes into effect!" Felicity continued. "Once per turn, I can increase the ATK of my monster by four-hundred for each Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster in my graveyard, while making it so my monster cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects. Since I have five Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monsters in my graveyard, my monster gains two-thousand ATK! Go! Assassin Soul Absorption!"

Holding her blade aloft, Nightblade Paladin stretched her other hand towards the ground, summoning five blood-red portals, through which the phantasmal forms of Felicity's other DARK Warrior-Type monsters rose before merging with Nightblade Paladin's blade.

 **Nightblade Paladin 2000 + 2000 = 4000 ATK**

"It doesn't matter how strong your monsters become!" Lizette countered, "You will never get past me!"

"I will next use Nightblade Paladin's second effect!" Felicity shot back, glaring at Lizette. "Your shield may be indestructible, but as we've seen before, you're still vulnerable to Piercing Damage! Once per turn, during either player's turn, my Nightblade Paladin can copy the effect of one Level four DARK Warrior-Type monster in my graveyard. This time, I will copy the effect of my Nightblade Spearman so that my Nightblade Paladin has Piercing Damage!"

"This isn't good!" Joho groaned.

"It'll get worse." Fang pessimistically predicted.

"Could you be any more cheerful?" Joho grunted, glaring at Fang.

"If I decided to ignore the truth, then yes." Fang shot back.

"I will next banish my Nightblade Fusion from my graveyard to activate its second effect!" Felicity continued. "This turn, my Nightblade monster with the highest attack can attack once for each DARK Level 4 Warrior-Type monster in my graveyard, that was sent their by a card effect, but other monsters I control cannot attack. Since all five of my Dark Warrior-Type monsters in my graveyard were sent to the graveyard by a card effect, my Nightblade Paladin gets five attacks this turn! Go! Start by attacking Angelic Armor Shield! Deadly Shadow Blade!"

Leaping into the air with super-human strength, Nightblade Paladin raised her sword above her head preparing to bring it down on Lizette's upraised shield when:

"Oh, there you guys are!" Natsumi panted, zipping up to the others before stopping just outside the pit to wave at her friends while she took the intrusion penalty. "Sorry, I got lost, I'll help you guys out, let me just draw my opening hand and I'll…"

"Just stop that attack already!" Lizette roared.

"NO YOU FREAKING DON'T!" Felicity roared, face going red with rage. "NOT AGAIN!"

"Since an attack has been declared, I discard Celestial Comet from my hand in order to Special Summon one Celestial monster from my deck, come forth, Celestial Defender!"

From up above Natsumi, a large white comet fell from the sky, descending straight towards Nightblade Paladin. Using her sword, Felicity's monster managed to bat away the massive rock, sending it falling into the center of the pit. Once the large stone had landed, the rock cracked open like an egg, revealing a colossal knight in bulky silver armor with a large shield, twice his size and engraved with multiple star patterns.

 **Celestial Defender / LIGHT / Level 2 / Warrior/Effect / 500 ATK / 2000 DEF  
** "Is there ANYONE else I should be aware of that feels the need to interrupt this duel!?" Felicity bellowed as Nightblade Paladin returned to her field due to the replay.

"Well I don't think so." Natsumi replied, looking genuinely thoughtful. "Of course I guess a whole lot of people could end up-…"

"Shut up!" Felicity growled. "I didn't need you to answer that! Since you're so eager to die, I'll oblige you once I take out that stupid shield! Nightblade Paladin! Continue your attack!"

"Actually, you can't." Lizette replied.

"What!?" Felicity snapped.

"She's right." Natsumi explained, matter-of-factly. "So long as Celestial Defender is on my side of the field, our opponent cannot attack any monster other than Celestial Defender."

"And the same effect goes for my shield." Lizette continued.

"Which means a total attack lock-down for you." Joho finished.

Felicity darted back and forth as she looked at the various opponents, which had gathered against her force.

"You won't last much longer." She breathed. "Mark my words, I will destroy you, all of you! I will not rest until every one of you stinkin Xyz scum are dead! Turn end!"

"Why are you guys invading this place anyway?" Natsumi asked, looking up at the Academia soldiers.

"What!?" Felicity growled.

"I just don't get it." Natsumi continued, taking a step forward. "I mean, I know you guys probably think your accomplishing something noble here, but I just don't get how you can justify destroying an entire dimension like this!" She paused to indicate the field of ruins around them. "The Xyz Dimension never did anything to you, so why are you destroying them like this? Couldn't you just work with them to accomplish your goals?"

"Natsumi, there's no point in reasoning with them." Lizette warned.

"She's right." Lydia agreed. "I know these people."

"Just please." Natsumi insisted, "I know there has to be a better way than for us to fight like this. We can resolve this peacefully."

Fang began laughing.

"Just tell me why you're attacking." Natsumi pressed, ignoring Fang.

Felicity opened her mouth to respond, but Lexi jumped in faster.

"You think we need a reason to destroy you, Xyz scum?" Lexi laughed. "You pieces of trash are nothing but our play things! We hunt you for the heck of it and you try to run away! We've got no reason to work with you! We just need you dead! So we might as well make it fun before we kill you all. That's why I'm here, after all. To hunt you guys down because it's fun!"

'Y-you mean-…" Natsumi gawked, staring at Lexi in disbelief.

"That's right, little girl." Lexi sneered. "I've got no empathy whatsoever. I'm going to crush your head under my boot and watch you writhe before I squash you into the slime you are!"

Natsumi stared at Lexi, a dumbfounded expression on her face before looking back and forth at the other Academia soldiers, but none of them said a word to refute what Lexi had just claimed.

"Lizette…" Natsumi breathed, clenching her fist, "let me stop them…now!"

"Technically, I intruded first, so it's my turn now." Joho replied.

"Then just leave that girl for me." Natsumi responded, hair covering her eyes while she pointed at Lexi.

"We should focus on winning." Lydia replied, "Not about who gets to fight who."

"But if she's still around after we've taken our turns," Lizette continued, "then she's all yours."

"Thank you." Natsumi replied, nodding her head.

"Boku no turn, draw!" Joho began, drawing his first card.

"I'll start by summoning Tech-Beast - Virus Worm!" Joho began, placing his first monster on the Duel Disk. Above him, a long six foot translucent worm with circuitry and electricity pulsing through its slithering body, wriggled out of a blue portal before settling on the duel field, mouth opening to reveal multiple tongues with cables and plugs at the end.

 **Tech-Beast – Virus Worm / DARK / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1500**

"Next, since I now control a Tech-Beast monster, I Special Summon my Tech-Beast Fireflywall from my Spell and Trap Card Zone with its own effect! Come forth!" Joho continued, causing Fireflywall to fly over to his field.

 **Tech-Beast – Fireflywall / FIRE / Level 4 / Insect / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Finally, by returning one Spell or Trap Card on the field to the hand, I can Special Summon Tech-Beast - Crash Cricket from my hand. I choose to return Lizette's face-down card and Special Summon Crash Cricket."

 **Tech-Beast – Crash Cricket / WIND / Level 4 / Insect / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1000**

"Why my card?" Lizette snapped, snagging her face-down Angelic Trumpet from her Duel Disk before adding it to her hand as Joho's next monster, a black cricket with large metallic antennae and circuitry under its shiny black carapace, appeared hopped onto the field.

"You…don't want to have that out for the next part." Joho nervously replied.

"What exactly do you plan to do with those weak little monsters?" the boy asked.

"He's going to Xyz Summon, Bradley!" Cami replied, "Brace yourself."

"You idiots are scared of a wimpy little Xyz Monster?" Lexi laughed. "Boy you're pathetic."

"It actually might not be a bad idea to worry right about now." Joho grinned. "Especially when my monster has enough power to defeat half of you."

"What?" Lexi growled. "You're bluffing!"

"I now overlay my Tech-Beast – Fireflywall, Tech-Beast - Virus Worm, and Tech-Beast – Crash Cricket in order to Xyz Summon!" Joho declared, raising his hands into the air as his two monsters drained into the galaxy-shaped Xyz portal. "Marvelous living creatures of the virtual biome, adapt and update into a new organism that surges with unlimited power! Xyz Shoukan! Come forth with the power to overload the network! Tech-Beast – Power Serpent!"

In an explosion of multi-colored light, Joho's Xyz monster rose into the air, a massive snake-like creature with a body made of numerous coiled black power chords and a huge plug for a tail. Multiple chords writhed around the creature like tentacles and huge bolts of electricity crackled around the monster.

 **Tech-Beast – Power Serpent / WIND / Rank 4 / Reptile / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2800**

 **"** I activate the effect of my Power Serpent!" Joho continued, "By detaching 1 Overlay Unit, I destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field in order to inflict 800 damage to the controller's LP for each of their cards destroyed!"

"What!?" Lexi exclaimed in disbelief.

"All Spell and Trap Cards!?" Bradly cried.

"And since none of us control any Spell or Trap cards, we won't be taking any damage. Go! Power Overload!"

Letting out a massive hiss, Joho's monster unleashed a swarm of electrical cables from its body, which hooked up to the Spell and Trap Cards of each Academia Soldier before surging with intense electrical energy and obliterating each card in a shower of sparks.

"I activate the effect of Antique Gear Bunker in my hand!" the Academia Soldier named Bradley declared. "If an effect activates that would inflict effect damage, I can Special Summon this card from my hand in order to make all of that effect damage zero!"

Forming around the gathered Academia Soldiers, a large clockwork bunker materialized into existence before absorbing the electrical shocks emitted by Tech-Beast – Power Serpent.

 **Antique Gear Bunker / EARTH / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 2000**

"Nice save." Cami complimented.

"Thanks." Bradley replied. "And since Antique Gear Armory was destroyed, I can draw 3 cards from my deck, so long as I discard all non-Antique Gear cards afterwards." He continued, drawing three cards before discarding a copy of Fusion and Fusion Trench so that he had 4 cards in his hand.

"I guess I should have expected it wouldn't be that easy." Joho sighed. "If I use the effect of Power Serpent, I can't conduct my battle Phase, so I'll set one card face-down and end my turn. You're turn, Lydia. I've cleared out their Trap Cards just for you."

"Thanks, Joho." Lydia replied. "My turn, draw!"

"I've studied your old tactics, conscriptor!" Sasha growled. "I won't let you defeat us now!"

"Then it's a good thing I've adopted new tactics since I left Academia." Lydia replied. "I tribute my Golden Mist – Luminous Sylph to summon a second Golden Mist Glowing Eagle!"

 **Golden Mist - Glowing Eagle / LIGHT / Level 5 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1800**

"I now overlay my two Level five monsters in order to Xyz Summon!" Lydia declared, raising her hands into the air.

"Xyz Summon!?" Sasha sputtered, eyes bugging out of her head. "Since when did you learn to do that!?"

"She's more of a traitor than I thought." Felicity mused. "Then again, she'll be much easier to defeat if she's using weak Xyz Monsters."

"You've obviously never seen this monster." Joho smirked as Lydia began her summoning chant.

"Creatures of the morning, distill your radiance upon my soul and rise as a glorious creature with the power of the sun itself! Xyz Shoukan! Come Forth! Rank 5! Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon!"

Transforming into streams of golden light, Lydia's two monsters drained into the Xyz Portal, which exploded in a blast of multi-colored light before Lydia's new monster ascended to the sky. Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon was a massive dragon with gold-and-black scales, wings with membranes that looked like they were made of pure light, humanoid arms and claws, a muscular chest with golden armor, and a long thin black-and-gold tail with a tip that looked like an elegant golden sun. Multiple orbs along its wings and shoulders crackled with electricity, while the entire monster's body glowed with intense light as it soared above the other duelists.

 **Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon / LIGHT / Rank 5 / Dragon / Xyz / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000**

"Three-thousand attack points!?" Sasha exclaimed.

"It's nothing compared to my monster!" Felicity spat. "I activate the effect of my Nightblade Paladin! I'll increase its ATK by two-thousand while making it so it cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects! Go! Assassin Soul Absorption!"

 **Nightblade Paladin 2000 + 2000 = 4000 ATK**

Lydia, however, looked completely unconcerned.

"I activate the effect of Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon!" Lydia declared. "Since I know you can just destroy your bunker to negate the destruction of one of your Antique Gear monsters, I'll detaching 1 Overlay Unit from this card, in order to destroy your Ancient Gear Bunker and inflict damage to your Life Points equal to its original ATK! Go! Sunstream Surge!"

Letting out a mighty roar, Lydia's monster absorbed an overlay unit into its chest before its wings, scales, and sun-ornamented tail began glowing with light. Letting out a burst of light from its mouth, Lydia's dragon vaporized the bunker, evaporating it as if it were made of nothing but thin frost before blasting back the Academia Soldiers.

 **Bradley 5800 – 500 = 5300 LP**

 **Cami 2500 – 500 = 2000 LP**

 **Lexi 4600 – 500 = 4100 LP**

 **Sasha 5000 – 500 = 4500 LP**

 **Felicity 3800 – 500 = 3300 LP**

"I next detach the last Overlay Unit from my monster in order to destroy Antique Gear Golem and inflict 3000 damage to all your Life Points!" Lydia continued. "Sunstream Surge!"

Letting out another mighty roar, Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon dive-bombed Sasha's Antique Gear Golem, letting out a burst of light from the sun-shaped ornament on its tail before blasting a hole in the giant's chest.

"No!" Sasha screamed, as her monster exploded.

"I summon another copy of Antique Gear Bunker in order to change that damage to zero!" Bradley countered, throwing up another defensive shelter to shield the Academia soldiers from the blast.

"Battle!" Lydia continued, "I'll attack Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

Responding to her orders, Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon landed in front of Antique Gear Hound Dog, which let out a robotic yelp before running away as fast as it could go. Regarding the mechanized dog like a cat watching a mouse, Lydia's monster let the hound dog run a few paces away before opening its mouth and sniping the machine with a single golden blast of energy.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Bradley screamed as the force of the blast knocked him against the wall of the bunker.

 **Bradley 5300 – 2000 = 3300 LP**

"I will next activate Gilded Supernova!" Lydia continued, throwing down a Quick-Play Spell Card. This card enables me to destroy one of my Golden Mist or Golden-Eyes monsters in order to inflict damage to your Life Points equal to the attack of my monster! Go, Golden-Eyes, unleash your full power! Gilded Supernova!"

Crackling with light and electricity, Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon surged with power until it exploded in a massive blast of heat, fire, and light.

"Don't get cocky!" Sasha countered, "I have my own Antique Gear Bunker I can summon! I will use its effect to negate your damage again! You won't be defeating us, conscriptor!"

 **Bradley 3300 LP**

 **Cami 2000 LP**

 **Lexi 4100 LP**

 **Sasha 4500 LP**

 **Felicity 3300 LP**

"And now you've just thrown away your best monster." Felicity laughed. "Nice suicide bomb attempt, idiot."

"I'd never just throw away my monster like that." Lydia countered. "Since a "Golden-Eyes Xyz Monster left the field, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card, Rank-Up-Magic: Solar Force!"

Above Lydia's head, an image of a massive golden sun, identical to the ornament on Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon's tail appeared, before Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon reappeared to her field.

"If a Golden-Eyes monster leaves my field, I can use the monster that just left the field and Solar Force as Xyz Materials in order to Xyz Summon a Golden-Eyes monster from my Extra Deck whose Rank is one Rank higher than the Rank of the Xyz Monster that left the field! Rank Up Xyz Change!" Lydia declared, raising her fist into the air as the sun icon above her head exploded in a blast of light as she began her summoning chant.

"Lord of the luminous cosmos, bathe my soul in the light of your golden eyes and grant me the strength to burn my enemies with the heat of a thousand stars! Unleash your vengeance! Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon!"

Shaking the earth with a mighty roar, Lydia's new Xyz Monster slowly took form, coalescing from the golden dust of the exploded sun icon until a mighty dragon similar in form to Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon, but with three tails decorated with the sun icon, a larger and more muscular body, thicker armor, six golden eyes, and a pair of antlers on top of its head with a sun icon floating in between them.

 **Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon / LIGHT / Rank 6 / Dragon / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 0**

"Why bother summoning that piece of trash?" Sasha gawked. "its attack isn't enough to defeat anything! Are you mocking us!?"

"Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon, attack Antique Gear Raider!" Lydia ordered, causing the dragon to fire a series of three beams of light from the tips of its tails into the sun icon on its head before firing the beam into Sasha's Antique Gear Raider.

"Antique Gear Raider, counterattack! Destroy the conscriptor's monster!" Sasha ordered as her Antique Gear Raider fired its harpoons at Lydia's monster.

"I discard Golden Mist – Mirage Wisp!" Lydia countered, discarding a card from her hand before causing a feminine ghost made of golden light to appear to the field in front of Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon before phasing into its chest. "If a Golden Mist or Golden-Eyes monster I control battles an opponent's monster, then I can discard this card from my hand in order to make my monster gain attack equal to the attack of your monster in exchange for not being able to destroy your monster. Continue the attack! Trinity Sunstream!"

 **Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon 1000 + 1900 = 2900 ATK**

Intensifying the energy of the beams, Lydia's monster let out a roar before firing an intense burst of light into Sasha's monster, knocking the monster and Sasha back as her Life Points dropped.

 **Sasha 4500 – 1000 = 3500 LP**

"And now that it's my Main Phase 2," Lydia will continue, "I will detach 1 Overlay Unit from Galaxy Star Dragon in order to negate the effects of your Antique Gear Bunker and destroy it while inflict 500 damage to all your LP and increasing Galaxy Star Dragon's ATK by the ATK of the monster it destroyed! Trinity Sunstream!"

Complying with her orders, Galaxy Star Dragon let loose another blast of light from the icon above its head with a mighty roar, annihilating their first bunker.

 **Bradley 3300 – 500 = 2800 LP**

 **Cami 2000 – 500 = 1500 LP**

 **Lexi 4100 – 500 = 3600 LP**

 **Sasha 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

 **Felicity 3300 – 500 = 2800 LP**

 **Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon 1000 + 500 = 1500 ATK**

"I will next activate the final effect of Solar Force!" Lydia continued, "By detaching it from my Galaxy Star Dragon, I can Special Summon Golden Eyes Sunstream Dragon from the graveyard and attach my Solar Force to it as an Xyz Material!"

"Impossible!" Sasha screamed as Lydia's Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon rose to the field from a black portal before the Overlay Unit orbiting Galaxy Star Dragon detached itself from the dragon to orbit Sunstream Dragon.

"With that done, I will activate the effect of my Sunstream Dragon once more!" Lydia declared, Destroy the last Antique Gear Bunker!"

 **Bradley 2800 – 500 = 2300 LP**

 **Cami 1500 – 500 = 1000 LP**

 **Lexi 3600 – 500 = 3100 LP**

 **Sasha 3000 – 500 = 2500 LP**

 **Felicity 2800 – 500 = 2300 LP**

"Turn end!" Lydia finished, once the Academia soldiers managed to get back on their feet.

"I'm going to rip you apart for this!" Sasha vowed, "Just you wait! When my next turn comes, you're finished!"

"We're not letting you get another turn." Lizette countered, drawing a card from the top of her deck as she began her turn. "Especially once we defeat your leader."

Felicity narrowed her eyes at Lizette. "And how exactly do you plan to defeat me? All you've got is a bunch of sissy armor to hide behind, and my monster has this effect in case you forgot. Go! Assassin Soul Absorption!"

 **Nightblade Paladin 2000 + 2000 = 4000 ATK**

"This armor is not for hiding." Lizette retorted, un-phased by the sudden attack increase of Felicity's monster. "After I lost my sister, I vowed to never hide again! So long as there are evil people like you, I'll face you head-on!"

"With those weak monsters?" Felicity replied. "At least Lydia had some force behind her taunts."

"With my own two hands." Lizette countered. "I'll start by placing my Angelic Armor Helmet in my Spell and Trap Card Zone as a continuous Spell Card with its own effect!"

Materializing over Lizette's head, a golden helmet with white wings on the sides and a white horse-hair ponytail formed around her head, covering up her forehead and the sides of her cheeks with metal armor while her hair spilled out the back of the helmet.

"Next, I will activate the Angelic Trumpet Joho returned to my hand." Lizette continued, as a golden horn materialized in her hands. "When this card is activated while I have fewer than two cards in my hand, I can add three Angelic Armor cards from my deck to my hand. With this effect, I add Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet, Angelic Armor Boots, and Angelic Armor Girdle to my hand."

Blowing on the horn, Lizette caused three cards to materialize into the air in front of her before she snagged those cards from the air and added them to her hand.

"Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet can be Special Summoned from my hand if I control an Angelic Armor Card." Lizette continued, slamming down her Angelic Armor Left Guantlet before a golden gauntlet materialized over her left hand. "Furthermore, Angelic Armor Boots and Girdle can both be placed in my Spell and Trap Card Zones as Continuous Spell Cards."

Placing the other two cards in her Duel Disk, Lizette stood tall as a pair of golden boots and a golden battle-skirt, similar to those worn by Greek Soldiers, materialized over her body.

"I will next activate the effect of my Helmet." Lizette continued, "Once per turn, if I have less than two cards in my hand, I can add two Angelic Armor cards from my deck to my hand. With this effect, I will add Angelic Armor Archblade and Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet to my hand."

"Hide behind as much armor as you want." Felicity snarled. "It won't do you much good. I'll blow through all your defenses next time we battle!"

"I told you, I wasn't using this armor to hide." Lizette replied. "I banish my Angelic Armor Shield and the Angelic Armor Crest and Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet in my hand in order to Special Summon Angelic Armor Archblade! Come forth! The sword of angels!"

Materializing in her hands, a massive golden two-handed sword with golden angel-wings for the cross-guard, twelve white gems arranged in two rows of 6 on the golden blade, and a white gem embedded in the pommel, appeared in Lizette's hands before Lizette began brandishing the sword with the skill of an expert swordfighter.

 **Angelic Armor Archblade / Level 12 / LIGHT / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Angelic Armor Archblade gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Angelic Armor Card I control!" Lizette declared as seven gems on the sword's blade lit up with light. Raising her sword into the air, the top half of the blade opened up before a beam of white light shot out from the end, double the length of the blade.

 **Angelic Armor Archblade 0 + 7000 = 7000 ATK**

"Seven-thousand attack points?" Felicity exclaimed in astonishment, slowly backing away. "But…how?"

"Battle!" Lizette declared charging forward in full armor, "I attack your Nightblade Paladin!"

"No…not again! I vowed I'd never lose again!" Felicity roared.

"Never make an oath you can't keep!" Lizette roared, plunging her massive sword into Nightblade Paladin's chest with an angry roar.

Felicity narrowed her eyes at her. "You may defeat me, but I'll still make sure my team wins! I activate the effect of Nightblade Paladin in order to give it the effect of the Nightblade Spearman in my graveyard! With this effect, when it goes to the graveyard, any damage my opponent inflicts for the rest of this turn is halved! Hold off the rest of their attacks everyone!" Felicity ordered. "If you don't win this, then you'll be sorry!"

"We'll be sorry?" Lexi sneered. "You're the idiot who's lost! Once you're gone, I'll be in command!"

"Traitor!" Felicity managed to roar before her Nightblade Paladin exploded, sending her flying into the air before the emergency teleportation on her Duel Disk whisked her back to Academia.

 **Felicity 2300 – 3000 = 0 (LOSE)**

"Thanks for getting rid of that idiot." Lexi laughed, giving a mock bow to Lizette. "Now, thanks to you, I'll be the one getting promoted once I finish the rest of you off!"

"You aren't worthy to even be a duelist, much less receive any kind of promotion." Lizette growled before raising her gauntleted left hand towards the remaining soldiers. "I activate the effect of my Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet. If I destroy exactly one monster by battle or a card effect, then I can inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to the original ATK of the monster I destroyed! Take this as your promotion!" She shouted, blasting a beam of light into the ranks of the other soldiers, causing them to fly backwards as the ground in front of the exploded.

 **Bradley 2300 – (2000 / 2) = 1300 LP**

 **Cami 1000** **\- (2000 / 2) = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Lexi 3100 – (2000 / 2) = 2100 LP**

 **Sasha 2500 – (2000 / 2) = 1500 LP**

"Cami!" Bradley called as his friend's emergency teleport function warped her away.

"I've saved her for you, Natsumi. Finish her off." Lizette breathed, glaring at Lexi, who got up from the ground before glaring at Lizette with a look of pure hatred. "Turn end."

"Saved me for her!?" Lexi snarled. "Are you kidding me!? I still have Antique Gear Beast, Antique Gear Raider, and Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon, I have the strongest field out of any of these other losers! You can't beat me!"

"Atashi no turn…" Natsumi breathed, body glowing with energy as she locked her eyes with Lexi, "DRAW!"

"What's with that glow?" Sasha asked, backing away in fear.

"Stand your ground!" Lexi ordered. "I'm in command here and you idiots will stay put!"

"I normal Summon Celestial Knight – Venus!" Natsumi began, raising her voice above Lexi's as a blonde female knight in orange armor appeared to her field.

 **Celestial Knight - Venus / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / 1700 ATK / 1000 DEF**

"Next, since I control a Celestial monster, I can Special Summon Celestial Wizard from my hand with its own effect!" Natsumi continued, summoning a young wizard in a silver robe to the field. In the wizard's hand was a long wooden staff with a star-shaped top, which caused a white force field to emanate from the tip.

 **Celestial Wizard / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / 1800 ATK / 1000 DEF**

"So what is this?" Lexi sneered. "Another pathetic Xyz play? You can't summon anything nearly strong enough to get past my monsters! So why don't you just pick off the others instead? They're nice and open for attacks, you know."

"I will next activate the effect of Celestial Knight – Venus!" Natsumi continued, ignoring Lexi. "If I control another "Celestial" Monster, I can target one monster my opponent controls and take control of it until the end of this turn! With this effect, I will take control of your Antique Gear Raider!"

"What!?" Lexi exclaimed as Natsumi's Celestial Knight – Venus pulled out a pair of daggers with hearts on the hilts before throwing them into Antique Gear Raider's chest, causing the machine's eyes to suddenly glow with pink light before it ambled over to Natsumi's field.

Lexi stared at Natsumi's field of monsters before laughing.

"Ok, I admit, I wasn't expecting that. But you sure are an idiot! You could have taken control of my Gadjitron Dragon and done some real damage! Oops. I guess it's too late to correct your mistake now!"

"I don't need your dragon, not when I'm about to call forth _my_ dragon!" Natsumi countered.

"You're dragon?" Lexi asked, looking confused.

"Since I control a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck," Natsumi explained, "I can reduce its Level by one and Special Summon Celestial Solor-Burst from my hand! Come forth, Celestial Solar Burst!"

 **Antique Gear Raider Level 7 – 1 = Level 6**

Erupting from Natsumi's hand in a ball of fire, a strange cat-shaped monster made entirely of sun-fire descended to Natsumi's field, before curling up against Antique Gear Raider while purring softly. Hearing the purring, Sky suddenly poked its head out of Natsumi's backpack before hissing at the strange flame cat.

 **Celestial Solor-Burst/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Pyro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0**

"It's okay, Sky." Natsumi reassured the kitten, softly patting its head. "She's not here to replace you.

"And what's that cat supposed to do?" Lexi sneered. "Look adorable?"

"I'm glad you think she's adorable." Natsumi replied with a gentle smile. "But no, that's not why Solor-Burst is here. Haven't you ever heard of a tuner?"

Lexi stared at Natsumi with confusion as Natsumi raised her hands into the air, mark on her arm glowing with red light.

"I will now tune my Level one Celestial Solor-Bust with my Level 6 Antique Gear Raider in order to Synchro Summon!" Natsumi declared as Celestial Solor-Burst morphed into a ring of green light before surrounding Antique Gear Raider and causing the robot to transform into six spheres of light. "When night comes to a close, a lone light rises to expel the darkness! Synchro shoukan! Arise! Level seven! Celestial Dragon – Sol!"

In an explosion of sunlight, Natsumi's Synchro monster, a massive masculine golden dragon with glowing wings, muscular arms and hands with opposable thumbs, and lines of golden light burning against its body, descended to Miku's field, light from its body expelling the shadows of the dismal city as it solemnly regarded the remaining Academia soldiers.

 **Celestial Dragon – Sol / LIGHT / Level 7 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 1500**

Lexi reflexively began backing away before noticing the holographic indicator showing the monsters stats and proceeding to laugh her head off.

"Th-that's it then? That stupid dragon _still_ isn't strong enough to defeat my Gadjitron Dragon! First thing I'm gonna do when I start my turn is have my Gadjitron Dragon tear that pathetic monster of yours to shreds!"

"Attack isn't everything." Natsumi replied. "In dueling and in real life. Sometimes, people you think are weak are hiding a special ability."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lexi scoffed.

"I banish Celestial Comet from my graveyard in order to activate the effect of my Celestial Dragon – Sol!" Natsumi declared. "Once per turn, I by banishing one Celestial card from my graveyard, I can target one monster you control to destroy it."

"What!?" Lexi cried as the phantasmal form of Natsumi's Celestial Comet rose into the air before getting devoured by Celestial Dragon – Sol. After consuming the monster, Celestial Dragon – Sol opened its mouth before launching a blast of red energy into Lexi's Antique Gear Gadjitron Dragon, obliterating the monster.

"Battle!" Natsumi declared, "Celestial Dragon – Sol, destroy Lexi's Antique Gear Beast!"

Nodding its head, Celestial Dragon Sol rose into the air, ascending at a rapid pace before seemingly igniting its body on fire and dive-bombing Antique Gear Beast, blowing the mechanical monster into scrap metal.

 **Lexi 2100 – 700 = 1400 LP**

"No! Impossible!" Lexi screamed, eyes darting back and forth with complete shock and disbelief.

"Celestial Knight Venus, direct attack!" Natsumi ordered next.

"You'll pay for this!" Lexi vowed, as Celestial Knight – Venus charged forward. "I will-…"

The rest of Lexi's sentence was cut off as Natsumi's monster rammed into her, knocking Lexi away before her Duel Disk caused her to vanish as she warped back to Academia.

 **Lexi 1400 – 1700 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"And I'm not done yet." Natsumi continued, pointing to Bradley. "Celestial Wizard, attack that other guy, sorry I forgot your name, what was it?"

"Bradley?" Bradley replied, staring at Natsumi in stunned disbelief.

"Oh that's right." Natsumi nodded, "Celestial Wizard, attack Bradley directly!"

 **Bradley 1300 – 1800 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"I next activate Burial from a Different Dimension in order to return Fang's Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight to his graveyard!" Natsumi continued, causing Fang to regard her with an expression that just managed to conceal any surprise.

"I set one card face down and end my turn!" Natsumi finished, setting a card face-down. "It's all up to you now." She added, looking at Fang. "We're counting on you."

Fang snorted. "A nice sentiment. But you won't really need me to defeat that scum over there."

Fang seemed to be right. Sasha was looking on either side of herself, as if she was contemplating whether or not to run away.

"Just surrender." Joho advised. "We have overwhelming advantage now and it's not even your turn. You can't win."

Sasha regarded Joho for a moment, as if considering his words, before her gaze fell back on Lydia.

"I will never…surrender." Sasha breathed, body quivering with a mixture of rage and fear. "Never to that monster! I will never forgive you for what you did, conscriptor! I would rather die here than surrender to you!"

"How about I help you with that then" Fang growled, slowly limping towards Sasha before drawing a card from his Duel Disk. "I activate Super Soldier End!" he declared, causing a swirling sphere of light and darkness to appear in the center of the field. "This Ritual Spell Card allows me to Ritual Summmon any "Black Luster Soldier" monster from my hand so long as I banish LIGHT or DARK monsters from my side of the field, hand, or graveyard whose total Levels exactly equal the Level of the monster being Ritual Summoned. With this card, I banish Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight from my graveyard in order to Ritual Summon Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier from my hand!"

Appearing on either side of the sphere of light, the phantasmal forms of Beginning Knight and Twilight Knight appeared before getting sucked into the center of the sphere before the sphere exploded, expanding into a never-ending void as Fang's new monster descended to the field.

"Vengeful knight wielding the powers of light and darkness, absorb the chaos of the cosmos now and become the perfect soldier! Gishiki Shoukan! Come forth! Level Eight! Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier!"

Landing on the duel field, a tall knight in blue-and-crimson armor appeared, unsheathing an elegant sword before pointing it in the direction of Sasha, who quivered with fear.

 **Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier/ EARTH/ Level 8/ Warrior/ Ritual/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2500**

"Next," Fang continued, not an ounce of pity in his voice, "I banish Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning from my graveyard in order to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Evening Twilight from my hand! Come forth now!" Fang ordered as a knight in elegant armor, half of it white as the surface of sunlit snow, and half black as the deepest void, appeared to his field.

 **Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Evening Twilight/ DARK and LIGHT/ Level 8/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2500**

"Effect activate." Fang ordered, "Since Envoy of the Evening Twilight was Special Summoned by banishing a LIGHT monster, I banish your last line of defense, Antique Gear Raider."

"No!" Sasha screamed, turning around and running away as fast as she could as her monster vanished.

"Battle." Fang growled "Black Luster Soldier - Super Soldier, Destroy her!"

Nodding its head, Super Soldier charged forward, easily catching up to Sasha before knocking her to the ground with a single swipe of his sword, causing her to vanish as she got warped away.

 **Sasha 1500 – 3000 = 0 (LOSE)**

"We did it!" Natsumi cheered, pumping her fist into the air. "Phoenix Guard forever! Now Academia will think twice before messing with-…"

"Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Evening Twilight! Destroy Celestial Knight Venus!" Fang suddenly ordered, causing his monster to charge forward with its blade stretched towards Natsumi's monster.

Natsumi reacted instinctively, eyes opening wide with shock and surprise.

"I activate Celestial Reflector to negate your attack!" Natsumi hastily countered, causing Envoy of the Evening Twilight's sword to bounce off of a translucent force field before its blade could connect with her monster.

"What are you doing!?" Joho exclaimed, shocked by Fang's sudden betrayal.

Fang, however, didn't seem to hear or care.

"During the Battle-Phase, I can use my monsters effect from the Extra Deck to Xyz Summon itself if I control two Black Luster Soldier monsters! I now Overlay my two monsters to Summon White Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Equinox!" Fang roared, causing his monsters to drain into an Xyz Portal, which suddenly materialized on the ground in front of Fang as he began his summoning chant:

"Agents of light and darkness, straddle the chaotic boundary between the two opposing forces and strike down my enemies with the light of a new era! Xyz Shoukan! Prepare for battle! White Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Equinox!"

In an explosion of White-and-Black light, Fang's new monster, an gigantic soldier in pale white armor with black gemstones, two swords, one made of light and one made of shadow, and an elegant white-and-black helmet with three ponytails sticking out of the back, ascended to the field before unsheathing its swords.

 **White Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Equinox/ LIGHT/ Rank 8/ Warrior/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3500/ DEF 3000**

"We just saved your life!" Lydia roared. "Is this how you're going to thank us!?"

"Envoy of the Equinox can make an additional attack for each of its overlay units!" Fang growled, "So unless you want me to card all of you on the spot, you will back away now!"

"Back away?" Joho asked, "From what?"

Fang pointed at a pile of supplies he had gathered previously, which had spilled out from him when he was attacked.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Joho pleaded, slowly backing away, "We're not your enemies! We can negotiate-…"

"This is Heartland!" Fang growled, "This is how we negotiate! You will back away, or I WILL fight."

Lydia stepped forward, looking like she was going to assault him, when she was stopped by Lizette.

"Do as he says." Lizette instructed. "We're not here for him anyway."

Lydia hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to argue, before she acquiesced and all four Phoenix Guardsmen began backing away.

Fang slowly stepped forward, eyes never leaving them as he gathered his supplies.

"We're really not here to hurt you." Said Natsumi, holding her hands above her head to show she really meant no harm.

"I don't care what you're here for." Fang growled, picking up his last package. "But I can tell none of you are from here, so that means that you're from somewhere else, and as far as I'm concerned, that is reason enough for me not to trust you, even if you supposedly 'helped' me like a Good Samaritan."

"We have no interest in you." Lizette calmly replied. "We're looking for some of our comrades in that city." She explained, pointing towards the ruined city Fang had recently exited.

"Then you people are just plain insane." Fang huffed. "That city is nothing but a death trap. A den of ghouls and ghosts. You wouldn't last five seconds in there. I know I barely did." Fang added, pointing at his mangled leg.

"Ghosts?" Joho asked.

"Go in there and you'll find out." Fang replied, backing away from them. "I would have never believed it myself, but that's what I saw."

"It might surprise you to know we have experience dealing with ghosts." Lizette replied, deactivating her Duel Disk.

"At this point, nothing can surprise me." Fang spat. "Either way, I'll be much obliged if I never see the lot of you again."

"Please," Joho begged, taking a step forward, "you need help. You're obviously injured and starving. Please just let us heal you. You won't last much longer in your current state."

"I've lasted for months already, and I'm not determined to quit." Fang retorted. "And the one lesson I've learned from my time surviving is to never trust anyone you haven't already met, and be wary of even those people. But if you lot want a thank-you from me, then how about this? You'd better all get moving. Academia patrols no doubt heard our little scuffle and will be heading here any minute now. Get the hint?"

"We should go." Lizette sighed, turning away from Fang to head towards the city before getting joined by the others.

…

After thoroughly bandaging his feet to make sure they didn't leave a blood trail, Fang limped as fast as he could until he reached a ruined house. Descending a flight of stairs down into a basement, Fang moved aside several large cupboards until he uncovered a small trapdoor, large enough for a single person to fit through. Opening the hatch, Fang descended down a ladder into a dark and dusty cellar filled with dust and empty jars, illuminated by the dim light of a computer terminal on the other side of the room, before closing the hatch and turning on a flashlight.

"What took you so long?" A hoarse, wheezy voice coughed from the other side of the cellar where the computer terminal was.

Raising his flashlight, Fang revealed the face of an older man with messy teal hair, light green eyes, and ragged clothing. The man was seated in a dusty wheelchair, and was covered in so many blankets, that it looked like he had woven a cocoon for himself.

"Takashi-Sensei." Fang replied, bowing towards his old teacher before tossing a package of old crackers towards the man, who caught them in his hands before examining them.

"Lee will do fine." The man corrected, ripping open the package before crunching on a few crackers. "I'm not exactly a teacher anymore. Got any water?" he rasped, managing to swallow the crackers with a pained expression on his face.

"I have coffee." Fang grunted, collapsing on a dilapidated beach chair before tossing a can of ground coffee beans towards Lee.

"Hmmmm…I can't help but feel we're still missing something vital." Lee coughed, examining the useless can of powder with a morose expression on his face before turning his attention back to Fang, who was taking down a pair of dusty bandages from a shelf above his head, while his bloody leg was left exposed. "What the heck happened to you!?" Fang exclaimed, accidentally gagging on a bit of dry cracker that was still in his mouth.

"Does it matter?" Fang growled. "I was just doing the usual scavenging work. I risk running into complications every day. I'm alive, aren't I?"

"What happened to your feet!?" Lee continued, wheeling up to examine Fang's injured and bloody feet with a horrified expression on his face.

"Look," Fang grunted, "it's not-…"

"Did you go to the city!?" Lee questioned. "I told you not to go there! You weren't trying to find your old resistance friends, were you!?"

"I know they're dead!" Fang spat, "You don't have to remind me! Look," Fang continued, taking a deep breath, "I've already cleared out this town of anything useful. I didn't have any other choice, short of raiding one of the Academia encampments, and even I'm not that stupid."

"I should hope not." Lee sighed before examining Fang's feet. "I'm not exactly a doctor, but I definitely think you shouldn't be going back out there and walking on your feet before they've healed."

"But you've said it yourself, we need water." Fang breathed, suppressing a pained yelp as Lee began applying a few drips of rubbing alcohol to his feet before cleaning the wounds and wrapping them in bandages.

"I'll distill some from the anti-freeze we have left." Lee replied.

"That'll be less than half a liter. We need more." Fang argued.

"What I need is for you to not get yourself killed, running into all your old enemies, who, need I remind you, have congregated around that city." Lee snapped. "I can't go out there with you, Fang, not with my legs. If you get cornered, there will be nobody to help you."

Involuntarily, Fang began laughing.

"This isn't a joke." Lee coughed. "And it would be a pretty lame one if it were."

"I met her today." Fang chuckled, coughing as he inhaled a plume of dust.

"Who?" Lee asked.

"One of my old friends." Fang reminisced, "The one who vowed she would not rest until my card was laying in her binder.

Lee paled. "Felicity?" he gasped.

Fang nodded his head.

"How in the ever living hell did you survive?" Lee sputtered.

Fang shrugged. "Nevermind. I shouldn't have told you. I escaped and I made sure I wasn't followed."

"Fang, I'm a scientist. Telling me to nevermind something gives me all the more reason to look into it. What happened?"

Fang assumed a brooding expression. "There were some…interlopers, who drove off Felicity and her soldiers."

"Resistance members?" Lee asked, looking hopeful.

"No." Fang replied, shaking his head. "I don't know what they were. They weren't Academia soldiers, but they were foreigners. Probably from a different dimension entirely. One of them even used a summoning technique I'd never seen before."

"But they were friendly?" Lee asked, looking curious.

"I don't know what they were." Fang growled. "They seemed opposed to Academia, but all I got from them was that their agenda was to look for some of their friends in Heartland City. A death wish if I ever heard of one. I told them to leave and I never looked back."

"You didn't try to negotiate with them, or find out more?" Lee asked, "Fang! We are losing this war! Do you know how many hours I have spent on this ramshackle tech, trying to scan this entire planet for anyone who could help us turn the tide of this battle? And now you're telling me you have your life saved by a whole group of people clearly opposed to Academia, and you just drive them off!?"

"We've lost the war." Fang growled. "You're just deluding yourself if you think we've still got a chance at fighting. Our only option now is to lay low and survive. It's what we've been doing for months now."

"That might not be an option pretty soon." Lee replied, looking off into the distance with a dark expression on his face.

"What do you mean?" Fang asked.

Lee wheeled up to his computer terminal, dusting off the screen before clicking on a file.

"I've been hacking into the few remaining security cameras in the surrounding region to see what I could find." Lee explained. "One of them recorded this."

Pressing a button, Lee caused a brief video of three large transport helicopters, flying towards Heartland City, to appear on the screen. Painted on the sides of each helicopter was a large logo depicting three tridents arranged in a "T" shape, three-pronged edges sticking outwards while a large circle with a woman's face, half black and half white, formed the center of the T.

"The Tarleton crest." Fang breathed, sweat beading on his forehead. "What the hell is the High General of Academia's Special Forces doing here!?"

"For all I know, old Daniel wants to avenge his good old younger brother, The Butcher." Lee spat. "May Hell exist as an actual place so that monster can suffer there for eternity."

"This is bad." Fang moaned.

"I agree." Lee replied. "Last time Daniel visited here, his armies exterminated three-quarters of Eastern Europe's population before he burnt the rest to the ground just to be thorough."

"But there's nothing left for Academia here!" Fang protested. "The only person left giving them any trouble is Kaito, and he's just a lone wolf!"

"There's also you." Lee added.

Fang stood silent.

"All I know is that there is no way we are going to make it for much longer just hiding in this rat hole." Lee mused. "Daniel has a way of sniffing out people in hiding, if not outright nuking a place into oblivion until it's a steaming pool of radiation. Unless we can find some way to fight back-…"

"There is no way to fight back, d*** it!" Fang roared, punching his fist against the side of the wall. "Our only hope now is to run and find a new place to hide."

Lee began laughing.

"Oh I'm sure we'll make it far." Lee huffed. "Me with my wheelchair and you with your injured feet, we're just a couple of speed demons out there."

"How is fighting them any less foolhardy?" Fang growled.

"It's not." Lee admitted. "But it's the only real option we have. Just sitting around will give Academia all the time it needs to exterminate what's left of us. If I could only find those people you met."

"They won't last much longer." Fang sighed.

"Why not?" Lee asked.

"They're headed to Heartland." Fang replied, hanging his head down in defeat. "If Academia doesn't kill them first, then those…things…will definitely get them."

"What things?" Lee asked.

…

 **Current Duel State**

 **Elbert Niemeyer:**

 **4000 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Field:**

 **Nightmare Puppet Stage / Spell / Field**

 **Nightmare Puppet Alsel / DARK / Rank 8 / Machine / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 3200**

 **Nightmare Puppet King / DARK / Rank 8 / Machine / Xyz / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000**

 **4 face down cards**

 **Camira:**

 **2000 LP**

 **1 card in her hand**

 **Field:**

 **Harpies' Hunting Ground / Spell / Field**

 **1 face-down card**

"I don't understand! I don't understand!" A pale woman in torn dark black robes, her eyes a pitch black, and a demonic-looking duel disk on her arm wailed, backing away from her opponent, a tall boy wearing similar dark robes, eyes glowing with a wooden-brown light against his own pitch-black sclera. The woman looked like she wanted to run, but surrounding her on all sides, standing silently as ghosts, several creatures that looked like nothing more than humanoid black shadows, multi-colored spiral patterns glowing with light against their pitch-black bodies and razor sharp claws, stood ready to intercept her should she make the attempt. "I served Dark Signer Pachakutiq faithfully in the first war! See!?" she begged, turning around to show her opponent a glowing red serpent mark on her back, "This is the mark of the Crimson Devil Himself! I've never renounced my loyalty to the Earthbound! Ad when Pachakutiq fell, I swore my loyalty to Yuu! You can't do this to me!"

"Yuu-sama said you would say those things, Camira." The boy replied with a slight German accent, taking a step forward. "He then proceeded to enlighten me on the many sins you have committed."

"S-sins!?" Camira protested.

"You were given the gift of life." Elbert replied. "And you chose to use your gifts to feed on the life of others, including children. Yuu-sama has no interest in keeping disciples such as yourself in his ranks."

"He never had a problem with it before!" Camira sputtered, "I was only doing what any disciple would do! You obviously haven't been around for very long! You haven't experienced it yet! The hunger! The need to feed! You'll end up doing exactly what I did in not too long! You'll kill other people to survive just like I did!"

"You're wrong." Elbert calmly replied. "I have no interest in my own survival."

"What?" Camira breathed, a look of astonishment coming over her face. "Then why accept the deal?"

"My purpose is to protect someone precious to me. Someone I value far above my own life." Elbert sighed. "Not that you would understand, Camira."

"You're making a mistake!" Camira snarled, "I don't know what lies Yuu has told you, but I'll tell you this! I will not be defeated by you!"

"That's the spirit, Camira." Elbert replied with a mock bow. "After all, the audience is waiting for this moment." Elbert pointed up above their heads to where his Field Spell Card had materialized a gallery full of twisted and shadowy puppets, who clapped their wooden hands together like eager audience members. "They want to see the villain of our little play put up a final fight before the hero vanquishes her. You have one turn left. Use it well and I shall give you a proper send-off."

"O-ore no turn! DRAW" Camira roared, exposing a set of unnaturally pointed teeth as she ripped a card from the top of her deck and began her turn.

"You may have destroyed my monsters, but I still have this!" Camira growled. "I activate Hysteric Party! By discarding 1 card from my hand, this trap enables me to Special Summon as many Harpie Lady monsters from my graveyard as possible! So come forth! Harpie Lady 1, Harpie Lady 2, and Harpie Lady 3!"

From Camira's graveyard, a trio of busty bird-women appeared to her field, one with long pink hair, another with shorter red hair, and a third with spikey black hair.

 **Harpie Lady 1 / WIND / Level 4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

 **Harpie Lady 2 / WIND / Level 4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

 **Harpie Lady 3 / WIND / Level 4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

"And now the effect of my Field Spell Card activates!" Camira shrieked, fangs bared, "I'll destroy that pathetic Nightmare Puppet Stage Field Spell Card you have and your audience! Tear them to shreds, my servants!"

Shrieking like birds of prey, Camira's harpy monsters rose into the air, tearing apart Elbert's stage before the entire thing exploded in a shower of sparks.

"But I'm not done yet!" Camira continued, "I will next Dark Summon my Level -4 Fallen Harpie Lady to my field!"

Through a black portal in the sky, a new monster suddenly appeared to Camira's field, a pale harpy with pitch-black feathers, black war paint over her face and almost completely bare chest, and upper body. Letting out a high-pitched shriek, the monster exposed the pitch-black fangs in its mouth.

 **Fallen Harpie Lady / WIND / Level -4 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1500**

"If Fallen Harpie Lady is Normal or Special Summoned, I can activate its effect!" Camira exclaimed with glee, "I can change the Levels of all my WIND monsters to her own Level! Furthermore, Fallen Harpie Lady's name is treated as "Harpie Lady" while it is on the field or in the graveyard, so since I summoned another Harpie Lady, I'll destroy one of your set cards with my Field Spell Card!"

Elbert shielded his face with the sleeve of his robe as Camira's harpies tore one of his set cards to shreds, but remained un-phased.

 **Harpie Lady 1 / WIND / Level -4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

 **Harpie Lady 2 / WIND / Level -4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

 **Harpie Lady 3 / WIND / Level -4 / Winged-Beast / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 1400**

"The time is now here!" Camira exclaimed. "I can now call forth my strongest servant! Using all for of my winged beauties as Dark Overlay Units, I Dark Xyz Summon!"

Shrieking in agony, all four of Camira's monsters began to slowly fade into transparent ghosts before collapsing in on themselves and forming a small singularity in the air in front of Camira as she began her summoning chant:

"Winged tormentors of the evil gods! Flock together now to fulfill your perverted desires in a new form! Dark Xyz! Torment my enemy! Earthbound Disciple Geo Harpie Queen!"

Unfolding from the center of the singularity, Camira's new monster, a tall woman with pale skin, long green hair, black sclera eyes, massive wings with pitch-black and blood-red feathers, deadly claws and feet, and bright green lines of energy snaking around her nearly completely naked body ascended to the sky, shrieking with maniacal laughter as she looked down on Elbert from where she flew.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Harpie Queen / WIND / Rank -4 / Winged Beast / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000**

"My Earthbound Disciple cannot be targeted for attacks or by my opponent's card effects while she has Dark Xyz Material." Camira exclaimed, long talon-like nails cutting into her pale deathly skin as she rubbed her hands together with glee. "And because Geo Harpie Queen is treated as 'Harpie Lady' while on the field or in the graveyard, I will destroy one more of your face-down cards! Furthermore, all 'Harpie' monsters I control can attack my opponent's Life Points directly! And that's just the beginning of my monster's many effects!"

"You are playing your part quite well." Elbert smirked. "It would not be much of a show if you didn't drive me into a corner now."

"This is not a stupid show!" Camira snapped. "I am taking you down for real!"

"Oh but we are all actors on a stage." Elbert replied. "All of us are here to act out our role, and right now your role is to drive me into a corner before I miraculously save myself and vanquish you next turn."

"We'll see about that!" Camira hissed. "I'll activate the effect of my Geo Harpie Queen! I'll detach one Dark Overlay Unit from herself in order to inflict eight-hundred damage to your Life Points and Special Summon one "Harpie" monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard! Go! Blood-soaked feather storm!"

Cackling, Camira's monster rose into the air before letting loose a massive volley of her feathers into Elbert, who deflected most of them with his cloak.

 **Elbert 4000 – 800 = 3200 LP**

"Whenever my opponent takes damage, my Earthbound Disciple can destroy one card on the field, and I think I'm going to destroy your Nightmare Puppet King!" Camira proclaimed, pointing at Elbert's monster, a tall shadowy puppet shaped like a king, with a massive golden crown and wooden scepter. Shrieking with malice, Camira's Earthbound Disciple sliced off the monster's strings, causing the puppet to fall to the ground and explode in a cloud of dust.

"I'll next Special Summon Harpie Queen with my monster's second effect," Camira continued, Special Summoning a green-haired harpy that looked like a younger and purer version of her Earthbound Disciple. "And because Harpie Queen is also treated as 'Harpie Lady' while on the field, my Field Spell card will destroy your second-to-last face-down card! Feel my fury!" Camira screamed as her Harpie Queen flew forward and cleaved Elbert's second-to-last card in two.

"Battle!" Camira shouted, "Harpie Queen, attack his Life Points directly!"

Shooting out a set of puppet strings from the folds of his robes, Elbert suddenly ascended into the sky, managing to dodge the attack of Camira's monster before the beast could hit him, but still taking the damage.

 **Elbert 3200 – 1900 = 1300 LP**

"I activate the effect of my face-down card!" Elbert declared, "Nightmare Puppet Damage Doll! When I take damage, I can Special Summon this card as a Level eight Machine-Type monster with an ATK and DEF each equal to the damage I took before recovering all the Life Points I lost."

 **Damage Doll / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / ATK 1900 / DEF 1900**

 **Elbert 1300 + 1900 = 3200 LP**

"No!" Camira shrieked, "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"You nearly had me." Elbert complimented, bowing graciously to Camira as he descended to the ground on his puppet strings. "Had you managed to summon just one more Harpie, the victory may have been yours. But then again, that would not have been fitting for this play."

"I will not play the role you want!" Camira protested. "Since you still took damage, my Geo Harpy Queen's effect still goes through, and I think I'll destroy your Nightmare Puppet Alsel!" she declared, pointing at a lion-like puppet, with green vine-like strings before watching her Earthbound Disciple tear it to pieces with its wicked claws. "Go, Earthbound Disciple Geo Harpie Queen! Attack his Life Points Directly!"

Shrieking madly, Camira's Earthbound Disciple sliced at Elbert with her wings and talons, tearing holes into his robe and scratching his skin before flying away.

 **Elbert 3200 – 2400 = 800 LP**

"Since I've inflicted more damage to your Life Points, I'll destroy your Nightmare Puppet Damage Doll in order to leave your field completely empty! With that I end my turn!" Camira spat. "I told you I would destroy you! Didn't I? You've got nothing left! Next turn you're finished! Unless of course…" she continued, voice changing into a softer one, "…you appeal to my mercy. Grovel before me on your hands and feet and I will let you exist to lick the dust from my boots."

Elbert began laughing.

"You dare mock me!" Camira roared. "I gave you a chance to live, but now I will make you suffer to the utmost before I destroy you!"

"Ah but you are mistaken, Fraulein." Elbert laughed. "It was I who was giving you one last chance in that last turn. I let you fly upon me with your full strength, assaulting me as only a wicked villainess like yourself could. But I have let you're evil stand for too long. Now we reach the climax of our little play, Fraulein. For my final act, I shall make you disappear."

"Disappear!? With what!?" Camira hissed, looking over at Elbert's empty field.

"Mine turn," Elbert began, graciously bowing to Camira before pulling out the top card of his deck with immense flourish, "Draw!"

Without even looking at the card he had drawn, Elbert continued his turn.

"Behold my conjuring act! I activate the graveyard effect of my Nightmare Puppet Stage!" Elbert declared, "By banishing a total of five Spell and/or Trap Cards from my hand or graveyard, including my Nightmare Puppet Stage, I can treat all 'Nightmare Puppet' monsters on my side of the field and in my graveyard as Level Negative Ten monsters for a Dark Xyz Summon."

"But you have no monsters on the field!" Camira protested, "You can't Dark Xyz Summon anything!"

"When Nightmare Puppet Stage's effect is activated, I can use monsters in my graveyard as Dark Xyz Materials." Elbert replied, before extending his hands towards his graveyard and raising them into the air. "Witness my marvelous conjuring act as I overlay my Level negative ten Nightmare Puppet Alsel and Nightmare Puppet King in order to Dark Xyz Summon!"

"Impossible!" Camira cried as the ghostly forms of Elbert's destroyed Xyz Monsters rose from his graveyard before collapsing into the Dark Xyz Singularity as Elbert Began his summoning chant:

"Shadowy puppets who masquerade and perform in the darkest corners of my mind! Raise the dark curtains to reveal your dark puppet master and creator whose works have given you life! Dark Xyz Summon! To the center of the stage! Rank negative ten! Earthbound Construct Drossimulacrum!"

Unfolding from the center of the singularity, Elbert's Dark Xyz Monster, a gigantic male puppet with orange hair, a tall black top hat, purple eyes, a blue-and-red overcoat with orange lines of energy, gloved hands, and multiple stringed puppets hidden within its overcoat, rose to the field, before locking its eyes on Camira, removing its Top Hat, and bowing to her.

 **Earthbound Construct Drossimulacrum / DARK / Rank -10 / Machine / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

"Drossimulacrum's effect activates when it is Dark Xyz Summoned." Elbert explained. "For each Dark Overlay Unit used in its Dark Xyz Summon, it can attach one random monster in your Extra Deck to itself as either Overlay or Dark Overlay Units. Go! Puppet-Maker Embrace!"

Extending its arms, Elbert's Xyz Monster shot out multiple threads of dark strings into Camira's Extra Deck, removing two copies of Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon before the two cards transformed into a pair of Xyz Materials, which orbited around the monster.

"And now," Elbert continued, "For the next part of my conjuring act! I detach the Dark Xyz Material of Nightmare Puppet King from my monster in order to Special Summon one of the Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragons attached to my monster, while negating its effects, halving its attack and defense, and treating it as a 'Nightmare Puppet' monster."

Grinning, Elbert's Dark Xyz Monster, reached into its coat with its gloved hands, before pulling out a massive puppet, shaped like Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon, and lowering it to the field with strings extending from his gloved hands like the strings of a crossbar.

 **Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon (Treated as a "Nightmare Puppet" monster) / WIND / Rank 4 / Dragon / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1250**

"My Earthbound Disciple Geo Harpie Queen still has Dark Xyz Materials so it can't be targeted for attacks!" Camira countered. "Even if you destroyed my Harpie Queen with your Xyz Monster, I'd only take 1100 damage. Not enough to destroy me!"

"Drossimulacrum gains the original effects of each 'Nightmare Puppet' monster I control." Elbert replied. "And since your Phantasmal Dragon originally had the ability to attack directly so long as it had Xyz Material, I will now use that effect to enact my disappearing act! So hang on to the edge of your seats everyone!" Elbert proclaimed, addressing the shadowy monsters silently observing the duel. "For when I count to three, Fraulein Camira here shall disappear! One!"

"No! It's not possible!" Camira protested.

"Two!"

"I'll give you anything!" Camira begged. "Just please don't-…"

"Three!" Elbert finished, snapping his fingers before watching as his Dark Xyz Monster removed its large top hat and covered Camira with it, before making the puppet Phantasmal Dragon breathe fire on his hat, causing it and Camira to vanish in a whirl of flame and smoke.

 **Camira 2000 – 3000 = 0 (LOSE)**

"And now for the prestige." Elbert added, winking at his Dark Xyz Monster as it grinned before causing its original top hat to seemingly appear from out of nowhere in its hands before it placed its hat on its own head and vanished into the air.

"Auf Wiedersehen, Fraulein Camira." Elbert sighed as he deactivated his Duel Disk. "Now who shall I entertain?"

"Someone specific comes to mind." The voice of Elbert's master, Yuu Hashimoto called.

Turning his head around, Elbert noticed one of the shadowy monsters that had been accompanying him in his mission suddenly writhe in agony before the swirling multi-colored spiral marks over its body lit up with even more intense light, like the creature was about to explode, and the creature turned to Elbert before speaking with Yuu Hashimoto's voice.

"Something troubling you, Master?" Elbert asked, bowing to the Dark Signer that had raised him from the dead.

"You have done well dealing with these disciples." Yuu complimented as the creature strode forward. "I've counted ninety-nine Disciples disposed of by your hand, and you haven't even lost any of the Earthbound Familiars I gave for you to command."

"I never felt it necessary to work with these creatures." Elbert sighed. "I am perfectly willing to perform the task you gave me by myself."

"Admirable, but regrettably I will have to deny your request both for the sake of efficiency and because you failed to maintain your secrecy from the outside world." Yuu's voice thundered.

"He was just a lowly survivor." Elbert replied. "He can't do much. And besides, I knew him from the resistance. I couldn't kill Fang."

"Indeed, you let him go." Yuu replied. "And while I find your compassion admirable, I'm afraid it has greatly inconvenienced us now. Fang has recently spoken to our enemies, the Phoenix Guard. They are heading here as we speak in order to undermine my plans."

"The Phoenix Guard are here?" Elbert asked. "But I thought you said they had nearly been wiped out."

"Here in the Xyz Dimension, yes." Yuu replied. "But they have members in other dimensions, and those members have come here to find their friends. I do not want them to."

"I shall find them and end them." Elbert vowed. "I won't let them threaten the salvation you have planned for this world."

"There is no need for that." Yuu replied. "You will continue your hunt of the other disciples in this region. I have sent another one of the disciples who is still receptive to my voice to hunt down the rest of the Phoenix Guard. Stay out of Nozomi Aikawa's way and let her deal with them. Should she fail, you will take up her mission, but you will make sure no harm comes to Miku's sister, Natsumi."

"Forgive me master, but why do you need her to survive? She is our enemy, after all."

"She has potential I may be able to exploit." Yuu replied. "And I have made a promise long ago. While I did not guarantee to protect her from her own foolishness, I promised to not send my forces against her unless she chose to directly engage either me or my associates."

Elbert bowed to the familiar speaking with Yuu's voice. "It shall be as you requested, Master. I will continue my hunt and let Nozomi do the same, and should she fail, I shall take up her duty as my own."

"See that it is done." Yuu replied. "And I shall reunite you with the one you love. Releasing control."

Groaning in pain, the large humanoid familiar began writhing again, colors fading to their original less luminescent luster before it resumed its normal passive and silent pose.

"This is all for you, my love." Elbert whispered. "I promise, I will save Heartland for you!"

 **Thank you all once again for your patience as you waded through the hiatus. More "Signs of Renewal" is coming, and the next chapter will be a game changer for this entire story. Thank you everyone who made this next chapter possible, and thank you, my beloved readers, for sticking with me despite the delay.**

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Fang / Original concept by: KuroganeFang / Deck: Black Luster Soldier / Allegiance: The Resistance / Status: Active

Name: Jethro / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated

Name: Bradley / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated

Name: Cami / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated

Name: Lexi / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated

Name: Sasha / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated

Name: Felicity / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Antique Gear / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Defeated…for now.

Name: Joho / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Tech-Beast / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and the Freedom Fighters / Status: Active

Name: Lydia / Original concept by: CorinnetheAnime / Deck: Golden Mist and Golden-Eyes / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard and the Freedom Fighters / Status: Active

Name: Lizette LeBlanc / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Angelic Armor / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Natsumi / Original concept by: Shimmering-Sky / Deck: Celestial / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Lee / Original concept by: Epsilon Tarantula / Deck: _Unrevealed_ / Allegiance: The Resistance / Status: Active

Name: Camira / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Harpie / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Destroyed

Name: Elbert Niemeyer / Original concept by: ghost83 / Deck: Nightmare Puppet / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

Name: Yuu Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: _Unrevealed_ / Allegiance: Dark Signers / Status: Active

FEATURED FANFIC CARDS

Academia's Monsters

Antique Gear Search Hound / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200 / If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear Hound Dog" from your deck. If this card is used as a Fusion Material for the Fusion Summon of an "Antique Gear" monster, you can treat this card as "Antique Gear Hound Dog."

Antique Gear Bunker/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 2000/ If an effect activates that would inflict effect damage, you can Special Summon this card from your hand: Change any effect damage inflicted by that effect to 0. If an Antique Gear monster you control would be destroyed (by battle or card effect) you can destroy this card instead. If you would Tribute Summon an "Antique Gear" monster, you can banish this card from your graveyard as up to 2 of the tributes required for the Tribute Summon.

Academia's Extra Deck

Antique Gear Raider/ EARTH/ Level 7/ Machine/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 2000/ 2 "Antique Gear" monsters

If 1 or more Level 4 or Lower monster(s) was used in this card's Fusion Summon, this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of 1 of those monsters of the controller's choice. Once per turn, you can target 1 "Antique Gear" monster in your graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of that target X 200, and if you do, gain LP equal to the damage inflicted. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate the effect of Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step.

Academia's Spells

Bounty Hunter Chains/ Spell/ Continuous/ Special Summon 1 "Chain" token (Machine-Type/EARTH/Level 4/ATK 0/DEF 0/) to your opponent's side of the field. Your opponent cannot Normal Summon/Set monsters while that Token is face-up on the field. During each player's end phase, inflict 600 damage to your opponent's LPs. (If this card leaves the field, destroy all "Chain" tokens summoned by this card's effect).

Antique Gear Charger/ Spell/ Continuous/ Once per turn, you can destroy 1 face-up card you control to target 1 "Antique Gear" monster you control: Until the end of this turn, that target cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, also, increase the ATK of that card by 1200. You can banish this card from your graveyard to activate 1 of the following effects:

Fusion Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field or your hand as material.

Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your hand. (Ignoring the Summoning conditions).

Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon / Spell / Equip / Equip only to an "Antique Gear" monster you control. While equipped, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle and you take no battle damage from battles involving the equipped monster. Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by the Level of the equipped monster X 200.

Academia's Traps

Antique Gear Bunker/ EARTH/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 2000/ If an effect activates that would inflict effect damage, you can Special Summon this card from your hand: Change any effect damage inflicted by that effect to 0. If an Antique Gear monster you control would be destroyed (by battle or card effect) you can destroy this card instead. If you would Tribute Summon an "Antique Gear" monster, you can banish this card from your graveyard as up to 2 of the tributes required for the Tribute Summon.

Felicity's Monsters

Nightblade Oracle/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2400/ Destroy this card at the end of the Damage Step if it is attacked. If this card is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, you can add 1 "Polymerization" or "Nightblade" Spell Card from your deck or graveyard to your hand, and if you do, send 1 DARK Warrior-Type monster from your deck to the graveyard.

Nightblade Swordsman/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1400/ During the turn this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Send 1 Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster from your deck to the graveyard Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can activate this effect: Increase the ATK of this card by 400 for each Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster in your graveyard. Also, this card cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects. (These changes last until the End-Phase of this turn. You cannot attack with other monsters the turn you activate this effect).

Nightblade Spearman/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 800/ If this card attacks a monster, negate the effects of the monster this card is battling, also, this monster can inflict piercing battle damage if that monster is in defense position. If this card or another "Nightblade" monster you control is sent to the graveyard (by battle or a card effect) you can activate this effect: Any damage inflicted by your opponent for the rest of this turn is halved.

Felicity's Extra Deck

Nightblade Paladin/ DARK/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000/ 2 or more DARK monsters

If this card is Fusion Summoned successfully, you can target 1 Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster in your graveyard: Replace this effect with the effects of that monster. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target 1 Level 4 DARK Warrior-Type monster in your graveyard: Until the end of this turn, replace this effect with the effect of that monster.

Felicity's Spells

Nightblade Fusion/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Fusion Summon 1 "Nightblade" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field or your hand as Materials. (If this card is activated during your opponent's turn, you can also banish monsters from either player's graveyard as Materials). You can banish this card from your graveyard: This turn, the "Nightblade" monster you control with the highest attack can make a number of attacks this turn, up to the number of DARK Level 4 Warrior-Type monsters in your graveyard, but other monsters you control cannot attack.

Fang's Extra Deck

White Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Equinox/ LIGHT/ Rank 8/ Warrior/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3500/ DEF 3000/ 2 Level 8 LIGHT and/or DARK monsters  
You can also Xyz Summon this card during the Battle-Phase using 2 "Black Luster" monsters you control as Xyz Materials. This card can make 1 additional attack for each Xyz Material attached to itself. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Banish up to 2 cards on the field or in either player's graveyard, and if you do, you can return up to 2 of your banished cards to the graveyard.

Fang's Spells

Chaos Current

Super Soldier End

Joho's Monsters

Tech-Beast – Fireflywall/ FIRE/ Level 4/ Insect/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0 If your opponent activates a monster effect, you can Special Summon this card from your hand: Equip this card from your side of the field to that monster, and if you do, you can negate the activation of that effect. As long as this card is equipped to that monster, it cannot attack and its effects are negated. Also, this turn, any effect damage you take is changed to 0, and any battle damage you take is halved. If you control a face-up "Tech-Beast" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your Spell/Trap Card Zone.

Tech-Beast - Virus Worm/ DARK/ Level 4/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 1500/ "Tech-Beast" monsters you control cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. A "Tech-Beast" monster special Summoned using this card as an Xyz Material gains this effect:

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Tech-Beast" monster from your deck.

Tech-Beast – Crash Cricket / WIND / Level 4 / Insect / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1000/ You can return 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field to the hand: Special Summon this card from your hand. During either player's turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate the activation of that card, and if you do, return this card to your hand.

Joho's Extra Deck

Tech-Beast - Power Serpent/ WIND/ Rank 4/ Reptile/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2800/ 2 or more Level 4 "Tech Beast" monsters  
Must be Xyz Summoned and cannot be summoned other ways. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate 1 of the following effects. (You cannot conduct your Battle-Phase the turn you activate any of the following effects):  
•Destroy all Spells and Trap Cards on the field, and if you do, the controllers of those cards take 800 damage for each of their Spell/Trap Cards destroyed, also they take no further damage this turn.  
•Destroy 1 monster on the field, and if you do, gain LP equal to its ATK.

If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can Special Summon the Materials used to Xyz Summon it in defense position.

Lydia's Monsters

Golden Mist - Luminous Sylph/ LIGHT/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 300/ DEF 1500/ During either player's Battle-Phase, when an attack is declared, you 1 "Golden Mist" card from your hand and Special Summon this card from your hand: Negate the attack and end the Battle-Phase, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Golden Mist" or "Golden-Eyes" monster from your graveyard: Increase the LP of all player's by the ATK or DEF of the monster Special Summoned by this effect, (whichever is higher).  
Golden Mist - Glowing Eagle/ LIGHT/ Level 5/ Winged-Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 1800/ Once per turn, you can target one Level four or lower monster your opponent controls: Until the End Phase of this turn, negate that monster's effects and take control of it, treating it as a "Golden Mist" monster. If this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you can activate this effect: Draw 2 cards.

Golden Mist – Mirage Wisp

Lydia's Extra Deck

Golden-Eyes Sunstream Dragon/ LIGHT/ Rank 5/ Dragon/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 5 LIGHT Monsters  
When this card is Xyz summoned to the field, this card cannot be targeted or destroyed by monster effects (except its own). You can detach 1 Xyz Material, then target and destroy one monster on the field, your opponent takes damage equal to the original ATK of that monster. After the Battle Phase, if this card has no XYZ materials, you can add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" Spell Card from your Deck to your Hand.

Golden-Eyes Galaxy Star Dragon/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Dragon/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 0/ 3 Level 6 LIGHT monsters  
When this card is XYZ Summoned to the field, it cannot be targeted or destroyed by monster effects. Detach an XYZ Material and target one monster your opponent controls; negate its effects and destroy that monster, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to that monster's ATK. Each time this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle or with its own effect, increase the ATK and DEF of this card by the respective ATK and DEF of that monster.

Lydia's Spells

Gilded Supernova/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Destroy 1 "Golden Mist" monster on your side of the field, and if you do, you can activate 1 of the following effects:

1\. Special Summon 2 "Golden Mist" monsters from your hand or graveyard.

2\. Inflict damage to your opponent's LPs equal to the ATK of that monster on the field.

Rank-Up-Magic: Solar Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ If a "Golden-Eyes" Xyz monster has left your field, you can Special Summon a LIGHT-Attribute Xyz monster 1 Rank higher from the Extra Deck (ignoring its summoning conditions), treating the "Golden-Eyes" Xyz monster that left the field and this card as Xyz Materials (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon). You can detach this card from a LIGHT-Attribute Xyz monster; Special Summon one Xyz monster from your Graveyard, and if you do, attach this card to that monster, treating it as an Xyz Material. You can only use this effect once per duel.

Lizette LeBlanc's Monsters

Angelic Armor Helmet/ Light/ Level 1/ Rock/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. You can only control 1 "Angelic Armor Helmet". This card cannot attack. During your Main-Phase if you control this face-up card in either your monster zone or spell/trap card zone, you can add 2 "Angelic Armor" cards from your deck to your hand. (You can only use this effect of "Angelic Armor Helmet" once per turn. You Must have fewer than 2 cards in your hand to activate and resolve this effect.)

Angelic Armor Breastplate/ Earth/ level 1/ Rock/ ATK 0/ DEF 1500/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. While this card is face-up in either your monster card zone or spell/trap card zone, "Angelic Armor" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle. This card cannot attack. During your Main-Phase you can tribute this face-up card from your spell/trap card zone: add 1"Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand. Then it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor Cloak/ Fire/ level 1/ spellcaster/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. While this card is face-up in your spell/trap card zone "Angelic Armor" monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's monster effects. This card cannot attack. During your Main-Phase you can tribute this face-up card from your spell/trap card zone: add 1"Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand. Then it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet/ Fire/ level 1/ Rock/ ATK 500/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control an "Angelic Armor" card. Once per turn when exactly 1 monster is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to the controller's LP equal to the original ATK of the destroyed monster. You can tribute this card: add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Angelic Armor Left Gauntlet" once per turn).

Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet/ Fire/ level 1/ Rock/ ATK 500/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control an "Angelic Armor" card. You can target 1 card on the field: destroy that target. You can tribute this card: add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand. (You can only use each effect of "Angelic Armor Right Gauntlet" once per turn).

Angelic Armor Crest/ Light/ Level 1/ spellcaster/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. Once per turn, while this card is face-up in your spell/trap card zone, you can add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your graveyard to your hand. This card cannot attack. During your Main-Phase you can tribute this face-up card from your spell/trap card zone: add 1"Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand. Then it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor Girdle/ Wind/ level 1/ Spellcaster/ ATK 0/ DEF 1000/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. While this card is face-up in your spell/trap card zone, face-up "Angelic Armor" monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's spell cards. This card cannot attack. During your Main-Phase, you can tribute this face-up card from your spell/trap card zone: add 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand. Then it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor Boots/ Earth/ level 1/ Rock/ ATK 0/ DEF 500/ You can place this card (from your hand) in your spell/trap card zone as a continuous spell card. While this card is face-up in either your monster card zone or spell/trap card zone, face-up "Angelic Armor" monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's Trap cards. During your Main-Phase you can tribute this face-up card from your spell/trap card zone: add 1"Angelic Armor" monster from your deck to your hand. Then it becomes the End-Phase of your turn.

Angelic Armor ArchBlade/ Level 12/ LIGHT/ Fairy/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card by banishing 3 "Angelic Armor" monsters (1 face-up from your side of the field and 2 from your hand). Increase the ATK and DEF of this card by 1000 for each "Angelic Armor" card you control. Other monsters you control cannot attack. During the Damage Step of either player's turn, you can discard this card from your hand: Double the ATK and DEF of 1 "Angelic Armor" monster you control until the End-Phase of this turn.

Lizette LeBlanc's Spells

Angelic Trumpet/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ During your opponent's Battle-Phase, you can reveal this card in your hand: Special Summon up to 3 "Angelic Armor" monsters from your hand, and if you do, set this card. If this card is activated when you have less than 2 cards in your hand, you can add 3 "Angelic Armor" monsters from your deck to your hand. During either player's turn, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Ritual Summon, Fusion Summon, Synchro Summon, or Xyz Summon 1 "Angelic Armor" monster from your Extra Deck by following the procedure written on the card.

Natsumi's Monsters

Celestial Comet/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ During the Battle-Phase of either player's turn, you can discard this card from your hand: Special Summon 1 "Celestial" monster from your deck. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Return 1 "Celestial" monster from your graveyard to your hand.

Celestial Defender / LIGHT / Level 2 / Warrior / Effect / 500 ATK / 2000 DEF/ While this card is face-up on the field: Your opponent cannot target other monsters for attacks, except "Celestial Defender".  
Celestial Solor-burst/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Pyro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If you control a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, reduce the Level of 1 monster you control by 1.

Celestial Knight - Venus / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior/Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1000/ If there is another face-up "Celestial" monster on the field: Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase.  
Celestial Wizard / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000/ If you control a face-up "Celestial" monster: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). "Celestial" monsters you control, except "Celestial Wizard", cannot be destroyed by battle.  
Natsumi's Extra Deck

Celestial Dragon - Sol / LIGHT / Level 7 / Dragon / Synchro/Effect / 2700 ATK / 1500 DEF/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuners  
Once per turn: You can banish one "Celestial" card from your Graveyard, then target 1 card on the field; Destroy it.  
Natsumi's Spells

Celestial Reflector / Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Celestial" monster when your opponent declares an attack: Negate the attack.  
Camira's Monsters

Fallen Harpie Lady/ WIND/ Level -4/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1400/ DEF 1500/ You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 "Harpie Lady" from your deck or graveyard to your hand. If this card is summoned, you can activate this effect: Change the Levels of all WIND monsters you control to the Level of this card. This card's name is treated as "Harpie Lady" while it is on the field or in the graveyard.

Camira's Extra Deck

Earthbound Disciple Geo Harpie Queen/ WIND/ Rank -4/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2000/ 3 or more Level -4 WIND monsters

Cannot be targeted for attacks or by your opponent's card effects while this card has Dark Xyz Material. "Harpie" monsters you control can attack your opponent's LP directly. Each time your opponent takes damage, you can target 1 card on the field: Destroy it. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card: Inflict 800 damage to your opponent's LP, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Harpie" monster from your hand, deck, or GY. This card is also treated as "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY.

Elbert's Extra Deck

Nightmare Puppet Alsel/ DARK/ Rank 8/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2300/ DEF 3200/ 2 Level 8 "Nightmare Puppet" monsters  
Up to twice per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Nightmare Puppet" Xyz Monster from your graveyard, and if you do, attach one of this card's Xyz Materials to the summoned monster. "Nightmare Puppet Alsel" cannot attack the turn you use this effect.

Nightmare Puppet King/ DARK/ Rank 8/ Machine/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 8 "Nightmare Puppet" monsters  
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz material from this card: Destroy all cards your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 200 damage to your opponent's LP for each card destroyed this way. This card can't attack the turn you use this effect.

Earthbound Construct Drossimulacrum/ DARK/ Rank -10/ Machine/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 2 or more Level -10 "Nightmare Puppet" monsters  
When this card is Xyz Summoned, you can attach a number of random cards from any player's Extra Deck to this card as Xyz Material or Dark Xyz Material, up to the number of Dark Xyz Materials attached to this card. Once per turn, you can detach any number of Dark Xyz Materials from this card: Special Summon an equal number of monsters attached to this card as Xyz or Dark Xyz Material, ignoring the summoning conditions. (Monsters summoned with this effect are treated as "Nightmare Puppet" monsters, have their effects negated, and their ATK and DEF halved). This card gains the original effects of each "Nightmare Puppet" monster on the field. If this card is removed from the field, Banish all "Nightmare Puppet" monsters on the field.

Elbert's Spells

Nightmare Puppet Stage/ Spell/ Field/ Once per turn, during your Standby phase, you can target 1 Machine-type Xyz monster you control and 1 "Nightmare Puppet" monster in your graveyard: Attach that monster from the graveyard to the Targeted Xyz monster as Xyz Material. Once per duel, you can banish a total of five Spell/Trap Cards from your hand or graveyard, including this card, and declare a number between -10 and -4: all "Nightmare Puppet" monsters on the field and in your graveyard are treated as having the declared Level. Also, during the turn this effect is activated, if you would Dark Xyz Summon a monster, you can use monsters in your graveyard as Dark Xyz Materials.

Elbert's Traps

Nightmare Puppet Damage Doll/ Trap/ Continuous/ Activate only when you take battle damage. Special summon this card as an effect monster. (Machine-Type / DARK / Level 8/) If summoned this way, this card's ATK and DEF are each equal to the amount of battle damage you took, also, immediately after this card is summoned, gain LP equal to the damage you took.


	27. Part 1: Chapter 13 (Part 3)

**Part 1: Chapter 13 – Shadow of the Ravager (Part 3)**

 _"_ _But Onii-chan, what if a lightning bolt hits us?"_

 _Shun was huddled next to his little sister in a thick blanket, the folds of the wooly garment covering the small six-year-old girl's head and chin so that only her small nose and pink eyes poked out from beneath. Outside their home, a large thunderstorm raged, lightning bolts illuminating the black clouds in a haze of purple and yellow light. It was beautiful to behold, but the constant peal of thunderous explosions, coupled with what Ruri had recently learned about the dangers of lightning in school, were causing the little girl a great deal of stress indeed._

 _Shun pulled his sister closer, stroking her short lilac hair in order to comfort her._

 _"_ _Don't worry." he reassured her, "The lightning's really far away, so it's not going to his us."_

 _"_ _How can you tell?" Ruri asked, looking at her brother and folding her arms with skepticism._

 _"_ _Well…" Shun explained, "I learned that you can actually count how many miles away a lightning strike is by counting how long it takes for the thunderclap to follow the flash."_

 _"_ _Huh?" Ruri asked, looking confused._

 _"_ _Well, see, light travels faster than sound, so whenever you see a lightning bolt, there's always a delay before you here the thunder. See watch." Shun instructed, pointing out the window, "I'll show you."_

 _Ruri and Shun waited in tense silence, peering through the glass of the window and the thick sheets of rain until:_

 _FLASH!_

 _In an instant, the dark room the two siblings were sitting in was bathed in violet light, causing Ruri to jump with fright._

 _"_ _Okay, now count." Shun instructed, comforting Ruri. "One."_

 _Ruri clutched Shun's arm before joining him with, "One."_

 _"_ _Two." The siblings spoke in unison. "Three, Four…"_

 _BOOM!_

 _Yelping, Ruri buried her head in Shun's chest, body shaking as if she were about to sob._

 _"_ _That one was big!" Ruri whined._

 _"_ _Don't worry." Shun reassured her. "We counted all the way to four; that means it was about four miles away. See? Nothing's going to hit us."_

 _"_ _How big is a mile?" Ruri asked._

 _"_ _Very big." Shun replied, patting her on the back._

 _Ruri seemed to calm down a bit, but she remained unconvinced._

 _"_ _But what if the lightning gets closer?" Ruri asked, nervously tugging at a strand of her hair. "Mommy's sick and Dad's at work."_

 _"_ _Don't worry." Shun replied. "The buildings in Heartland have lightning rods on them, and besides, if things get really dangerous," he continued, giving her a big hug, "I'll be here for you."_

 _Ruri smiled back at him. "You promise?" she asked._

 _"_ _I promise." Shun replied._

 _Ruri gazed back at Shun for an uncomfortably long time, eyes narrowing as if she didn't believe him._

 ** _"_** ** _Then why did you let me die?"_** _She asked in her fourteen-year-old voice._

 _Shun's eyes widened in shock. Before he could even open his mouth to reply, a massive lightning bolt suddenly burst through the ceiling of their home, striking Ruri straight in her forehead and sending Shun flying into the air in a massive explosion of heat and electricity. Screaming in horror, Shun could only watch helplessly as the flesh of his little sister dissolved away into dust until only a bare skeleton remained, like a bird that had been plucked of its feathers. The furniture in the room caught fire, and suddenly, Shun found himself reeling in pain and naked horror as he struggled to stumble out of the smoke filled room. Knocking aside bits of burning and smoking furniture, the little boy Shun struggled through the thickening cloud of pitch-black smoke, chocking and retching as he gagged on the unbreathable air, and yelping in agony as the heat burned at his exposed skin, until at last his hands clutched a doorknob. Twisting the hot metal around, Shun wrenched the door open and fell outside._

 _All of Heartland was burning. As a teenage Shun struggled to his feet, now clad in the ragged robes of the resistance, he could only watch with complete hopelessness as the forces of Academia annihilated the place he had once called home._

 _"_ _No!" Shun screamed in agony as a horde of soldiers and their monsters continued their barbarous work of death and destruction. Activating his Duel Disk, Shun leaped onto the flaming battlefield, eyes searching for his sister who he knew was out there._

 _"_ _Ruri! RURI!" he screamed._

 _"_ _Shun!" the voice of his sister called. "Help me!"_

 _Turning his head in horror, Shun spied his sister several meters away, a horde of Academia soldiers dragging her away while their commander, a tall Obelisk Force Soldier, leered at her._

 _"_ _The losers must be destroyed." He sneered, before raising his hand into the air._

 _Shun charged forward with all his might, but before he had even made it three steps, a massive Antique Gear Golem fired a blast from its cannon, directly into his captive sister, blasting her into a thousand bloody pieces that flew up, up, up until they reached the dark clouds overhead._

 _Shun fell to his knees._

 _"_ _AH, HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAAAAAAAAAW!" The Obelisk Force Soldier laughed, not an ounce of remorse in his voice._

 _Shun suddenly felt drops of liquid pattering against his back, arms, hands, and head as drops fell from the sky. Looking down at his wet hands, Shun gasped when, to his horror, he saw that it was not rain that was falling, but blood, thick, hot, pungent blood. Her blood, staining every inch of his body, and showering the ground with her life essence._

 _The other Academia soldiers had joined their commander in laughter. As their mouths hung open with their foul mirth, blood poured from their mouths and eyes like a faucet, the ghouls continuing in their demonic laughter as if nothing was happening._

 _Blood was pouring onto the ground from everywhere now. It was raining from the clouds, pouring from the buildings, and gushing down the streets and gutters until Shun began drowning in it._

 ** _"_** ** _Why didn't you save me!?"_** _The voice of his sister demanded._

 _"_ _Ahhhhhhhh!" Shun gagged as he sunk beneath the ocean of blood._

 ** _"_** ** _Why didn't you save us!?"_** _The voices of thousands of others cried._

 _Shun could do nothing. Flailing for his own life, he saw thousands of faces swimming before him in the blood, faces of people he had known before Academia had taken them from him._

 ** _"_** ** _You let them take me. You let them kill me."_** _Said Ruri as her face swam in front of Shun's._

 _Shun let out a wordless scream of utter agony as he drowned. Flailing his arms, he desperately tried to take hold of his sister, when darkness overtook him._

…

"RURI!" Shun screamed, suddenly feeling himself waking from his nightmare. But when he looked around to gaze upon his surroundings, he wondered if he had truly awakened after all.

Shun gazed all about his environment, but there was little to see. All around him was a vast empty expanse of void so thick with darkness, that when Shun held up his hand in front of his face, he could not even make out his fingers.

"What's happened to me?" he breathed. "Where's Ruri!?"

 _"_ _Gone."_ A deep male voice intoned with the rumbling of a thunderstorm. _"_ _Gone because you did not protect her."_

"Who's there?" Shun asked, looking around in alarm.

 _"_ _Why did you fail her when Academia came?"_ The voice interrogated, ignoring Shun's question.

Shun began sweating, heart beating against his chest as fear and guilt took ahold of him. Before the voice, Shun felt utterly powerless, unable to respond. Visions of the dream and his own memories crowded his head as he experienced himself failing to protect her over and over again.

"I tried to fight." Shun croaked. "I gave it my all." Then, feeling rage course through his veins, Shun clenched his fist before screaming, "I'm still trying to fight! I'm still trying to save her! Where's Ruri!? I can still find her! I can still save her!"

The voice began chuckling, a low rumbling like the booming of thunder.

 _"_ _Hm, hm, hm, good. You are still strong, even now. But you lack sufficient power to truly achieve your aims."_

"Who are you?" Shun asked a second time. "What are you doing to me? What is this place?"

 _"_ _You and I are both beings who have sworn to protect the ones they love most."_ The voice thundered in reply. _"_ _Both of the ones we love are being threatened with utter destruction at this very moment. You have determination, skill, and the rage to see that your enemies pay, but you are only a mortal, limited by the capacities of your weak flesh. I am an immortal being, infinite in power and strength, but cursed. Bound to rot away in this wretched Underworld without an outlet for my power. I wish to give you my power so that we both may protect the ones we love. I am the bearer of your victory, the enforcer of your justice, the source of your strength, one of the primordial gods, son of Wiraquocha, father of Jatun Waqar, the lightning that strikes his enemies down, the vulture that feeds on their corpses! I am Catequil Suwaq'ara!"_

In an explosion of lightning, Shun was suddenly thrown back as the surrounding shadows were suddenly bathed in golden light, followed by the thunderous cry of a massive vulture. Eyes widening in astonishment, Shun craned his head upwards to behold the colossal form of an enormous black vulture, more than three-hundred meters tall, with a pitch black body and lines of golden energy running along every inch of its form in elegant patterns. Its legs and feet were long, with gold-tipped talons, its feathery tail was a massive triangular shape, with rectangular feathers running along the bottom. Its black-and-gold body was large and muscular, and its gigantic black wings, tomb-stone shaped appendages with long rectangular feathers, ornate golden patterns adorning the inside, and white feathers lining the edges of the wings, were equally powerful. A crown of black feathers lined the base of the creature's long neck and a large spherical wattle drooped from its chin. Its long hooked beak was a solid gold color, and its eyes, golden spheres of light that looked almost like they had been drawn upon the phantasmal creature's black body, glowed with immense light. Lightning crackled along the entire surface of the imposing creature, scattering light and heat wherever the bolts lashed out, but none came close to touching Shun.

Shun clenched his mouth in fear, yellow eyes widening in awe and astonishment as he gazed upon the creature. Shrinking before the creature's immense size and power, Shun felt like little more than a mosquito in comparison.

 _"_ _You are enthralled by my majesty."_ The creature mused in a low rumbling tone, the beak of its mouth remaining still despite the fact that the creature was speaking. _"_ _It is overwhelming for your mortal mind to comprehend."_

Shun remained frozen in place, unsure of what to say or do.

 _"_ _Perhaps it would be best to come before you on a more equal footing."_ The creature continued, _"_ _I shall therefore deign to speak to you, man to man."_

Surging with blinding electricity, the massive vulture unfolded itself in its wings, completely obscuring its head, feet, and the rest of its body from view before beginning to rapidly shrink in size. When the creature had shrunk until it was no more than a head taller than Shun, its wings unfolded, revealing a tall angelic-looking man with coppery-brown skin, vulture wings on his back, solid gold eyes with golden eye-liner, golden lines of energy running along every inch of his body like glowing tattoos, a massive bare chest, muscular arms and legs, an ornate cape and loin cloth woven from feathers and patterns of golden cloth, bare feet with talon-shaped toe-nails, and an elegant headdress of gold resting atop his head. Electricity still crackled around the body of the man, though now the light and heat were not as overwhelming as they had been before.

"I have chosen you, Shun," Said the man, voice strong and powerful, though not as deep and godly as it had been before, "to act as the harbinger of my will. I know of your intense desire to protect Ruri, for the same desire burns within me for my own daughter. Both of us have been powerless to exercise our will in the past, but now, together, both of our goals shall be met. We shall crush Academia, and all other enemies who threaten the ones we love, and build a new world where they can be safe, forever."

Shun stared back at the man, trying to process what he had just said.

"I don't understand." Shun replied, shaking his head with confusion. "Why are you bothering to help me? If you really cared about me, and are as powerful as you claim, why didn't you bother coming to me when the invasion started!?" Shun could feel his rage rising as he continued. Now that the creature was not quite so massive and imposing, he was beginning to regain his senses, and almost every fiber of Shun's being told him not to trust the strange godly creature that stood before him. "There were other people suffering in Heartland!" Shun spat, "Millions of older brothers just like me who lost their families! Why didn't you go to any of them!? What do you _really_ want!? No! In fact, I don't care what you want! I'm saving my sister with or without your help, and I won't let you stand in my way!"

Shun continued ranting, making threats that felt emptier and emptier as he stared at the godly being, who listened patiently, face impassive and unmoving as Shun continued to vent. When Shun had finished, feeling drained and utterly helpless as he seemed to continue drifting in the empty void, with nothing but the winged vulture-man as his companion, Catequil began speaking.

"My child." Catequil soothed, cupping Shun's cheek in his glowing hand as if Shun were his own son. Shun froze in place at the touch, finding Catequil's hand to be surprisingly cold despite the feint veins of electricity crackling above the skin. Shun almost wanted to recoil from the touch, yet he felt strangely comforted by the gesture, as if he had found someone who truly understood his pain. "You are wholly justified in feeling as you do. The countless atrocities Academia have wrought upon your world, home, friends, and family have filled you with infinite burning rage and righteous indignation. It is a rage I too have felt as I have witnessed my enemy strip me of all I hold dear, and remain unpunished."

Shun looked up at Catequil, feeling strangely curious despite his reservations.

Catequil smiled down at him. "Yes, my child, I know the pain you feel. The pain of watching your loved ones get torn apart while being helpless to save them is like unto the pain of having your own flesh torn apart. Worse even. It burns you with rage and hatred and smothers you with despair. You want to rip the ones who hurt you to pieces. You want to tear into their flesh and dig your teeth into their skin, if only to hear their cries of agony, but the only cries you hear at night are the cries of your innocent loved ones who you failed to protect. I have drowned in that pain many times. Once when my Father, Wiraqocha, was thrust into this black abyss by our enemy. Once again when my wife, Aslla Piscu, fell to the hands of the same enemy, and once again when my children each were struck down and bound to this wretched realm. Decaying in this accursed abyss, I beheld millions upon millions of your kind suffer as I have, and yes, I beheld you and all your friends suffer at the hands of Academia. But just as you felt your own powerlessness in the face of such an enemy, so too I was utterly impotent and unable to help, though I truly wished to rend those murderers as I wished to rend my own enemy."

Shun listened enraptured, feeling immense pain and agony emanating from Catequil, who was now cradling his face in his hands, talon-like nails digging into his coppery flesh as the rest of his body shook with weeping. Shun suddenly felt immense pity for the creature.

"But then how can you be helping me now?" Shun breathed, throat hoarse, "And why me?"

Catequil lowered his hands from his head and looked down at Shun before smiling with a faint smile.

"You're sister, Ruri, called to me." He explained.

"Ruri?" Shun exclaimed in shock. "Called to you? How? What do you mean?"

"Even after all the horrors she has gone through, Ruri has not ceased to believe in you." Catequil explained, placing a hand on Shun's shoulder. "Youre sister continues to fight, Shun, and she has placed her faith in your strength. In her time of greatest agony, my daughter, a god like unto me, consoled her in her sorrow and gave her the strength she needed. Now your sister wishes to give the gift my daughter gave her, to you. Ruri has called upon me to give you the gift of my power. With the strength of Ruri's wishes, I have forged a faint but powerful bond with you. Though still cursed and confined to this awful place, I can share a little of my power with you, and give you the vengeance you and your sister so badly deserve!"

"Ruri led you to me?" Shun asked, eyes widening with amazement. "She's giving me the power to stop Academia?"

"And more." Catequil promised. "Now behold the fruits of my bond with you! Look upon one of my many servants who shall give you the strength to rend your enemies and save your sister!" he commanded, extending his hands into the sky above Shun's head.

Shun followed Catequil's gaze, looking up into the sky of the shadowy void to see a massive creature, a robotic condor with red-hot black armor and the body of a stealth bomber, circling above their heads, letting out the shrill cry of a predator eager to hunt down its prey.

Shun suddenly felt a card materialize in his hand.

"Ravage Raptor - Carpet Bomb Condor." Shun whispered as he gazed upon the clear card of the Dark Xyz Monster, his own eyes beginning to glow with a soft electric yellow as he began to remember his duel with Crow. "This is Ruri's gift to me. Her own wishes for my victory."

"Use my power and I can promise you victory against Academia." Catequil promised. "You shall be my own body; the embodiment of my will! Take me in as your spirit and I shall give you the might of a god! Grasp this card, the link between you and I, and you shall embody the strength of armies! The fury of the predator! The shadow of the ravager!"

Shun felt his Duel Disk materialize on his arm, raising the card into the air, he slammed the Dark Xyz Monster onto his Duel Disk, feeling intense energy pour into his being the second the card touched the blade.

"Hear me, Ruri!" Shun cried to the darkness, "I am your protector! I shall encompass our enemies in my darkness and feast upon their flesh in the night! From this day forth, nothing will stop me from keeping my promise to you!"

…

"What in the ever living Earthbound Hell is happening here!?" Emma bellowed, grabbing Kazama, "Is that Shun kid a flipping Earthbound Disciple!?"

"I didn't sense anything!" Kazama shot back, the two of them charging through the crowds of panicking Commons as about half of them stampeded from the stands in fear while the other half gave Shun raucous applause for summoning such an amazing monster. "I used my powers to check and see if there might be a dark presence in either of the contestants when the duel started, but I didn't find anything! They were completely clean before!"

"WELL HOW ABOUT NOW!?" Emma bellowed as the two of them reached the bottom of the stands before each mounting their Security bikes. "Are you seriously suggesting that kid just barely made a deal with a Dark Signer between last turn and now and became Satan spawn!?"

 _"_ _Not far from the truth, unfortunately."_ The voice of Jack Atlas called, emanating from Emma and Kazama's marks.

"Jack?" Emma blurted, temper suddenly fading, rapidly getting replaced with surprise.

"What's going on?" Kazama asked, lifting his mark to his face and speaking into it.

" _There_ is _a Dark Signer there."_ Jack brusquely explained. _"_ _I can sense it. The boy is being used by the Dark Signer. He's being possessed by dark powers at this time, and that monster he summoned is his link to that power. As long as it remains, he will remain in the grip of the Earthbound."_

"So you're saying that if we kill that monster, then Shun will be free?" Emma asked.

 _"_ _So long as he hasn't truly accepted the darkness in his heart, yes."_ Jack agreed.

 _"_ _Leave that to us!"_ The enthusiastic voice of Semal called from their marks.

 _"_ _We're headed towards the track on our bikes now."_ Kiryu agreed. _"_ _We'll make sure to stop Shun before he hurts himself or anyone else."_

"You have no freaking clue what that monster can do!" Emma spat back, "And there's an effing Dark Signer there! You're going to get yourselves killed!"

 _"_ _Shun is going to die if he's not freed from the possession."_ The voice of Adeel calmly replied. _"_ _I can sense it. The spirit that is controlling him is sapping away his life force by the second. I fear it may very well intend to kill Shun and obtain an even stronger undead vessel."_

" _Another_ Dark Signer!?" Kazama sputtered. "Are you kidding me!? How are we supposed to fight this!?"

 _"_ _I will engage the Dark Signer."_ Jack calmly replied. _"_ _I will need you all to engage the Dark Signers servants and protect the people in the surrounding area until I defeat the leader."_

"Understood, Jack." Kazama sighed, placing his helmet over his head.

 _"_ _Don't lose."_ Jack replied.

" _You've got it, Jack!"_ Semal enthusiastically replied.

 _"_ _We'll send these Earthbound screaming back to the Underworld."_ Kiryu added.

"If you EFFING get yourself killed-…!" Emma warned.

 _"_ _Sorry! Losing connection!"_ Kiryu called back before Emma felt his connection disappear from her mark.

"If those Earthbound don't kill him, I WILL!" Emma vowed.

"Save your rage for the Earthbound." Kazama instructed. "Let's hope Crow can handle himself until we get there."

…

 **Current State of the Duel**

 **Crow:**

 **3200 LP**

 **(Controls Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Swell and 2 set cards)**

 **Assault Blackwing – Onimaru the Divine Swell / DARK / Level 12 / Winged Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000**

 **Shun:**

 **2300 LP**

 **(Controls Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor)**

 **Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor / DARK / Rank -6 / Winged Beast / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 3500**

Crow stared up at Shun's new monster, the mere presence of the monster making him feel exceedingly uneasy. There was something horribly wrong with the so-called Dark Xyz monster. Whenever Crow tried to examine the monster with his Duel Disk, the computer would begin to go mad with error messages, as if the mere image of the card on the screen was corrupting its systems.

The state of Shun made Crow feel even more uneasy. Blood was trickling from Shun's eyes, nose, and ears as if he were suffering from radiation sickness, his eyes were glowing an electric yellow, and electricity was crackling all around his body as if he had been struck by lightning. All in all, it was making Crow feel as if his stomach were being tied into knots.

As for Shun, he could not have felt better.

"I can feel it!" Shun exulted in his head, feeling stronger by the second, "It's as if I could destroy all of Academia in an instant!"

 _"_ _You may very well soon do just that."_ Catequil rumbled from within Shun. _"_ _Are you satisfied with my gift?"_

"This is Ruri's will." Shun retorted. "I don't care about what sort of gifts you wish to give me, only that I can use this power to save her and destroy all of Academia."

 _"_ _Indeed."_ Catequil chortled, sounding amused. _"_ _You have always been very independent, willing to fight all of your enemies alone, and all for Ruri's sake."_

"For her sake." Shun agreed, eyes glowing a deeper yellow.

 _"_ _But do not forget."_ Catequil warned. _"_ _Strong and independent as you are, you WILL fail if you rely on your own mortal strength, just as I will remain impotent if I rely on only my power. We must be as one in order to save Ruri. Else this shall be her fate."_

Shun grimaced as thoughts of Ruri being tortured, abused, and murdered crowded his head. Remembering his nightmare, Shun suddenly felt powerless again, as if all of the horrific visions would inevitably happen to Ruri, and he would be unable to stop any of them.

Unless…

Shun closed his eyes. "Do it!" he breathed. "Let us fight as one! Give me the strength to save Ruri!"

 _"_ _It shall be so."_ Catequil whispered back, _"_ _We shall crush all of our enemies! We shall bathe in their blood! We shall make them pay for what they did to the ones we love! And we shall destroy anyone who stands in our way!"_

"Starting with you, Crow!" Shun shouted out-loud, his own voice mixed with Catequil's as he felt the divine entity's essence pouring into his body. "You shall be the first my monster feeds upon!"

"That new monster doesn't scare me!" Crow boldly declared, trying to keep his wits about him as he observed Shun's continued descent into insanity. "I still have an attack because of the replay! Assault Black Feather –Onimaru the Divine Swell, attack Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor! LIGHTNING THRASH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Onimaru roared as it flew straight towards Shun's massive monster, jagged sword crackling with electricity as it prepared to deliver the death blow.

 _"_ _It is time, Shun."_ Catequil rumbled from within, _"_ _Show this pathetic black crow your new power!"_

Shun's grin widened in response as he felt power surging through him. Without even looking at his new Dark Xyz Monster, Shun knew exactly what to do.

"Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor's effect!" he called as his massive mechanical condor let loose a savage cry, turning to face Crow's monster. "If it battles a monster, I can destroy that monster at the start of the Damage Step and inflict damage to my opponent's LP equal to that monster's ATK or DEF, whichever is higher!"

Through gaps in its red-hot metallic wings, numerous black 50 caliber cannons, the barrels glowing red-hot as if they had been dipped in magma, extended outwards before locking into place. Letting out a high-pitched angry shriek, Shun's monster let loose a hailstorm of burning bullets from the cannons, and three blazing laser beams from its three robotic V-shaped eyes. Zipping around with the speed of lightning, Onimaru managed to evade the weapons, causing the vast majority of the projectiles to shred through the glass, steel, and stone of the surrounding skyscrapers as if they were made of Papier-mâché. Fires began erupting where the lasers and bullets had struck, causing the buildings to become enveloped in thick black smoke in a matter of seconds. Crow gasped in shock, surprised that the solid vision had been that destructive, but managed to continue.

"Onimaru cannot be destroyed by card effects!" Crow called back through the explosions and fires. "So the effect doesn't work on him! Continue the attack!" Crow ordered, now determined to end the duel as quickly as possible after the violent savagery of Shun's monster.

Shun's grin grew wider until every one of his teeth were bared in a hideous grin. Even as his monster battled Crow's monster, he felt as if his very thoughts, senses, and emotions were expanding into a greater collective matrix, intermingling and merging with the thoughts of the great Dark Xyz Monster he controlled, and the deeper thoughts of the god who called himself Catequil, until they became one. He felt hunger, rage, and confidence welling up within him as his eagerness to tear Crow and his monster to pieces grew.

"The Earthbound cannot be defeated!" Shun proclaimed in a godly voice, eyes glowing bright. He was beginning to understand now, exactly what Catequil had meant. Visions of himself failing to protect his family, friends, and homeland crowded his head. He had failed to save them all because he had been too weak, but he was no longer that feeble boy, struggling to survive from day-to-day.

 _"_ _I am no longer the bound god subjugated beneath the curse of my enemy!"_ The thoughts of Catequil rang through his head, merging with his own. _"_ _Now we are the predator! Now we are the hunter! NOW_ I _AM THE RAVAGER!"_

"Enshrouding Force Effect Activate!" Shun bellowed, "By banishing this card from my graveyard, Onimaru's effects are negated and it loses 1000 ATK. Feel my power! Enshrouding shadows!"

Opening its mouth, Shun's Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor let loose a torrent of black mist, bathing the entire sky in its darkness and causing Onimaru to stop mid-flight, before screaming in surprise and agony as his skin and armor began to dissolve away wherever the shadowy mist touched him.

 **Assault Blackwing – Onimaru the Divine Swell / 6000 – 4000 = 2000 ATK (Effects negated)  
** "What!?" Crow yelped in surprise, shocked that Shun had managed to turn the battle in his favor yet again.  
"GO MY SERVANT!" Shun bellowed, "ANNIHILATE MY ENEMY! RAVAGING HELLFIRE!"

Onimaru was still swiping at the black mist, trying to wave the caustic substance away from himself, when Shun's monster rammed into him at full thrust, smashing the armored bird-man into the broad-side of its metallic wing before it grabbed Onimaru with its red-hot metallic talons, the tips digging into the screaming bird man's back and chest as his feathers burst into flame and the robotic condor bit down on Onimaru's metallic left wings with the razor sharp teeth of its beak, ripping the wings clean off its back. Discontent with the pain it had already inflicted on Crow's monster, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor swooped down with its prey in its claws, plowing Onimaru straight through a skyscraper while its own burning body remained completely unscathed.

"I thought you Lancers were supposed to be fighting against Academia!" Crow snapped at Shun. "Why does this look exactly as vicious as what Dennis's monster did?"

Shun felt enraged by Crow's comment. Thoughts of the Lancers, especially Yuya, began crowding his head. Surely they _would_ be objecting to Shun's tactics. But what did he care about what they thought? He had allied with them in order to fight the professor, and all they had managed to do since they began their idiotic crusade was end up getting themselves enlisted in the stupid Friendship Cup while Ruri and Heartland continued to suffer. What's more, they had even gotten in his way when he had tried to defeat Dennis once and for all. Reiji, being oh so magnanimous and charitable as he disabled the carding function on Shun's disk.

 _"_ _We cannot fight Academia with the Lancer's shackles."_ Shun and Catequil's thoughts rumbled in unison. _"_ _They would force me to make peace with and show mercy to Academia, but I do not need them or their mercy!_ CARPET BOMB CONDOR! _"_ Shun ordered out-loud, "Show the mercy I will offer my enemies!"

Roaring once again, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor plunged its fanged beak into Onimaru's head and shoulder, drinking in its blood. As if their sense of taste were connected, Shun felt the hot salty liquid on his tongue, and smelt it in his nose, hungering for more. Still connected with his monster, Shun felt and watched as Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor continued to savage Onimaru. Slicing some more at Onimaru's limp body with its talons and teeth, the demonic monster finally grew bored with the sport and tossed Onimaru into the air, before catching the bird-man in its massive metallic gullet, swallowing it whole.

When the monster had slid down its throat, Carpet Bomb Condor stared down to where Crow was riding, watching the savagery in shock and horror, before the mechanical condor out a demonic shriek as it opened its beak to its full width, its entire metallic body glowing red-hot, and letting loose a torrent of molten metal and flame from its gullet, straight towards where Crow was riding.

Crow let out a scream of pain and horror as he swerved out of the way, the heat of the molten metal melting away chunks of the track-way and searing his skin as he managed to narrowly avoid it without getting cooked alive.  
 **Crow: 3200 - 3000 = 200 LP**

"Shun…" Ruri breathed from where she watched, astonished by the change that had come over him.

 _"_ _He is quite driven."_ Jatun Waqar observed.

"But he's hurting!" Ruri protested. "I can feel it! I need to help him!"

 _"_ _He_ is _being helped."_ Jatun countered. _"_ _Yes it is not painless for him, but we are giving him what he needs to win the duel."_

"I did not want this! Something is wrong with him!" Ruri sputtered, thinking back on the brother she had known. True, she had seen Shun's rage against Academia, and had known him to be a ruthless duelist when it came to fighting them. But even he was above this level of savagery, no matter how evil the opponent was. He did not revel in making people suffer before destroying them. "He's not acting like himself! Make it stop! Now!" Ruri commanded, trying to think of some ability she possessed that would enable her to do just that.

 _"_ _I understand your concern."_ Jatun sighed. _"_ _Power does have an effect on those who acquire it, and this power is putting some strain on him. But do you think any of this was forced on him? Did you not choose to accept my power and the changes that came with it just as your brother has? And are you any less Shun's sister despite the changes that have come over you?"_

Ruri bit her lip, thinking on what Jatun had said, and thinking of how she had affected Rin, Yuzu, and all her disciples after she had granted them their power. They had all changed to one degree or another, and yet they had all chosen to accept the changes.

And yet…this still felt wrong.

"I don't want Shun to become like me." Ruri wept, thinking of all she had lost since becoming what she was.

 _"_ _It is out of our hands now."_ Jatun replied. _"_ _We only gave Shun the gift. It is up to him to either use it or reject it. Neither of us can do anything whatever he chooses. However, if you do want to help him, might I direct your attention to the track-way joining this duel field to the main highways?"_

Ruri blinked away her tears before turning her head towards where Jatun had indicated and saw it. Five bikes where heading towards where the duel was taking place, one of the bikes carrying a side car with an additional passenger. All of the riders bore crimson marks.

"Who are they?" Ruri asked, suddenly feeling immense contempt and disgust towards them.

 _"_ _They call themselves 'The Phoenix Guard.'"_ Jatun replied with equal contempt. _"_ _They are servants of Quetzalcoatl, the Crimson Dragon. Make no mistake, Ruri. They see your brother as one of the Earthbound and will hunt him down because of it."_

Ruri clenched her teeth with rage.

"Piotr! Mita! Santiago! Mayumi! Hiroto!" Ruri called, speaking mentally to five of her disciples, "I need you here! Now!"

 _"_ _They will not be here in time."_ Jatun warned.

"Then I will go!" Ruri growled, preparing to swoop down and confront the duelists.

 _"_ _NO!"_ Jatun cautioned. _"_ _One of the riders possesses overwhelming power! A signer! We must not be caught up in battle with the acolytes when he shows up!"_

"Then what do you want me to do!?" Ruri angrily spat, feeling suddenly annoyed by her companion.

 _"_ _We only need to keep the Phoenix Guard at bay until Shun finishes his duel."_ Jatun patiently explained. _"_ _By the time Crow is defeated, the other disciples will have arrived and will be ready to assist in the fight. That's when you and I will confront the Signer. Until then, we must call upon our other servants. My own and my fathers."_

"What other servants?" Ruri asked.

Deep within, Ruri could feel Jatun smiling as power coursed through the mark on her back and Jatun shared her knowledge with her.

…

"Action Magic! Sonic Blast!" Crow groaned, snagging an Action Card from the track ahead as he managed to recover from the blast, swatting away at some flames on his riding outfit while his skin blistered and burned. "If I take two-thousand or more damage and my LP drop below five-hundred, I can activate one of this card's effects and both effects if I took three-thousand or more damage!"

Shun watched Crow with a bored expression on his face, not feeling the least bit threatened. Not with the kind of power he now held.

"The first effect!" Crow continued, pointing at Shun's monster, I can target one monster you control in order to destroy it and inflict damage to your LP equal to its ATK! Take this!"

A blast of intense sonic waves began emanating from the holographic image of Crow's action card, slamming into Shun's monster. Shun's monster let out a cry, but with an angry flap of its metallic flaming wings, it dispersed the waves and continued to fly overhead, completely unharmed.

"What?" Crow exclaimed.

"Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor cannot be targeted or destroyed by my opponent's card effects." Shun nonchalantly explained, not even bothering to look at Crow as he did, "So your effect is negated."

"Oh come on!" Crow ranted, "Are you kidding me!? First that thing can't be beaten by battle, and now it can't be destroyed by card effects!?"

"I will sweep my enemies before me with overwhelming force." Shun threatened, voice booming like thunder. "You will act as the gateway to my conquest, the first of millions of bloody victories!"

"I'm not gonna be anyone's gate, least of all for a psychopath like you!" Crow shot back, "Even though the first effect of Sonic Blast didn't work, I can still activate the second effect! I draw two cards from my deck!"

"Draw as many cards as you wish." Shun retorted. "I will destroy all of them if I have to. No amount of foes will overcome me."

As if in affirmation of Shun's words, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor let out a savage shriek, V-shaped eyes burning red and mouth drooling with molten metal like it was hungry for more prey.

"Turn end." Shun finished, staring down at Crow with a grave expression. "This is your last chance to defeat me. My next turn will be the final one."

"You can't predict the future." Crow retaliated, keeping ahold of his bike handles while ignoring the pain of the burns on his back and shoulders. "And I'm not finished yet! My comrades are counting on me! So long as I have their support, nothing can drag me down!"

"You and your filthy corpse will be dragged down to the deepest pit of the blackest hell along with your so-called comrades!" Shun thundered in a deep demonic voice. "My vengeance will not be obstructed! Even if I have to stand against an army of your insignificant comrades!"

"I don't need an army." Crow replied, clutching at his chest while he thought of Tanner, Amanda, Frank, Damon, Tony, and Shinji. "I already have six."

"What? Those six?" Shun smirked, looking off into the distance.

Crow turned his head, eyes following in the direction of where Shun was looking, when he spied five riders heading towards the track-way he and Shun were dueling on, one of the bikes carrying another passenger in a side car. While Crow didn't recognize five of the riders, the identity of the rider of the single-wheeled white bike riding several dozen meters back from the main group was unmistakable to him.

"Jack Atlas!?" Crow exclaimed, wondering what he was doing off of his throne.

Shun's sneer turned into a horrific grimace.

"Burning Soul and his other worthless Crimson Dragon lackeys!" Shun growled, eyes widening with madness while his voice thundered like the voice of a god. "Is that filthy Signer so intent on tormenting me that he would stoop to sully the day of my advent!? Perhaps I should have _my_ comrades teach him proper respect! COME FORTH MY SERVANTS!" Shun bellowed, a wave of shadow emanating from his body before spreading over the entire field, causing Crow to reel back in his bike with surprise and terror. "COME FORTH THE SPIRITS OF PAST DISCIPLES! COME AND SERVE YOUR GOD! SMITE DOWN MY ENEMY!"

"Take flight, my Earthbound Familiars." Ruri commanded from overhead, reciting the same incantation Shun was speaking as her Earthbound God fed her the words.

Upon finishing each of their incantations, both Ruri and her brother extended a hand into the air, shooting a blast of darkness into the sky. From the dark clouds up above, Ruri heard the cries of dozens of birds-of-prey, shrieking like demonic spirits.

 _"_ _Behold our servants."_ Jatun instructed from within Ruri. _"_ _They shall grant us the strength we need to let this duel continue uninterrupted."_

"Will Shun be able to finish the duel quickly?" Ruri whispered, noticing the strain that was coming over Shun's body as he exercised more of his power. "I cannot bear to see my brother like this for much longer."

 _"_ _Your brother has desired vengeance all his life."_ Jatun replied. _"_ _We are giving it to him at long last. Any pain he is suffering, he is suffering of his own volition, for the sake of protecting his sister, just as my father is choosing to exercise his own strength for my sake. It would be dishonorable of us to deny them their sacrifices."_

"Shun." Ruri cried, tears of regret and admiration glistening in the corner of her eyes as she silently prayed that she and Shun would be able to return to the life that they had known before the war.

…

"Crow's almost dead!" Kiryu exclaimed as he read over the duel stats, revving up his engines as he attempted to reach the duel in time. "We'll be saving a corpse by the time we get there!"

"No one's dead yet!" Emma barked from up ahead. "Just focus on the mission and we'll all go home!"

"Shun's only got one Dark Xyz monster on the field." Semal agreed. "And we've dealt with monsters like that before."

"Something's coming!" Adeel shouted from his side car.

"What are you talking abou-?" Semal began before his comment was cut off when Emma screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

"Familiars!" Kazama echoed in warning, activating the Duel Disk on his bike as a swarm of winged creatures, twenty-five in total, swooped down on the riders.

Appearance-wise, they looked like a legion of ghostly angels descending from the heavens, all of them garbed in thick, pitch-black robes that covered their arms, legs, and faces. Seventeen of the creatures looked vaguely like male and female warrior monks, their faces covered by masks made of white feather and an aura of white light emanating from their bodies. Strapped to each of their right arms was an iron-black shield while a long white two-handed lance was held firmly in both their hands. White lines of energy patterned their bodies from head to toe in elegant patterns, and a pair of massive white heron wings sprouted from their backs.

The remaining eight were more demonic in appearance, their pitch-black robes and hoods failing to cover their large bird-skull heads and skeletal hands. In their hands, each of the familiars cradled a massive two-handed scythe, the head of the weapon shaped like the head of a vulture with a bladed beak. Covering each of their bodies from head to toe were golden lines of blazing lightning-yellow energy, with arcs of electricity crackling around the marks. From their backs sprouted a pair of skeletal vulture wings with black feathers.

Raising its scythe above its hooded head, one of the vulture familiars made a rapid dive into the track-way ahead of the riders, before slicing across the track-way with its scythe in a wide arc. The blade of the weapon cut clean through the stone as if it were made of paper before another vulture familiar sliced through another segment of the track, creating a wide gap between the track leading to Shun's duel and the Phoenix Guardsmen.

Kazama, Emma, Kiryu, and Semal each slammed on the breaks of their bikes, vehicles skidding to a stop before they could drive off the edge. For a few heartbeats, the gathered familiars and Guardsmen stared at each other, muscles tensed as if ready to pounce.

"Boku no turn…" Semal whispered, placing a hand on his Duel Disk, "DRAW!"

In response, the combatants each activated their own Duel Disks, Guardsmen activating theirs from their bikes while the familiars raised their scythes and shields into the air, the metal of the weapons shining with light until card zones appeared on their faces. Revving up their engines, the Phoenix Guardsmen turned their bikes around and began gunning towards another entry point while the familiars gave pursuit.

"Will they be able to defeat them?" Ruri asked as she watched from above.

 _"_ _Let us hope they prove competent."_ Jatun sighed. _"_ _Either way, we had best send the majority after the signer."_

Ruri glanced over to where Jack was riding, looking for all the world as if the presence of the spirits did not concern him.

"Well see about this." Ruri growled, before raising her hand into the air and commanding a large group of her servants to attack Jack.

…

"It would seem that the former Chief of Security was incorrect in his assumption." The Executive Council member, Gael, mused, tapping his finger on his desk.

"I thought the Earthbound were not supposed to make another appearance until five-thousand years had passed!" Gray gaped, bulging eyes growing even wider as a sheen of bright sweat shone on his forehead.

"It would appear we were mistaken." Azul whispered.

"Mistaken about what?" Reiji asked, eyeing the Executive Council members with narrowed eyes while Reira continued to clutch his head in pain while whispering "Stop hurting them." Over and over again.

The Executive Council members shifted in their seats uncomfortably before their Chairman, White Taki, spoke up.

"A similar…situation…once plagued our city before." White Taki admitted. "It happened about twelve years ago, though we had every assurance from the Sector Security Chief at the time that such an event would not repeat itself. It would seem we were mistaken about that."

"Shun mentioned the Earthbound." Reiji continued, frowning as he pushed his glasses up. "What exactly are they?"

White Taki smiled his most pleasantly condescending smile at Reiji. "Tell me, Reiji, do you happen to have ghost stories in this Standard Dimension you hail from? Any urban myths or legends?"

"We do, though I have little interest in them." Reiji replied stiffly.

"Well…suppose that a monster from one of your Ghost Stories came to life and stood right outside the window of your home." White Taki went on, grinning from ear to ear as if nothing distressing was going on outside, "Would you believe what you were seeing, or understand what it was?"

"If it was a threat, I would make sure to understand it." Reiji curtly replied.

"Ah well if only you were our Security Chief then." White Taki playfully sighed before looking about the surrounding Security Officers and adding, "No offense to our current Security Chief, of course."

"Either way, it falls on Jean-Michell Roger to protect us from this new threat." Bordeaux sighed, resting his chin on the interlocked fingers of his hands. "Otherwise, we might have to prepare to align ourselves with these new Earthbound Overlords. Correct Chairman?"

"Indeed." White Taki agreed, his all-too-enthusiastic response causing Reiji to widen his eyes with incredulity. "It is in our interest to back the winning side, though I do wonder what Jean-Michell Roger plans to do in response to this new development."

Jean-Michell Roger, it seemed, had fallen back on his usual plan.

"Send in Security!" Roger screamed at the top of his lungs, while subordinates rushed around, trying to restore power to their systems, emergency back-ups keeping only the most essential systems of the facility functional. "Stop Shun! Stop the Dark Signers! Stop the Familiars! Bring me Shun! Where's Sergey!? WHERE'S SERGEY!?"

"Sir!" a female worker screamed as she typed frantically at her desk, "We've had a security breach in engineering! There is an asset out of containment! Repeat! There is an asset out of containment!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Roger heard the voice of his head engineer scream as his co-workers fled. A few yards from him, a massive shadowy wolf-like beast with dark wings on its back, smashed through a wall of thick reinforced glass before pouncing on the panicked man, jaws clamping over the man's upper body as it shook him back and forth like a dog with a rat.

Roger's heart skipped a few beats as pure terror took hold of him, but the voices of his other subordinates were reporting still more emergencies.

"Sir! Sergey has broken free from his restraints! Security Officers tried to detain him, but he's incapacitated all of them!"

"There is a stampede at the Friendship Cup! Security officers are trying to keep the situation under control, but it is likely they will be overwhelmed unless they receive reinforcements!"

"We have a prison break in cell block U-64! The prisoner has recovered her deck and Duel Disk and is headed towards the lower prison levels of A-01 to A-99!"

Roger blinked at the last report, remembering the prisoner he had sent to U-64. If the report was correct, she was headed towards the same Cell Blocks he had sent Yuya to.

"Contact the security guards holding Yuya!" Roger angrily commanded. "I want to know where the boy is and what his status is! Whatever happens, we must not let anything happen to him!"

…

Yuya fell forward on his hands as a sudden explosion rocked the building, causing the lights in the hallway to suddenly go out. As the two Security officers guarding him stumbled about in the darkness, most of their equipment apparently getting disrupted by a sudden power surge, Yuya quickly realized that the solid-vision cuffs he had been forced to wear had instantly vanished. Leaping to his feet, Yuya seized the opportunity, sprinting down the hallway as quickly as he could in order to make his escape.

"HALT!" One of the Arrest Corps Officers called to him through his mask. Ignoring him, Yuya ran on, before he was suddenly stopped when the solid-vision form of Jutte Fighter materialized in front of him before swinging its Jutte at Yuya.

Yuya leaped back, barely managing to avoid the stroke of the weapon, before activating the Duel Disk that was still attached to his arm.

"I Special Summon Kiribi Lady from my hand!" The officer called, slamming down a card from his hand and causing a hooded lady with a flint-stone in each of her hands to appear to his field. "I next tune my Level two Jutte Fighter with my Level 1 Kiribi Lady in order to Synchro Summon Goyo Defender!"

In a burst of light, the Security Officer's Goyo Defender appeared in front of Yuya, shield upraised and Jutte held above its head in a defensive stance.

 **Goyo Defender / EARTH / Level 3 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"Next," the Officer continued, "since the only monsters I control are Goyo Defender, I will Special Summon 2 more Goyo Defender from my Extra Deck!"

To the monster's left and right, two more Goyo Defenders appeared, completely blocking off Yuya's escape.

"Turn end!" the first Officer declared before the second officer stepped forward.

"My turn, draw!" the second Goyo officer proclaimed, drawing a card from his deck. "I activate the effect of Goyo Defender! Special Summoning three more from my Extra deck!"

Boxing Yuya in, three more Goyo Defenders appeared behind Yuya, Juttes outstretched as they advanced towards him.

Yuya eyed the advancing monsters, before placing his hand on the top of his deck.

"Ore no turn!" Yuya proclaimed, realizing there was no other way to escape, "DRAW!"

Looking through his hand, Yuya nodded before beginning his turn.

"Wait for me, Yuzu." He said to himself. "I promise I will find you and save you!"

…

Yuzu rubbed the sore spots on her arms where the chains of Rin's bike had dug into her skin. Despite being undead, Yuzu was beginning to see more and more that, for better or worse, the Earthbound had left her the ability to sense pain.

"I'm sorry about the chains." Rin apologized, removing her helmet from her head after undoing the last of Yuzu's shackles. "I was in a bit of a hurry to get you out of there."

"It's okay, I understand." Yuzu replied, shaking off the rest of the chains before looking over at Rin, who was leaning against her bike, face sweating and body heaving with exhaustion.

Concerned, Yuzu approached her counterpart before asking, "Are you alright, Rin? That last duel took a lot out of you."

"I'm okay." Rin panted, brushing off the question with a wave of her hand while looking off into the distance. "Just…give me a moment to recover."

Yuzu felt unconvinced, but she couldn't blame Rin for her attitude. They had both been through so much today already with Security and some new group who called themselves, "The Phoenix Guard," hunting them down. Remembering the second group of duelists who attacked them, Yuzu decided to address the topic.

"Who were those people who were attacking us? Those Phoenix Guard duelists." Yuzu asked.

Rin paused for a long time, looking hurt.

 _"_ _They are the enemy."_ Ti'ika Sara rumbled from within Yuzu. _"_ _Servants of the Crimson Dragon who would see you destroyed."_

Yuzu grimaced at the spirit's intrusion, but turned her attention back to Rin.

"She's talking to you, isn't she?" Rin asked. "Your Earthbound God? Mine was just telling me who they were."

"Yes." Yuzu admitted, blushing slightly. "Sorry, I'm…still getting used to this."

"You and me both." Rin admitted, folding her arms. "I guess I'm not surprised that there would be people who were scared of us, considering what we are. But I never thought I would see…him…" she trailed off.

"That boy," Yuzu replied, remembing how the young duelist had reacted when he saw Rin. "were you…close to him?"

Rin closed her eyes. "We grew up in an orphanage together. He and Yugo were two of my closest friends, until he was adopted by Miss Grayson. We would write letters sometimes after that, but I could have never known he had joined…them." She looked off into the distance again. "I wonder how much else has changed."

Yuzu was about to ask more, when she was interrupted by the sound of Melissa Claire's voice booming across the city screens, looking up at the screens she saw Shun dueling against Crow, a large monster flying above him, only, there was something off about him and his monster.

"A Dark Xyz Monster?" Yuzu asked, an incredulous expression coming over her face as she remembered Ruri's Dark Xyz Monster and how the Dark Xyz Materials had embedded themselves within the monster, just as the Dark Xyz Material in the center of this monster's chest had done.

Rin looked just as surprised as she was, closing her eyes, she began scrunching up her face in a look of deep concentration.

"I'm not sure what's going on." She said at last. "I can see where Ruri is, but she's not responding to me. However, I did see some other duelists there, more Phoenix Guard by the look of them."

"You can sense Ruri?" Yuzu asked.

"You can too." Rin replied. "We were both resurrected by her, so we both have a connection. Try reaching out to her now."

Yuzu closed her eyes in imitation of Rin before attempting to focus on Ruri. Slowly, she felt as if her consciousness were sinking into the mark on her arm before traveling through a dark current that wound its way across the city until she found herself staring through eyes that weren't hers.

 _Shun was continuing his duel against crow, the field encompassed in the lines of a large vulture-shaped mark. On a track-way near where Shun was dueling, Yuzu could see a convoy of riding duelists, crimson marks glowing against their arms as they fought against a group of winged creatures._

 _"_ _What is going on, Ruri?" Yuzu asked, finding herself communicating with her thoughts. "Are you alright?"_

 _"_ _Not now." Ruri briefly called back. "I need to focus. Stay with Rin and let me and my servants deal with these people."_

 _Yuzu sensed Ruri indicating the winged creatures dueling against the riders and understood that they were the servants Ruri was referring to._

 _"_ _I'll need to show you how to summon your own Earthbound Familiars soon." Ti'ika Sara mused from within Yuzu._

Shrugging off the comment from the spirit, Yuzu broke free from the connection and found herself back in her own body, with Rin staring back at her.

"Should we go over to help her?" Yuzu asked.

Rin shook her head. "We both knew we'd be facing a lot of opposition and Ruri can handle herself. I can't say for certain how Shun managed to get ahold of a Dark Xyz Monster, but I suspect Ruri had something to do with it. Probably deciding to help him out in his duel, the little cheater. Either way, I think she'll be able to handle herself."

Yuzu nodded her head before suddenly remembering Yuya.

"Thank you for saving me, Rin." Yuzu said with a bow. "You saved my life back there, but now..." she paused, clenching her fist as she looked in the direction of the Sector Security Bureau, "They took Yuya, and I have no idea what they plan on doing with him, but I don't plan on letting them keep him there!"

"Hold on!" Rin protested, grabbing Yuzu by the arm as she tried to sprint away. "When I found you, you were getting creamed by Security! You're still learning how to use your powers. What makes you think you're just gonna waltz up to the Public Security Bureau alone and take down all of Sector Security?"

"I can't just leave Yuya behind!" Yuzu protested. "They could be hurting him right now, or worse!"

"I'm not saying to leave him behind." Rin replied. "I'm just saying we need a plan of attack. Otherwise, you'll just get captured again and then nobody is going to be helped, except maybe Roger."

"Well what's your plan then?" Yuzu snapped, growing a little annoyed.

"Look," Rin calmly explained, "there's a lot of people, including myself, who want to take Roger down right now. He's destroying my city and acting like a tyrant with his Security followers. But even so, he still has a massive army and all the city's resources at his command. We're going to need some help if we're going to take him down."

"And what help are we going to get?" Yuzu asked.

"I've been working it out with Ruri." Rin explained. "I actually heard you in your duel against Sergey. You talked about how the losers of the city are thrown into the underground facility. I…I honestly never knew about that before." She bit her lip, "I dreamed of dueling in the Friendship Cup for so long when I was little." She shook out her head, "Well, you were right. It _is_ wrong what happened to them. They don't deserve to be imprisoned there, and I bet that the vast majority of them would agree with us. So what if we were to free them?"

Yuzu considered Rin's words. It was true, all of it. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she _did_ need help. Yuya himself and all the Lancers who had come with him had all come to the Synchro Dimension precisely because they had needed an ally in their war against Academia. And she could not deny that the idea of freeing the people from the underground facility greatly appealed to her.

"Not to mention…" Yuzu thought, "…that my other friends are there. Gongenzaka, Tsukikage, and, admittedly to a lesser extent, Shingo."

"Okay." Yuzu agreed with a sigh. "I'll help you free them. But once that is done, I _am_ going to free Yuya."

"I'll help you with that." Rin promised, shaking Yuzu's hand. "Now then," she asked, indicating her bike, "shall we ride, or do I have to chain you up again."

"I'd prefer to sit, thank you very much." Yuzu replied, sitting down on the bike behind Rin.

"Be safe Yuya." Yuzu silently prayed to herself. "And you too, Ruri. I hope you and Shun stay okay."

…

Shun was better than okay as he stared down at his feeble opponent. Victory was well within his grasp. All he needed was a single attack and Crow would be finished.

"Ore no turn!" Shun breathed, "Draw!"

"Shinji, Fank, Tanner, Amanda…" Crow thought to himself, "I'm counting on your strength now!" Extending his hand forward, he activated the spell card Tanner had given to him as a good luck charm.

"During your Standby-Phase, I activate my face-down Scapegoats!" Crow declared, activating his face-down card. "This Special Summons four Sheep Tokens to my side of the field in defense position! Come forth now!"

In front of Crow, a herd of fluffy puff-ball goats with stubby legs and small horns appeared to Crow's field, one pink, one orange, one red, and one blue.

 **Sheep Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Beast / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Sheep Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Beast / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Sheep Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Beast / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Sheep Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Beast / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"My card!" Tanner called out from where he, Chris, and Amanda were watching, huddling from the bright purple flames, which had surrounded them on all sides.

Shun stared back at Crow, a mixture of surprise and incredulity on his face.

"I'm not giving up no matter how powerful your monster is!" Crow taunted. "This card represents the strength we Commons share! No matter how weak we are, you will never be able to defeat all of us so long as we stand together!"

At this, Shun began laughing, at first merely snorting through his nose a little before erupting into a full-throated demonic laugh, which sent a chill down Crow's spine.

"Weak prey like yourself gathers in herds, true enough." Shun snorted. "But prey, no matter how numerous it becomes, is still prey, and prey is easily scattered! Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor's monster effect!" Shun declared, raising his hand into the air, "At the start of the Battle-Phase, I can detach one Dark Overlay Unit from my monster in order to give my monster two attacks during the Battle-Phase of this turn for each monster you controlled when I activated this effect! Go! Predator Savagery!"

Letting out a high-pitched Shriek, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor spread out its metallic wings, the black Dark Overlay Unit in its chest compacting into nothingness before Shun's monster began glowing with black energy.

Crow gaped at Shun's monster as he began to slowly process what the effect meant.

"It can attack twice for each monster I control…I have four Sheep Tokens so that means…!" Crow's mouth clamped shut, all the color draining from his face.

Shun smirked. "Eight attacks this Battle-Phase. Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, destroy him and all his bonds!"

"Not if I can help it!" Crow countered, revving up his engines and speeding forward along the track towards where an Action Card awaited him in its bubble.

Shun narrowed his eyes at Crow. "I will not let you! Carpet Bomb Condor!" he commanded, "Intercept the Action Card!"

Engines roaring, Shun's monster sped forward just as Crow began reaching for the Action Card. Feeling the massive monster coming towards him, Crow reflexively swerved out of the way, just as Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor flew past him, blasting past his bike and causing the vehicle to spin out of control as the condor deftly snagged the Action Card from the track with one of its talons before rocketing into the air and speeding towards Shun, who caught the Action Card after the mechanical bird threw it towards him.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Crow protested, as Shun held the Action Card up to his face, a strange black ooze secreting from his gloved hand before covering the Action Card. Ignoring Crow's protests, Shun waited until the black ooze had completely covered the Action Card and evaporated away before playing the card.

"Earthbound Action Card activate!" Shun declared, "Earthbound Shadow! By targeting my Rank -6 Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, I can halve your LP and make it so that you cannot activate Flip Effects or the effects of any of your set cards!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Crow sputtered as Shun's monster rose above him, the body of the mechanical bird burning with a deep purplish-black light before letting loose a blast of dark shadow from its wings, which slammed into Crow.

 **Crow: 200 – 100 = 100 LP**

 **(Crow's set card cannot be activated.)**

"Continue the attack!" Shun ordered, "Ravaging Fire Storm!"

Two long hatches on the underbelly of Shun's monster opened up, exposing a bomb-bay filled with molten magma within. Flying over Crow's Sheep Tokens, the magma within the monster's belly began shaping itself into red-hot bombs which lowered themselves just beneath the two bomb-bays before the monster let them all drop down on Crow's field.

Revving up his engine, Crow began dodging bomb after bomb as they rained down on the field, each one exploding into a blast of red-hot magma, which melted away steel and concrete after making contact with the track-way. Letting out a panicked bleat, one of the Sheep Tokens began running away as fast as it could on its stubby little legs before a splash of magma caught it in the side, causing the ball of fur to disintegrate into flames as the magma melted the rest of it away.

 **Sheep Tokens X 3**

"The second attack!" Shun ordered as the monster looped around for another attack, the cannons on its wings blazing with gunfire as it unleashed a hail of bullets against Crow's second token, which seemed to wither away into a puff of cotton as the rounds tore it to flaming shreds.

 **Sheep Tokens X 2**

Crow sped forward as fast as he could, eyes darting about frantically as he searched for an Action Card, knowing it would be the only thing that could save him now.

Shun seemed to notice this.

"You are hoping to stall me long enough to find an Action Card." Shun breathed. "But it will not work. You will die long before you can make it! Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, to me!"

Swooping down, Shun's Carpet Bomb Condor caught Shun in its talons, bike and all, before lifting Shun and his D-wheel off the track.

"What is he doing?" Crow thought, before Shun extended his hand towards Crow's monsters.

"Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor! Unleash your full fury! Destroy everything!"

In an instant, Crow realized why Shun had exited the track-way as he did. When Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor let loose its next attack, everything in its path began crumbling and withering away in a storm of destruction as it let loose a hailstorm of bullets, lasers, fire, and magma bombs. One of Crow's Sheep Tokens bravely leaped in front of Crow, shielding him from the attack, but all around, Crow could see that the track-way was getting torn to shreds, pieces of the track falling away segment by segment. Overriding the auto-pilot on his bike, Crow took control, managing to steer his bike across the ever narrowing track-way as his last Sheep Token got vaporized by another ferocious attack from Shun's monster.

"The final attack!" Shun declared, "Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, attack Crow directly!"

"Not yet!" Crow countered, revealing a card in his hand. "I still have friends I can count on! Since I am being targeted for a direct attack, I can Special Summon Black Feather – Ghibli the Searing Wind from my hand in defense position! Come forth now!"

Slamming down the monster in his hand, Crow caused a feathery bird with six black-and-red wings to appear to his field.

 **Black Feather – Ghibli the Searing Wind / DARK / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1600**

"Have you forgotten my monster's effect?" Shun asked. "Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor destroys any monster it battles at the start of the Damage Step and can inflict damage to the opponent equal to the monster's ATK or DEF! You lose anyway!"

"Not yet!" Crow insisted, slamming down on the accelerator and blasting forward on his bike.

"Ravaging Firestorm!" Shun ordered as his monster let loose a blast of flame from its mouth and a stream of laser blasts from its V-shaped eyes. Cutting straight through the track-way in front of Crow, a large gap opened up in the road as the blast of molten flame charged towards Crow and his monster.

"I activate a Trap Card from my hand!" Crow declared, "Black Feather Barricade! If a Black Feather monster I control would be destroyed by battle or a card effect, I can discard this card from my hand in order to prevent the destruction! Watch me, Commons!" he called, "I will win this duel for you!"

Pressing a button on his bike, Crow caused a pair of fins to extend from his bike. Charging at the gap in the track with a furious roar, Crow jumped the gap, the fins slowing the descent of his bike before the fire storm of Carpet Bomb Condor obliterated Crow's monster, the shockwaves propelling him forward and onto the track-way ahead as Carpet Bomb Condor destroyed Crow's monster by battle instead. Surging forward with the force of the blast, Crow reached out his hand and grabbed ahold of an Action Card on the other side of the track as Shun silently cursed.

"I activate the effect of the Black Feather Barricade in my graveyard!" Crow declared, "If a Black Feather Monster I control is destroyed, I can banish this card from my graveyard in order to activate one Black Feather Trap Card from my graveyard!"

"None of your Trap Cards can save you." Shun rumbled. "Your fate is still sealed."

"Not when I activate this!" Crow countered, showing Shun the Action Card he had obtained. "I chain the Action Card, Lightning Bolt, to the activation of my Trap Card! This card allows me to destroy 1 card on the field!"

"Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects." Shun retorted as his monster let out an angry shriek in agreement.

"Who said I was going to destroy your monster?" Crow taunted, causing Shun to clench his jaw in anger. Stretching his hand towards his own field, Crow continued his turn.

"I use the effect of Lightning Bolt to destroy my own face-down Trap Card!" he declared as a single bolt of lightning flashed onto his Trap Card before destroying it. "And now that that effect has resolved, my Black Feather Barricade's effect will resolve! I choose to activate the Trap Card I just destroyed!"

"What?" Shun growled, looking annoyed.

Crow laughed in reply. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Your Earthbound Shadow made it so I couldn't activate any of my face-down cards on the field. But since my trap is being activated from the graveyard, your card's effect no longer applies to it! Trap Activate! Black Feather – Final Assault!"

In front of Crow, a Trap Card displaying a swarm of Black Feather monsters, Assault Black Feather – Raikiri the Sudden Rain Shower acting as the vanguard, battling Behemoth the King of all Animals, activated before glowing with light.

"When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack," Crow explained, "Black Feather – Final Assault allows me to Special Summon 1 'Assault Black Feather' monster from my graveyard while negating both its effects and the effects of your monster! Revive from my graveyard now! Assault Black Feather – Onimaru the Divine Swell!"

…

"Get him, Crow!" Tanner begged as a bright column of light burst forth from the ground just behind Crow's bike and Crow's monster rose from the graveyard. Watching in awe, Tanner leaned over the railing of the overpass in order to get a better look as both Crow and Shun passed underneath with their massive monsters.

…

Shun's monster was shrieking in pain as the effects of Crow's Trap Card stripped it of its effects. Through his bond with the creature, Shun could also feel the pain, a furious nerve-rending agony that set his teeth grinding and his heart pounding with rage.

 _"_ _We have not lost yet!"_ the voice of Catequil rumbled from within Shun. _"_ _We still have Rank-Up-Magic Enshrouding Force's power! By discarding one card from our hand, we can send that banished card to our graveyard and then activate it! Crow will be finished! Do it now! Discard the card in your hand or we will never be able to save Ruri!"_

"Save…Ruri!" Shun breathed, struggling against the haze of his own intense pain as he prepared to discard the card in his hand.

 _"_ _Save the Xyz Dimension!"_

"The effect of my Trap Card makes it so both of our monsters battle right now!" Crow explained, "Furthermore, if either of us lose a monster during this battle, we take damage equal to the original ATK of those monsters! Go Assault Black Feather – Onimaru the Divine Swell! Finish the Duel!"

 _"_ _Save your friends! Save your families! Save the innocents! Save the children!"_

"The…children!" Shun thundered, raising his head and his hand into the air, "I activate the effect of Rank-Up-Ma-…!"

Suddenly Shun stopped mid-sentence. Through his connection with Carpet Bomb Condor, Shun felt something fall on the back of his monster. With a mental command, Shun turned the head of his Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor, and spotted a small boy dressed in rags, clinging to the black body of his monster.

"Oh no!" Shun gasped, when he spotted the boy.

 _"_ _What are you doing!?"_ the voice of Catequil thundered from within Shun. _"_ _Finish the duel! Destroy Crow! Save the ones you love!"_

Shun gritted his teeth in agony as he thought of the people from the Xyz Dimension he had sworn to protect after joining the resistance. The faces of thousands of men, women, and children came to his mind. That was right. He was a protector! He protected the people he loved, his sister, his comrades, and their families! He couldn't let this innocent boy get caught up in his war and killed because of him!"

 _"_ _YOU FAILED TO PROTECT ALL THE PEOPLE YOU LOVED BECAUSE OF YOUR MISGUIDED COMPASSION!"_ Catequil raged, _"_ _YOU WILL FAIL AGAIN UNLESS YOU DESTROY YOUR ENEMY! NOW!"_

"I won't fail this time!" Shun shouted, leaping from his bike and grabbing onto his monster's leg before clambering up on its back towards where Tanner was still desperately clinging to the monster, barely managing to avoid the places where the monster's body burned red-hot. Once he had reached his monster's back, he was nearly thrown off when Crow's Onimaru slammed its sword against his monster. Widening his eyes in panic, Shun frantically waved his arms at Crow to make him stop.

"Stop the duel!" he begged as the two monsters grappled against each other, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor lashing out at Onimaru with beak and talon while Onimaru deflected the blows with its sword. "Listen to me!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Crow snarled, unable to believe what he was seeing. "You flipping tried to kill me! You think I'm going to just end my turn and let you roast me with that monster of yours!? I don't think so! Assault Black Feather - Onimaru the Divine Swell, finish him off! Black lightning strike!

There was no way of convincing him, Shun realized as he leaped forward before scooping the boy into his arms. Kicking and screaming, the boy fought against him while screaming, "Monster! Monster!" but Shun ignored him, instead, choosing to focus all his attention on using the bond with his monster to lower his Carpet Bomb Condor onto the ground while gradually decreasing its speed.

 _"_ _DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR VICTORY!"_ Catequil roared, _"_ _DESTROY CROW NOW!"_

Ignoring Catequil, Shun continued his descent. Once they were close enough to the ground, Shun tossed Tanner onto the track, where he rolled forward several meters before stopping, relatively unharmed.

"Wait…" Crow suddenly exclaimed when he saw who Shun had thrown off his monster. "…did you just…"

Before he could complete his thought, Onimaru the Divine Swell sped forward with its sword outstretched, before blasting straight through the hull of the massive monster, leaving a gaping flaming hole in the robotic condor's chest. Letting out a shrill, high-pitched scream, Ravage Raptor – Carpet Bomb Condor exploded in a raging inferno of molten metal, throwing Shun fifty meters into the open air with the force of the blast.

 **Shun 2300 – (500 + (2500 due to the effect of "Black Feather – Final Assault")) = 0 (LOSE)**

"No!" Ruri screamed from up above, turning her attention away from the familiars she was leading against the Phoenix Guard as she saw her brother falling from his monster.

…

Shun felt light and deflated as he fell through the empty air, as if all his thoughts and energy were seeping out of him. Even as his monster faded to dust, he felt the voice of Catequil fading from his mind. Had it all been a dream? Vaguely, he remembered some of the last words the spirit had spoken to him.

 _"_ _You failed to protect all the people you loved because of your misguided compassion. You will fail again unless you destroy your enemy now."_

"How right he had been." Shun ruefully thought, feeling tears well up in the corners of his eyes as he continued to fall through the air. "I failed to save my home, my family, my friends, everyone." He felt a weak chuckle escape his lungs, "The only person I ended up saving was some strange boy I had never even met from another dimension. Why?"

The voice of Catequil echoed in his head again.

 _"_ _Because of your misguided compassion."_

"It was true." Shun decided. "Academia always beat us because they had no mercy. I tried to be like them, just as fierce and ruthless, but in the end I always was my enemy's prey. Ruri…everyone…forgive me. I was too weak to save you, even when I was given the power to do it."

He closed his eyes, preparing to splatter against the ground below, one final act of failure to complete a long series of defeats when suddenly, before he could even register what was going on, he felt someone slam into him before a pair of small but strong arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.

Gasping, Shun opened his blood-caked eyes and nearly lost his breath when he saw who had caught him. Flying through the air on a pair of ethereal angel wings, his sister, Ruri, was holding him close in a tight embrace. Only, it couldn't be her. Her eyes were black as coal, her skin was paler, and she wore a dark black robe with white highlights. And yet, everything else about her was his sister.

Shun shook his head in disbelief and shock. "Ruri?" he breathed, wondering if he had died and gone to heaven.

"I'm here for you, Shun!" the girl wept, hugging him tighter. Pressed against her skin, Shun could feel how cold the girl was, as if she had been left in a freezer. Flapping her wings through the air, the girl ascended back onto the track-way before depositing Shun on the ground. Crawling onto his feet, Shun shakily stood up, feeling the blood on his face as he looked down upon Ruri before touching her face with his hand.

"Ruri…it's really…?" Shun babbled, tears pouring from his eyes like waterfalls.

The girl nodded her head, her own tears streaming down her cheeks as she leapt forward and hugged him.

It was not a dream.

"Ruri!" he wept, lifting his sister off the ground in an embrace. At this point, he had no clue what was going, what any of it meant. All that mattered to him now was that she was here, beside him. If this were all a mad hallucination, or a dream, he hoped to never wake up.

…

Adeel was almost wishing he could wake up from the nightmare the battle against the familiars had become. Despite the fact that he could not see anything that was going on, Adeel could still hear the crash of scythes and lances against the track-way is it fell apart beneath the familiar's relentless attacks, smell the scent of blood and fire in the air, and feel every lurch of the bike as Semal continued his reckless driving through the city track-way.

"I activate the Field Spell Card, Many World's Tree!" Semal began, slamming down his Field Spell Card as two heron familiars and one vulture familiar pursued them. Above Semal's head, a massive tree, roots and branches entangling various planets and moons, appeared, spreading throughout the sky.

"I next Normal Summon, Celestial Hero Camelopardalis!" Semal continued, summoning a Knight riding a giraffe to his field, both rider and mount encased in glittering silver armor. Unsheathing a large glittering sword, the monster galloped alongside Semal and Adeel's bike, shield held in front so that the Camelopardalis constellation imprinted on its front was visible.

 **Celestial Hero Camelopardalis / EARTH / 3 / Beast / Effect / 500 / 2100**

"When Celestial Hero Camelopardalis is summoned," Semal continued, "I can add one Ritual Spell Card from my deck to my hand. With this effect," Semal continued, pulling out a card from his deck as his monster glowed with light, "I add Cosmic Ritual from my deck to my hand before activating it!"

Upon activating the Ritual Spell Card, the sky above Many Worlds Tree darkened before becoming illuminated by an array of constellations.

"I tribute my Celestial Hero Camelopardalis and the Celestial Hero Serpens in my hand in order to Ritual Summon!" Semal declared as his two monsters flew towards the sky, each one disappearing into their respective constellations before Semal began his summoning chant:

"Legendary warrior of the night sky, connect the stars that speak of your tale and bloom upon the battlefield! Gishiki Shokan! Illuminate the darkness! Level Seven! Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin!"

Galloping down the pillar of light, Semal's monster, a female Centaur knight with Lilium flowers in her blonde hair, descended to his field, a large rectangular shield with a constellation shaped like a fleur-de-lis decorating the front over her left arm and a long silver lance in her right arm, before galloping alongside Semal and Adeel's bike.

 **Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin / LIGHT / 7 / Ritual / Warrior / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 1800**

"Many World's Tree gains a Celestial Counter each time any player Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck or Ritual Summons a monster." Semal explained. "And for each Celestial Counter on my Many Worlds Tree, my Celestial Hero Monsters gain one-hundred ATK and DEF."

 **Many World's Tree (1 Celestial Counter)**

 **Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin 2600 + 100 = 2700 ATK / 1800 + 100 = 1900 DEF**

"Setting one card face down. Turn end." Semal finished before turning to his brother, who was riding in the side car. "You're up, bro."

"I guess I'll need to be getting our defense ready." Adeel grunted, drawing a card from the top of his deck.

"Hey, I didn't leave myself defenseless!" Semal protested, Lilium Paladin cannot be destroyed by battle while she's in attack position, and I take no damage from battles involving her! It's an impregnable defense!"

"Don't tell the familiars that!" Adeel barked before continuing with his turn. "I'll start by Normal Summoning Sparkles the Canine Firefighter!"

Sprinting alongside the bike, Adeel's monster, a Dalmatian wearing a firefighter hat and cloak, appeared to his field.

 **Sparkles the Canine Firefighter / FIRE / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1600**

"Setting five cards face-down." Adeel finished, filling up his back-row. "Turn end. Brace yourself! It's the familiar's turn now!"

As if in response to Adeel, the Vulture Familiar dueling them swooped down, the scythe in its hand glowing with light as six cards materialized in one of its skeletal hands.

"Field Spell Card, Earthbound Petroglyph Plains activate!" the familiar rasped in a ghostly voice that sounded like the rattling of dry leaves in a cold wind. Over the track-way the Phoenix Guard were riding on, a collage of various petroglyphs depicting people, animals, and plants appeared, each petroglyph glowing with a different colored light.

"Yep." Semal groaned. "Here comes the Field Spell."

"Stay focused." Adeel instructed as the familiar continued with its turn.

"Effect activate!" it rasped, "With my Field Spell Card's power, I add Earthbound Vulture from my deck to my hand before activating it in order to Special Summon one Earthbound Vulture Token to my field!"

The ghostly familiar began glowing with yellow energy as it prepared to summon the token, but before the token could appear, Adeel retaliated.

"Trap activate!" Adeel countered, "Fight for Dominance! If my opponent summons a monster or monsters whose total ATK is lower than the ATK of a face-up Beast-Type monster I control, I can negate the summon and destroy those monsters!"

Shrieking angrily, the vulture familiar recoiled as Adeel's Trap Card unleashed a pack of ghostly hounds into the air, which attacked the familiar, disrupting the summon before the familiar managed to slice them all into wisps of smoke with a swing of its scythe.

"Nice!" Semal complimented.

"We're not done yet!" Adeel warned.

"Earthbound Vulture, activate!" the familiar shrieked, placing a second copy of the Spell Card on the blade of its Scythe.

"Oh come on!" Semal complained.

Shrieking like a vulture, the vulture familiar began glowing with golden light once more before it enfolded its entire body in its massive skeletal vulture wings. Unfurling its wings with a high-pitched vulture shriek, the familiar uncovered itself, revealing its new body, which had transformed into a gigantic skeletal black vulture with mottled red skin and scythe-like talons, golden lines of energy running across its body.

 **Earthbound Vulture Token / DARK / Level 7 / ATK 1600 / DEF 0**

"Man that is one ugly monster." Semal whistled.

"I'll take your word for it." Adeel replied, staring up at the familiar with his blind milky-white eyes.

"Earthbound Petroglyph Plain's effect!" the skeletal vulture shrieked. "I discard four cards from my hand in order to increase my ATK by 400 for each card discarded!"

Opening its beak, the familiar sucked the last four cards, which had been in its hand, down its dark gullet before glowing with golden energy.

 **Earthbound Vulture Token: 1600 + (400 X 4) = 3200 ATK**

"Earthbound Vulture Effect!" the familiar shrieked, "I banish three cards from my graveyard in order to destroy Sparkles the Canine Firefighter!"

"Hold on!" Semal shouted as he slammed down on the bikes accelerator, just as the familiar swooped down, its skeletal vulture body crackling with bright electricity. Swerving out of the demonic monster's way, Semal and Adeel managed to avoid the attack as the vulture sliced Adeel's monster into pieces with a single swipe of its massive talons.

"Trap activate!" Adeel declared, "Revenge of the Underdog! If a Beast-Type monster I control is destroyed by battle or card effect, I can Special Summon another copy of that monster from my deck in attack position while increasing its ATK by one-thousand! Come forth! A second copy of Sparkles!"

 **Sparkles the Canine Firefighter / FIRE / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1700 + 1000 = 2700 / DEF 1600**

"For the rest of your turn, monsters you control can only attack the monster Special Summoned with this effect and must attack the monster Special Summoned by this effect!" Adeel explained. "Sick him Sparkles!" he whistled to the dog, who bared its fangs at the familiar before charging towards it.

Shrieking back at Adeel's monster, the vulture familiar swooped down, talons bared. Once it reached the Dalmatian, its talons locked around the canine's body, digging deep into the flesh. Undaunted, Adeel's monster bit back, fangs sinking deep inside the familiar's neck before the dog's body exploded in a shower of Sparks.

 **Adeel 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

"Oh, and I forgot to mention." Adeel smirked. "At the end of the turn this effect was activated, any monster that battled with the monster Special Summoned with this effect is destroyed."

Shrieking angrily, the vulture familiar's body dissolved away, leaving behind the humanoid vulture skeleton form it had started the duel with.

"There's a lot more where that came from!" Adeel warned. "So you'd all better back off now!"

The vulture familiar seemed to comply with Adeel's demands. Flapping its skeletal wings, it withdrew a few meters from the duel before a heron familiar took its place.

"Atashi no turn, draw." The feminine familiar sang behind its mask as six cards materialized in its hand. "With the effect of our Earthbound Petroglyph Plain, I add Earthbound Crane from my deck to my hand."

"I'm starting to see a pattern here." Semal observed.

"Careful." Adeel warned, "We haven't dealt with this kind of familiar before."

"Can't be too different from the others." Semal shrugged. "Watch this, I predict that this familiar is going to summon a token."

"I discard one card from my hand in order to activate Earthbound Crane and summon an Earthbound Crane Token." The familiar continued, placing a Continuous Spell Card in the center of its shield before enfolding its body in its large heron wings and emerging as a massive graceful white heron with a lance-like ivory beak and lines of clear white energy glowing against its body.

 **Earthbound Crane Token / DARK / Level 6 / Winged Beast / ATK 1000 / DEF 800**

"Called it!" Semal shouted, earning him an angry punch in the arm from Adeel.

"Stay focused!" he warned.

"Oh come on!" Semal groaned. "It's not like it's a disciple! What's it gonna do?"

"I equip the magic cards Earthbound Claws and Familiar Energy to myself." The familiar hummed as its talons grew in size and its body glowed with black energy. "Earthbound Claws increases my ATK by 1000, enables me to attack all monsters my opponent controls, once each, and gives me piercing damage against defense position monsters. Familiar energy increases my ATK by a further 1000, makes it so I cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, and enables me to negate the effects of whatever enemy monster I battle!"

 **Earthbound Crane Token: 1000 + 1000 + 1000 = 3000 ATK**

"So basically you're saying that if you attack my Lillium Paladin now…" Semal realized, eyes widening.

"Impregnable defense." Adeel angrily snorted. "Right."

"Earthbound Petroglyph Plain's effect!" the familiar called before sucking the remaining three cards down its throat to increase its ATK.

 **Earthbound Crane Token: 3000 + (400 X 3) = 4200 ATK**

With a savage shriek, the Heron Familiar dive-bombed towards Semal's Lilium Paladin, who raised her shield in defense.

"Not on my watch!" Adeel bellowed, "Trap activate! Dire Emergency Wolves! This card Special Summons two Dire Wolf Tokens to my side of the field if my field is empty! Come forth in defense position!"

Snapping their massive jaws and howling into the air, a pair of husky grey wolves appeared to Adeel's field before baring their fangs at the familiar, who backed away before eyeing them angrily.

 **Dire Wolf Token / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast / ATK 1000 / DEF 2000**

"It's coming back around!" Semal warned as the familiar swooped down again, heading towards Lilium Paladin.

"I told you, 'NO!'" Adeel roared. "I activate my face-down Feral Instincts in order to target one of my Dire Wolf Tokens and increase its ATK by 800 for each of my other beast-type monsters I control! In addition, until the end of this turn, you can only target the monster I targeted with this effect for attacks!"

 **Dire Wolf Token: 1000 + 800 = 1800 ATK**

Barking angrily, Adeel's token charged towards the familiar, intercepting it mid-flight with a mighty leap into the air. Angrily beating against the wolf with its wings, the familiar drove off the token, before slicing deep into the wolf's head with its razor-sharp talons and disintegrating the monster.

 **Adeel: 3500 – 2200 = 1300 LP**

"Adeel!" Semal shouted as his brother took the damage. "Are you alright!?"

"I'm okay." Adeel grunted. "Just keep driving the bike!"

"Please tell me you're not gonna commit suicide in this duel!" Semal growled, angrily punching Adeel in the shoulder.

"I've still got one token left!" Adeel replied, rubbing his shoulder. "And I've got a plan for when my next turn comes! You make sure you have one of your own!"

"I've got one!" Semal protested, "It just doesn't involve letting the Earthbound use my face as a beak sharpener!"

Flapping away angrily, the first heron familiar was replaced by a second heron familiar, who faced the two duelists, shield raised in front of its chest as six cards materialized in its hand.

"Atashi no turn." The familiar hummed in a more coy and playful voice. "I add Earthbound Haunted Familiars to my hand with the effect of Earthbound Petroglyph Plain's effect before activating it."

As the familiar placed the Spell Card on its shield, a swarm of ghostly creatures with serpentine bodies, short stubby arms, and wailing faces flew over, two by two, to each player's side of the field.

"Earthbound Haunted Familiars summons two Haunted Earthbound Familiar Tokens to each player's side of the field." The familiar explained in the same coy voice. "And at the end of each turn, players who do not control an Earthbound card other than Haunted Earthbound Familiar Token must destroy all Haunted Earthbound Familiar Tokens they destroy and take 500 damage for each."

 **Haunted Earthbound Familiar Token / DARK / Level -2 / Fiend / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / (2 on Familiar 1's field, 2 on Familiar 2's field, 2 on familiar 3's field, 2 on Semal's field, and 2 on Adeel's field).**

"Great, a burn player." Semal groaned as four of the tokens began circling their bike in an eerie patrol.

"Be careful." Adeel warned, "This one looks trickier than the others."

"Setting two cards face-down," The familiar continued, placing two more cards on its shield. "and activating Earthbound Petroglyph Plain's second effect. I discard all cards in my hand in order to increase my life points by eight-hundred for each."

 **Familiar 3: 4000 + (800 X 3) = 6400 LP**

"Turn end." The familiar tittered before two of the familiar's struck out against Semal and two more smote Adeel in the chest.

 **Semal: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

 **Adeel: 1300 – 1000 = 300 LP**

"Oh you are so going down!" Semal threatened, managing to steady the bike after taking the damage. "How you holding up, Adeel?"

"Just take down the familairs." Adeel grunted, massaging his chest. "I'll take care of whatever one's you leave behind."

"Still okay." Semal replied. "Good. Boku no turn! Draw!"

Quickly examining the single card in his hand, Semal nodded before continuing with his turn.

"I activate my face-down card! Celestial Hero Supernova! By sending five Celestial Hero monsters from my Extra Deck to the graveyard, I get to draw two cards!"

Yanking two cards from the top of his deck after choosing five cards from his Extra Deck to send to the graveyard, Semal continued.

"I banish Cosmic Ritual from my graveyard in order to activate its effect!" Semal continued, banishing his Spell Card from the graveyard and causing a starry portal to open up in the ground in front of it. "With its effect, I Special Summon the Celestial Hero Serpens from my graveyard! Come forth!"

Through the portal, Semal's serpentine knight appeared to the field, shield displaying the Serpens constellation on its front.

 **Celestial Hero Serpens / LIGHT / Level 3 / Reptile / Effect / ATK 1200 + 100 = 1300 / DEF 1000 + 100 = 1100**

"When Celestial Hero Serpens is summoned," Semal explained, "I get to add one Celestial Hero monster from my deck to my hand. With this effect, I am adding Celestial Hero Lepus from my deck to my hand! And now that that's done," Semal continued, showing the familiars Celestial Hero Lepus before adding it to his hand, "I'm going to use my Normal Summon in order to Normal Summon Celestial Hero Monoceros!"

Through a blue portal, a knight riding a silvery-white unicorn appeared to the field. In the knight's right hand was a long elegant white lance with a spiraling point like the horn of its unicorn mount. Adorning its left arm was a large circular shield with the Monoceros constellation decorating the front.

 **Celestial Hero Monoceros / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1500 + 100 = 1600 / DEF 1000 + 100 = 1100**

"Once per turn, Celestial Hero Monoceros allows me to discard one Celestial Hero monster from my hand in order to add a Fusion from my deck or graveyard to my hand." Semal explained. "Using its effect I'll discard the Celestial Hero Pavo in my hand in order to add Fusion from my deck to my

hand."

Raising its lance into the air, Celestial Hero Monoceros opened up a tear in the space above it with the tip of its lance. From the depths of the tear, a copy of Fusion flew forth before flying into Semal's hand.

"I activate the magic card, Fusion." Semal declared, slotting the spell card into his bike's Duel Disk system. "Using my Celestial Hero Lepus and Celestial Hero Lacerta in my hands as Material, I Fusion Summon!"

Above his head, the ghostly forms of a female knight with a bola weapon, a bunny-ear decorated helmet, and a breastplate bearing the Lepus constellation, and a knight with a lizard-like helmet, webbed hands and feet, a long armored tail, a spear, and a shield bearing the Lacerta constellation, appeared in the center of the Fusion Portal, before blending together in a swirl of white and green light as Semal began his summoning chant:

"Celestial Hero who leaps through the forested skies with the swiftness of a hare, agile Celestial Hero who stealthily crawls across the sky, with your legendary strength combined, defy the edicts of the universe and create a new law! Yuugo Shokan! Come forth! Level eight! Celestial Hero Taboo!"

Emerging through the Fusion Portal, Semal's new monster, a mermaid-like creature clad in sparkling white armor, with a blindfold over her eyes, a sword in one hand, and a set of scales in its other hand, appeared alongside Semal, causing the familiars to shriek at the monster in anger.

 **Many Worlds Tree: 2 Celestial Counters**

 **Celestial Hero Taboo / WATER / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2100 + 200 = 2300 / DEF 2000 + 200 = 2200**

 **Celestial Hero Lillium Paladin: 2600 + 200 = 2800 ATK / 1800 + 200 = 2000 DEF**

 **Celestial Hero Monoceros: 1500 + 200 = 1700 ATK / 1000 + 200 = 1200 DEF**

"I will next activate Celestial Hero Taboo's effect!" Semal declared, "Once per turn, I can decrease Taboo's Level by one in order to Special Summon one "Celestial Hero" Ritual Monster from my hand or graveyard, ignoring the summoning conditions! Using this effect, I Special Summon the Celestial Hero Lepus I used to Fusion Summon Celestial Hero Taboo, Come forth!"

 **Celestial Hero Taboo: Level 8 – 1 = 7**

Raising its scale into the air, Celestial Hero Taboo began glowing with light before a portal opened up in the ground in front of Semal's bike and the small bunny-like knight hopped out of the graveyard before twirling its bola in the air in the direction of the familiars, a mischievous expression on the bunny knight's face.

 **Celestial Hero Lepus / DARK / Level 3 / Beast / Ritual / Effect / ATK ? (Now treated as 0 + (200 from Many Worlds Tree's effect)) / DEF ? Now treated as 0 + (200 from Many Worlds Tree's effect))**

"I next activate the effect of the Celestial Hero Pavo in my graveyard." Semal continued, stretching his hand in front of his bike and causing a white portal to appear in the ground in front of him. "Once per turn, if Celestial Hero Pavo is in my graveyard while I control a Celestial Hero monster, I can Special Summon it! Come forth now!"

Arising from the portal, an elegant winged female knight with a plume of peacock tail feathers sprouting from her helmet and her lower back appeared to the field, a pair of daggers in her hands and the Pavo constellation shining on the forehead of her helmet.

 **Celestial Hero Pavo / WIND / Level 1 / Winged Beast / Tuner / ATK 0 + 200 = 200 / DEF 500 + 200 = 700**

"Since I summoned a Celestial Hero monster, I can use Celestial Hero Lepus's effect to equip one monster my opponent controls to itself, while increasing Lepus's ATK and DEF by the ATK and DEF of the equipped monster! I'm choosing to equip the Heron Familiar with fourty-two hundred ATK to my Celestial Hero Lepus! Go! Huntress snare!"

Throwing the bola in the air, Celestial Hero Lepus wrapped the heron in a tangle of ropes and weighted balls before tugging on the rope and pulling the struggling familiar towards itself. Shrieking in anger, the Familiar managed to disentangle itself from the ropes, transforming back into its humanoid form before Lepus equipped what had been its Token to itself.

 **Celestial Hero Lepus: 4200 + 200 = 4400 ATK**

"And now for the fun to begin!" Semal continued, "I tune my Level one Celestial Hero Pavo with my Level now Level seven Celestial Hero Taboo in order to Synchro Summon!"

Twirling through the air, Celestial Hero Pavo morphed into a single ring of green light before encasing Celestial Hero Taboo in its light as Semal began his summoning chant:

"Celestial Heroes of legend, with your unified desires, harmonize the songs of your triumphs and call forth the mythical hero who strikes faster than the speed of light! Synchro Shoukan! Come forth! Level eight! Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger!"

Sprinting down from the sky in a flash of light, Semal's new monster, a warrior encased in white armor with futuristic metal wings, and swords made of light in each of its hands, appeared to Semal's field in the blink of an eye. Sprinting alongside the bike at its speeds, the warrior left brief after-images of itself as it seemed to defy the laws of physics with its speed.

 **Many World's Tree: (3 Counters)**

 **Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger / LIGHT / Level 8 / Thunder / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2300 + 300 = 2600 / DEF 2400 + 300 = 2700**

 **Celestial Hero Lepus: 4200 + 300 = 4500 ATK**

 **Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin: 2600 + 300 = 2900 ATK**

 **Celestial Hero Monosaurus: 1500 + 300 = 1800 ATK**

"You cannot defeat all of us, even with that army." The vulture familiar rasped. "We are defended by our tokens and our Life Points remain whole."

"Then it's high time I whittled you all down a bit." Semal countered, "I activate the effect of my Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin! With her effect, I can target one Celestial Hero monster I control in order to change its Level to seven, and I'm choosing my Monosaurus!"

 **Celestial Hero Monosaurus: Level 7**

"And now that that's done, I overlay my Level seven Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin and my Level seven Celestial Hero Monosaurus in order to Xyz Summon!"

Transforming into twin streams of light, Semal's two monster drained into the center of the Xyz Portal that appeared behind the bike as Semal began his summoning chant:

"Celestial Heroes of Legend, with your wills united, stand against the oncoming darkness as an unbreakable wall of defense! Xyz Shoukan! Come forth! Rank 7, Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall!"

Rising from the ground, a colossal knight bearing a wall-sized shield, which swirled with a galaxy of stars in a dark universe beneath its clear surface, appeared to Semal's field. Towering in the air, its immense size and shield created an imposing barrier between Semal and Adeel, and the Familiars that threatened them.

 **Many World's Tree: 4 counters**

 **Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall / LIGHT / Level 7 / Thunder / XYZ / Effect / ATK 0 + 400 = 400/ DEF 3200 + 400 = 3600**

 **Celestial Hero Lepus: 4600 ATK**

 **Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger: 2700 ATK**

"Lillium Paladin's effect activates!" Semal declared, "If it is used as an Xyz Material, the monster Xyz Summoned by its effect gains ATK equal to its DEF!"

 **Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall: ATK 400 + 3200 = 3600**

"And now for Great Interstellar Wall's effect!" Semal declared, "Once per turn, I can detach one Xyz Material from this card in order to inflict damage to my opponent's LP equal to half its DEF! Go! Interstellar Quarantine!"

Glowing with light, Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall raised its shield into the air, before unleashing a force-field of starry light from its shield, knocking back all three familiars and damaging their LP.

 **Familiar 1: 4000 – 1800 = 2200 LP**

 **Familiar 2: 4000 – 1800 = 2200 LP**

 **Familiar 3: 6400 – 1800 = 4800 LP**

"Trap activate!" The second Heron Familiar called after recovering from the blast, "Earthbound Retaliation! If we control an Earthbound monster when our opponent inflicts battle or effect damage, we can inflict damage to the opponent who inflicted the damage equal to half the damage inflicted and gain life points equal to the damage inflicted!"

Stretching out its lance, the familiar swooped down before striking Semal in the shoulder and withdrawing, leaving the Phoenix Guardsman groaning in pain.

 **Semal 3000 – 2700 = 300 LP**

 **Familiar 4800 + 2700 = 7500 LP**

"Semal!" Adeel called out, a horrified expression coming over his face.

"Don't worry!" Semal grunted, "I've still got this! Battle Phase!" he called, stretching his hand towards his monsters, "My Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger can attack my opponents directly, and if it was Synchro Summoned using a Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster, it can make two attacks per turn! Go, Superluminal Charger! Attack the familiars with twenty-two hundred LP! Superluminal Sword Strike!"

Before any of the familiars could even react, Superluminal Charger flashed forward, striking down both the familiars so quickly that it left an afterimage of itself that slowly faded away as the two familiars disintegrated into dust.

 **Familiar 1: 2200 – 2700 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Familiar 2: 2200 – 2700 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

The remaining familiar shrieked in rage as her companions faded away. Pressing his advantage, Semal continued his turn.

"Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall, Celestial Hero Lepus, attack and destroy those Earthbound Haunted Familiar Tokens!"

Pulling out a bow and knocking an arrow against it, Celestial Hero Lepus sniped one of the ghostly tokens with an arrow to its phantasmal forehead while Celestial Hero Interstellar Wall smashed another token with its fist.

"Turn end!" Semal finished. "It's all up to you now, Adeel! Win this duel!"

"Win?" the familiar hissed. "How do you plan on doing that when you have already fallen into my trap?"

"What trap are you-…?" Semal asked before Adeel interrupted him with, "Don't ask!"

"Trap activate!" the familiar called, ignoring both of them, "Earthbound Blood Demon! I discard one card and pay three-thousand LP in order to Special Summon my Trap Card as an effect monster whose ATK and DEF are each equal to my LP!"

Shrieking in pain, the familiar began transforming, body doubling in size and two extra pairs of leathery bat wings bursting forth from its back while the white lines on its body began to glow blood-red. When the familiar changed transforming, it looked like a demon with six wings, razor-sharp fangs and talons, and blood-stained robes.

 **Familiar 3: 7500 – 3000 = 4500 LP**

 **Earthbound Blood Demon / DARK / Level -8 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 4500 / DEF 4500**

"In response to my summon," the demonic familiar thundered, "I activate the effect of Earthbound Shaping from my graveyard! By banishing this card, I can Special Summon any number of cards from my graveyard as Earthbound Shapeshifter Normal Monsters, and if I do, their ATK and DEF each become the same as my own!"

Bursting forth from black portals in the sky, the images of four of the familiar's cards appeared in the sky before morphing into copies of the familiar's demonic form.

 **Earthbound Shapeshifter / DARK / Level -3 / Fiend-Type / ATK 4500 / DEF 4500**

"Are you kidding me!?" Semal sputtered, gawking at the familiar's army of monsters.

"I'm glad I can't see this." Adeel sighed.

"During the End-Phase, I can reset Earthbound Retaliation from my graveyard to my side of the field." The familiar finished, causing her Trap Card to reappear to her field. "Now your doom is sealed!"

Adeel stared in the Familiar's direction, face set in an unmoving frown.

"Ore no turn," he began, placing a hand on top of his deck, "DRAW!"

Ripping a card from the top of his deck with a flourish, Adeel traced the brail of his card with his finger before beginning his turn.

"I activate the Magic Card, Lost Dog Found!" Adeel beginning, placing a spell card on his disk. "When this card is activated, I can Special Summon one Canine monster from my graveyard. With this effect I Special Summon Sparkles the Canine Firefighter from my graveyard! Come forth!"

 **Sparkles the Canine Firefighter / FIRE / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1600**

"Once per turn, if I haven't Normal Summoned a monster, I can Special Summon one Level four or lower Canine monster from my deck with Sparkles's effect." Adeel explained, "Using the effect of Sparkles, I Special Summon Balto the Canine Sled-Dog from my deck! Come, Balto, to my field!"

Appearing through a blue portal next to Adeel, a large white Husky dog wearing winter clothing and pulling a sled with supplies appeared, running alongside the bike.

 **Balto the Canine Sled-Dog / WATER / Level 3 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1450 / DEF 1100**

"If Balto is Special Summoned, I can shuffle up to two of my Spell or Trap Cards in my graveyard into the deck, and if it was Special Summoned from the deck, I can add any number of those cards to my hand instead. Using this effect, I shuffle my Dire Emergency Wolves into my deck and add Lost Dog Found to my hand."

"And now for an Xyz Summon of my own!" Adeel continued, "Balto the Canine Sled-Dog can be treated as two materials for the Xyz Summon of a Canine monster! Using this monster I Xyz Summon!"

Barking excitedly, Adeel's monster transformed into a stream of blue light before draining into an Xyz Portal as Adeel began his summoning chant.

"Holy incarnation of the great celestial wolf-spirit, arise now to carry on the legacy of nature's artist and reclaim your divine potential! Xyz Shoukan! Be born! The descendant of the wolf creator! Chibiterasu the Celestial Canine Pup!"

In an explosion of multi-colored light, Adeel's monster, a young white wolf-pup with red markings on its fur, a large brush-like tail with a black tip, a pair of short stubby white wings on its back, and a small green cape, appeared to Adeel's field, running alongside Adeel's bike with a small paint brush in its mouth.

 **Chibiterasu the Celestial Canine Pup /LIGHT / RANK 3 / Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 1800 (1 Overlay Unit)  
** "Chibiterasu is a bit different from other Xyz Monsters." Adeel explained as the familiars shrieked at his monster. "Instead of its effects being fueled by its Overlay Units, its effects are fueled by the number of Ink Counters it accumulates. During each of my Standby-Phases and each time a card or cards is shuffled into the deck, it gains one Ink Counter. Furthermore, once per turn, I can detach one Overlay Unit from my monster in order to give it two Ink Counters. I will use this effect now!"

 **Chibiterasu: 0 Overlay Units / 2 Ink Counters**

"And now to power it up even more!" Adeel continued, "I activate my face-down Trap Card, Canine Pack Instincts! This card enables me to Special Summon a Level four or lower Canine monster from my deck, and if I do, immediately after it is summoned, I can either Synchro Summon or Xyz Summon using monsters I control. Using my Trap's effect, I Special Summon Jack the Canine Lifeguard from my deck."

"Jack?" Semal smirked, glancing back and forth between Jack Atlas and Adeel's monster as Adeel's monster, a black retriever wearing a swimsuit, lifeguard whistle, and sunglasses, appeared by his side.

 **Jack the Canine Lifeguard / WATER / Level 2 / Beast / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1100 / DEF 900**

"I didn't name them." Adeel shrugged.

"Well good because then they'd be named 'Fluffals.'" Semal quipped.

"Shut up." Adeel shot back, just as his dog, Fluffals, after hearing her name spoken, woke up from her nap in order to poke her head out over the side of the side car, tongue lolling in the wind as she enjoyed the breeze. "Using my Level two Jack the Canine Lifeguard and Level four Sparkles the Canine Firefighter as Materials, I Synchro Summon! Loyal and fierce canine companions, fight as one in the pack and give birth to the legendary canine who rules over the fiery darkness! Synchro Shoukan! Come to me! Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian!"

In an explosion of fire, Adeel's twin-headed Synchro Monster appeared to the field, snake tail twitching and hissing angrily.

 **Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian / EARTH / Level 6 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 600**

"Since Jack was used as a Synchro Material, its effect activates!" Adeel continued, "I can target cards on the field or graveyard up to the number of Synchro Materials used in the Synchro Summon of my Orthrus and shuffle them into the deck. Using this effect, I'm shuffling one of your Earthbound Shapeshifters into the deck and your face-down Earthbound Retaliation."

 **Earthbound Shapeshifters X 3**

 **Chibiterasu the Celestial Canine Pup: 3 Ink Counters**

"I will now activate Orthrus's effect!" Adeel continued, "Once per turn, I can shuffle a card from my hand into my deck in order to draw 1 card, and if the card drawn is a monster that can be Normal Summoned, I can add it to my hand and draw one more card. Any other card is sent to the graveyard. Go! Guard-Dog Howl!"

Letting out a pair of unified howls from its two flaming mouths, Orthrus sent the card in Adeel's hand into his deck before Adeel drew a new card.

 **Chibiterasu the Celestial Canine Pup: 4 Ink Counters**

"The Card I drew is Dog Whistle, a Spell Card, so it is sent to the graveyard." Said Adeel, discarding his card. "But now that Chibiterasu has four Ink Counters, I can Xyz Summon one Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf from my Extra Deck using my Chibiterasu as the Xyz Material! Slumbering Wolf-God of the old world, with the power of your descendant, reinvigorate your slumbering power and rejuvenate the chaos ravaged world with the power of your creative art!" Adeel commanded, "Reincarnation Ascension!"

"Letting out a loud howl, Adeel's monster began running in circles across the sky, trailing a stream of red paint in the air from its paintbrush wherever it went. Slowly, the red paint began to encase the young wolf pup like a chrysalis until the monster was completely covered. Then, in a flash of light, Adeel's new monster, a tall and graceful white she-wolf with red markings on her fur, three elegant tails, a pair of elegant red-and-white wings and a white-and-red cloak on its back, and a large paintbrush in its mouth appeared to Adeels field, before the monster loped slowly but gracefully down to Adeel's side.

 **Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf / LIGHT / RANK 7 / Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2600  
** "If Amaterasu is summoned this way, she inherits the four Ink Counters Chibiterasu carried." Adeel explained.

 **Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf: 4 Ink Counters**

"Amaterasu's effect!" Adeel continued, "Once per turn, I can detach one Overlay Unit from my monster in order to give it three Ink Counters!"

 **Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf: (0 Overlay Units) 7 Ink Counters**

"And now for the final evolution!" Adeel declared, raising his hand into the air, "Since Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf has seven Ink Counters, I can Xyz Summon Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg from my Extra Deck using my Amaterasu as a Material! Semal, lend me your power now!"

"With pleasure!" Semal replied, raising his marked arm into the air. In an instant the mark on his and Adeel's arms disappeared before a new crimson, dragon-shaped mark appeared on Adeel's back.

In response to this, Amaterasu took to the sky, paint brush swinging about in wide graceful arcs as the three-tailed white wolf began painting the image of a large red serpentine dragon, identical to the mark on Adeel's back, in the air. When it had finished its artwork, the mark and the wolf began to glow and transform as Adeel began his summoning chant:

"Invincible protector of heaven and nature, awake now from your millennial slumber with the blessings of the Crimson Dragon! Erase the darkness and destruction from this world and create a new era of peace and light! Majestic reincarnation ascension!"

In an explosion of red light, Adeel's monster completed its transformation into an even larger white wolf with nine tails, each one dipped in ink, two pairs of white wings on its back, elegant white-and-red robes with a massive circular red back piece, and a gold headdress on its majestic head. **  
****Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg / LIGHT / RANK 11 / Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 3600 / DEF 3200**  
Shrieking in rage and fear, the familiar and all its monsters shrank back from Adeel's shining monster, some of them using their hands to shield their eyes from the monster's blinding light.

"Shiranui inherits the Seven Ink Counters Amaterasu bore." Adeel explained.

 **Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg: 7 counters**

"Shiranui's effect!" Adeel proclaimed, "By removing five Ink Counters from my monster I can negate the effects of all face-up cards my opponent controls and shuffle them into the deck! Go! Harmonic restoration!"

 **Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg: 2 counters**

Letting out a loud howl, Adeel's monster whipped out all nine of its ink-tipped tails, brushing over the familiar and its monsters with each tail and causing the monsters to dissolve away in a swarm of flower petals, blood red as the red ink on its body, leaving nothing behind but the Heron familiar, who quivered in the air as her army disappeared.

 **Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg: 3 counters**

"Shiranui's second effect!" Adeel proclaimed, "Since you could very well activate the effect of one of your Spell Cards from the graveyard to counter my next attack, I will remove three Ink Counters from my Shiranui in order to make it so you cannot activate any Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Battle-Phase of this turn!"

 **Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg: 0 counters**

"Battle!" Adeel declared as his twin headed monster charged towards the familiar. "Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian, direct attack!"

Letting out a stream of two flames from each of its gaping bony mouths, Orthrus roasted the familiar, sending it flying backwards as it brushed at the flames on its wings and clothing.

 **Familiar 3: 4500 – 2600 = 1900 LP**

"Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg!" Adeel proclaimed, "Exorcise the Familiar! Direct attack!"

The familiar began flying away as fast as it could, but without so much as lifting a paw, Shiranui began howling in the familiar's direction, causing the winged creature to disintegrate in a cloud of golden dust.

 **Familiar 3: 1900 – 3600 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

Adeel let out a sigh of exhaustion as his and Semal's monsters faded away.

"Are you okay?" Semal asked, looking over at his brother, while panting slightly himself.

"I didn't think I'd need to tap into the majestic power to defeat them." Adeel sighed, wiping sweat from his forehead as his and Semal's marks returned to their arms. "I guess I just wanted…to play it safe."

"I'm glad you did." Semal replied. "I don't want you taking the same beating you took earlier."

"How are the others doing?" Adeel asked, staring in the direction of the other duelists. "Are we close enough to intrude and help them?"

Semal looked ahead to where Kiryu was dueling two familiars by himself, pressing down on the bike's accelerator as he tried to catch up.

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Heron Familiar:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Controls 1 Earthbound Crane Token,**

 **Earthbound Crane Token / DARK / Level 6 / Winged Beast / ATK 1000 + 2000 = 3000 / DEF 800 + 2000 = 2800**

 **Summoned by the effect of Earthbound Crane,**

 **Earthbound Crane / Spell / Continuous / Discard 1 card: Special Summon 1 "Earthbound Crane Token" (Winged Beast-Type/DARK/Level 6/ATK 1000/DEF 800), then, you can Special Summon 1 monster from either player's graveyard to your side of the field. While you have no monsters in your graveyard, "Earthbound Crane Token" cannot be destroyed by battle. If the token summoned by this effect is removed from the field, destroy this card. If this card is removed from the field, destroy the token Special Summoned by this card's effect.**

 **an Earthbound Swarm Token,**

 **Earthbound Swarm Token / DARK / Level 6 / Winged Beast / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

 **has Earthbound Skies active,**

 **Earthbound Skies / Spell / Field / Each time you summon an "Earthbound" monster to your side of the field while you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Earthbound Swarm Token". (That token's Name, Type, Attribute, ATK, and DEF each become equal to the monster summoned.**

 **has Earthbound Consecration active,**

 **Earthbound Consecration/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a Field Spell Card and have no monsters in your graveyard, increase the ATK and DEF of all "Earthbound" monsters you control by the number of "Earthbound" monsters you control X 1000.**

 **and has a set card.**

 **Vulture Familiar:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand: 5**

 **Field: Empty**

 **Kyosuke Kiryu II:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand 5**

 **Field: Empty**

"My turn, draw!" The vulture familiar shrieked, rising into the air before pulling a card from his hand and preparing to slam it onto the blade of his scythe. "Field Magic activate! Earthbound Maelstrom! Once per turn, if I control a face-up Earthbound monster, I can destroy any number of Magic or Trap Cards I control in order to increase the ATK and DEF of one Earthbound monster I control by 1000 for each card destroyed! With this in mind, I activate Earthbound Vulture to assume my battle form before setting three cards face-down!"

Slamming down the cards on his scythe, the vulture familiar enfolded itself in its wings before unfurling its wings and revealing its transformation into a skeletal vulture crackling with electricity and flexing razor-sharp wings.

 **Earthbound Vulture Token / DARK / Level 7 / Winged Beast / ATK 1600 / DEF 0**

"Earthbound Maelstrom's effect!" the vulture familiar shrieked as the sky above it blackened in a swirling storm, "I destroy all three of my set cards in order to increase my ATK and DEF by three-thousand!"

 **Earthbound Vulture Token: 1600 + 3000 = 4600 ATK / 0 + 3000 = 3000 DEF**

Shielding his eyes against the wind, Kiryu pressed forward, face looking unconcerned as he focused on keeping his bike upright.

"You are nothing more than my prey!" the vulture familiar shrieked as its body began glowing with electricity. "Quick-Play Magic activate! Earthbound Battlecry! Even though I cannot attack you yet, this card will enable me to damage you by inflicting damage to your Life Points equal to half my combined ATK and DEF in exchange for not being able to conduct my Battle-Phase this turn! DIE!"

"Look out!" Semal screamed as the vulture familiar shot a bolt of lightning straight into Kiryu before flying into the guardsmen, slicing at his shocked body with its claws and beak.

"Get us over to him, now!" Adeel called.

 **Kiryu: 4000 – (7600 / 2) = 200 LP**

"No!" Kiryu called back as he threw the vulture familiar off his arm. "I've got this! Just be ready to lend me the energy in your marks!"

"You're almost dead!" Semal called back.

"Yeah…" Kiryu acknowledged, wiping some blood from his face, "but his turn is done. Isn't that right?"

The vulture familiar regarded him coldly. "Turn end!" it shrieked.

"That's all I need." Kiryu replied, placing his hand on top of his deck. "Boku no turn! Draw!"

"You have no hope of winning." The heron familiar hummed. "Our fields are too strong and your life points are too low."

"I'm not defeated till I'm dead." Kiryu countered, "And I don't intend to let death defeat me!"

"How poetic." The vulture familiar spat.

"I set two cards face-down." Kiryu began, placing two cards on his Duel Disk. "And now that that's done, I will Normal Summon Infernity Sage!"

A hooded monster with a long purple cloak and a fan in its hand appeared to Kiryu's field, face concealed behind its helmet.

 **Infernity Sage / DARK / Level 2 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 400 / DEF 800**

The vulture familiar began cawing hysterically at Kiryu's monster, as if laughing.

"Once per turn," Kiryu continued, ignoring the familiar, "I can use Infernity Sage's effect to discard my entire hand. With this effect I send my Infernity Beetle, Infernity Beast, and Infernity Necromancer to my graveyard!"

"Are you giving up?" the heron familiar asked as Kiryu sent his hand to the graveyard.

"It'll make sense later on." Kiryu replied with a smirk. "I next activate a face-down Infernity Deal! With this card's effect, I can send my Infernity Queen from my deck to my hand in order to draw one card!"

In front of Kiryu, the a feminine winged creature wearing black armor and wielding a scepter appeared before sinking into a black portal above the ground as Kiryu drew one card.

"The card I drew was Infernity Archfiend!" Kiryu declared, showing the familiars the card he had drawn. "With this card's effect, I can Special Summon it before adding an Infernity card from my deck to my hand!"

As Kiryu added a card to his hand from his deck, a red-haired demon with four eyes and a pair of ram horns on top of its head appeared to Kiryu's field.

 **Infernity Archfiend / DARK / level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1200**

"I will now activate the card I added to my hand!" Kiryu declared. "Infernity Launcher! And now, since I have no cards in my hand, I can activate the effect of Infernity Laungher, sending this card to my graveyard to Special Summon my Infernity Beetle and my Infernity Necromancer from my graveyard!"

Shrieking in anger, the two familiars watched as a small horned beetle and a skull-faced demon appeared to Kiryu's field.

 **Infernity Beetle / DARK / Level 2 / Insect / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 0**

 **Infernity Necromancer / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 2000**

"And this is just the beginning of the Special Summons I'm going to be doing." Kiryu continued. "Next, since I have no cards in my hand, I will use my Infernity Necromancer to Special Summon my Infernity Beast from the graveyard!"

Hopping onto his field a demonic dog with bulging venom sacks on its neck began running alongside Kiryu's bike.

 **Infernity Beast / DARK / Level 3 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200**

"Trash!" the Vulture familiar shrieked. "All of those creatures are nothing more than insignificant prey compared to me!"

"I tune my Level two Infernity Sage and my Level three Infernity Beast!" Kiryu countered, ignoring the familiar as his Infernity Sage morphed into a pair of green rings of light before encircling Infernity Beast in its light.

"Demonic followers of the void, commune with the empty darkness and emerge as the spiritual master who can find the light within! Synchro Shoukan! Come forth! Level five! Infernity Shaman!"

Appearing to Kiryu's field in a flash of light, a Native American-looking Shaman with a headdress of red and orange feathers, a face covered in black-and-white war paint, and a large wooden staff in its hands, appeared to Kiryu's field.

 **Infernity Shaman / DARK / Level 5 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2000**

"And there's more!" Kiryu promised. "Next, since I still don't have any cards in my hand, I activate the effect of my Infernity Beetle, tributing it in order to Special Summon two Infernity Beetle from my deck!"

 **Infernity Beetle X 2**

"And in case you didn't catch on," Kiryu continued, "My Infernity Beetles are both Tuners! With this in mind, I tune my Level two Infernity Bettle with my Level four Infernity Archfiend in order to Synchro Summon! Demonic natives of the void, with your combined fury, strike back at the darkness as a fearsome warrior! Synchro Shoukan! Come forth! Level Six! Infernity Tomahawk Striker!"

Appearing in a flash of light, Kiryu's monster, a Native-American warrior wielding a large tomahawk appeared to the field, feathery headdress fluttering in the wind.

 **Infernity Tomahawk Striker / Dark / Level 6/ Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 500  
** "But I'm not done yet!" Kiryu declared, "I tune my second Level two Infernity Beetle to my Level six Infernity Tomahawk Striker in order to Synchro Summon again!"

Charging forward as Kiryu's second Infernity Beetle morphed into a pair of green rings, Infernity Tomahawk Striker let out a savage battle-cry before morphing into six spheres of white light as Kiryu began his summoning chant:

"In the deepest pits of the void, arise between the border of heaven and hell! Synchro Shoukan! Level eight! Void Ogre Dragon!"

Bursting forth in a flash of light, Kiryu's ace monster appeared, red orbs glowing against its scaly black skin as it let out a powerful roar.

 **Void Ogre Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

"Infernity Shaman's effect!" Kiryu declared as the familiars hissed at his massive dragon, "Once per turn, during either player's turn, if I have no cards in my hand, I can place one card from my deck on top of my deck!"

After placing a card on top of his deck, Kiryu next stretched his hand towards his last face-down card.

"Magic Card, Infernity Rejuvenation activate!" he commanded, "If I control an Infernity monster and have no cards in my hand, I can draw three cards from the top of my deck so long as I discard two of the cards I drew! Draw!"

The card at the top of his deck shone with immense light as he drew it, followed by two more cards which he quickly sent to the graveyard.

"Of the cards I drew, I send Infernity King and Infernity Barrier to my graveyard, while keeping the card I placed on top of my deck!"

In front of Kiryu, a royal looking demon with a large two-handed sword in its hands and an elegant orange-and-red crown on top of its head, sank into his graveyard.

"With this, I am ready for the final Synchro Summon!" Kiryu proclaimed, mark glowing on his arm, "Adeel! Semal! Lend me your power!"

"Got it!" Adeel agreed, as he and Semal stretched their right arms forward before all three of the duelist's marks disappeared and a circular dragon mark appeared on Kiryu's back.

"I pay half my Life Points," Kiryu declared, "In order to Special Summon Majestic Mirror from my hand with its own effect!"

 **Kiryu: 200 – 100 = 100 LP**

Surging with red energy, the mark on Kiryu's black glowed like a supernova as a large mirror, whose trimmings were adorned with a wooden pattern shaped like the mark on Kiryu's back, appeared to the field.

 **Majestic Mirror / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Once per turn," Kiryu explained, "my Majestic Mirror can target one monster I control in order to treat it as a Level one Tuner! Using this effect, I target my Infernity Necromancer!"

 **Infernity Necromancer: Level 1 / Tuner**

"It's time!" Kiryu declared, "I double tune my Level one Infernity Necromancer and my Level one Majestic Mirror with my Level eight Void Ogre Dragon in order to Synchro Summon!"

Morphing into a pair of black-and-red rings that looked like shadowy flames, the two tuners encircled Void Ogre Dragon in a sphere of light and shadow. Within the sphere of light and shadow, a phantasmal image of Majestic Mirror appeared in front of Void Ogre Dragon, reflecting the dragon's appearance as the dragon began glowing with light, slowly transforming into a new creature as Kiryu began his summoning chant:

"Dragon walking between the empty borders of heaven and hell, with the blessing of the Crimson Dragon, rise forth as a mediator between light and darkness and purge the netherworlds of evil! Majestic Synchro Shoukan! Shake heaven and hell! Majestic Purgatory Dragon King – Ogre Dragonis!"

Completing its transformation, Kiryu's dragon burst free from the sphere of light and darkness, twice as large as it had previously been. Its slender body had grown more muscly and its wings had expanded to three times their original size, their membranes glowing with red energy. Its eyes swirled with black shadows like the pit of an empty abyss, and its head was crowned with large red stag horns.

 **Majestic Purgatory Dragon King - Ogre Dragonis / Dark / Level 10 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3000**

The heron familiar shrieked in terror, recoiling from the dragon's light, but the vulture familiar held firm, shrieking angrily at Kiryu's new monster.

"It's still not stronger than me!" the familiar roared. "I shall feast upon its flesh!"

"Battle!" Kiryu declared, "I activate the effect of the Infernity Queen in my graveyard! By targeting my Infernity Shaman, I can enable it to attack my opponent's Life Points directly! Go, Infernity Shaman! Attack the Heron Familiar!"

Placing its hands on either side of its staff, the Infernity Shaman began chanting before disappearing and suddenly reappearing behind the Familiar and whacking the frightened winged creature with its staff.

 **Heron Familiar: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

"I next activate the effect of the Infernity King in my graveyard!" Kiryu continued, "by targeting my Majestic Purgatory Dragon King, I can enable it to attack up to two of your monsters this turn! In addition, if it destroys a monster, the controller takes damage equal to the ATK that monster had on the field! Go! Attack the Heron Familiar's Earthbound Swarm Token!"

"Trap Activate!" the Heron Familiar countered. "Earthbound Maw! If my opponent's monster declares an attack while I control an Earthbound monster! The attacking monster is destroyed!"

"Ogre Dragonis's effect!" Kiryu countered, "Once per turn, if my opponent activates a Magic or Trap Card, I can negate the activation of that card in order to destroy it and one other card my opponent controls, before increasing my monster's ATK by five-hundred for each card destroyed with this effect! Go! Void Purge!"

Unfurling its wings, Ogre Dragonis shot bursts of dark-crimson light from the orbs on its body, obliterating the familiar's Trap Card and the familiar's Earthbound Heron Token, causing the familiar to transform back into its Humanoid appearance as Ogre Dragonis continued its attack against its remaining token.

 **Majestic Purgatory Dragon King - Ogre Dragonis: 3500 + 1000 = 4500 ATK**

"Finish her off!" Kiryu commanded, "Majestic Void Flame!"

Throwing back its head and opening its mouth, Kiryu's monster charged up a beam of powerful red-and-black flames before blasting the fire from its mouth with a roar, disintegrating the familiar's remaining token and the familiar.

 **Heron Familiar: 2000 – 2500 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"And now for the final attack!" Kiryu declared, "Attack the Vulture Familiar! Majestic Void Flame!"

"You cannot defeat me!" the Vulture Familiar proudly proclaimed, swooping towards the dragon as it charged up its attack. Shrieking loudly, the familiar extended its claws outward, holographic indicator displaying its massive ATK of 4600.

"If Ogre Dragonis attacks," Kiryu explained, "it gains one-hundred ATK for each DARK monster in my graveyard during the Damage Step only, and I have eleven in my graveyard! Counterattack!"

 **Majestic Purgatory Dragon King - Ogre Dragonis: 4500 + (11 X 100) = 5600 ATK**

Before the familiar could turn around and flee, Kiryu's dragon unleashed its flame, disintegrating the familiar into a cloud of dust with the combined damage from its own attack and the effect of Kiryu's Infernity King.

 **Vulture Familiar: 4000 – (1000 + 4600) = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"You did it!" Semal whooped, pumping a fist into the air as Kiryu's monsters faded away and their marks returned to normal.

"We've done it." Kiryu panted, indicating Kazama, Emma, and Jack as they continued their own duels against larger swarms of familiars.

 **Kazama vs. Three Familiars**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Vulture Familiar:**

 **1200 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Controls two Earthbound Vulture Tokens each with 4600 ATK.**

 **Heron Familiar 1:**

 **2000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Controls an Earthbound Crane Token with 3000 ATK**

 **Heron Familiar 2:**

 **2000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Controls an Earthbound Crane Token with 3000 ATK**

 **Officer Shoichi Kazama:**

 **600 LP**

 **Hand: 2**

 **Field: Controls Chaos Overlord Archfiend**

 **Chaos Overlord Archfiend / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 2600**

"My turn!" Kazama declared, a circular dragon mark glowing against his back as he drew a glowing card from the top of his deck. "I'll start by Normal Summoning Dark Tinker to my field!"

 **Dark Tinker / DARK / Level 2 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1300**

"Next," Kazama continued, "I'll discard one card from my hand in order to Special Summon Majestic Demon from my hand!"

Appearing in front of Kazama's bike, a horned demon with crimson robes and horns appeared, holding up a staff topped with an icon matching the circular mark on Kazama's back.

 **Majestic Demon / DARK / Level 1 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"I double tune my Level one Majestic Demon and my Level two Dark Tinker with my Level seven Chaos Overlord Archfiend in order to Synchro Summon!" Kazama declared as his two tuners morphed into three rings of red flame which surrounded Chaos Overlord Archfiend, a bird-like demon with a flaming mane of crimson hair and two pairs of flaming bat wings, before Kazama began his summoning chant:

"Commander of Chaos, with the blessing of the Crimson Dragon, unleash your full power and dominate the forces of evil! Majestic Synchro Shoukan! Come forth! Level ten! Majestic Chaos Overking Archfiend!"

In a raging whirlwind of crimson magma, Shoichi's new monster appeared to the field. Its bird-like upper body was made completely of magma, and its lower body was a literal tornado of flame and molten rock. Three pairs of massive flaming bat wings sprouted from its burning back, four muscly arms stretched out from its torso, and a ball of flame hovered over the palms of each of its four clawed hands.

 **Majestic Chaos Overking Archfiend / DARK / Level 10 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3600 / DEF 3600**

"Majestic Chaos Overking Archfiend can attack all monsters my opponent controls, once each!" Kazama explained. "In addition, when it attacks a monster, it can change the ATK and DEF of all my opponent's monsters to zero! Go! Destroy all the familiars! Overwhelming Chaos Flame!"

Swirling through the air in a raging inferno, Kazama's monster disintegrated all the familiars in seconds, leaving the Earthbound enemies no time to react.

 **Vulture Familiar: 1200 – 3600 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Heron Familiars 1 and 2: 2000 – 3600 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Emma vs. five Familiars**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Vulture Familiars 1 and 2:**

 **1000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Fields: each with 1 Earthbound Vulture active, and 1 Earthbound Vulture Token with 6000 ATK.**

 **Heron Familiars 1, 2, and 3:**

 **1000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Fields: each with 1 Earthbound Crane active, 1 set card, and 1 Earthbound Crane Token equipped with 3 Earthbound Claws so that each of their tokens have 4000 ATK.**

 **Emma:**

 **1200 LP**

 **Hand: 5 cards**

 **Field: Empty**

"Is that all you've got!?" Emma taunted, spitting some blood from her mouth before roaring with fury as a bright red circular dragon mark appeared on her back and the top card of her deck glowed with light, "It takes more than that to take down an old grandma bear like me! My turn! Draw!"

Squinting at a the cards in her hand, she attempted to read them before swearing loudly and pulling out a pair of reading glasses from a chest pocket in her riding suit and situating them over her nose.

"I activate Foolish Burial!" Emma barked, slamming down her Spell Card. "Using its effect, I'll send my Stygian Street Patrol from my deck to my graveyard before banishing my Street Patrol in order to Special Summon my Stygian Gun Slinger!"

Appearing through a blue portal, Emma's bike was joined by an affro-wearing cop shooting a pair of pistols in the air as it rode alongside Emma on its own bike.

 **Stygian Gun Slinger / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 1900**

"Next," Emma continued, "Since Stygian Gun Slinger was Special Summoned, I Special Summon Stygian Pursuer from my hand!"

Roaring up alongside Emma on a sleek and slender silver bike adorned with chrome skulls, a demonic cop wearing a horned helmet with a flashing red-and-blue light on top of its head appeared, fangs of its demonic teeth bared as it peered through a pair of night-vision goggles.

 **Stygian Pursuer / DARK / Level 2 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 600**

"If Stygian Pursuer is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon one Level four or lower fiend-type monster that is in my graveyard or banished, and if I do, its Level is changed to one! With this effect, I Special Summon my banished Stygian Street Patrol!"

 **Stygian Street Patrol / DARK / Level 4 – 3 = 1/ Fiend / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200**

"Now for some disciplining!" Emma barked, "I activate my Stygian Gun Slinger's effect! Changing its Level to 1 in order to inflict three-hundred damage to all your sorry Life Points! Eat Lead!"

Laughing maniacally, Emma's monster unloaded its six shooters into all of the familiars, who shielded their bodies from the hailstorm of bullets with their wings.

 **Stygian Gun Slinger: Level 1**

 **Earthbound Familairs: 1000 – 300 = 700 LP**

"And now, since I still haven't Normal Summoned this turn, I Normal Summon my Stygian Security from my hand!"

 **Stygian Security / DARK / Level 1 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 100**

Once her monster had appeared to her field, Emma continued her turn.

"I tune my Level one Stygian Security with my Level one Stygian Street Patrol in order to Synchro Summon!" Emma declared as her Stygian Security encircled her Stygian Street Patrol monster in a ring of green light, "Daring rider of the burning wasteland, charge through the flames of lawlessness and beat the outlaws into submission! Synchro Shoukan! Ride into the flames! Level 2! Stygian Street Hog!"

Roaring up next to Emma on an utterly massive motorbike, a fat biker gangster with the face of a tusked boar appeared. Wearing spiked shoulder pads and thick leather armor, the pig-like monster swung a spiked cudgel through the air, squealing wildly.

 **Stygian Street Hog / DARK / Level 2 / Fiend / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1000**

"Since Stygian Street Patrol was sent to the graveyard, I banish my Stygian Street Patrol again in order to Special Summon a second Stygian Pursuer from my hand, before using its effect to Re-Special Summon my Stygian Street Patrol with its Level reduced to one!"

Roaring alongside the growing convoy of bikes, a second Stygian purser and Emma's Stygian Street Patrol completely filled up her field.

 **Stygian Pursuer / DARK / Level 2 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 600**

 **Stygian Street Patrol / DARK / Level 4 – 3 = 1/ Fiend / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200**

"Battle!" Emma declared, "When Stygian Street Hog attacks, it gains one-thousand ATK for each Stygian monster I control! Attack one of the Heron Familiar's tokens with four-thousand ATK! I don't give a crap which one!"

 **Stygian Street Hog: 0 + (1000 X 5) = 5000 ATK**

"I activate my face-down-…" One of the heron familiars countered before she was interrupted by Emma.

"Well boo-hoo, but you can't!" Emma spat, "When Stygian Street Hog attacks, my opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step!"

Roaring forward into the sky on its bike, Stygian Street Hog swing its spiked cudgel into one of the Heron Familiars, causing the familiar to disintegrate into black dust before getting blown away by the wind.

 **Heron Familiar 1: 700 – 1000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"And now for Stygian Street Hog's other effect!" Emma declared, "During the Battle-Phase, if it battles a monster, I can use its effect to immediately Synchro Summon! Using my Level two Stygian Street Hog and my Level one Stygian Street Patrol, I am going to do just that!"

Squealing, Stygian Street Hog morphed into a pair of green rings that encircled Emma's Stygian Street Patrol as Emma began her summoning chant:

"Lone Rider of the lawless hell, take justice into your own hands and become a hero for the defenseless! Synchro Shoukan! Ride into battle! Level three! Stygian Street Vigilante!"

Swinging her chains through the air, Emma's ace monster appeared, riding its sleek cherry-red-and-black bike with pink highlights alongside Emma's own motorbike.

 **Stygian Street Vigilante / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 800**

"And now," Emma continued, "Since I Special Summoned a monster, I pay half my Life Points in order to Special Summon Majestic Angel from my hand!"

 **Emma 1200 – 600 = 600 LP**

Descending from a pillar of light, a small angel in bright crimson-and-white robes appeared to Emma's field, a pair of bright red flaming dragon wings, identical to the dragon wings depicted in the mark on Emma's back, appeared to the field, white hair flapping in the wind as it looked up at the familiars with a pair of crimson eyes.

 **Majestic Angel / LIGHT / Level 1 / Fairy / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"When Majestic Angel is Special Summoned, I can use its effect to immediately use my Level three Stygian Street Vigilante, Level one Stygian Gun Slinger, and my Level one Majestic Angel to perform a Synchro Summon!"

Spreading its arms out towards Emma's Stygian Street Vigilante as Stygian Street Vigilante rode towards the Angel, Majestic Angel expanded in size, become larger and more ethereal as Stygian Street Angel rode straight through the monster's chest before transforming into three spheres of white light, which arranged themselves into a column within the angel as Emma began her summoning chant, the circular crimson dragon-shaped mark on her back glowing like a supernova:

"Majestic rider of the hellish and lawless road, with the blessing of the Crimson Dragon, become a fearless warrior of true justice! Majestic Synchro Shoukan! Ride against evil! Level five! Majestic Stygian Street Angel!"

On a silver-and-crimson bike, Emma's new monster, a female demon with a pair of angel wings sprouting from the inky wing tattoos on her back, and a pair of ram horns sprouting from her forehead, appeared to the field in an explosion of light, swinging a golden chain above her head as she charged towards the familiars.

 **Majestic Stygian Street Angel / DARK / Level 5 / Synchro / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1400**

"When Stygian Street Angel is Special Summoned, I can send a number of Fiend-Type monsters from my deck to the graveyard, equal to the number of "Stygian" monsters I control! Since I control Stygian Street Angel and two Stygian Pursuers, that's a total of three monsters! Furthermore, Stygian Street Angel gains 300 ATK for each monster in the graveyard!"

 **Majestic Stygian Street Angel: 1900 + (9 X 300) = 4600 ATK**

"Battle!" Emma declared, "Majestic Stygian Street Angel, attack one of the Earthbound Vulture Tokens with six-thousand attack!"

Shrieking with fury, both of the vulture familiars flew toward Emma's monster, talons outstretched as they prepared to rip the bike rider to shreds.

"Stygian Street Fighter's effect!" Emma declared, "Now I know you cretins are ready to slice up my monster, but since I sent Stygian Street Fighter from my deck to my graveyard with the effect of my Majestic Monster, it means I can banish my Stygian Street Fighter in order to halve the ATK of the monster my Majestic Stygian Street Angel is battling! Go! United Biker Gang!"

From Emma's graveyard, the ghostly form of a muscly demonic biker gang man rode into the air, a blue headband on his head and Japanese kana tattooed all over his arms and chest. Rocketing past Emma's Majestic Stygian Street Angel, the muscly demon punched one of the Vulture Familiars square in the beak with a pair of bejeweled brass knuckles before Emma's Majestic Stygian Street Angel dragged it down with her chains and destroyed it.

 **Earthbound Vulture Token: 6000 / 2 = 3000 ATK**

 **Majestic Stygian Street Angel 4600 – 300 = 4300 ATK**

 **Vulture Familiar 1: 700 – 1300 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"Majestic Stygian Street Angel's effect!" Emma declared as the familiars attempted to regroup. "When it destroys a monster by battle, I can inflict damage to my opponents' Life Points equal to half its ATK! Go! Chains of Retribution!"

Swinging its chains into the air, Majestic Stygian Street Angel rose from its bike, flapping through the air on its wings before throwing the chains forward and ensnaring all three of the remaining Familiars. In a flash of light, the chains ignited, roasting all three familiars before they crumpled away into black dust.

 **Familiars: 700 – 2150 = 0 (LOSE)**

 **Jack Atlas vs. 12 familiars**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **3 Vulture Familiars:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Each control an Earthbound Petroglyph Plain, control a vulture familiar with 6000 ATK, and a copy of Earthbound Vulture.**

 **6 Heron Familiars:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: each with 1 Earthbound Crane active, 1 set card, 1 Earthbound Crane Token equipped with 2 Earthbound Claws and 1 Familiar Energy so that each of their tokens have 4000 ATK and cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.**

 **3 other Heron Familiars:**

 **6400 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Each with 2 set cards, and 2 Earthbound Shield Tokens.**

 **Earthbound Shield Token / DARK / Level -1 / Rock / ATK 0 / DEF 3000**

 **Jack Atlas:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Hand: 0**

 **Field: Controls Red Wyrm**

 **Red Wyrm / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2400**

 **And Red Demon Dragon Scarlight**

 **Red Demon Dragon Scarlight / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500**

 **Red Mantle / Trap / Continuous / Activate by targeting 1 face-up attack position "Red" Dragon-Type Synchro Monster you control. Equip this card to that target. While the equipped monster is in attack position, your opponent cannot target any monsters for attacks, except the equipped monster, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, and you take no damage less than the ATK of the equipped monster. During each of your End-Phases, pay LP equal to the ATK of the equipped monster.**

"Ore no turn!" Jack Atlas declared, drawing a card from the top of his deck. "Red Wyrm effect activate! Once per turn, I can negate the effects of all face-up Magic and Trap Cards on the field while making it so that neither player can activate any of their set Magic or Trap Cards until the end of this turn! Go! Crimson Hell Veil!"

Obeying Jack's command, Jack's Red Wyrm, a slender crimson dragon with a thin serpentine body and massive flaming red wings, unleashed a hailstorm of fire against the familiars with a flap of its wings, driving the winged creatures back.

"Red Wyrms's second effect!" Jack declared, "I can tribute this monster in order to double the ATK of my Red Demon Dragon Scarlight! Go! Red Power-Up!"

 **Red Demon Dragon Scarlight: 3000 X 2 = 6000 ATK**

"Red Demon Dragon Scarlight's effect!" Jack declared, "I destroy all your Special Summoned monsters to inflict 500 damage to your LP for each! Crimson Hell Burning!"

In an explosion of flame, Jack's ace monster obliterated all twelve of the familiars and their monsters, leaving nothing but black ash behind.

 **9 Familiars: 4000 – (500 X 15) = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **3 Familiars: 6400 – (500 X 15) = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"We have a lot left to learn." Kiryu whistled after seeing the other guardsmen finish their duels.

"Jack didn't even have to use a majestic monster to beat them!" Semal gawked. "And he was fighting five times as many as we were!"

"We're not done yet." Adeel murmured. "The easy part is over. Now there is the Dark Signer to deal with."

…

Ruri parted from her brother when she heard the sounds of her disciples approaching on their motorbikes, arriving just as the Phoenix Guard defeated the familiars.

"What's going on?" Shun asked as several Security officers dismounted from their bikes before approaching him.

"I'm sorry we have to separate again, just when we reunited." Ruri wept, but it's not safe here, and you're hurt.

"I'm not leaving you!" Shun growled, taking a shaky step forward before almost failing over as a wave of dizziness and fatigue swept over him. Dazed, Shun felt two large officers, a man and a woman, take him by his arms before guiding him to the back of one of the motorbikes. Shun wanted to fight back against them, but he was feeling so weak that he could barely lift his arms.

"I promise I'll come back." Ruri called to him as her disciples revved up their engines. "I promise I'll explain everything. But right now, I need you safe. I cannot bear to lose you again."

"Ruri!" Shun managed to scream out, before the officer on the bike held him down to the seat and roared off into the distance with the other bikers.

When her brother had disappeared into the distance, Ruri heard Jatun's voice whisper to her.

 _"_ _He is here, the Signer."_ The spirit solemnly whispered, a note of fear and anger in her soft voice.

Ruri slowly turned around, facing the King of the Synchro Dimension as he made a stop in front of her, turning his circular single-wheeled bike to the side to regard her gravely through his helmet.

"Jack Atlas." Said Ruri, bowing her head. "I have heard much about you. Do you know who I am?"

The Signer regarded her silently for a few heartbeats before speaking.

"This duel is between you and me." He replied, signaling to the other riders accompanying him, who rode off in the direction of where Ruri's disciples had fled. "I will not let you use more innocents as your puppets."

Ruri felt Jatun's spirit rising within her as she realized the Signer had addressed the god inhabiting her, rather than herself.

 _"_ _I look forward to this duel, Burning Soul!"_ Ruri felt the Earthbound God reply through her mouth. Tears welling up in her eyes as she felt a wave of emotion well up from within the spirit, Ruri rose into the air with her wings before she and Jatun spoke as one.

 _"_ _For all the loved ones we have lost, we shall have vengeance!"_

…

"It would seem that The King is engaging the Dark Signer." Bordeux observed. "But perhaps it is still early for us to decide which side The City will back, correct chairman?"

"Indeed." White Taki agreed, nodding his head. "We should all make careful considerations when deciding our alliances, wouldn't you agree, Reiji?"

"I would." Reiji agreed, eyes masked by the shine of his glasses. "Though I prefer to be a bit more…decisive."

Adjusting his glasses with a finger, Reiji suddenly turned on the security officers in the room, activating his Duel Disk as quick as a viper.

…

All was chaos in Jean-Michell Roger's control room. Despite all the threats he made, assistants who had not had chips planted in their skulls were fleeing from their desks as more and more horrific security feeds of prison riots and brutal counterattacks from Roger's security forces filled the screens.

"STAND YOUR GROUND, COWARDS!" Roger screamed, "I WILL NOT HAVE ANYONE LEAVING THEIR POSTS! I WILL HAVE ORDER! I WILL HAVE DISCIPLINE! I WILL HAVE-…!"

The rest of Roger's sentence was cut off as the entire left wall enclosing his office was torn open, a massive shadowy black wolf with large black wings, green glowing markings covering its body, the tail of a gigantic black snake, a massive scarred chest, and muscly arms that looked like the arms of a gorilla, burst inside, swiping away four workers with its claws while the debris from its entrance struck two more workers against the walls. Growling, the phantasmal abomination slowly turned its shaggy head towards Roger, eyes glowing red as blood.

Before Roger could even react, the beast was upon him, crossing the room with a single bound before pinning Roger to the ground with its gorilla-like paw, knocking the air out of Roger, and forcing the quivering man to stare up into the beast's gaping maw, drool dripping from its jagged teeth.

Roger screamed at the top of his lungs as the monster he had kept in containment lowered its massive head down to bite off Roger's own head, but just before the beast's teeth could prick Roger's sweating neck, the beast suddenly stopped.

"No." the deep emotionless voice of Sergey called from just behind Roger.

The beast lifted its head from Roger, slowly exhaling is it did so. Roger closed his eyes and held his breath as the beast's hot musty breath steamed across his face, before rolling onto his stomach to look up at one of his strongest minions.

Sergey was a foot taller and twice as broad as he had previously been, mechanical augmentations in his arms, chest, and legs showing clearly though his purple-and-green suit. A massive metallic chest-plate adorned his torso, while a bright multi-colored spiral mark shone beneath the armor. Eyes glowing a deep red, Sergey stretched out a metallic robotic hand towards the monster, who slowly backed away from Roger.

"Jibaku Kairei Geo Marchosias," Sergey Volkov growled in a deep voice, pulling out a card from his Duel Disk before holding it up in front of his monster, "return."

Bowing its head, the monster slowly knelt before Sergey Volkov, dissolving into a thick black mist before the mist began pouring into the front of the card. When all the mist had streamed into the card, Sergey reverently placed the card in his Extra Deck before looking down at Roger.

Roger slowly backed away, staggering to his feet before standing at his full height, staring up at the gigantic half-machine man.

"S-s-status report?" Roger asked, quivering with fear.

"This one stands ready." Sergey droned in a deep emotionless voice, the rest of his body remaining still as a statue.

Tears welling up in his eyes and body shaking like a leaf, Roger suddenly threw back his head, laughing like a madman.

"Good!" he cackled. "Good! Good! Good! It's about time something went my way today! Sergey, I have need of your brute strength right now! Track down and secure the following people! Sakaki Yuya, Hiragi Yuzu, Selena, Rin, Kurosaki Shun, and finally and most importantly, bring me the head of Kurosaki Ruri!"

Sergey Volkov stood silently as Roger rattled off the names. When Roger has finished, he turned briskly away, a hideous smile adorning his tattooed face as he made his way towards his first target.

FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Semal Haddad / Original concept by: kaploblast / Deck: Celestial Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Adeel Haddad / Original concept by: Angelight952 / Deck: Canine / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

Name: Kyosuki Kiryu II / Orignal concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active

FEATURED FAN CARDS

Shun's Extra Deck

Ravage Raptor Carpet Bomb Condor/ FIRE/ Rank -6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2500/ DEF 3500/ 3 Level -6 "Ravage Raptor" Monsters  
Cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects. At the start of the Battle-Phase, you can detach 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card: This card can make up to 2 attacks per Battle-Phase for each monster your opponent controlled at the time of this effect's activation. If this card battles a monster, you can destroy that monster at the start of the Damage Step, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the ATK or DEF of the destroyed monster (whichever is higher).

Shun's Spells

Rank-Up-Magic Enshrouding Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 Xyz Monster you control: Multiply its Rank by -1. Then, you can Dark Xyz Summon 1 Dark Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck that is two Ranks higher than the targeted monster, using the targeted monster as a Dark Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that monster become Dark Xyz Materials on the summoned monster). When an opponent's monster declares an attack on a monster summoned by this card's effect, you can banish this card from your Graveyard. Negate the effects of the attacking monster and decrease its ATK by 1000. During either player's turn, if this card is banished: You can discard 1 card from your hand; Return this card to your graveyard.

Crow's Spells

Sonic Blast/ Spell/ Action/ If you take 2000 or more damage and your LP become 500 or less, you can activate one of the following effects (If you take 3000 or more damage, you can activate both effects in sequence):

1: Target 1 monster your opponent controls: Destroy it, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the ATK of that monster

2: Draw 2 cards.

Crow's Traps

Black Feather Barricade /Trap/ Normal/ If a "Black Feather" card you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can discard this card from your hand: Negate the destruction of that card. If a "Black Feather" card is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Activate 1 "Black Feather" Trap Card from your graveyard.

Black Feather - Final Assault/ Trap/ Normal/ When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Special Summon 1 "Assault Black Feather" monster from your graveyard, and if you do, both the opponent's attacking monster and the monster Special Summoned by this effect have their effects negated, also, those monsters immediately battle. During the battle, if a player's monster is destroyed, the controller of that monster takes damage equal to the original ATK of that monster.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious)

Semal's Monsters (All original concepts of Semal's cards by: kaploblast)

Celestial Hero Camelopardalis / EARTH / Level 3 / Beast / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 2100 / When you Summon this card: Add 1 Ritual Monster or Ritual Spell Card to your Hand. (You can only use this effect of "Celestial Hero Camelopardalis" once per turn).

Celestial Hero Serpens / LIGHT / Level 3 / Reptile / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000 / When this Monster is Summoned: Add 1 "Hero" Monster from your Deck to your Hand. (You can only use this effect of "Celestial Hero Serpens" once per turn).

Celestial Hero Lilium Paladin / LIGHT / Level 7 / Warrior / Ritual / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 1800 / You can Ritual Summon this card with "Cosmic Ritual". Cannot be destroyed by battle. You take no battle damage from attacks involving this face-up Attack Position card. Once per turn: You can target 1 "Celestial" monster you control; it becomes Level 7 until the end of this turn. If this card is used as an Xyz material for the Summon of a "Celestial Hero" Xyz monster, the monster summoned using this card as a material gains ATK equal to its DEF.

Celestial Hero Monoceros / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1000 / Once per turn, you can discard 1 "Celestial Hero" Monster from your hand: Add 1 "Polymerization" from your Deck or Graveyard to your Hand.

Celestial Hero Pavo / WIND / Level 1 / Winged Beast / Tuner / Effect/ ATK 0 / DEF 500 / If this card is in the Graveyard and you control a "Celestial Hero" Monster, you can Special Summon this card. (You can only use this effect of "Celestial Hero Pavo" once per turn).

Celestial Hero Lepus / DARK / Level 3 / Beast / Ritual / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ? / You can Ritual Summon this card with "Cosmic Ritual". Once per turn, if you Special Summon a "Celestial" monster: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; equip that target to this card. (You can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card with this effect.) This card's ATK and DEF become equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If this card would be destroyed by battle, destroy that equipped monster instead.

Semal's Extra Deck

Celestial Hero Taboo / WATER / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 2000 / 1 Hero Monster + 1 Ritual Monster

Once per turn, you can decrease this Monster's level by 1: Special Summon 1 Ritual Monster from your hand or graveyard, ignoring the summoning conditions.

Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger / LIGHT / Level 8 / Thunder / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 2400 / 1 "Celestial" Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters

This card can attack your opponent directly. If this card is Synchro Summoned using a Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, or Fusion Monster as Synchro Material, this card gains the following effect: This card can make a second attack during each Battle Phase.

Celestial Hero Great Interstellar Wall / LIGHT / Rank 7 / Thunder / Xyz / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 3200 / 2 Level 7 Monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to half this card's DEF.

Semal's Spells

Many Worlds Tree / Spell / Field / Each time either player Special Summons a monster from their Extra Deck or Ritual Summons a monster, place 1 Celestial Counter on this card. "Celestial Hero" monsters you control gain 100 ATK and DEF for each Celestial Counter on this card. If a "Celestial" monster would be destroyed, you can remove 1 Celestial Counter from this card instead.

Cosmic Ritual / Spell / Ritual / This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Celestial Hero" Ritual Monster. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal that of the Ritual Monster being summoned. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card and Special Summon 1 "Celestial Hero" Monster from your Graveyard.

Semal's Traps

Celestial Hero Supernova/ Trap/ Normal/ Send 5 "Celestial Hero" monsters from your Extra Deck to the graveyard; Draw 2 cards.

Adeel's Monsters (All original Adeel card concepts by: AngeLight952)

Sparkles the Canine Firefighter/ FIRE/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 1600  
Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Canine" monster from your hand or deck. You cannot Normal Summon the turn you activate this effect. You can only activate the effect of "Sparkles the Canine Firefighter" once per turn and only once that turn.

Balto the Canine Sled-dog/ WATER/ Level 3/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1450/ DEF 1100  
When this card is Special Summoned, target up to 2 Spell/Trap Cards in you graveyard; shuffle them into your deck. If this card was Special Summon from your deck, add 1 of those card to your hand instead. This card is treated as 2 Xyz material for the Xyz Summon of a "Canine" monster. You can only use the effects of "Balto the Canine Sled-dog" once per turn.

Jack the Canine Lifeguard/ WATER/ Level 2/ Beast/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1100/ DEF 900  
When this card is used for the Synchro Summon of a "Canine" monster you can select cards from the Field, Extra Deck or Graveyard up to the numbers of monsters used for the Synchro Summon and shuffle those cards into their owner's deck. You can only use the effect of "Jack the Canine Lifeguard" once per turn.

Adeel's Extra Deck

Chibiterasu the Celestial Canine Pup/ LIGHT/ RANK 3/ Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2200/ DEF 1800/ 2 level 3 monsters  
During each of your Standby-Phases, and each time a card(s) is shuffled into the deck, place 1 "Ink" counter on this card. (Max. 4). If this card would be returned to the deck, you can have this card gain 1 Ink Counter instead. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Place 2 Ink Counters on this card. During either player's turn, when a monster declares an attack, you can remove 2 Ink Counters from this card: Shuffle that attacking monster into the deck.

Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf/ LIGHT/ Rank 7/ Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2900/ DEF 2600/ 2 level 7 monsters  
You can also Xyz summon this card during either player's turn by using 1 "Chibiterasu the Canine Celestial Pup" from your side of the field with 4 Ink counters as the Xyz Material. (If Summoned this way, place 4 Ink Counters on this card). During each Standby-Phase and each time a card(s) is shuffled into the deck, this card gains 1 Ink counter (MAX. 7). During either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Place 3 Ink Counters on this card. If this card would be returned to the deck, you can have this card gain 1 Ink Counter instead. During either player's turn, you can remove any number of Ink Counters from this card to activate one of the following effects depending on the number of Counters removed:

2: Target 1 monster: That monster's ATK and DEF is halved until the end of this turn.  
3: Target 1 monster: Shuffle that target into the deck.

Shiranui the Majestic Celestial Canine Warg/ LIGHT/ Rank 11/ Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 3600/ DEF 3200/ 2 level 11 monster  
You can also Xyz summon this card during either player's turn by using 1 "Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf" on your side of the field with 7 Ink counters. (If Summoned this way, place 7 Ink Counters on this card). During each Standby-Phase and each time a card(s) is shuffled into the deck, this card gains 1 Ink counter (MAX. 9). If this card would be returned to the deck, you can have this card gain 1 Ink Counter instead. During either player's turn, you can remove any number of Ink Counters from this card to activate one of the following effects depending on the number of counters removed:  
3: Your opponent cannot activate any Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Battle Phase of this turn.  
5: Negate the effect of all face-up cards your opponent controls, and if you do, shuffle them into the deck.

 **(Name the Video Game these monsters come from!)**

Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian/ EARTH/ Level 6/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2600/ DEF 600/ 1 tuner + 1 or more non-tuner monsters  
Once per turn you can shuffle a card from your hand into the deck: Draw 1 card. If the card you drew is a monster that can be normal summon add it to you hand then draw 1 more card, otherwise discard the card you drew. If a card or effect is activated that would return a card(s) to the hand or deck, you can shuffle any number of cards you control into the deck: Negate that effect, and if you do, add cards from your graveyard to your hand up to the number of cards returned to the deck with this effect.

Adeel's Spells

Lost Dog Found/ Spell/ Normal/ Target 1 "Canine" monster in your graveyard; Special Summon it. That summon is treated as being summoned from the deck. When that monsters leaves the field, banish it. You can only Special Summon "Canine" monsters during the turn you activate this card. You can only activate "Lost Dog Found" once per turn.

Adeel's Traps

Fight for Dominance/ Trap/ Normal/ When your opponent summons a monster(s) whose total ATK is lower than the ATK of a face-up Beast-type monster you control, destroy that monster(s).

Feral Instincts/ Trap/ Normal/ When an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can target 1 Beast-Type monster you control: it gains 800 ATK for every other face-up beast-type monsters you control, also, your opponent can only target that monster for attacks. (These changes last until the end of this turn).

Dire Emergency Wolves/ Trap/ Normal/ If you control no monsters, Special Summon 2 "Dire Wolf Tokens" (Beast-Type/EARTH/Level 4/ATK 1000/DEF 2000). ("Dire Wolf Tokens" cannot be tributed or used as a Material for a Special Summon, except for the summon of a Beast-Type monster).

Revenge of the Underdog/ Trap/ Normal/ When a Beast-Type monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect, Special Summon another copy of that monster from your deck in face-up attack position, and if you do, increase its ATK by 1000. For the rest of this turn, your opponent can only battle the monster Special Summoned with this effect and must attack that monster if able. At the end of the turn this effect was activated, Destroy the monster Special Summoned with this effect and all monsters that battled with that monster.

Canine Pack Instincts/ Trap/ Normal/ Special Summon 1 "Canine" monster from your deck, and if you do, you can activate this effect: Synchro Summon or Xyz Summon 1 Monster from your Extra Deck using monsters on your side of the field as materials, and if you do, and it was a "Canine" monster, you can activate 1 of the following effects based on the type of monster Special Summoned.  
Synchro Monster: You can immediately activate its effect that would shuffle a card(s) into the deck.

Xyz: You can Add 4 "Ink" counters to that monster.

Kiryu's Monsters

Infernity King/ DARK/ Level 7/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 2500/ DEF 2600/ If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can target 2 cards on the field: Destroy them, and if you do, discard 2 cards from your hand. During your Battle-Phase, if this card is in your graveyard while you have no cards in your hand, you can target 1 DARK monster you control: This turn, it can make up to 2 attacks, but cannot attack your opponent's LP directly, also, if it destroys an opponent's monster by battle, inflict damage to the controller's LP equal to the ATK that monster had on the field when it was destroyed.

Majestic Mirror/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Spellcaster/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by paying half your LP. Cannot be used as a Material except for the Special Summon of a "Majestic" monster. Once per turn, you can target 1 other monster you control to activate 1 of the following effects:

That monster is treated as a Tuner, also, its Level becomes the same as this card's Level.

This card's Level becomes equal to the Level of that card.

Kiryu's Extra Deck

Infernity Shaman/ DARK/ Level 5/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2000/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-tuners

Cannot be destroyed by battle while you have no cards in your hand. Once per turn, if you have no cards in your hand, you can place 1 card from your deck or graveyard on top of your deck.

Infernity Tomahawk Striker/ DARK/ Level 6/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2700/ DEF 500/ 1 DARK Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters  
When this card attacks, if you have no cards in your hand, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

(Original Concept by FanOfKings)

Majestic Purgatory Dragon King - Ogre Dragonis/ DARK/ Level 10/ Dragon/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3500/ DEF 3000  
2 Tuners (Including at least 1 "Majestic" tuner) + "Void Ogre Dragon"  
Once per turn, during either player's turn, when another card or effect is activated while you have no cards in your hand: You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card and one other card on the field. Each time a card is destroyed with this card's effect, increase the ATK of this card by 500. If this card attacks, this card gains 100 ATK for each DARK monster in your graveyard during the Damage Step only. During the End-Phase, shuffle this card into the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Void Ogre Dragon" from your graveyard.  
(Original Concept by FanOfKings)

Kiryu's Spells

Infernity Deal/ Spell/ Normal/ Send 1 "Infernity" monster from your deck to your graveyard: Draw 1 card, but discard your hand during the End-Phase of the turn you activate this card's effect. If you would take damage while this card is in your graveyard and you have no cards in your hand: You can banish this card; That damage becomes 0.

Infernity Rejuvination / Spell/ Normal/ If you control a face-up "Infernity" monster and there are no cards in your hand: Draw 3 cards, and if you do, discard 2 cards.

Emma's Monsters

Stygian Gun Slinger/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1900/ If this card is Normal or Special summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or Lower Fiend Type monster from your hand. (You can only use this effect of "Stygian Gun Slinger" once per turn). Once per turn, you can target 1 Level 5 or Lower Fiend Type monster you control: Change that target's Level to 1, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the difference between that monsters original Level and current Level X 100.

Stygian Pursuer/ DARK/ Level 2/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 900/ DEF 600/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Fiend-Type monster from among the cards in your graveyard or that are currently banished, and if you do, change the Level of the monster Special Summoned by this effect to 1.

Stygian Street Fighter/ DARK/ Level 2/ Fiend/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1100/ DEF 300/ Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn. During either player's turn, if a Level 5 or lower Fiend-Type monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Halve the ATK of the monster that Level 5 or Lower Fiend-Type monster is battling, and if you do, negate its effects.

Emma's Extra Deck

Stygian Street Hog/ DARK/ Level 2/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 1000/ 1 DARK Tuner + 1 non-tuner

Cannot be destroyed by battle. If this card attacks, increase its ATK by 1000 for each "Stygian" monster you control until the end of the Damage Step. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects when this card declares an attack. During the Battle-Phase of either player's turn in which this card battled, you can activate this effect: Synchro Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control.

Stygian Street Vigilante/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 800/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners  
Your opponent cannot target monsters for attacks except this one. You can discard any number of Fiend Type monsters from your hand: Increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each card discarded with this effect. If this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent's LP. If this card would be destroyed, you can banish 1 Fiend Type monster from your graveyard instead.

Majestic Stygian Street Angel/ DARK/ Level 5/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 1400/ 1 "Majestic" Tuner + 1 "Stygian" Synchro monster + 1 non-tuner  
Cannot be destroyed. When this card is Special Summoned, you can send a number of Fiend-Type monsters from your deck to the GY, equal to the number of "Stygian" monsters you control. This card gains 300 ATK for each monster in the GY. If this card destroys a monster by battle, inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to half the ATK of this card. During the End-Phase, shuffle this card into the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your graveyard.

Kazama's Monsters

Majestic Demon/ DARK/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ Cannot be used as a material for a Special Summon unless it's for the Special Summon of a "Majestic" monster. You can discard 1 card from your hand or pay 1000 LP: Special Summon this card from your hand or graveyard, but banish it when it leaves the field. Once per turn, you can banish 1 monster from your side of the field, hand, or graveyard to activate 1 of the following effects:

1\. Change the Level of this card to the Level of the monster banished for this effect.

2\. Add 1 "Rank-Up," "Polymerization," or "Fusion" Spell/Trap Card (Expect "Diffusion Wave Motion" from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Kazama's Extra Deck

Chaos Overlord Archfiend/ DARK/ Level 7/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2600/ DEF 2600/ When this card battles a monster, you can have the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls each become equal to their respective ATK or DEF (whichever is lower). If a Level 10 or higher Fiend-Type Synchro Monster you control leaves the field, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard.

(Trivia: "Chaos King Archfiend" was first created by a fan of "Yu-Gi-Oh 5 D's" in an art competition. So this is basically a fan card of a fan card).

Majestic Chaos Overking Archfiend/ Dark/ Level 10/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3600/ DEF 3600/ 2 Tuners including 1 "Majestic" tuner + 1 Synchro Monster  
This card can attack each monster your opponent controls once each. When this card battles a monster, you can have the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls each become 0. If this card is targeted by a card effect, you can banish this card: Negate that effect, and if you do, Special Summon this card. During each of your End-Phases, pay 2000 LP or shuffle this card into the Extra Deck.

Jack Atlas's Extra Deck

Red Wyrm / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2400 / 1 "Resonator" Tuner + 1 or more monsters

Once per duel, you can activate this effect: Negate the effects of all face-up Spell/Trap Cards on the field, and if you do, neither player can activate the effects of their set Spell/Trap Cards for the rest of this turn. (Spell/Trap Cards cannot be activated in response to the activation of this effect). You can tribute this card to target 1 DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster you control: Double its ATK until the end of this turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Add 1 "Resonator" monster from your graveyard to your hand.

Jack Atlas's Traps

Red Mantle / Trap / Continuous / Activate by targeting 1 face-up attack position "Red" Dragon-Type Synchro Monster you control. Equip this card to that target. While the equipped monster is in attack position, your opponent cannot target monsters for attacks, except the equipped monster, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, and you take no damage less than the ATK of the equipped monster. During each of your End-Phases, pay LP equal to the ATK of the equipped monster.

Earthbound Familiars' Spells

Earthbound Skies/ Spell/ Field/ Each time you summon an "Earthbound" monster to your side of the field while you have no monsters in your graveyard, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Earthbound Swarm Token". (That token's Name, Type, Attribute, ATK, and DEF each become equal to the monster summoned.

Earthbound Consecration/ Spell/ Continuous/ While you control a Field Spell Card and have no monsters in your graveyard, increase the ATK and DEF of all "Earthbound" monsters you control by the number of "Earthbound" monsters you control X 1000.

Earthbound Maelstrom/ Spell/ Field/ Once per turn, if you control a face-up "Earthbound" monster, you can destroy any number of Spell/Trap Cards you control to target 1 "Earthbound" monster you control: Increase its ATK and DEF by the number of Spell/Trap Cards destroyed with this effect X 1000.

Earthbound Battlecry/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate only if you control a face up Field Spell Card and your opponent's LP are 4000 or higher. Target 1 "Earthbound" monster you control: Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to half the combined ATK and DEF of that monster. (You cannot conduct your Battle-Phase the turn you activate this effect).

Earthbound Petroglyph Plains/ Spell/ Field/ Cannot be destroyed. Once per turn, the turn player can add 1 "Earthbound" or "Familiar" card from his/her deck to his/her hand. Once per turn, if the turn player controls an "Earthbound" or "Familiar" card, that player can discard any number of cards from his/her hand to activate 1 of the following effects:

Increase the ATK and DEF of one monster you control by 400 for each card discarded with this effect.

Gain 800 LP for each card discarded with this effect.

Earthbound Crane/ Spell/ Continuous/ Discard 1 card: Special Summon 1 "Earthbound Crane Token" (Winged-Beast Type/DARK/Level 6/ATK 1000/DEF 800), then, you can Special Summon 1 Monster from either player's graveyard. While you have no monsters in your graveyard, "Earthbound Crane Token" cannot be destroyed by battle. If the token summoned by this effect is destroyed, destroy this card.

Earthbound Vulture/ Spell/ Continuous/ Special Summon 1 "Earthbound Vulture Token" (Winged-Beast Type/DARK/Level 7/ATK 1600/DEF 0). Once per turn, you can banish 3 cards from either player's graveyard: Destroy 1 card on the field, and if you do, "Earthbound Vulture Tokens" you control gain 200 ATK for every banished card until the end of this turn. If the token summoned by this effect is destroyed, destroy this card.

Earthbound Claws/ Spell/ Equip/ Increase the ATK of an "Earthbound" monster equipped with this card by 1000. While equipped with this card, the equipped monster can attack each monster your opponent controls, once each, and if it attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing damage to your opponent's LP.

Familiar Energy / Spell / Equip / Equip only to an "Earthbound" Token Monster. The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK and cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, also, if it battles a monster, negate the effects of the monster it is battling.

Earthbound Haunted Familiars/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Special Summon 2 "Haunted Earthbound Familiar Tokens" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level -2/ATK 0/DEF 0) to each player's side of the field. At the end of each turn, each player who does not control an "Earthbound" card other than "Earthbound Haunted Familiar Token" must destroy all "Earthbound Haunted Familiar Token" they control and take 500 damage for each token destroyed with this effect. (Players do not take damage from battles involving an "Earthbound Haunted Familiar Token").

Earthbound Shaping/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate 1 Field Spell Card from your deck. During either player's turn, if you control an "Earthbound" monster, you can banish this card from your graveyard: Banish any number of cards from your graveyard, and if you do, Special Summon an equal number of "Earthbound Shapeshifter Tokens" (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level -3/ ATK ?/ DEF ?). If summoned this way, you can target 1 "Earthbound" monster you control: Those token's ATK and DEF each become equal to the respective ATK and DEF of the targeted monster.

Earthbound Familiars' Traps

Earthbound Retaliation/ Trap/ Normal/ Activate only if you control an "Earthbound" monster when a player inflicts battle or effect damage. Inflict damage to the player who inflicted the damage equal to half the damage that player inflicted, and if you do, activate 1 of the following effects:

Gain LP equal to the damage inflicted.

Target 1 "Earthbound" monster you control: That monster gains ATK and DEF equal to the damage inflicted.

During the End-Phase of the turn this effect was activated, you can set this card, but banish it when it leaves the field.

Earthbound Blood Demon/ Trap/ Normal/ Discard 1 card and pay 3000 LP: Special Summon this card as an effect monster (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level -8/ATK ?/DEF?). This is NOT treated as a Trap Card. If summoned this way, this card's ATK and DEF each become equal to your LP at the time of this effects resolution, also, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect.

Earthbound Maw/ Trap/ Normal/ Activate only when your opponent declares an attack while you control a face-up "Earthbound" monster. Destroy the attacking monster, and if you do, you can target 1 "Earthbound" monster you control: Increase its ATK and DEF by the respective ATK and DEF of the monster destroyed with this card's effect.

 **Thanks goes to Nox Descious for creating the duel between Shun and Crow, and Shimmering Sky for helping me to proofread and edit the story. More thanks goes out to all you, my readers, who continue to make this series the success it is. Prepare the CGI and "Attack on Titan" music in your brains for the next chapter, because a certain immortal species of monster will be making its advent. Until next time, stay tuned and stay awesome.**


	28. Part 1: Chapter 14 (Part 1)

**My beloved readers, you have waited long enough. Now, at last, the moment you have been waiting for is here! Rejoice in the advent of the new chapter!**

* * *

 **Part 1: Chapter 14 – Mark of the Daughter (Part 1)**

Ruri looked down upon Jack as she hovered in the air, flashes of her disciples fighting their own battles appearing in her mind as she prepared to face this new threat. Jack, meanwhile, was regarding her solemnly, a mixture of pity and grim resolution on his face. Ruri could feel the tension in the air building as neither side made a move.

Finally, Ruri could feel Jatun's patience end.

 _"_ _Well, Signer!?"_ She heard Jatun roar through her voice. _"What is your reply? Are we going to duel, or did you lose your ferocity after you killed her!?"_

Ruri flinched as a flash of Jatun's memory pierced her mind. Helplessly, she watched from the underworld as a ferocious red dragon fired a blast of light and flame at the spectral form of a large hummingbird, destroying it and a young woman dueling alongside it.

"What is this?" Ruri gasped as the world and Jack came back into focus.

 _"_ _Never forget this!"_ Jatun whispered back to her. _"He will show us no mercy! Show him none in return!"_

Ruri focused on Jack, feeling a slight headache as she struggled against the intense emotions coming from Jatun. Jack was still staring at her, analyzing her with a calm and collected expression on his face.

"What is your name?" Jack asked, breaking his silence.

Ruri's eyes widened, somewhat surprised by the question, though supposing that were she in Jack's shoes, she would also want to know the name of her opponent.

"I am Ruri Kurosaki," she began, straightening her posture, "I am a child of-…"

"No." Jack curtly replied, cutting her off. "That is not who you are. Who are you really?"

Ruri felt like she had been slapped in the face. It was enough to know that Jack might very well destroy her if given the chance. Why did he have to be rude on top of it?

"I _am_ Ruri!" Ruri snapped, "I am your opponent and I will-…"

"You do not know who or what you are." Jack interrupted, narrowing his eyes at her. "I can see it in your face. All I see in you is a collection of beliefs, feelings, and abilities you have borrowed from another. Who is it who truly wants to duel me? I know you have come for revenge, and I will not deny you that right. I have known for some time that I would be called upon to answer for my past."

Ruri's eyes widened as she realized what Jack was saying.

"He's not even acknowledging me as his opponent!" She thought to herself. "He's only interested in speaking to Jatun."

 _"_ _Let him ignore your strength."_ Jatun growled from within her. _"We will fight as one and demonstrate our full power to him! But if he wants to speak with me before then, I shall oblige him!"_

Ruri felt Jatun take control again as her mouth began moving to speak the words of the spirit.

"I am Jatun Waqar!" Jatun proclaimed as she spoke through Ruri's mouth. "I am the daughter of Aslla Piscu and the grand-daughter of Wiraquocha Rasca, both of whom you destroyed! My family has not forgotten their deaths, nor has it forgiven you for your murders, Burning Soul!"

Jack dipped his head in acknowledgement. "So it would seem. And like your grandfather and mother, you have decided to use another pawn in your game. Tell me, what is your goal after you obtain your revenge?"

 _"_ _To undo all that you and the others like you have wrought!"_ Jatun shrieked through Ruri's mouth. _"I will obtain freedom for my kin, and we shall restore this universe to the original order we created!"_

"Jatun, what is this?" Ruri thought to her spirit, as images of a vast celestial universe flashed through her mind.

 _"_ _I told you before, Ruri."_ Jatun whispered to her, _"We will forge a paradise for all the dimensions. The same paradise that was lost when Quetzalcoatl and other gods like him destroyed it."_

New images began flashing through Ruri's mind, faster than she could keep track of, images of a great battle between massive godly figures as the entire universe shook and shattered around them. Flashes of men and women with marks similar to Jack's began flashing through Ruri's vision until Jack came back into focus.

 _"_ _He would see this universe continue to decay. We must defeat him if we want to accomplish our goal. Will you fight with me, Ruri?"_ Jatun asked, as Ruri felt a sense of deep determination flood her body.

Ruri closed her eyes, thinking about her own friends in the Xyz Dimension, and the people she had recruited in this dimension to aid her in her cause.

"Yes." Ruri replied out loud, activating her Duel Disk before glaring down at Jack. "So, Signer," she heard herself and Jatun say in unison. "do you have a preference for how we duel?"

"You are the one who wants this battle." Jack replied, maintaining a calm expression. "It makes no difference to me how we conduct this duel. Choose."

"I shall!" Ruri and Jatun said in unison, as another memory came to Ruri. Nodding her head, she indicated the ruined track-way where Shun and Crow had conducted their duel. Parts of the runway had been destroyed, but there were connections to other highways they could use for their duel.

"We shall fight in the same manner you and Aslla Piscu fought." Ruri and Jatun declared. "Our deck does not have any Speed Spells, so we will conduct a simple riding duel on this very track-way! The first one to cross that corner," she and Jatun continued, indicating a distant turn where the circular track connected with the city's main highway, "shall take the first turn. If a player crashes, or otherwise fails to continue racing, the duel ends for them!"

"Very well." Jack replied, lowering his visor. "It shall be as you wish. Do you have a duel runner?"

"We can manage with these." Ruri huffed, giving her wings a flap. "To be honest, I think you'll be the one disadvantaged driving that old tin can."

Jack arched an eyebrow, looking just a little nettled by the comment, but said nothing as he revved up the engines of his bike.

"Finally!" Ruri heard Jatun exult through her mouth, "I have been waiting an eternity for this! Let this duel commence!"

Raising her hands, Ruri felt energy surge through the mark on her back and into her veins before feeling herself conjure walls of white flame along the edges of the runway chosen for their duel. Directly in front of Ruri and Jack, a massive wall of white flame rose into the air, creating a barrier.

"When that curtain dissipates." Ruri heard Jatun say through her mouth, "We shall begin!"

Jack replied by revving up his engines, gripping his steering mechanisms as he leaned forward on his bike.

Ruri braced herself in mid-air, counting each flap of her ethereal wings as she waited for the curtain to disappear.

One…

Two…

Three…

Four…

The instant she had finished the fourth flap of her wings, the wall of flame immediately vanished, and Ruri tucked in her wings, diving forward just as Jack slammed down on his bike's accelerator.

Guided by Jatun, Ruri felt herself instinctively reacting to the wind currents around her, using them to propel her forward as she kept the starting line in her mind. She already had a strategy in mind. So long as she could take the first turn, she would be guaranteed control of the duel from the very start.

Despite Ruri's previous comment, she immediately saw that Jack's bike was no joke when it came to sheer speed and power. It took every ounce of her strength to pump her magical wings hard enough to keep up with him. However…

 _"_ _This race is ours!"_ Jatun exulted within Ruri as she and the spirit observed the same thing in unison. _"While we can fly freely through the air without obstacle, the runway in front of Jack is in disrepair! He will have to slow down to make some careful turns or risk crashing!"_

Ruri nodded her head in agreement as she banked to make a turn before rapidly beating her wings again. In front of Jack, there was a gap in the runway, with only a thin bit of track connecting the two pieces. Between that and the other pieces of rubble littering the road, Jack was going to have a very difficult time maintaining control, much less winning the-…

VROOM!

Ruri gasped as, defying all logic, Jack accelerated his bike forward, ramming the pointed nose straight into a large chunk of rubble. Screaming, Ruri barely managed to dodge out of the way as Jack's circular bike flipped into the air, almost slamming right into her, before flipping around like a coin before Jack stuck the landing on the road, landing upside down and backwards so that the single wheel of his bike propelled him forwards while Jack, without the slightest bit of concern, piloted the machine while hanging upside and looking into his rear-view mirrors. Before Ruri could even begin flying forward again, Jack had crossed the starting line, before lowering the tail-end of his bike onto another piece of rubble and using the chunk of debris to flip his bike upright so that he was right-side up and the front was facing forward.

"WHAT!?" Ruri sputtered in disbelief as she crossed the starting line, still trying to process what had just happened as she drew her opening hand.

 _"_ _Insufferable show-off!"_ Jatun raved within her. _"You may have taken the first turn, but you will NOT win this duel!"_

"Ore no turn!" Jack declared as he drew his opening hand before depositing it within a slot on his duel disk. "For my first move, I summon the tuner monster, Force Resonator!"

Through a blue portal, Jack's first monster, a small demon wearing a dark green cloak with a large sphere attached to the back, appeared to Jack's field, lightning crackling from its fingertips as it cackled with malicious glee.

 **Force Resonator / WATER / Level 2 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 500**

"Next!" Jack continued, setting another card on his disk, "Since I control a face-up Resonator tuner, I can Special Summon Red Djinni from my hand! Come forth now!"

In a burst of flame, Jack's second monster, a phantasmal spirit of flame with a red turban on top of its head, appeared to his field, before crossing its arms and bowing towards Jack.

 **Red Djinni / FIRE / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 1500**

"Red Djinni's monster effect!" Jack declared, extending his hand towards his monsters. "Once per turn, I can increase the Level of one Red or Resonator monster I control by up to two! I use this effect on Red Djinni now!"

Bowing its head, Red Djinni began waving its fiery hands in circles before conjuring a pair of golden stars, which it then swallowed.

 **Red Djinni: Level 6**

"So you're already going all-out." Ruri observed, narrowing her eyes at him. "Don't think I'll be intimidated by whatever you're about to summon."

Jack ignored her as he raised his hand into the air.

"Using my Level two Force Resonator and my Level six Red Djinni, I Synchro Summon!" Jack declared as his Force resonator morphed into a pair of green rings which surrounded Red Djinni before the fiery spirit transformed into a set of six glowing white lights as Jack began his summoning chant.

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might. Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul! Synchro Shoukan! The savage soul, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!"

In an explosion of flame, Jack Atlas's signature synchro monster, a massive magma-red and black dragon with a burning scar on its right arm, appeared to his field, beating its flaming wings as it kept pace with its master.

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight / Level 8 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500**

Ruri shielded her eyes as she squinted against the burning light of Jack's monster. Something about the creature's very existence felt repugnant to her, as if it was nothing more than a blight on the universe.

 _"_ _You…"_ Jatun murmured from within Ruri, _"you were the one who fought both my mother and my grandfather! Know this right now, Scarlight! I will end your rampage once and for all!"_

As if in response, Jack's dragon roared in Ruri's direction, bearing its scarred wrist in the air as flames burned against its red-hot body.

"The effect of Scarlight activates!" Jack continued as a card slid from his deck. "Since Red Djinni was used as a Synchro Material, when my Red Demon's Dragon Scarlight is summoned, I can add one Red Trap Card from my deck to my hand! Using this effect, I add Red Burst from my deck to my hand before setting it!"

"So you've called forth your ace monster and you're setting a trap card to protect it?" Ruri observed, tossing back her hair as she beat her wings to keep up with Jack, "Do you really think that will be enough to defeat me?"

"I do not know who you are." Jack replied as he continued driving his bike, not even bothering to look her in the eye, "But whoever you might be, I can see that you have already been defeated. Learn to win for yourself, and I might decide to learn who you are in a duel."

Ruri clenched her jaw in frustration, unable to believe what she was hearing. What the heck did this arrogant Signer think he was saying!? You have already been defeated? Was he honestly that certain of his victory!?

Is if in reply, Jack continued with his turn as if he had never been interrupted.

"Since I Synchro Summoned a DARK Dragon-Type monster this turn, I can discard Gravity Resonator from my hand in order to Special Summon one Resonator Monster from my deck! Using this effect, I call upon Soul Resonator! Come forth now!" Jack ordered as he deposited a card from his hand into the graveyard before removing a card from his deck and setting it on his duel disk.

Appearing briefly, Gravity Resonator, a small fiend similar to Force Resonator, but with gray robes, a black hole in its chest, and a tuning fork in each hand, sank into a black portal leading into the graveyard. Just before disappearing completely from sight, a small white light burst forth from the black hole on its chest before the light coalesced into another small fiend wearing a white robe, a halo resting on top of its head while a pair of burning angel wings fluttered on its back.

 **Soul Resonator / FIRE / Level 1 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 500**

"Soul Resonator's effect!" Jack declared, extending his hand towards his monster. "If it is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon one Red monster from my graveyard! Come forth! Red Djinni!"

Clapping its hands together as if praying, Soul Resonator closed its eyes, conjuring a black portal in the ground through which Jack's Red Djinni reappeared, bowing its head as its body burst to life with renewed flame.

 **Red Djinni / FIRE / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 1500**

"Red Djinni's effect!" Jack continued, "I target my Soul Resonator in order to increase its Level by one!"

 **Soul Resonator: Level 2**

"Another Synchro Summon." Ruri growled, growing more and more frustrated that she did not manage to get the first turn.

 _"_ _He's building up an army."_ Jatun mused.

"Then we'll tear it down!" Ruri replied as she thought of the people she needed to save, glancing briefly at the disciples escorting Shun to a safe haven. The Phoenix Guard had already caught up to them, and some of them were beginning to duel.

Ruri's focus snapped back to the duel as Jack began his summoning chant, his two monsters already synchronizing with one another.

"When the burning soul of Hell resonates with the soul of purity, the king's disciple shall be born! Witness the strength of the true king's servant! Synchro Shoukan! Hail the beginning of the King's reign! Level six! Red Drake!"

Racing down onto Jack's field in a spiral of red-hot flame, Jack's new Synchro Monster, a small and slender red dragon with a narrow beak that looked like it was made from black and red magma, fiery yellow eyes, slender flaming wings, and long sharp claws, appeared, descending in order to fly just parallel to Jack's larger Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight.

 **Red Drake / DARK / Level 6 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2500**

"The effect of Red Drake activates since Red Djinni was used as its Material!" Jack continued, drawing another Trap Card from his deck before setting it on his duel disk. "I set Red Dominance face down before setting two more cards face down. Turn end." He finished before revving up his engine, speeding forward, and then turning his bike around to face his opponent as if daring Ruri and Jatun to attack him.

Ruri narrowed her eyes at the four set cards Jack had accumulated. Clearly it would be foolish to just rush in and attack him, even if she managed to summon a stronger monster than his two Synchro Monsters.

 _"_ _Fortunately."_ Jatun commented, _"We have a card that can deal with this."_

Ruri nodded her head in agreement, determined not to let either Jack's army of Synchro Monsters, or the four set cards he had accumulated on his opening turn intimidate her.

"My turn." Ruri declared, placing her hand on top of her deck as she continued to fly forward. "DRAW!"

Looking at the card she just drew, Ruri nodded her head, she had exactly what she needed to deal with Jack's death trap. But first…

"I discard the monster, Fallen Angelic Guide, from my hand in order to activate its effect!" Ruri began, sending a card from her hand to the graveyard as her angel covered in thick black cloth descended into a pitch-black portal. "I add the Field Spell Card, Sanctified Realm, from my deck to my hand! And with that done," she continued, as she added her Field Spell Card from her deck to her hand, "I activate my Field Spell Card! Behold the glory of Sanctified Realm!"

Upon placing her card in the slot reserved for Field Spell Cards, the entire sky above and runway beneath Ruri began to transform as pure white clouds enveloped the city, making it appear as if she and Jack were dueling in the heavens themselves.

Jack looked upon the pure white clouds, eyes narrowed.

"Do you like it?" Ruri asked, unable to resist the chance to tease him, "Well it gets better! Not only does Sanctified Realm protect the life points of any player who controls a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, and who has no monsters in their graveyard, it also protects each of those player's cards from being destroyed once per turn, and enables them to search out one Spell or Trap Card from my deck. I would, of course, have been happy to share these fantastic effects with you, but then again…" she continued as she looked on a patch of the field where the clouds had darkened and the spectral forms of Jack's Force Resonator, Red Djinni, Gravity Resonator, and Soul Resonator writhed within, "I don't think your graveyard is pure enough for that."

"Cease to hide behind your pawn and duel me face to face, Jatun." Jack calmly replied, turning his back to Ruri. "I have little interest in opponents who are not committed."

Ruri felt as if she had been punched in the gut. Shocked, she stared at Jack open-mouthed, unable to comprehend how utterly disrespectful he was being, before she felt rage from both herself and Jatun overwhelm every fiber of her being.

"Commitment!?" Ruri and Jatun roared in unison, "COMMITMENT!? YOU KNOW NOTHING OF COMMITMENT, JACK ATLAS! WHILE YOU HAVE FOUGHT FOR YOUR OWN GLORY, I HAVE FOUGHT TO PROTECT MY COMRADES IN XYZ,

 _I HAVE FOUGHT FOR MY DIVINE FAMILY AND KIN WHO HAVE BEEN WRONGLY IMPROSONED BECAUSE OF THE EVIL OF YOUR RACE,_

I HAVE FOUGHT FOR MY BROTHER AND FRIEND WHO ARE ALSO DEDICATING THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT THE ONES THEY LOVE,

 _AND WE ARE FIGHTING FOR EVERYONE ELSE WE LOVE! WE HAVE COMMITTED OUR VERY EXISTENCE TO THIS NOBLE CAUSE, AND WE WILL NOT ALLOW UNCLEAN SCUM LIKE YOURSELF TO MOCK THAT DEDICATION!"_

"Fools who follow a path chosen for them deserve no honor, Jatun." Jack bluntly replied, turning his head around slightly to regard Ruri with narrowed eyes. "Even to this day, with all the suffering you have endured from your ruler's ambition, the formerly divine gods who have become the Earthbound lack the courage to question her leadership and turn away from the path of destruction."

Ruri felt Jatun quivering with impotent rage within her, feeling the emotion's bleed into her own heart. But as she digested the raw emotion, she discovered, to her growing anxiety, that there was something more to Jatun's feelings. Was she feeling fear?

A memory flashed into her mind, Jatun's memory.

 _"_ _Wiraqocha Rasca, Uru, Ccapac Apu, Chacu Challhua, Cusillu, Ccarayhua, Aslla Piscu, and Tezcatlipoca, the Crimson Devil himself, have all failed us."_ A powerful godly voice proclaimed as Jatun looked up at the face of The Great Matriarch, a spectral eight-armed woman with a burning multi-colored spiral mark on her forehead, chest, and mid-riff. To either side of her, Ruri saw the spectral forms of other great spirits, some shaped like animals, some like plants, some like geometrical figures, others vaguely humanoid, all of them so much smaller than The Great Matriarch in comparison, and all of them enraptured by their creator's godly presence as they listened to her next command. _"But I have already prepared a contingency. My children, our deliverance is at hand! The eight reincarnations have been born! Soon they shall be ready to bear our power! By them, our curse shall end and a new universe shall be born! Who among you all is worthy to guide the reincarnations on this path!?"_

Through Jatun's eyes, Ruri saw herself step forward before coming back to reality.

 _"_ _No…"_ Jatun whispered from within her. _"I will not be shaken! I will not have my faith tarnished by you, Burning Soul!"_

"Jatun…" Ruri breathed, feeling immense pain come over her. "What is this? What aren't you telling me!?"

Jatun was silent.

 _"_ _We have to focus on the duel!"_ Jatun begged, sounding desperate. _I promise, I_ will _tell you everything! But right now, we_ have _to defeat the Signer! We can't let him divide us! Please trust me!"_

Ruri clenched her fist, desperately wanting to understand what Jatun was going through, but was forced to agree with her as she realized that she would reach the time limit of her turn if she continued wasting her time. Looking down at Jack, who was continuing to pilot his bike without even so much as glancing at them, Ruri felt her rage rise up again. Was this his real tactic all along? Was he just trying to keep her off balance so she wouldn't be focused on the duel? Well if that was his game, then she wasn't going to let him win it!

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, even though her undead body didn't need it, Ruri forced herself to calm down.

"I don't care what you think about me." Ruri breathed, as she pulled a card from her hand. "I know what I am fighting for. I know what I died for. Who are you to judge me?"

Jack remained silent as he piloted his bike, a look of grave concentration etched on his face.

"No words this time?" Ruri asked. "Very well then. I will continue with my turn! I summon the Level three monster, Salvation Seraphim Martyr!"

Appearing to her field, Ruri's bound and chained black-winged angel emerged through a blue portal before hovering next to Ruri.

 **Salvation Seraphim Martyr / LIGHT / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 300 / DEF 1800**

"Next!" Ruri continued, tearing another card from her hand before placing it on her disk, "Since I control a Salvation Seraphim monster, I Special Summon Salvation Seraphim Apostle from my hand!"

Emerging from the portal, Ruri's brown haired-angel with white-and-gold robes, and raven-black wings decorated with golden tassels, appeared to Ruri's field, chanting in an angelic tongue while reading from a tome she carried in one hand and drawing golden shapes in the air with her other hand.

 **Salvation Seraphim Apostle / LIGHT / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 100**

"Salvation Seraphim Apostle's effect!" Ruri continued, raising her hand into the air. "Since it was Special Summoned, I add Salvation Seraphim Acolyte from my deck to my hand. And now that that's done," she continued, adding the monster to her hand, "I can discard the acolyte I just added to my hand in order to set one Salvation Seraphim Card from my deck!"

Descending into a black portal, a petit angel in a shrine maiden's outfit appeared to Ruri's field. Just before it sank out of sight it raised its hands into the air, conjuring a set card to one of Ruri's Spell/Trap Card zones.

"With that done," Ruri continued, "I next Special Summon Salvation Seraphim Healer with her own effect."

Joining Ruri's other two monsters, a black-winged angel with curly blonde hair decorated with healing herbs, and a poultice of golden paste in one of her hands, joined Ruri and her monsters in flight, wings spreading gold dust wherever she flew.

 **Salvation Seraphim Healer / LIGHT / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 1000**

"Healer's effect!" Ruri declared before Healer responded to her command by pouring her golden poultice into a black portal that appeared just beneath her. "I send one card from the top of my deck to the graveyard in order to Special Summon one Salvation Seraphim Monster from my graveyard."

Plucking a card from the top of her deck, she glanced at it before depositing it into her duel disk.

"Since the card I sent to the graveyard was a Salvation Seraphim monster, I will use Healer's effect to Special Summon it! Behold! Salvation Seraphim Priestess!"

Adding to the legion of black-winged angels on Ruri's field, Priestess joined the others in flight before raising her lapis lazuli inlaid staff into the air as the wind blew through her elegant headdress.

 **Salvation Seraphim Priestess / DARK / Level 3 / Winged Beast / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

"Priestesses effect!" Ruri declared. "Since it was summoned, I excavate the top three cards of my deck in order to add one excavated Salvation Seraphim Monster to my hand while sending all other excavated cards to the graveyard!"

Plucking the top three cards from her deck, Ruri glanced at them before continuing with her turn.

"The cards I excavated were Fallen Afterlife Caretaker, Fallen Divine Mentor, and Earthbound Genesis. Since none of these are Salvation Seraphim monsters, they are all sent to the graveyard."

Descending into the GY, an angel-like woman covered from head-to-toe in kanji-covered paper, a stooped angel in a black hood and cloak, and a spell card depicting lights bursting forth from the nazca lines appeared in the air before each of them sank into black portals.

"However," Ruri continued, the corners of her mouth rising into a smile. "that can work to my advantage."

 _"_ _It is almost time."_ Jatun murmured from within here. _"With Earthbound Genesis, my advent will soon come to pass!"_

Ruri felt herself nod in agreement as her eyes and her mark began glowing with light.

"I activate the graveyard effect of my Fallen Afterlife Caretaker!" she proclaimed, raising her hand into the air. "If it is in the graveyard, I can banish it and any number of other monsters from my graveyard in order to activate one of its effects! I banish Caretaker and Mentor in order to add my Earthbound Genesis in my graveyard to my hand!"

Appearing in front of Ruri, the ghostly form of Afterlife Caretaker appeared before producing a copy of Earthbound Genesis in one of his thin hands and handing it to Ruri. After shuffling the card into her hand, Ruri next stretched her hand towards the card she had set.

"I next activate my face-down card, which was set by Acolyte's effect! Behold the power of Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force!"

Upon activating her face-down, a pillar of immense white light shot out from the face of the card before the double "S" symbol of the Salvation Seraphim materialized near the top of the pillar.

"The time is now at hand!" Ruri declared raising her hand into the air. "I overlay my Level three Salvation Seraphim Martyr, Apostle, Healer, and Priestess in order to Xyz Summon!"

Transforming into four streams of golden light, all four of Ruri's monsters merged together into a single powerful strand of light, which drained into a swirling Xyz portal as Ruri began her summoning chant.

"Noble heavenly servant, clad in the armor of righteousness," Ruri began, clapping her hands together and bowing her head in a prayer position, "take courage now as you raise your blade to smite the forces of darkness and bring salvation to this world! Xyz Shoukan! Rank three! Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader!"

Rising from the explosion of the portal, Ruri's blonde-haired Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader rocketed into the air before unfurling her shining white wings and unsheathing her sword, which had four spheres of glowing light orbiting the blade.

 **Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader / LIGHT / Rank 3 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 700**

"Ascension Force, Brave Crusader, and Martyr's effects all activate in sequence!" Ruri declared, indicating the clouds to either side of herself, which held the spirits of the monsters in her graveyard. "Since Martyr was used as a Material, I attach my Fallen Angelic Guide to my Brave Crusader as an Xyz Material while Brave Crusader attaches Acolyte to itself as an Xyz Material! Finally, with the power of my Ascension Force, I attach the Rank one Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor in my Extra Deck to my monster as an Xyz Material!"

Approaching the pillar of light, Ruri's hooded Inquisitor, burka wearing Angelic Guide, and petit Acolyte each entered the shining column before shrinking into three spheres of light, the light that was once Inquisitor orbiting the body of Brave Crusader while the other two joined the first four orbiting the blade of the sword.

"Brave Crusader gains one-hundred ATK and DEF for each of its Overlay Units." Ruri explained as Jack continued to pilot his bike, maintaining a lead while driving along the city highway.

 **Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader: 1800 + (7 X 100) = 2500 ATK / 700 + (7 X 100) = 1400 DEF / 7 OU**

"Furthermore," Ruri continued, "My Crusader Xyz Monsters gain the effects of any of the Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monsters attached to them as Material! So with the power of the attached Inquisitor, so long as I have no monsters in my graveyard, any time you would Special Summon a monster, I can banish three overlay units attached to my monster in order to negate the Special Summon and destroy your monster!"

"A pointless trick." Jack countered, twisting the accelerator and rocketing forward before turning his one-wheeled bike around to face her while the wheel reversed direction so that he continued to progress forward along the runway. "If that is the extent of your power, then you will never lay so much as a scratch upon The King!"

"How is this for a scratch!?" Ruri snarled, feeling her and Jatun's anger swell once again as she and Jatun selected a Spell Card from their hand.

 _"_ _His confidence comes from his wall of face-downs."_ Jatun whispered, _"So long as he has those, he will no doubt be able to protect himself. But we shall render that a moot point."_

Ruri nodded her head in agreement before she and Jatun activated the card they had selected.

 _"_ _Magic Card activate!"_ She and Jatun declared in unison as her mark and eyes lit up with white light, _"Salvation Seraphim Consecration Force! If we control a Salvation Seraphim monster, we can destroy one Magic or Trap Card our opponent controls! However,"_ they continued as their Spell Card, a card which depicted Salvation Seraphim Glorious Crusader casting a wave of cleansing fire upon the earth, materialized in Ruri's Spell/Trap Card Zone, _"If we control a Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster and have no monsters in our GY, we can instead destroy ALL Magic and Trap Cards our opponent controls AND inflict two-hundred damage to our opponent for each of their cards destroyed with this effect! BURN IN FLAMES NOW, JACK ATLAS! SALVATION SERAPHIM BRAVE CRUSADER, UNLEASH THE POWER OF CONSECRATION FORCE! PURIFYING FLAME!"_

Rising into the air, Brave Crusader let out a powerful war cry before stretching her left palm outwards and unleashing an immense wall of flame, which roared towards Jack's field.

"Counter Trap!" Jack shouted back over the sound of the roaring fire, calmly stretching out his hand in order to activate one of his face-downs. "Red Command! If an effect activates that would destroy a Magic or Trap Card I control while I control a DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster, I can negate the effect and destroy it!"

Charging into the flames, Jack's Red Daemon's Dragon, Scarlight created a shield with his burning wings, dispersing the heat before unfurling his wings with a roar, displaying absolutely no burn wounds from the effect of Ruri's spell.

Ruri clenched her teeth and fists in anger as she witnessed her spell fail. Jack, meanwhile, was pointing his finger at her, face showing a look of extreme disappointment.

"Your strategy is nothing more than one of self-preservation and cowardice." Jack lectured, causing Ruri to feel herself tremble with rage. "You're attitude is one of a pouting child who tries to rig the game in her favor while being completely unable to accept risk and adapt to failure!"

"Shut up! _SHUT UP!"_ Ruri felt herself and Jatun scream, veins pulsating on her skin. _"You are nothing more than an arrogant fool, King, and you shall bleed for your hubris! SALVATION SERAPHIM BRAVE CRUSADER'S EFFECT!"_ Ruri and Jatun commanded in unison, stretching their hand towards their monster, _"Since we have no monsters in our graveyard, we detach all Overlay Units from our monster in order to inflict seven-hundred damage to your life points! GO! DIVINE SLASH!"_

Absorbing all its overlay units into her sword, Brave Crusader slashed through the air once with her sword, creating an arc of pure energy, which flew down into Jack's bike, slashing the Signer right in the shoulder and opening up a deep gash, which stained his pristine white suit with a deep crimson.

 **Jack Atlas: 4000 – 700 = 3300 LP**

Ruri felt herself and Jatun smile, feeling immense satisfaction as Jack let out a yelp of pain before managing to regain control of his swerving bike.

"Pride commeth before the fall, Jack Atlas." Ruri purred as she looked Jack in the eye while he shot back a look of immense contempt. "And your fall shall be very great indeed! I next activate Salvation Seraphim Pilgrimage Force! Using my Brave Crusader as the Material, I rank-up my monster two ranks in order to Xyz Summon my Rank five Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader!"

In the sky above Brave Crusader, the double "S" Symbol of the Salvation Seraphim Appeared. Flying into the center of the mark, Brave Crusader began evolving as Ruri commenced her summoning chant.

"Honorable protector who shines with the light of truth! Spread your wings bathed in the glory of heaven and drive back evil with the fury of your unconquerable spirit! RANK-UP XYZ CHANGE!" She declared as the double "S" symbol exploded in a pillar of light. "Descend now! Rank five! Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader!"

Roaring forth from the portal, Ruri's red-headed Angel with white wings decorated with golden spheres of light, and a massive golden sword in one of her hands, appeared to Ruri's field.

 **Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader / LIGHT / Rank 5 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 1800**

"The effect of Ascension Force and my Honored Crusader both activate!" Ruri declared, feeling her power increase, "Ascension Force will attach my Salvation Seraphim Inspired Crusader to my monster as an Xyz Material while Honored Crusader will attach all Salvation Seraphim Monsters in my graveyard to my monster as Xyz Material!"

Raising her golden sword into the air, Honored crusader summoned the spirits of Ruri's Salvation Seraphim monsters to herself before the black-haired angel wearing white armor that was Inspired Crusader joined the other seraphim, who all transformed into spheres of light before orbiting honored Crusader's sword and body.

 **Honored Crusader: 3200 ATK / 2600 DEF / 8 OU**

"Now you're probably thinking," Ruri continued, not failing to catch Jack's subtle glance at the Fallen Angelic Guide floating amongst the clouds, "that since I have a monster in the graveyard, then my monster won't be able to use its other effects. But that's why I can do this! Fallen Angelic Guide's effect! If I control a face-up Field Spell Card, I can Special Summon my monster from my graveyard! Return now!"

Rising from a black portal, Ruri's burka clad angel appeared to her field before holding up a glowing lantern.

 **Fallen Angelic Guide / LIGHT / Level 1 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / Defense Position**

"And now, since I now have no monsters in my graveyard, and frankly, since I'm still just a little ticked from earlier," Ruri admitted, smirking at Jack before stretching her hand towards him, "I think I'll have Honored Crusader use the inherited effect of Brave Crusader! I detach my Salvation Seraphim Apostle and Martyr from my monster in order to inflict two-hundred more damage to your Life Points! GO! Divine Slash!"

Absorbing two spheres orbiting the blade of her sword, Honored Crusader conjured another arc of light in the air with her sword before sending it into Jack's face, slicing open a nasty cut in his cheek.

 **Jack Atlas: 3300 – 200 = 3100 LP**

Jack calmly wiped the blood from his cheek before staring back up at Ruri.

"Have you finished with your temper tantrum, Jatun?"

Ruri ground her teeth together.

"I'm also here, you know." She growled. "But in case you were wondering, yes. That was just for fun. Playtime is over! Now you will face my full wrath! I banish my Pilgrimage Force from my graveyard in order to reattach my Martyr and Apostle to my Honored Crusader as Xyz Material." She continued as her two Salvation Seraphim Monsters ascended from the GY before transforming back into spheres of white light. "And with that done, I can continue with my original plan! Since I have no monsters in my graveyard, I tribute my Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force in order to rank-up my Honored Crusader into a stronger form! Go my Honored Crusader! Seize your new destiny!"

Nodding her head, Honored Crusader flew to the top of the glowing pillar of light, right between the two wing-shaped S's before undergoing a transformation into a stronger form as Ruri commenced another summoning chant.

"Unyielding guardian whose devotion to the gospel of salvation knows no bounds, unleash your righteous fury upon all the works of the evil one as you commit your heart to a life of consecrated service! RANK-UP XYZ CHANGE!" Ruri and Jatun roared in unison as their new monster burst forth from the pillar of light, which slowly vanished. "Rank six! Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader!"

Wild red-and-orange hair billowing in the wind as she descended from the sky, Zealous Crusader bathed the surrounding clouds in a blood-red light as her angelic armor blazed with holy flame. Unsheathing a massive serrated zweihander, Zealous Crusader's eyes and the double S mark on her chest blazed with golden light as she took up position next to her master.

 **Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader / LIGHT / Rank 6 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2100**

"Are you finally impressed, Jack?" Ruri growled, staring down at him. "You should be. My Zealous Crusader bears the power of all the Xyz Materials attached to herself, in addition to her own power, meaning that with her nine Overlay Units, she is now far stronger than your own ace monster."

 **Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader: 2800 + 900 = 3700 ATK**

Jack closed his eyes, a weary expression coming over his face before he opened his eyes again.

"While I control Red Demon's Dragon, Scarlight, my Red Drake cannot be targeted for attacks. Come, Jatun! Our champions shall battle just as you desire!"

Ruri stared down at Jack with a cold expression.

"Before I defeat you, I WILL have you acknowledge my existence!" she vowed.

"You must first acknowledge your existence yourself." Jack countered, eyes narrowing as he stared up at her. "As you are now, you have given up everything that gave you your identity in favor of someone else's vision for you!"

"What are you saying!?" Ruri growled, teeth clenched with fury.

"That you are a slave, less even." Jack replied. "When two duelists engage in battle, they come to know one another through their cards, but I have heard nothing from you! These," he continued, pointing at Zealous Crusader, "are not your cards, and this is not your duel! Her voice," he added, pointing at the mark glowing against Ruri's back before his face assumed a more sorrowful expression, "I have heard…one other time, when I was forced to fight another who had lost her own voice."

Ruri stared down at Jack, now astonished by the sudden change that had come over his expression. Was he…weeping?

Angrily, she shook her head, enraged that this signer was able to play with her emotions so easily. No more!

"No more riddles, Jack!" she roared, "I will not be manipulated by you! I will defeat you, and rebuild the universe into a paradise for all the downtrodden!"

"If you will not listen, if you will refuse to understand, then I'm afraid there can be no hope for you." Jack replied, voice heavy with sorrow.

 _"_ _You are the one who lost all hope when you destroyed my family!"_ Jatun shrieked from within Ruri before she felt her emotions get overwhelmed by the spirit's presence.

 _"_ _Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader,"_ Ruri and Jatun roared in unison, _"destroy Jack's Red Daemon's Dragon, Scarlight! Sword of Conviction!"_

Letting out a battle-cry, Zealous Crusader charged towards Jack's Scarlight, wings and sword bursting into flame as she unleashed her power. Roaring back at her, Scarlight charged back, the scar on his right arm blazing with light and fire as he stretched his claws towards the angel. Flying high into the air, the two monsters made several passes at each other, sword and shield clashing against claws and teeth.

"Zealous Crusader's Effect!" Ruri declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "Thanks to the inherited effect of Inspired Crusader, if it battles a monster while I have no monsters in my graveyard, the monster it is battling has its effects negated and it loses one-hundred ATK and DEF for each of my monster's overlay units!"

"Trap Activate!" Jack countered, stretching his hand towards one of his face-downs, "Red Burst! Using the effect of this Trap Card, I can increase my monster's ATK by one-thousand while enabling it to immediately activate its effect!"

"I won't let you!" Ruri countered. "Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader's own effect! If I have no monsters in my graveyard when my opponent activates a card or effect, I can banish three Xyz Materials from my monster in order to negate the activation of that card or effect and destroy it! GO! ZEALOUS SPIRIT!"

Raising her sword into the air, Zealous Crusader pulled three of the overlay units circling her sword out of orbit before arranging them in a triangular pattern just in front of her. Connecting the three overlay units, a golden cross appeared between the three points before firing a blast of golden light into Jack's Trap Card.

 **Zealous Crusader: 3400 ATK (6 Overlay Units)**

"Counter Trap!" Jack replied, stretching his hand towards another of his face-downs. "Red Dominance! Until the end of this turn, Red Daemon's Dragon monsters I control gain one-thousand ATK, cannot have their effects negated, and cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect! Go, Red Daemon's Dragon, Scarlight! COUNTERATTACK!"

"The effects will resolve in order!" Ruri countered, watching the battle taking place between their two monsters, "Even if your monster won't be destroyed this turn, that doesn't mean it will have more power than my Crusader!"

"Neither will your Crusader." Jack replied, pointing up into the sky towards the holographic indicators.

 **Red Daemon's Dragon, Scarlight: (3000 + 1000) – (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK**

 **Zealous Crusader: 3400 ATK**

Ruri clenched her fists as she watched her Zealous Crusader smash her massive sword against the calloused right arm of Scarlight, neither monster giving an inch.

"Sanctified Realm's effect!" She declared. "Once per turn, each card I control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect!"

Opening its mouth, Scarlight let loose a burst of crimson flame straight into Zealous Crusader, who managed to block the torrent of flame with her red-and-gold shield, but not without getting knocked back. Their battle done, both monsters returned to the fields of their respective masters before Ruri ended her Battle Phase.

"It's not done yet." Ruri growled as she stretched her hand towards the cloudy field. "I activate another effect of my Sanctified Realm! Using its effect, I add Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force from my deck to my hand."

From the depths of one of the clouds, a card appeared before flying into Ruri's hand.

"With that done," Ruri continued, "I set two cards face-down and end my turn!"

As the two cards materialized into her Spell/Trap Zones, Ruri felt the crushing emotions of both despair and frustration overwhelm her.

"I wasn't trying to go easy on him! But he's managed to outplay me at every turn!"

 _"_ _Why did I think I could avenge my mother and grandfather when they were both destroyed by him? Did I think I was stronger than either of them?"_

"If I don't find a way to survive this next turn then-…"

Ruri's mind drifted towards the disciples who were driving away with her brother.

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Shun, Hiroto, and Mayumi vs. Adeel and Semal Haddad**

 **Shun:**

 **4000 LP**

 **2 cards in his hand.**

 **Controls Raidraptor – Devil Eagle**

 **Raidraptor – Devil Eagle / DARK / Rank 3 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 0 (0 Overlay Units).**

 **Hiroto:**

 **700 LP**

 **No cards in his hand.**

 **Controls Angel of Zera and Dimensional Fissure**

 **Angel of Zera / LIGHT / Level 8 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2300**

 **Mayuri:**

 **700 LP**

 **No cards in her hand.**

 **Controls Chaos Goddess**

 **Chaos Goddess / LIGHT / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 1800**

 **Semal Haddad:**

 **4000 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Celestial Hero Galactic Void and Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger**

 **Celestial Hero Galactic Void / DARK / 10 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3200 / DEF 3000**

 **Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger / LIGHT / Level 8 / Thunder / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 2400**

 **Adeel Haddad:**

 **2400 LP**

 **1 card in his hand**

 **Controls Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf and Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian**

 **Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf / LIGHT / Rank 7/ Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2600 / 0 Ink Counters / 0 overlay units  
Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian / EARTH / Level 6 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 600**

Through Mayuri, a short female security officer, she saw the Phoenix Guardsman named Adeel continue his turn.

"I discard the monster, Majestic Gate, in order to enable Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf to attack your life points directly. Go! Direct attack!" Adeel ordered, stretching his hand towards his white wolf.

Letting out a howl, Amaterasu created a wave of sound, which slammed into the bike carrying Mayuri and Shun, damaging Shun's LP.

"Shun!" Ruri heard herself scream.

 **Shun: 4000 – 2900 = 1100 LP**

"This is insane!" Ruri heard Mayuri cry. "How are we supposed to beat them if they keep attacking us directly like this!?"

"Keep driving!" Shun shouted back as he focused on the duel. "They have not defeated us yet!"

"I don't want to have to harm you anymore!" Adeel shouted from his sidecar as Mayuri managed to steady her bike. "Surrender now and we can exorcise the dark energy within you without destroying you!"

"We've got the advantage." Semal agreed, as he continued piloting the bike. "Galactic Void negates the effects of all Spells and Traps on the field and my Superluminal Charger can attack directly and attack twice!"

"Not to mention that I still have an attack from Orthrus." Adeel added.

"How did they get through the other disciples!?" Ruri thought in panic as she began looking through the eyes of the other disciples who were supposed to escort Shun.

 **Pyotr vs. Kyosuke Kiryu II**

 **Current State of the Duel**

 **Pyotr:**

 **4000 LP**

 **4 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Mineral Quarry, Mineral Industry, Rock Sentinel Sedimentary, and Rock Sentinel Igneous**

 **Rock Sentinel Sedimentary / WATER / Rank 2 / Rock / Xyz / Effect / ATK 3900 / DEF 2400 / 3 Overlay Units**

 **Rock Sentinel Igneous / FIRE / Level 6 ( + 8 with its own effect) = 14 / Rock / Synchro / Effect / ATK 4200 ATK / DEF 2800**

 **Kiryu:**

 **4000 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Infernity Des Sharpshooter, Infernity Tomahawk Striker, and 4 face-down cards.**

 **Infernity Des Sharpshooter / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 1500**

 **Infernity Tomahawk Striker / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 500**

"You did a good job holding me up so that your friends could slip through." Ruri heard Pyotr growl. "But I will not let you get past me! Once I've defeated you, then I will help my comrades defeat the rest of your allies!"

"Come at me then." Kiryu challenged, revving up the engine of his bike.

"Very well!" Pyotr replied. "I activate Fusion from my hand, fusing my Mineral Guardian Tungsten Shield, Magnetite Dagger, and Iron Fist together in order to Fusion Summon! Fearsome Warriors of stone, withstand the test and pressure of time and become hardened into an invincible guardian! Yuugo shoukan! Come forth! Level six! Rock Sentinel Metamorphic!"

Appearing through the Fusion Portal, Pyotr's Fusion Monster, a living feminine statue made of marble, gneiss, slate, schist, and quartzite, hopped onto Pyotr's field before unsheathing a large black sword made of onyx.

 **Rock Sentinel Metamorphic / EARTH / Level 6 / Rock / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 2000**

"Rock Sentinel Metamorphic's original ATK is equal to the number of monsters used in its Fusion Summon times three-hundred." Pyotr explained. "Furthermore, when it is summoned, I can return any number of my banished Rock-Type monsters to my graveyard in order to give my Metamorphic three-hundred additional attack for each monster returned with this effect. So by returning all eight of my banished Rock-Type monsters to the graveyard, that's an additional twenty-four hundred ATK!"

 **Rock Sentinel Metamorphic: 900 + (8 X 300) = 3300 ATK**

"Battle!" Pyotr declared. "Rock Sentinel Igneous! Destroy Infernity Des Sharpshooter! Obsidian Blade!"

Rearing up on its magma horse, Rock Sentinel Igneous charged forward, massive obsidian sword raised into the air.

"Infernity Force Activate!" Kiryu countered, "If an Infernity monster I control is selected as an attack target while I have no cards in my hand, I can destroy the attacking monster and Special Summon one Infernity Monster from my GY!"

"Igneous's effect!" Pyotr replied. "If it would be destroyed, I can reduce its Level by three instead!"

Raising a flaming shield made of black rock, Igneous deflected a blast of energy that burst from the face of Kiryu's card, managing to avoid destruction.

 **Rock Sentinel Igneous: 14 – 3 = Level 11 / 3300 ATK**

"Using the second effect of Infernity Force," Kiryu continued, stretching his hand towards a black portal on the ground, "I Special Summon my Infernity Guardian from my graveyard!"

Appearing to Kiryu's field, a flaming gate with a skull at its center appeared.

 **Infernity Guardian / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1700 / Defense Position**

"I will not stop my attack!" Pyotr countered. "Rock Sentinel Igneous, destroy Infernity Des Sharp Shooter!"

"Infernity Break activate!" Kiryu countered, activating another face-down. "I banish the Infernity Force from my graveyard in order to destroy your Rock Sentinel Igneous."

"Igneous's effect can be activated numerous times, so long as its Level remains above three!" Pyotr countered, activating the effect again.

 **Rock Sentinel Igneous: Level 11 – 3 = 8 / 2400 ATK**

"But it still loses ATK." Kiryu replied, a small grin appearing on his face. "Meaning both our monsters are now destroyed."

Pyotr narrowed his eyes as Rock Sentinel Igneous and Infernity Des Sharp Shooter clashed before both ended up destroyed. However, without wavering, he continued his turn.

"Rock Sentinel Metamorphic," he ordered, "attack Infernity Tomahawk Striker!"

"I activate a second Infernity Break!" Kiryu declared, "Banishing my first Infernity Break in order to destroy your Rock Sentinel Metamorphic!"

"This is becoming annoying!" Pyotr grunted. "But it doesn't matter! Because I used Mineral Guardian Iron Fist in its Fusion Summon, Rock Sentinel Metamorphic cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn! Continue the attack! Onyx Great Sword!"

Rushing forward, Pyotr's second Golem deftly dodged the blast of lightning that shot out from Kiryu's Infernity Break before cleaving Infernity Tomahawk Striker in two with one stroke of its massive blade.

 **Kiryu: 4000 – 600 = 3400 LP**

"Rock Sentinel Metamorphic gains the ATK and DEF of the monsters it destroys by battle!" Pyotr continued stretching his hand towards his golem. "Go! Material Amalgamation!"

 **Rock Sentinel Metamorphic: 3300 + 2700 = 6000 ATK / 2000 + 500 = 2500 DEF**

"That's a pretty big monster." Kiryu whistled. "I've fought bigger, though."

"We'll see if you can keep your confidence after this." Pyotr replied. "I attack your defense position Infernity Guardian with my Rock Sentinel Sedimentary! And since it used both Mineral Guardian Feldspar Spear and Mineral Guardian Diamond Crown as Material, not only does it inflict piercing battle damage against your defense position monsters, but any damage it inflicts is doubled! Go! Slate Claymore!"

"Infernity Guardian's effect!" Kiryu countered, "While I have no cards in my hand, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, and yes, before you say it, I know I'll still take the damage."

"The question is whether or not you'll be stupid enough to stay in the duel after my attack connects!" Pyotr spat as his Rock Sentinel Sedimentary smashed its massive layered stone blade into the skull of Infernity Guardian.

 **Kiryu: 3400 – (1200 X 2) = 1000 LP**

Kiryu's bike began spinning out of control with the force of the attack. However, after making some adjustments, Kiryu managed to regain control and catch up to Pyotr.

"Actually," he replied, brushing himself off, "I should be asking you that question, especially when I'm about to activate this! Counter Trap Card! Infernity Vengeance! If I take more than fifteen-hundred damage, I can Special Summon one Infernity Monster from my deck or graveyard whose ATK is less than or equal to the damage I took! Using this effect, I Special Summon Infernity Deathguard from my deck!"

Appearing in the air in front of Kiryu, a blood-red summoning circle shimmered into existence before a tall demonic creature with large bat wings, a blood-red cloak, and a ram skull for a head, appeared to Kiryu's field.

 **Infernity Deathguard / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1700**

"When Infernity Deathguard is Special Summoned," Kiryu explained, "I can immediately Synchro Summon using my Deathguard and another Infernity Monster I control as the Synchro Materials! Furthermore, the monster summoned using my Deathguard as a Material gains the effect of negating the effects of all of your monsters upon being summoned! Using my Level four Infernity Deathguard and my Level four Infernity Guardian as the Materials, I Synchro Summon!" Kiryu proclaimed as his Deathguard morphed into a set of four rings that enveloped his Infernity Guardian in their light.

"Arise from the space between heaven and purgatory!" Kiryu chanted, "Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level Eight! Void Ogre Dragon!"

Bursting forth from the column of light, Kiryu's ace monster soared onto the field before unfurling its wings and roaring at Pyotr's monsters as it used its inherited power to negate their effects.

 **Void Ogre Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

 **Rock Sentinel Sedimentary: 0 ATK (Effects Negated)**

 **Rock Sentinel Metamorphic: 0 ATK (Effects Negated)**

"Turn end." Pyotr groaned, gripping the handles of his bike harder.

"My turn! Draw!" Kiryu declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck. "I set one card face-down and now, battle phase! Void Ogre Dragon attack Rock Sentinel Sedimentary! Void Purge!"

Opening its mouth wide, Void Ogre Dragon let loose a stream of dark flame which engulfed Pyotr's monster before melting the stone golem into ash and liquid rock.

 **Pyotr: 4000 – 3000 = 1000 LP**

"My Void Ogre Dragon can negate the effects of any of your Spell and Trap Cards while I have no cards in my hand." Kiryu explained, "It's over now. Just surrender and we won't hurt you."

"How are all my allies failing me?" Ruri groaned as her gaze wandered over to the last two disciples who she had sent to protect her brother.

 **Emma Grayson and Shoichi Kazama vs. Mita Takeda and Santiago Guevara**

 **Current State of Duel**

Emma Grayson:

2600 LP

1 card in her hand

 **Controls Stygian Street Vigilante, 3 Stygian Street Marshals, and 1 Stygian Tracker**

 **Stygian Street Vigilante / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 1300 (+ 800 with its effect) = 2100 / DEF 800**

 **Stygian Street Marshal / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 100**

 **Stygian Street Marshal / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 100**

 **Stygian Street Marshal / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 100**

 **Stygian Tracker / DARK / Level 1 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 100 / defense position**

Shoichi Kazama:

4000 LP

2 cards in his hand

Controls 2 face-down cards, controls an active Chaos Overlord Barrier and Chaos Overlord Archfiend

 **Chaos Overlord Barrier / Spell / Continuous / Target 1 Level 7 or higher DARK Fiend-Type Synchro monster you control: While you control that Monster, you take no effect damage less than the ATK of that monster. If that monster leaves the field, destroy this card.**

 **Chaos Overlord Archfiend / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 2600**

Mita Takeda:

4000 LP

3 cards in her hand

Controls a face-down card and Jurrac Titano

 **Jurrac Titano / FIRE / Level 9 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

Santiago Guevara:

4000 LP

4 cards in his hand

Controls 2 face-down cards and Underworld Fighter Balmung

 **Underworld Fighter Balmung / DARK / Level 4 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 800**

"I never thought I'd be dueling you like this, Mita." Emma murmured, looking almost regretful. "You were a Security officer. You've seen what people like Sergey are like. Since when did you think joining a death cult was a good idea?"

"I've already told you, chief." Mita countered, red ponytail fluttering in the wind as she chose to ride her bike without her helmet. "This isn't one of your old ghost stories! This city's become a mess, and I'm not gonna let myself be Roger's puppet anymore!"

"Who are you calling old!?" Emma barked, teeth grinding against each other.

"You and your deck!" Mita smirked. "Get with the times, chief. Dueling's evolved, and I've just learned quite a few new tricks!"

"Funny, because your deck seems to be giving me exactly the same pain in my butt as it did before! Fortunately, I remember beating you during every single one of our training sessions!"

"Your memories leaked out your flabby ears. You beat me five times out of ten, at most!" Mita countered.

"Then let's make it six out of ten!" Emma barked.

"That's not how math works." Mita smirked.

"Whatever!" Emma roared, before slamming a card onto her Duel Disk. "Spell Card activate! Stygian Chains! Even if your Jurrac Titano can't be targeted by the effects of monsters or Trap Cards, I can still use this! So long as I control a Stygian Monster, I can target 1 monster you control in order to negate its effects and make it so that it cannot attack!"

Pulling out a lasso of chain links, Emma's Stygain Street Vigilante twirled the binds around her head before ensnaring Mita's roaring Jurrac Titano.

"And guess what, young lady?" Emma continued, "Now that your Titano's effects are negated, it means I can do this! I activate the effect of my Stygian Street Marshall! Once per turn, I can inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to the Level of my monster times 100, and each time my opponent takes effect damage, I can target 1 monster they control in order to reduce its ATK by the damage taken! Furthermore, with Stygian Tracker on my field, that damage is doubled! Go! The first Stygian Street Marshall!"

In front of Emma, a demonic skeletal bike rider with gray hair and a moustache, a flaming cowboy hat, and a large skull-decorated police bike with a mounted machine gun, began unloading his bikes weapon into Mita and Santiago while Kazama remained shielded from the damage by the effect of his Spell Card.

 **Mita Takeda: 4000 – (400 X 2) = 3200 LP**

 **Santiago Guevara: 4000 – (400 X 2) = 3200 LP**

"Part two of the effect!" Emma declared, "I target your Jurrac Titano in order to reduce its ATK by the total damage you took!

 **Jurrac Titano: 3000 – 800 = 2200 ATK**

"The second Street Marshall!" Emma declared, indicating a second identical biker.

 **Mita Takeda: 3200 – 800 = 2400 LP**

 **Santiago Guevarra: 3200 – 800 = 2400 LP**

 **Jurrac Titano: 2200 – 800 = 1400 ATK**

"And I haven't forgotten about you or your monster, Guevara! It's time for some dessert! Eat this!" Emma barked as her third Stygian Street Marshall unloaded its Machine gun into Guevarra, Mita, and Underworld Fighter Balmung.

 **Mita Takeda: 2400 – 800 = 1600 LP**

 **Santiago Guevarra: 2400 – 800 = 1600 LP**

 **Underworld Fighter Balmung: 2100 – 800 = 1300 ATK**

"I don't think I like that dessert." Mita grunted, as she steadied her bike.

"Were training sessions with Chief Grayson always like this?" Santiago grimaced as he massaged a bruise on his beefy shoulder.

"You louts already had enough?" Emma snarled, "WELL TOO BAD! Now it's time to dish out some real pain! BATTLE PHASE! I attack Jurrac Titano with Stygian Street Vigilante!"

Letting out a whooping battle-cry, Stygian Street Vigilante revved up the engines of her bike and charged forward, ramming her front wheel into Jurrac Titano before causing the monster to explode in a shower of sparks.

 **Mita: 1600 – 700 = 900 LP**

"Trap Activate!" Mita declared, "Branching Evolution! If a Dinosaur-Type monster I control is destroyed, I can Special Summon two Dinosaur or Reptile-Type monsters from my deck whose total levels are equal to or lower than the level of the monster destroyed!"

"Well too bad!" Emma countered, "Because you're not gonna summon anything! The final effect of all three of my Stygian Street Marshalls! When a Level five or lower Fiend Type monster I control destroys a monster by battle, I can inflict damage to the controller's Life Points equal to the Level of the destroyed monster in the graveyard times one-hundred! Your Jurrac Titano had a Level of nine! Multiply that damage by the three Street Marshalls I have and multiply that damage by two with the effect of Stygian Tracker, and that's a total of fifty-four hundred damage!"

"No!" Ruri heard herself scream as she helplessly watched the duel unfold.

 _"_ _Impossible!"_ Jatun exclaimed within her, _"Are we doomed to suffer total defeat at the hands of Quetzalcoatle's servants!?"_

Ruri couldn't take much more. She was about to withdraw, about to find some way to end her duel against Jack so that she could fly to her brother as quickly as possible and save him when…

"Counter Trap Card!" Santiago replied, activating one of his face-downs. "Accel-Light Honor Guard! I pay half my Life Points and Special Summon three Accel-Light monsters from my hand, and for the rest of this turn, players with less than one-thousand Life Points take no damage!"

 **Santiago: 1600 – 800 = 800 LP**

Aiming their mounted machine guns at Mita, all three of Emma's Stygian Street Marshalls unloaded a storm of bullets in her direction, but before any of the rounds could reach her, a burst of golden light flooded the field and three mounted warriors, whose armor and equine mounts were infused with radiant light, appeared in front of her before using their swords to deflect the bullets, arms moving so fast that they left shimmering afterimages. When the attack finished and the light dimmed a little, Ruri was able to see that one of the Knights rode a lightly armored horse with a mane of hair made of light, a second carried a large futuristic lance with a burning tip made entirely of light, and a third rode a horse with glowing hooves, which tread on the air as if it were solid ground.

 **Accel-Light Charger / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000 / Defense Position**

 **Accel-Light Lancer / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1600 / Defense Position**

 **Accel-Light Chaser / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200 / Defense Position**

"They survived!" Ruri exclaimed in disbelief, a feeling of relief flooding her.

"Where the heck did these things come from!?" Emma sputtered as she squinted against the monster's bright light.

"Thank you, Santiago." Mita said with a wink, causing Santiago to turn his head away. "Now that that's over with, I'll continue with the effect of my trap card! I Special Summon MatRex Polarity Shifter and MatRex Atom Splitter!"

From the husk that remained of Jurrac Titano, two new monsters burst free from the dissolving skin. MatRex Polarity Shifter looked like a humanoid female Utah Raptor wearing futuristic armor decorated with Tesla coils, while MatRex Atom Splitter was a masked humanoid Ankylosaurus with a clubbed tail that looked like it was decorated with pulsating atoms.

 **MatRex Polarity Shifter / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Tuner / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 700**

 **MatRex Atom Splitter / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1600**

"Polarity Shifter and Atom Splitter both share the effect of being able to Special Summon one MatRex monster from my hand when they are Special Summoned." Mita explained as she revealed two cards in her hand. "Using each of their effects, I special summon two copies of MatRex Matter Cycler from my hand!"

Next to the first two dinosaurs, two more monsters appeared to Mita's field. The two MatRex Matter Cyclers looked like humanoid Hadrosaurids wearing futuristic helmets and skin-tight bodysuits while riding white motorcycles with wheels that looked like they were made of blue energy.

 **MatRex Matter Cycler / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

 **MatRex Matter Cycler / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"If you're trying to throw up a quick defensive wall, then it's not going to work!" Emma growled, "I still have three more attacks with my monsters!"

"What makes you think this is a defensive play?" Mita retorted. "Sorry old-timer, but this is the preliminary to a counterstrike! It's time to show you what I'm made of! MatRex Polarity Shifter's effect! I target my Polarity Shifter and one of my Matter Cyclers in order to Dark Synchro Summon!"

Activating the tesla coils affixed to its back, MatRex Polarity Shifter began sparkling with black electricity before transforming into four black spheres of light, which began orbiting MatRex Matter Cycler. Roaring into the air, Matter Cycler revved up its engines before morphing into four more spheres of black energy, which joined the first four spheres created from Polarity Shifter as they orbited around an area of empty space.

"All realities and all possibilities are revealed when the dark curtain is breached!" Mita chanted, "Resonate with the fabric of the dark universe and adapt into a creature that transcends dimensions! DARK SYNCHRO! Materialize! MatRex Dimension Drifter!"

From the center of the orbiting spheres of black energy, a column of shadow erupted into the air before a new monster phased through the pillar. MatRex Dimension Drifter looked like a transparent humanoid Spinosaurus wearing a grey jumpsuit that sported a spherical regulator on the front and an opening in the back through which it's membranous spines poked out. As it ran alongside Mita's bike, it would occasionally vanish from existence, before instantly reappearing several meters ahead of its previous position with a rapid teleport.

 **MatRex Dimension Drifter / DARK / Level -8 / Dinosaur / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2200**

"But that's not all!" Mita continued, "Because I'm also using the effect of my Atom Splitter! During my opponent's turn, I can use the effect of my Atom Splitter to target two monsters I control and multiply their Levels by either one or negative one before using both those targets as Material for a Fusion or Dark Fission Summon!"

"When the heck did you learn either of those summoning techniques!?" Emma sputtered.

"You could say I've had a little inspiration along the way." Mita confidently replied, tapping the side of her head before stretching her hand towards her monsters. "It wasn't like I was content to just use the same old Synchro Summon we've always been using. It's time to evolve! I multiply the level of my Atom Splitter and second Matter Cycler by one before using my Matter Cycler as the Base Material and subtracting Atom Splitter from the Base Material in order to Dark Fission Summon! Primordial Titans of the mind, break down the very materials of the universe and shape reality into new possibilities! DARK FISSION! Materialize! Level Negative Eight! MatRex Reality Bender!"

Transforming into a colorless liquid, Mita's second Matter Cycler melted down and reshaped itself until it looked like an atom made of four protons. Melting down into the same colorless liquid, Atom Splitter transformed into four colorless Neutrons, which attached themselves to the center atom, greatly increasing its mass. Once they attached to the central atom, the atom began to lose stability, until the entire thing exploded in a multi-colored mushroom cloud, knocking back Emma and Kazama and scattering tiny droplets of colorless liquid in all directions before a sudden roar of suction sounded from the center of the mushroom cloud, sucking back the scattered droplets into the center where they coalesced and reshaped themselves into a new monster.

"And I thought Jurrac Titano was an ugly brute." Kazama muttered to himself as he looked up at the new monster.

MatRex Reality Bender was a large humanoid Carnotaurus wearing an orange-and-black bodysuit with purple orbs on the shoulder blades, knees, elbows, forehead, and chest. Its upper head was covered with a red robotic visor, which obscured its eyes. Cackling madly, Reality Bender crackled with lightning as the surrounding area directly adjacent to his body warped and spun like light wavering in intense heat.

 **MatRex Reality Bender / EARTH / Level -8 / Dinosaur / Dark Fission / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2300**

Emma surveyed Mita's new field before looking at her own monsters.

"As much as I'm disgusted by you using those kinds of dark powers, I am impressed." Emma grunted. "I guess I'll just have to attack your partner directly."

"I WON'T LET YOU!" Mita growled, pulling two cards from her graveyard. "I'm going all out against you, so pay attention! I activate the effects of both the Matter Cyclers in my graveyard! Since both of those monsters were used as Materials for the Special Summon of a MatRex monster, I Special Summon both of them!"

 **MatRex Matter Cycler / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

 **MatRex Matter Cycler / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"Don't tell me!" Emma growled, clenching her fist as she looked at Mita's field.

Mita smirked before extending her hand towards her monsters.

"I activate the effect of my MatRex Matter Cycler! By targeting itself and my other MatRex Matter Cycler, I can multiply their levels by either one or negative one before-…"

"I FREAKING SAID TO NOT TELL ME!" Emma barked.

"Dark Xyz Summoning." Mita finished, looking immensely pleased with herself. "I multiply the levels of both Matter Cyclers by one! MatRex Matter Cyclers, OVERLAY!"

Roaring into the air, both of Mita's Matter Cyclers became translucent phantoms before they both collapsed into an invisible singularity as Mita began a third summoning chant.

"Pinnacles of primordial evolution, question all aspects of the universe and open your minds to incomprehensible possibility! DARK XYZ! Materialize! Rank -4! MatRex Mind Blaster!"

Unfolding from the singularity, Mita's new monster, a massive humanoid Allosaurus wearing a skin-tight body suit with tanks of greenish liquid on the back, and a respirator and mask with tubes connected to the tanks of liquid, appeared to her field. The upper head of the monster was cut away, with a clear glass dome resting against the head while showcasing a massive brain, which pulsated with purple energy like a plasma sphere. In the center of its brain and chest, a translucent patch of flesh revealed a tiny black dark overly unit embedded within the monster.

 **MatRex Mind Blaster / FIRE / Rank -4 / Dinosaur / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 2800 / Overaly Units: 2**

"I don't care if you know every dark summoning technique in existence!" Emma spat, "I'm still beating both of you! Stygian Marshall! Attack Underworld Fighter Balmung!"

"Not gonna happen!" Mita Retorted. "I activate the effect of my Mind Blaster! By detaching one Dark Overlay Unit from my monster, I can target your attacking monster and force it to attack another monster you control, and I choose to make it destroy one of your other Stygian Marshalls!"

"Counter Trap Activate!" Kazama retorted, revealing one of his face-downs as the mark on his arm lit up with light. "Crimson Purification! If I control a monster with a positive Level or Rank that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, I can negate the effects of all monsters you control with a Negative Level or Rank while changing their ATK and DEF to zero and making it so that they cannot attack!"

"I activate the effect of my MatRex Reality Bender in response!" Mita retorted.

"You can't activate a monster effect in response to a Counter Trap." Kazama shot back. "Sorry, but it's a little something in the rulebook known as spell speed, and monsters can only get up to spell speed 2 while counter traps sit at the top of the ladder at spell speed 3."

"Better check the rules again, hot shot." Mita retorted, "Because in case you weren't aware, my Extra Deck MatRex monsters all have spell speed 3 effects!"

"What!?" Kazama gasped, eyes widening in disbelief.

"Meaning I can do this!" Mita continued, ignoring Kazama's shock. "Once per turn, when my opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card, my monster can negate the effect of that card and banish it! Go! BENDING TRUTH!"

Cackling madly, the spheres on Reality Bender's body began glowing with bright purple light before shooting out bolts of white energy, which slammed into Kazama's Trap Card before it blurred and vanished from existence.

"The effect of Mind Blaster now kicks in!" Mita continued, light glimmering off her facial piercings. "Go! MIND JACKING!"

Brain pulsating with energy, MatRex Mind Blaster shot a blast of energy from the glass dome on its head, straight into the forehead of Stygian Street Marshall, causing the demonic skeleton to suddenly swerve before madly turning around its bike and charging headlong into another Stygian Street Marshall, destroying both monsters.

"And in case you're wondering," Mita continued, as Emma managed to regain control of her bike after enduring the shockwaves from her monster's destruction, "My MatRex Dimension Drifter has the ability to negate one of your Special Summons once per turn and banish the monster, while also being able to, once per turn, return one monster you normal summon to your hand. Reality Bender, during my turn, can destroy one Spell or Trap Card you control, and as for Mind Blaster, once per turn, if you try to activate a monster effect, I can negate the effect of that monster and banish it!"

"It's like if Jurracs and Evolzars had a baby and fed it coffee." Kazama grumbled as he scanned Mita and Guevarra's field. "Got any amazing powers you've been hiding, Emma?"

"SHUT UP AND LET ME DO MY TURN!" Emma roared, "It's not over yet! I attack Underworld Fighter Balmung with my last Stygian Street Marshall before ending my turn! EAT THIS!"

Riding forward, Emma's last Street Marshall unloaded its mounted machine gun into Santiago's Synchro Monster, obliterating it and spraying the burly Security Officer with bullets.

 **Santiago Guevara: 800 – 600 = 200 LP**

"Sorry, Santiago." Mita apologized as he recovered control of his bike. "I couldn't block all of them."

"You did more than enough." Santiago grunted. "It's my move now, DRAW!"

Without even looking at the card he had drawn, Santiago stretched his hand towards his monsters.

"It's time to show you the true meaning of limitless possibilities!" Santiago declared, "This is the power Ruri-Sama gave us when she freed us from Roger's tyranny! With it, we will free this city! Using my Level four Accel-Light Charger and Accel-Light Chaser, I construct the Overlay Network!"

"So now you use Xyz Summoning." Kazama commented as he watched Santiago's two monsters drain into the Xyz Portal in dual streams of golden light. "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised. You used to be a pro duelist, renowned for his work with the Synchro Summon. I was sort of expecting you to try a Dark Synchro Summon."

"You seem to think that we've been corrupted by dark powers." Santiago replied. "I want to show you that the powers we've obtained from Ruri-Sama can be used for our deliverance!"

"Don't do it!" Kazama warned. "I've seen lots of people join the Earthbound because they thought it was the right thing! It never turned out well for them! Look at what happened to Sergey!"

"I can't convince you with words, so I'll do this instead!" Santiago retorted, raising his hand into the air, "Noble angel of victory, ride forth through the celestial summit at the speed of light and bring forth my triumph! Xyz Shoukan! Come forth! Rank Four! Accel-Light Valkyrie!"

In a flash of light, Santiago's new monster, a mounted Nordic Valkyrie wearing black armor and a winged helmet, charged onto the battlefield, horse galloping through the air as if it were solid ground. Both the rider and the horse were decorated with golden war paint, which glowed with immense light.

 **Accel-Light Valkyrie / LIGHT / Rank 4 / Warrior / Xyz / Tuner / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2400 / Overlay Units: 2**

Kazama narrowed his eyes as he looked at the information on Accel-Light Valkyrie.

"How the heck can an Xyz Monster be a Tuner? They don't have a level."

"I told you!" Santiago replied, "A new era full of brand new possibilities is dawning! With it comes the unification of our own dimension and the Xyz Dimension!"

"What are you talking about?" Kazama asked, gripping the handles of his bike.

"Allow me to show you what I mean!" Santiago invited, stretching his hand towards his two monsters. "First, I use my Accel-Light Valkyrie's effect! By detaching one Xyz Material from my monster, I Special Summon Accel-Light Follower from my hand!"

 **Accel-Light Valkyrie: Overlay Units: 1**

Through a blue portal, Accel-Light Follower, a mounted solider riding a large workhorse, which was pulling a shining metal cart loaded with weapons, appeared to Santiago's field.

 **Accel-Light Follower / LIGHT / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 2000**

Next, using my Accel-Light Valkyrie's second effect I can treat is a Level Zero monster when using it as a Material for a Synchro Summon! Accel-Light Valkyrie, Accel-Light Lancer, commence tuning!"

Raising her sword into the air, Accel-Light Valkyrie let out a loud battle-cry before morphing into a translucent ring, which blasted around the body of Accel-Light Lancer like the burst of a sonic boom, causing Lancer to morph into four spheres of white light, which began to spin in mid-air, forming 4 rings of white light, which were stacked in an even column.

"Xyz Tuning Stable!" Santiago reported, observing the Synchro Summoning process above his head, "Synchronization energy at 50%! Commence Summon Chant! Noble bringer of the light, spread forth the wings of your glorious mount and ride to victory! Crossover Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level 4! Accel-Light Pegasus!"

In a burst of white light, Santiago's new monster, a mounted Knight wearing golden armor while riding a white Pegasus with feathery wings, appeared in the air above Santiago's head. The eyes of both the horse and its rider glowed with intense light, while the armor and sword of the rider burned with light like a glowing star.

 **Accel-Light Pegasus / LIGHT / Level 4 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000**

"It's a strong monster," Kazama acknowledged, "But it's not enough to beat my Chaos Overlord."

"That's why I have no intention of attacking your Overlord with this monster." Santiago replied.

"Careful," Mita warned, "He's just trying to distract you. Don't forget that Emma's also here."

"I think I'll leave Emma to you." Santiago grunted.

"What, you scared?" Emma growled.

"I don't like hitting women." Santiago mumbled, causing Emma to grind her teeth while Mita began laughing her head off.

"I am so gonna take advantage of that later on." Mita snickered, cracking her knuckles while looking playfully at Santiago.

"I also believe in self-defense!" Santiago snapped, before continuing with his turn. "Using the effect of my Accel-Light Pegasus, I revive the Accel-Light Valkyrie in my Graveyard!"

 **Accel-Light Valkyrie / LIGHT / Rank 4 / Warrior / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2400 / Overlay Units: 0**

"And let me guess…" Kazama mused as he observed Santiago's Xyz Monster rise from a black portal before reappearing to the field.

"You'd be right." Santiago grunted. "Accel-Light Valkyrie! Accel-Light Follower! Commence Tuning!"

Repeating the same process that summoned Accel-Light Pegasus, Valkyrie morphed into a translucent ring of clear light before blasting against Accel-Light Follower, transforming it into a set of four white spheres which began spinning around until they formed four rings of white light in a straight column.

"Second Xyz Tuning is go!" Santiago declared, "Synchronization Energy at 50%! Crossover Synchro Shoukan! Come forth! Level 4! Accel-Light Pegasus!"

In a second explosion of light, a second mounted knight riding a Pegasus appeared to Santiago's field.

 **Accel-Light Pegasus / LIGHT / Level 4 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000**

"I see where this is going." Kazama groaned.

"I'm still trying to freaking figure out how any of this works!" Emma complained.

"I activate the effect of my second Accel-Light Pegasus!" Santiago declared as his Valkyrie rose onto the field once more.

 **Accel-Light Valkyrie / LIGHT / Rank 4 / Warrior / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2400 / Overlay Units: 0**

"It's now time!" Santiago declared, raising his hand into the air while the mark on his back glowed with white light. "Witness the synchronization of both Xyz and Synchro's power!"

"Here it comes." Kazama mused, calmly stroking his chin.

"Here comes what!?" Emma blustered, completely confused.

"No matter how much stronger our opponent's may be, we will never give up!" Santiago proclaimed.

"Santiago…" Ruri silently thought to herself, amazed by the resolve of her disciples.

"Accel-Light Valkyrie, Accel-Light Pegasus one, and Accel-Light Pegasus two, commence tuning!" Santiago roared as he began accelerating his bike.

Unsheathing their swords in unison, all three of Santiago's monsters rose into the air, flying at light speed before Valkyrie morphed into a single ring of translucent light, which blasted against the two Pegasus Knights, causing them to morph into eight spinning rings of light, which rocketed forward with Santiago.

"Xyz Tuning is go!" Santiago chanted, "Synchronization Energy at 75%! Commencing summoning chant!"

"He's such a dork." Mita sighed, shaking her head as Santiago continued.

"Invincible warrior of the light, surpass the speed of light, crossover between the two dimensions, and bring total triumph! CROSSOVER DELTA ACCEL SYNCHRO! ARAWAYO! DELTA ACCEL-LIGHT CATAPHRACT!"

In a sudden sonic boom, both Santiago and the spinning rings of white light suddenly vanished.

"Where the heck did they-…?" Emma began before Santiago and his new monster suddenly reappeared behind Emma and Kazama in an explosion of sound.

 **Delta Accel-Light Cataphract / LIGHT / Level 8 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3200 / DEF 3000**

"Did you just effing drive your bike around the entire-…!?" Emma sputtered, eyes bugging out of her head.

Through Mita's eyes, Ruri gazed upon Santiago's new monster.

Both mount and rider were clad from head to toe in solid steel, giving them a somewhat robotic appearance. A pair of massive wings clad in white armor rose from the horse's back, and light ran though the mount and rider's body in patterns of circuitry. The rider wielded a massive lance, twice his own length, which glowed with energy, and was tipped with a fine point that looked like it was made entirely of burning light. In the rider's other hand was a massive circular shield with a glowing golden orb in the center. Riding alongside Santiago at full speed, the mounted warrior and mount scattered golden light wherever they rode.

"Delta Accel-Light Cataphract's effect!" Santiago declared, "Once per turn, during either player's turn, I can target one monster on the field in order to negate its effects and reduce its ATK and DEF to 0! Go! Infinity Lance!"

Rearing on its legs, Cataphract's mount let out a loud whinny before flapping its wings and charging into the air, the rider holding on tight by the reigns. Lowering its lance, Delta Accel-Light Cataphract plunged the weapon into Kazama's flaming monster, causing the monster to shriek in pain.

 **Chaos Overlord Archfiend : 0 ATK (Effects Negated).**

"Battle!" Santiago ordered, "Show that we will never be defeated! Light-speed charge!"

With the demon still impaled on the lance, Delta Accel-Light Cataphract charged into the air, moving at faster and faster speeds before plunging its glowing lance into the ground, creating a massive crater while destroying the monster.

 **Kazama: 4000 – 3200 = 800 LP**

"Kazama!" Emma screamed, as her partner struggled to regain control of his bike.

"Thank you, Santiago, Mita." Ruri whispered to herself. "Thank you for not giving up."

 _"_ _Perhaps our other followers have found similar strength."_ Jatun mused.

"I think so." Ruri mused as her gaze roamed back to Pyotr.

 **Pyotr:**

 **1000 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Rock Sentinel Metamorphic and Rock Sentinel Sedimentary, which both have 0 ATK and their effects negated.**

 **Kiryu:**

 **1000 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Void Ogre Dragon**

"I will not yield!" Pytor vowed. "My turn! Draw!"

Looking at the card he had just drawn, Pyotr smiled.

"Magic Card Activate!" he declared, "Yami no Kakubunretsu! Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this card, meaning that your Void Ogre Dragon cannot negate its effects!"

Kiryu clenched his teeth, but said nothing.

"Using my Rock Sentinel Metamorphic as the Base Material," Pyotr declared, as his golem melted into an atom made up of six protons, "I subtract my Rock Sentinel Sedimentary, Rock Sentinel Igneous, and all eight of the Mineral Guardian Monsters in my graveyard from the base Material in order to Dark Fission Summon! Valiant Sentinel of hardened rock, imbibe the power of the guardians of stone, burst free from your previous form, and be reborn as a new dark power from the explosion of chaos! DARK FISSION! Become an unconquerable force of destruction and revolution! Level negative eight! Dark Matter Destroyer Golem!"

In a multi-colored nuclear blast, the droplets of colorless liquid scattered before reforming into Pytor's massive black stone golem with a trebuchet affixed to its immense back.

 **Dark Matter Destroyer Golem / DARK / Level -8 / Rock / Dark Fission / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 3500**

"Dark Matter Destroyer Golem gains five-hundred ATK for each non-base Material used in its Dark Fission Summon." Pyotr explained as he shuffled eight mineral guardian monsters face-up into the deck, while returning Rock Sentinel Igneous and Sedimentary to his Extra Deck face-down."

 **Dark Matter Destroyer Golem: 500 + (500 X 10) = 5500 ATK**

"Holy…" Kiryu breathed as he looked up at the titanic rock monster, which stared down at him with a single glowing white eye in the center of its head.

"You may have driven me into a corner." Pyotr growled. "But now the tables have turned! Now the real battle begins!"

"Yes, now the real battle begins." Ruri agreed as her gaze moved back to where her brother was dueling.

 **Shun:**

 **1100 LP**

 **3 cards in his hand.**

 **Controls Raidraptor – Devil Eagle**

 **Raidraptor – Devil Eagle / DARK / Rank 3 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 0 (0 Overlay Units).**

 **Hiroto:**

 **700 LP**

 **No cards in his hand.**

 **Controls Angel of Zera and Dimensional Fissure**

 **Angel of Zera / LIGHT / Level 8 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2300**

 **Mayuri:**

 **700 LP**

 **No cards in her hand.**

 **Controls Chaos Goddess**

 **Chaos Goddess / LIGHT / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 1800**

 **Semal Haddad:**

 **4000 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Celestial Hero Galactic Void and Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger**

 **Celestial Hero Galactic Void / DARK / 10 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3200 / DEF 3000**

 **Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger / LIGHT / Level 8 / Thunder / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 2400**

 **Adeel Haddad:**

 **2400 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf and Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian**

 **Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf / LIGHT / Rank 7/ Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2600 / 0 Ink Counters / 0 overlay units  
Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian / EARTH / Level 6 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 600**

"Battle!" Adeel declared. "Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian, destroy Raidraptor Devil Eagle!"

Opening its gaping twin mouths, Orthrus let out twin streams of fire, preparing to disintegrate Shun's monster. However, yanking a pair of cards from his hand, Shun readied his counter.

"Double hand trap, activate!" Shun declared, revealing a pair of monsters in his hand, "I first activate Raidraptor Booster Strix before chaining the effect of Raidraptor Reload Eagle to my monster's effect! If a Raidraptor Xyz Monster I control with no Overlay Units battles, I can attach Raidraptor Reload Eagle and one other Raidraptor Monster in my graveyard to my monster as an Xyz Material!"

 **Raidraptor Devil Eagle: 2 OU**

From up above, a small robotic eagle with a rotund box-like boy filled with bombs and missiles, and surrounded with belts of ammo, swooped down towards a black portal in the ground, where it retrieved a copy of Raidraptor Pain Lanius before the two monsters morphed into a set of overlay units that attached themselves to Devil Eagle.

"Furthermore," Shun continued as a blue robotic owl with rocket boosters for feet swooped down before affixing itself to Devil Eagle, giving the small robotic bird some extra thrust, "The effect of my Booster Strix is now applied! I detach one Overlay Unit from my monster in order to negate your attack, and a second overlay unit from my monster in order to destroy your monster!"

 **Raidraptor Devil Eagle: 0 OU**

Dodging the stream of flame from Adeel's monster, Devil Eagle managed to evade the attack before kicking its thrusters into overdrive and slamming into the demonic dog, destroying it with its own effect.

Shielding his face against the explosion of golden sparks his monster left behind, Adeel grimaced before grunting, "Turn end."

"My turn!" Shun declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck and adding it to his hand. "DRAW!"

Looking through his hand, Shun nodded before extending his hand towards Devil Eagle.

"Battle!" Shun declared, as Adeel and Semal looked on with shock, "I attack Celestial Hero Galactic Void with Raidraptor – Devil Eagle!"

"Are you insane!?" Semal sputtered as his massive warrior fired a blast of energy from the palm of his hand.

"From my hand," Shun declared, "I activate the effect of my Raidraptor Strike Eagle! If a Raidraptor Xyz Monster I control battles a monster whose original ATK is higher than the original ATK of my monster, I can discard this card to make my monster gain ATK equal to the original ATK of the monster it is battling!"

 **Raidraptor Devil Eagle: 1000 + 3500 = 4500 ATK**

Flying at supersonic speeds, Shun's small devil eagle crashed into Semal's monster, flying straight through the chest and causing the behemoth warrior to implode in on itself.

 **Semal: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

"And now that your monster is destroyed," Shun continued, "Magic and Trap Cards can be used! Quick-Play Magic Card! Rank-Up-Magic Rise Force! During the Battle Phase, if a Raidraptor Xyz Monster I control battled, I can use this card to Rank Up my Xyz Monster into a new Raidraptor 1 Rank Higher, and if I do, I can immediately activate its effect that requires it to detach an Xyz Material! Rank Up Xyz Change!"

Breathing a sigh of immense relief and awe, Ruri watched though the eyes of her disciple as Shun's small skull eagle rose into an Xyz portal in the sky, slowly evolving until it became Shun's ace monster, one that had always given The Resistance hope.

"Obscured falcon, raise your sharpened talons in front of adversity, spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Shoukan! Appear! Rank four! Raidraptor - Rise Falcon!"

 **Raidraptor - Rise Falcon / DARK / Rank 4 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 2000**

As his massive mechanical bird descended from the sky, Shun leaped onto his monsters back before stretching his hand towards his opponents.

"Rise Falcon effect!" he declared, "I detach an Overlay Unit in order to have my monster gain the combined ATK of all Special Summoned monsters my opponent controls while enabling it to attack each monster my opponent controls, once each!"

 **Raidraptor Rise Falcon: 100 + 2300 + 2900 + 2800 + 2500 = 10,600 ATK**

"BATTLE!" Shun roared as he and his falcon charged towards their first target. "Raidraptor – Rise Falcon! Annihilate all our enemies! Hold nothing back!"

Ruri clenched her fists.

"My followers haven't given up hope! My brother hasn't given up hope! They are fighting with everything they have! And so will I!"

Returning her gaze to the duel, she faced Jack as he began his turn.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Jack declared as he tore a card from his deck and added it to his hand before looking up at Ruri.

"You seemed preoccupied for a moment." He commented. "So I waited. But I suggest you focus on this duel, it is the only one that matters at the moment."

"Do your turn!" Ruri snapped. "I am aware of that. Don't worry, I won't lose my focus again!"

"We shall see." Jack replied, before returning his attention to his turn. "I activate the effect of my Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight! Once per turn, I can destroy all Special Summoned monsters on the field in order to inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's life points for each monster destroyed! GO! CRIMSON HELL BURNING!"

"Sanctified Realm's effect!" Ruri countered as Jack's Scarlight unleashed a wave of crimson flame, which consumed the white clouds surrounding the dragon. "While I have no monsters in my graveyard, each card I control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn!"

"However, my Red Drake is destroyed by the effect." Jack replied as his smaller dragon exploded into flame, "Meaning you take five-hundred damage from the effect."

"Have you already forgotten the other effect of my Sanctified Realm?" Ruri shot back, stretching out her hand and using her Field Spell Card's power to create a golden barrier in front of herself, which deflected a blast of flame from Jack's ace monster. "While I have no monsters in my graveyard, I take no effect damage!"

"Red Drake's effect activates since it was destroyed!" Jack declared, stretching his hand towards his burning dragon, which let out a loud roar. "If it is destroyed, I can target two Resonator tuner monsters in my graveyard and Special Summon them!"

"Was that your plan all along?" Ruri growled, "Well I won't let you accomplish it! Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader's effect! I banish the attached Salvation Seraphim Apostle, Martyr, and Honored Crusader in order to negate the effect of Red Drake! Go! Seraphim Judgement!"

Creating the cross-shaped glyph with the points of the three overlay units, Zealous Crusader struck the glyph with her burning sword, sending a blast of energy into Jack's monster and vaporizing it before its effect could go through.

"Counter Trap Card!" Jack roared in response, "Red Gate! Until the end of my next turn, my opponent cannot activate any effects in response to an effect that would Special Summon a Resonator or Red monster, also, any effect that would negate the Special Summon of a Resonator or Red monster is negated!"

"Did you think I hadn't learned from last time!?" Ruri and Jatun roared in unison, extending their hand towards one of their own face-downs. "Counter Trap Card activate! Salvation Seraphim Judgement Force! If our opponent activates a card or effect or declares an attack while we have no monsters in our graveyard and we control a face-up Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster, we can activate this card to negate the effect, and if we do, we can attach the top 4 cards of our deck, Salvation Seraphim Angel, Salvation Seraphim Archon, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, and Salvation Seraphim Holy Armor, and one card from our Extra Deck, Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit, to one Salvation Seraphim Xyz Monster we control! GO! JUDGEMENT FORCE!"

Burning with golden light, Zealous Crusader flew forward in a blaze of power before striking Jack's trap card with her sword, obliterating it.

 **Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader: 8 Overlay Units / 3600 ATK**

"Know this, Jack Atlas!" Ruri and Jatun declared in unison. "You may beat me and my followers down, but we will never give up! Our resolve will never waver! You will lose this duel!"

"Your resolve has been wavering since the beginning of this duel." Jack countered, pulling another card from his hand. "One of you has fought with nothing but fear and revenge to motivate her, while the other has hardly been fighting at all. I, however, shall show you a king's duel! A duel that consists of one's entire soul!"

"Entire soul?" Ruri and Jatun asked. "Are you meaning that you wish to reveal your true ace monster? Sorry, but we won't let you. So long as Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor is attached to our Zealous Crusader, we have the ability to negate your Special Summons!"

"One card is all that is needed to break through the obstacles presented by the universe!" Jack countered. "So long as I am willing to pay the cost for it, anything can be accomplished! Quick-Play Magic Card activate!" he declared, slamming down a card from his hand, "Tyrant Synchro! If I control a face-up Red Daemon's Dragon monster, I pay 1000 Life Points!"

 **Jack Atlas: 3100 – 1000 = 2100 LP**

"Next," Jack continued, extending his hand towards his monster, "I banish my Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight, and Materials from my graveyard whose total Levels equal double the level of a Red Daemon's Dragon monster in my Extra Deck in order to Synchro Summon that monster!"

"Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader's effect!" Ruri began before Jack cut her off.

"Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of Tyrant Synchro or its effects!" Jack countered, swerving to avoid a gap in the tracks before slamming down on the accelerator as the ghostly images of his monsters rose from the clouds. "Using the effect of Tyrant Synchro, I banish Gravity Resonator, Soul Resonator, Red Djinni, and Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!"

Linking hands, Jack's monsters began rising into the air, spinning and catching fire until they become engulfed in a swirl of flame that created a burning tornado. Within the depths of flaming cyclone, Ruri could make out the shape of large crimson dragon, which caused her to begin involuntarily trembling with fear.

"Ruler and devil," Jack chanted, "they cross now and here! Touch the soul of the Crimson Dragon and raise up the cry of creation! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Appear! Level 10! Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant!"

In an explosion of flame, Jack's new monster, a large and intimidating demonic dragon very similar to Scarlight, with twisted burning ram horns and larger wings, appeared to Jack's field, letting out an earsplitting roar, as it unfolded its wings, unleashing a wave of flame that forced Ruri to shield her eyes from the blazing light and heat.

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant / DARK / Level 10 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3000**

"What is that thing!?" Ruri exclaimed to Jatun, feeling an intense supernatural power emanate from Jack's new monster.

 _"_ _Be on guard!"_ Jatun warned. _"We must be focused if we are going to defeat this abomination!"_

"The effect Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant inherited from Red Djinni activates!" Jack declared, drawing a card from his deck. "I set Red Destiny from my deck to my side of the field. Furthermore, the lingering effect of Red Dominance still applies, meaning my Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant gains one-thousand ATK!"

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant: 3500 + 1000 = 4500 ATK**

"It's stronger than our monster! Even if I reduced its ATK with Inspired Crusader's effect, it wouldn't be enough!"

 _"_ _Even if he destroys our monster, we won't be out of the game!"_ Jatun replied, voice quivering despite an effort to remain calm _"We still have plenty of life points!"_

"I activate the effect of the Red Dominance in my graveyard!" Jack declared. "Since I Synchro Summoned a Synchro Monster using at least two tuners as Materials, I can banish this card in order to draw two cards."

"And we cannot do anything because it's a counter trap card." Ruri grimaced.

 _"_ _Stay focused!"_ Jatun admonished. _"He is trying to keep us off balance! We can't let him win!"_

"Furthermore!" Jack continued, "Thanks to the effect of Tyrant Synchro, My Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant gains the effects of each Red Monster used in its Synchro Summon! Thanks to this, it inherits the effect of Red Drake, which prevents you from activating effects in response the activation of my monster's effects!"

"But then that also means…" Ruri gasped, feeling herself pale.

 _"_ _No! We can't lose!"_ Jatun exclaimed.

"I activate the inherited effect of Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!" Jack declared, extending his hand towards his ace monster. "I destroy all other Special Summoned monsters on the field whose ATK is lower than the ATK of my monster and inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's life points for each monster destroyed with this effect! And since Sanctified Realm's protection effect was already used, it cannot be used again this turn! GO! CRIMSON HELL BURNING!"

Raising both its clawed hands into the air, Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant unleashed a massive firestorm, burning away the surrounding clouds and sending a wall of flame careening into Ruri's monsters.

"Zealous Crusader inherits the effect of the attached Wise Hermit!" Ruri countered, extending her hand towards her monster, who raised her shield against the flames. "Since I have no monsters in my graveyard, my monster cannot be removed from the field by a card effect!"

"However!" Jack countered, pointing at Ruri's Angelic Guide, "your other monster will be destroyed."

Ruri's hooded monster let out a shrill demonic shriek as it disintegrated into the flames. With a monster entering Ruri's graveyard, Ruri saw the clouds around her blacken as the Field Spell Card lost its power. Raising her hands to her face, Ruri and Jatun had just enough time to shield their face before the wall of flames slammed into them, knocking them back.

 **Ruri: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

"Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant's effect!" Jack declared before Ruri and Jatun could even recover. "I destroy all other cards on the field! Furthermore, I chain my Tyrant Synchro's graveyard effect to my Tryant's effect! By banishing this card from my graveyard, I can make it so that none of my Magic or Trap Cards can be destroyed this turn! GO! SCORCHING CRIMSON HELL BURNING!"

"I use the effect of the attached Salvation Seraphim Holy Armor, which was attached to my monster thanks to Judgement Force!" Ruri declared, "If a Salvation Seraphim Monster I control would be destroyed by battle or card effects while this card on the field or attached to a monster as an Xyz Material, I can send this card to the GY instead, and since its effect is an undefined effect that does not technically activate, your Tyrant can't stop me from using the effect!"

 **Zealous Crusader: 7 Overlay Units / 3500 ATK**

Flying into the air with her Zealous Crusader, Ruri and her monster only barely managed to escape the raging firestorm Tyrant unleashed as it destroyed every other card on Ruri's side of the field, causing the clouds of her Sanctified Realm to completely disappear.

"BATTLE!" Jack declared, extending his hand towards his monster, a grim expression on his face as Tyrant threw back its head, preparing to unleash a blast of flame, "I attack Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader with Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant! GO! ABSOLUTE POWER INFERNO!"

"Zealous Crusader's effect!" Ruri declared, as her monster raised her shield into the air to deflect the flame. "I use the inherited effect of Inspired Crusader to reduce your monsters ATK by seven-hundred!"

"Red Burst's graveyard effect!" Jack declared, extending his hand towards a ghostly image of one of the traps in his graveyard, which vanished from existence in a swirl of wind. "I banish my Trap Card in order to send five Red monsters, Red Warg, Red Gargoyle, Red Sprinter, Red Guardna, and Red Mirror from my deck to the GY in order to double my monster's ATK!"

"WHAT!?" Ruri exclaimed as three flaming monsters appeared to Jack's field before merging with Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant, causing the dragon's flaming attack to increase in size and intensity as Zealous Crusader fought to stave off the flames with her shield.

 **Tyrant: (4500 X 2) – 700 = 8300 ATK**

In a flash of light, Ruri's Zealous Crusader was utterly annihilated, flesh and armor disintegrating into less than dust and ash as the flames slammed into Ruri, sending her flying back.

"No! I can't lose!" Ruri screamed, "Not now! They're still counting on me!"

In less than a second, the duels of dozens of her disciples began flashing before her eyes.

 **Justin vs. 3 Obelisk Force Soldiers**

 **Current State of the Duel**

Justin:

1200 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls Samurai Destroyer

 **Samurai Destroyer / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 1400**

Obelisk 1:

2400 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls Antique Gear Castle

Obelisk 2:

4000 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 + 300 = 2100 / DEF 1000**

Obelisk 3:

4000 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 + 300 = 2100 / DEF 1000**

"I'm needing back-up here!" Justin, a tall and burly security officer screamed into his radio, "Send support immediately! Ruri! If you're listening, Academia has begun their invasion! Repeat! Academia has begun their invasion!"

"No!" Ruri breathed, unable to believe that the professor had already made his move.

"Nobody is coming to save you." The third obelisk soldier laughed as he drew a card from his deck. "I normal summon Antique Gear Hound Dog before activating its effect. Hound flame!"

Putting down his radio, Justin barely managed to dodge the blast of flame as it slammed against a dilapidated Common house, setting the structure ablaze.

 **Justin: 1200 – 600 = 600 LP**

"Next," the soldier continued, "I activate my Hound Dog's effect! Since I control Triple Bite Hound Dog, I fuse my two monsters together in order to summon an even greater weapon! Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, hunt together and become one with new power! Yuugo shoukan! Appear now! Level nine! Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog!"

Rampaging through the fusion portal, a monstrous chimeric machine that looked vaguely like a hound with multiple heads appeared before roaring at Justin as he and his monster backed away.

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 9 / Machine / Effect / ATK 2800 + 300 = 3100 / DEF 2000**

"Its effect activates now, halving your life points." The soldier declared. "Go! Decimating Hound Flame!"

Opening its massive central mouth, the monstrous machine let out a stream of fire, knocking Justin on his back.

 **Justin: 600 / 2 = 300 LP**

"And now…BATTLE!" the soldier declared.

The last thing Ruri saw through Justin's eyes was Ultimate Hound Dog as it swiped aside his monster before bringing its fangs down on Justin's face.

Before Ruri could scream, her focus shifted to the view of two other disciples, a young woman Masika, who had storm-grey hair and a man named Gazim, with reddish-brown eyebrows and bright blonde hair. By the look of things, they had just defeated a squadron of Security Officers harassing a group of Commons. Her stomach turned when she saw who came to congratulate them.

"Well done! Well done indeed!" Daichi laughed, clapping his hands with each step he took. "I must say that was an impressive duel, and I must comment highly on that strange but ingenious summoning technique! Dark Synchro Summoning is it? And it created a monster with a negative level? Fascinating! To create something so negative and use it to generate such a positive outcome for the duelist is something I would have never thought possible!"

"You were a fool to come forward, Academia Spy!" Gazim all but snarled.

"Oh don't bother with insults, my dear boy." Freidrich replied, idly adjusting his purple gloves before activating his duel disk. "I've called him worse. I assume you realized we were Academia due to the appearance of our duel disks, correct?"

"Correct!" Gazim answered. "And I don't know who you two are, but you made a serious mistake coming here! This dimension belongs to Ruri-sama and by her divine will, the scum of Academia shall pay with blood for their transgressions!"

"Oooooooh, a little zealous are we, my friend?" Freidrich commented with no effort to hide his sarcasm. "Your Id is very strong! Your instincts to attack me on sight are practically leaking out of your body! Sadly though, you disappoint me by only wishing harm against me because your Dark Signer Queen tells you to, thereby holding your chance at perfection back. Oh well. I suppose we must duel, but I fear it will be terribly one sided."

"Which means that pairs me up with you, young lady." Said Daichi, graciously bowing before taking his position. "Do you two have names?"

"Masika." The woman stoically replied.

"And I am Gazim!" The man growled.

"I see. Well my dear Masika, prepare yourself to duel! Do your best, and I most certainly encourage you to show me that intriguing summoning technique of yours!" Daichi gushed, activating his pitch-black duel disk with a sword-shaped blade.

"Which means you are stuck with me, Gazim!" said Freidrich, drawing his opening hand. "And trust me when I say that you will wish you dueled my partner instead!"

 **Freidrich:**

 **4000 LP**

 **Gazim:**

 **4000 LP**

"DUEL!" Both duelists exclaimed in unison.

"I shall take the first move." said Freidrich, removing a card from his hand. "I summon Spirit of the Subconscious in attack position!"

In front of Friedrich, a large iceberg rose up from a pool of translucent water before the bottom half the iceberg darkened. Bursting free from the ice sheet, a tiny humanoid figure with an enlarged head, eight arms, and a body as black as the night sky.

 **Spirit of the Subconscious / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"When Spirit of the Subconscious is normal summoned, I can tribute him to look at the top card of my deck. Then I can special summon one Force Monster from my deck ignoring its summoning conditions depending on the type of card the top card of my deck happens to be, monster, spell, or trap." Friedrich explained, idly reaching for the top card of his deck before pausing.

"I feel like this duel is missing something, a bit of atmosphere." Friedrich mused, hand hovering over the top of his deck. "Some Carmina Burana perhaps? I'm not certain. What opera music do you think would best fit this situation?"

"Why would I care about that!?" Gazim snapped, nostrils flaring.

"And evidently I am dueling against yet another example of uncultured swine." Friedrich sighed. "Ah well, I shall figure out the question on my own."

Freidrich revealed the top card of his deck and smiled.

"As you can see, it is a monster, Spirit of the Unconscious," Friedrich explained, "which means the monster I can summon is the Level six Ido the Supreme Magical Force! Now appear onto the field at once, the embodiment of primordial savage instinct, Ido the Supreme Magical Force!"

Through a blue portal, Friedrich's monster, a massive ghostly beast made up of white and blue energy, snaked onto the field, translucent jaws snapping with rage.

 **Ido the Supreme Magical Force / DARK / Level 6 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 800**

"Next, I discard this monster, Spirit of the Conscious!" Friedrich continued, sending a card from his hand to the graveyard. "When Spirit of the Conscious is discarded, I can add one Force Monster from my deck to my hand. The monster I choose is the Level Seven Ego the Supreme Rational Force, and now that he is in my hand, I can tear down the boundaries between instinct and rationality and merge them together as one!"

"What are you talking about?" snapped Gazim.

"I'm talking about a Fusion my dear boy! Magic Card activate! Fusion! With this card, I fuse Ido the Supreme Magical Force with Ego the Supreme Rational Force!"

Backing away, Gazim watched as Friedrich's Ido was joined by another ghostly ape-like monster composed of red energy before the two monsters merged into the center of the Fusion portal in a swirl of red and blue light.

"Spiritual Force of Savage Instinct, become one with the Force of Logic and Reason and ascend to a higher plain of existence! YUUGO SHOUKAN!" Friedrich roared, clamping his gloved hands together, "APPEAR NOW, JUNZI THE PERFECT FORCE!"

Descending from the fusion portal, Friedrich's new monster, a tall humanoid figure made up of white and grey energy, with a long beard affixed to a blank cubic face, flowing scholarly robes over its skeletal body, and enormous arms and talon-tipped hands, disproportionately larger than the rest of its being, which sprouted from its back, appeared to the field, legless body floating over the ground as if in a perpetual meditative pose.

 **Junzi the Perfect Force / DARK / Level 9 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 800**

"Now under normal circumstances," Friedrich smirked as Gazim looked up at his monster in amazement, "I cannot summon any monsters at all due to the effect of Ido, but Junzi conveniently ignores that effect with his own ability. When ascending to a form of perfection, one ignores all boundaries that society places in front of them, something you and your disciples need to learn if you want to achieve the power you desire! Now to conclude my turn, I shall activate the continuous spell card Psychoanalysis! The ball is in your court now, Gazim. I end my turn!"

"My move now, Spy!" Gazim snarled. "I summon Ancient Sacred Soldier to the field in attack position!"

Through a blue portal, Gazim's monster, a roman gladiator with a long golden spear and white robes draped about his brass armor, appeared to the field.

 **Ancient Sacred Soldier / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1200**

"When he is normal summoned," Gazim explained, "I can Special Summon another Ancient Sacred Monster from my hand! I choose to Special Summon the tuner monster known as Ancient Sacred Wizard!"

Appearing next to Gazim's first monster, Ancient Sacred Wizard, a pope-like figure with long white robes, a golden crest on his hat, and a long golden wizard staff with a star at the tip, entered the duel field before raising his staff into the air.

 **Ancient Sacred Wizard / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"When he is summoned to the field," Gazim continued, stretching his hand towards his monster, "I can target my Ancient Sacred Warrior and gain Life Points equal to his ATK!"

 **Gazim: 4000 + 1500 = 5500 LP**

Friedrich yawned. "Am I to take it that _that's_ you're opening move?"

"Far from it!" Gazim countered, pulling another card from his hand, "I would be ashamed if I didn't go all out with my new power!"

"By all means, go all out." Friedrich droned, pulling out a pocket watch and glancing at the time. "I have plenty of time…and other duelists…to kill."

"You won't be hurting anyone!" Gazim snarled, "Since I gained Life Points, I can Special Summon this monster! I special summon, Dark Tuner - Ancient Shadow Ghost!"

Through a cold blue portal, Gazim's new monster, a strange abstract spirit that looked like it was pulled directly from a person's nightmare appeared to the field. Ancient Shadow Ghost had a large smiling clown-like face, and wore dark robes through which multiple purplish tentacles with clawed demonic hands poked out.

 **Dark Tuner - Ancient Shadow Ghost / DARK / Level 12 / Fiend / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"A Dark Tuner?" inquired Friedrich as he studied the new creature. "Perhaps this will be interesting after all. I admit that I am curious about these…rather unique…summoning techniques."

"I'm not going to use it yet!" Gazim declared, "First I tune my Level Three Wizard with my Level Four Warrior for a Synchro Summon!"

Morphing into a trio of three green synchro rings, Ancient Sacred Wizard enveloped Ancient Sacred Warrior in its light, causing Warrior to dissolve into four white spheres as Gazim began his summoning chant.

"Sacred Creature from the times of old, descend from the heavens now and take the form of a mighty beast! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Appear now! Ancient Sacred Wyvern!"

Bursting forth from a column of light, Gazim's synchro monster, a long white serpentine dragon with a mane of golden hair and crimson eyebrows appeared to the field.

 **Ancient Sacred Wyvern / LIGHT / Level 7 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 2000**

"A pity." Freidrich scoffed. "I expected your first Synchro Monster to be far stronger than that."

"My monster will get stronger, spy!" Gazim growled, "Since my Life Points are fifteen hundred points higher than yours, my Ancient Sacred Wyvern gains fifteen hundred attack points!"

 **Ancient Sacred Wyvern: 2100 + 1500 = 3600 ATK**

"Ahhhh, now your Ancient Sacred Wyvern is stronger than Junzi. Well done." Friedrich commented.

"It's not my Wyvern you should be worried about!" Gazim countered, stretching his hand towards his other monster, "Now I Dark Tune my Ancient Sacred Wyvern with my Dark Tuner Ancient Shadow Ghost!"

Laughing, Ancient Shadow Ghost lashed out with its tentacles, wrapping them around Ancient Sacred Wyvern, who struggled against the monster's grip before Ancient Shadow ghost dissolved into twelve white stars, which sank into Wyvern's body, causing the monster to become translucent before exploding into a rink of five black starts, which crackled with black electricity as Gazim began his summoning chant.

"When shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal a world without light! DARK SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Appear now! Level negative five! Ancient Shadow Serpent!"

A towering column of darkness shot into the sky from the center of the orbiting spheres. With a roar, a massive monster parted the column of darkness before snaking onto the duel field. Ancient Shadow Serpent strongly resembled Ancient Sacred Wyvern, but its color scheme was reversed with its body a deep shade of inky black purple, a pale blue crest on its face, and a long mane of green fur. Its wings were larger than Ancient Sacred Wyvern's and colored the same blue as the crest on its face.

 **Ancient Shadow Serpent / DARK / Level -5 / Fiend / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2500**

Friedrich closed his eyes, sniffing the air as if inhaling the aroma of a bouquet of roses.

"Mmmmmm…yes…" Friedrich mused, opening his eyes to examine the monster. "Very fascinating, indeed. This monster is different from the others. Its body language and demeanor suggest that it is in a state of almost perpetual aggression and agony, as if its every inner urge was repressed until they could only manifest in an utterly demented and savage form!"

"If you think it's impressive now, wait till I activate its effect!" Gazim replied.

"I have been waiting." Friedrich dryly replied, once again checking his pocket watch. "If you wouldn't mind moving along, I don't really have all day to waste on you."

"Then I won't keep you waiting." Gazim smirked, "I activate my Shadow Serpent's effect! By paying one thousand life points, my monster gains one thousand ATK, and your monster loses the same amount. And guess what!"

"How about I don't and you just tell me what the surprise is." Friedrich drolly replied.

"I can use this effect twice!" Gazim explained, "So by paying two thousand life points, my monster gains two thousand attack points, and your monster loses two thousand attack points! GO! Shadow Lifesteal!"

Opening its mouth immensely wide like a serpent's, Ancient Shadow Serpent lashed out against Friedrich's monster, clamping down on the monster's ethereal shoulder before sucking in, causing the massive energy creature to begin shriveling up, as if its blood were being drained.

 **Gazim: 5500 – (1000 + 1000) = 3500 LP**

 **Ancient Shadow Serpent: 2700 + 1000 + 1000 = 4700 ATK**

 **Junzi the Perfect Force: 3500 – (1000 + 1000) = 1500 ATK**

"Now Battle!" Gazim ordered as him monster withdrew, leaving Friedrich's monster to clutch at its shoulder, "Ancient Shadow Serpent, attack his Junzi now! BLACK FLAME SMITING!"

…

 **Daichi: 4000 LP**

 **Masika: 4000 LP**

"I shall begin this duel if you don't mind." said Daichi, gingerly drawing his opening hand before examining it. "I shall start with this monster, the Level one Monster known as Psychic Ink Fig. 1 in attack position!"

Bubbling up from the ground, Daichi's ink monster slowly rose into the air before shaping itself into a bat-like shape.

 **Psychic Ink Fig. 1 / DARK / Level 1 / Psychic / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?**

"Its effect activates upon being summoned," Daichi explained, "You get to add any monster you want from your deck to your hand, but I should inform you that when you do, my Psychic Ink Fig. 1 will take on the properties of that monster, including that monster's attack, defense, effects, level, type, attribute, and name. So tell me, Masika," Daichi instructed, indicating his quivering ink monster, "what is it you see?"

Masika looked through her deck and picked out her card of choice, silently showing it to Dacihi.

"Ahhhh, Crusader of Endymion." Daichi enthused, "So now Psychic Ink Fig. 1 becomes a Level Four Light Attribute Spellcaster with nineteen hundred ATK and twelve hundred DEF."

Activating its effect, Daichi's monster began reshaping itself into an inky copy of Masika's card, a masked magician wearing immensely thick arm-plates, boots, and chest armor.

 **Psychic Ink Fig. 1 / DARK / Level 1 / Psychic / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?**

 **Change to:**

 **Crusader of Endymion / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1200**

"I set these three cards face down and I end my turn." Daichi finished, setting his cards down before looking back at Masika, who was staring at him with a look of immense contempt.

"You don't talk much do you?" Daichi commented, looking a little disappointed.

"I have nothing to say to the likes of someone as horrid as you." Masika replied, not raising her voice despite the anger behind her words. "Ruri-sama told us all about the cruelty the soldiers of Academia unleashed upon her home. You are unworthy of speaking to!"

"So what motivates you is the desire to avenge someone you respect greatly whilst your positive reinforcement would be seeing my life points drop to zero and my body likely mutilated beyond measure?" Daichi deduced, nodding his head. "You are a fascinating subject, Masika, though I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I cannot allow that to happen."

"That's enough!" said Masika. "It's my turn now, and I shall set this card face down. Next I shall summon this monster! Crusader of Endymion!"

Appearing right in front of Daichi's monster, Masika's original copy of crusader of Endymion appeared before glaring down at its inky copy with contempt.

 **Crusader of Endymion / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Gemini / ATK 1900 / DEF 1200**

"Next I activate this field spell card! Magical Citadel of Endymion!" Masika declared as a massive futuristic tower extended into the sky behind her. "This card will allow me to place a spell counter on it every time a spell card is activated, a spell card like this! Spell Power Grasp! With this card, I can add a copy of Spell Power Grasp from my Deck to my hand, and then place a Spell Counter on my Citadel, plus another Spell Counter by my Citadel's own effect!"

 **Magical Citadel of Endymion: 2 Spell Counters**

"Since I placed a spell counter on my citadel, I can special summon this monster! Tempest Apprentice!"

Appearing through a blue portal, a young ten-year-old girl with short grey hair, a golden headband around her head, blue magician robes, and a reaper scythe, appeared to Masika's field.

 **Tempest Apprentice / DARK / Level 2 / Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 500**

"Now the stage is set for a synchro summon, which I shall do now!" Masika declared, raising her hand into the air as her Tempest Apprentice raised its own staff into the air. "I tune my Level two Apprentice with my Level 4 Crusader!"

Spinning around until she created a small tornado, Tempest apprentice morphed into a pair of green rings before encircling Crusader of Endymion, transforming the monster into four spheres of white light as Masika began her summoning chant.

"Mistress of Magical Spells, come to the battlefield now and unleash your magic in the form of a mighty storm! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Appear now! Tempest Magician!"

Appearing from a column of white light, Masika's monster, a female magician similar in appearance to Tempest Apprentice, but fully grown, appeared to the field, lowering her staff towards Daichi and his monster as a pair of bat-like creatures flew by her side.

 **Tempest Magician / DARK / Level 6 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 1400**

"Trap card activate!" Daichi announced, extending his hand towards one of his face-downs, which flipped over to reveal a blot of red and black ink shaped vaguely like two humans facing one another. "Psychic Ink Fig. 3! This continuous trap card dictates that you must place the top five cards of your deck face up in your deck and then shuffle your deck. If you choose not to, then you must negate the summon of your monster and destroy that monster!"

"Then there's no real choice." Masika growled. "I choose to shuffle the top five cards of my deck into my deck face up, but now that that's done, Tempest Magician's effect activates! I place one Spell Counter on my monster. Furthermore, I can discard as many cards from my hand as I want in order to place even more spell counters on her. I shall discard two cards from my hand to give her a total of three spell counters!"

 **Tempest Magician: 3 Spell Counters**

"Now I activate my Tempest Magician's effect!" Masika declared, "I remove her three counters and the two spell counters from Magical Citadel of Endymion to inflict five hundred damage to you for each one! I just removed five spell counters so that means you take twenty-five hundred points of damage!"

Twirling her scythe in her hands, Tempest magician conjured an immense storm before raising her weapon into the air, causing lightning to strike the tip of her scythe blade, electrifying the weapon.

"Hmmmm, excellent work!" Daichi clapped, smiling with approval. "Five points for summoning a synchro monster on your first turn and another five points for your strategy in which you might attempt to inflict a nasty amount of burn damage against me! And you haven't even summoned your Dark Synchro Monster yet! I must say I'm quite impressed!"

"Attempt!?" Masika exclaimed, looking miffed. "I'm going to inflict damage to you!"

"On the contrary, I disagree!" replied Daichi, wagging his finger her at her before flipping over another card to reveal another blot of red and black ink, this one shaped vaguely like two humans clapping their hands together. "I activate the continuous trap card, Psychic Ink Fig 2. With this card, if I were to take damage you must choose one of the following effects and activate them! The first effect would be to half the damage I am about to take and then you must show me all cards in your hand, but there is a problem with this choice. You have no cards in your hand to reveal, so therefore you must activate the second effect. The second effect dictates that instead of losing life points from this effect, I gain them instead!"

 **Daichi: 4000 + 2500 = 6500**

"However, I will say again, you are doing quite well." Daichi encouraged. "Me gaining life points doesn't automatically mean I have won."

"It doesn't matter." Masika countered, "For now I can special summon this monster from the Graveyard since I just removed a Spell Counter from the field! I special summon Dark Tuner - Dark Magic Purveyor!"

Ascending to the field through a black portal, a hooded monster with no face and a black top-hat on top of its featureless head appeared to the field, before tipping its hat towards Daichi with a pair of ghostly white gloves, which floated in the air without any hands inside to support them.

 **Dark Tuner - Dark Magic Purveyor / DARK / Level 12 / Fiend / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"The stage is set for your doom, agent of Academia, as I unleash Ruri-sama's gift! I dark tune my Tempest Magician with my Purveyor for a dark synchro summon!"

Spreading out its ghostly gloved hands, Magic Purveyor exploded into a cloud of twelve white spheres, which merged with Tempest Magician, causing the spellcaster to groan with pain before exploding into six black spheres of energy, which began orbiting a section of empty space as Masika began her summoning chant.

"When shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal a world without light! DARK SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Appear now! Hurricane Hex Magician!"

Laughing, Masika's new monster, a magician similar to Tempest Magician but with crimson-red robes, blonde hair, and black bat-like demon wings sprouting from her back, appeared to her field. Her scythe had grown and looked like it was made of bleeding flesh, complete with a monstrous yellow eye that connected the staff and pole together. Her skin was deathly pale and covered with blood-red magic crests while her eyes glowed a similar blood-red color.

 **Hurricane Hex Magician / DARK / Level -6 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2000**

"The effect of Psychic Ink Fig 3. now activates Masika!" Daichi reminded her. "Now you must either negate the summon of your own monster or place the top five cards of your deck face up in your deck and then shuffle them!"

Masika rolled her eyes as she chose to shuffle five cards face up into her deck. Meanwhile, Daichi eyed the cards Masika added to her deck, as if taking careful note of what those cards were.

"Your hoping to figure out my strategy." Masika mused, noticing Daichi's stare.

"Perceptive." Daichi complimented. "I'll give you five additional points for that, along with fifteen more points for such a fascinating dark synchro summon. You truly are doing quite well in this duel, Masika."

"Save your praise for someone who cares!" Masika countered, extending her hand towards her monster, "Hurricane Hex Magician's effect now activates! I can regenerate all five of the spell counters I removed this turn and place them back on my citadel. Additionally, with the effect of my Dark Magic Purveyor, since I used him for a dark synchro summon, I can place three more spell counters on my citadel giving me a total of eight!

 **Magical Citadel of Endymion: 8 Spell Counters**

"Furthermore," Masika continued, "Hurricane Hex Magician will reap the benefits of all eight of those Spell Counters! My Dark Synchro Monster gains three hundred attack points for every spell counter on the field!"

 **Hurricane Hex Magician ATK: 2900 + 2400 = 5300 ATK**

"Now I activate my hex magician's effect!" Masika proclaimed, "By removing two spell counters from my citadel, I can negate the effects of your Psychic Ink Fig 2. Continuous Trap Card, and when I do, you take one thousand points of damage!"

 **Daichi: 6500 - 1000 = 5500 LP**

 **Hurricane Hex Magician: 5300 - 600 = 4700 ATK**

"Now Battle! Hurricane Hex Magician, attack his Psychic Ink Fig. 1!"

"Trap Card Activate! Test Results... Inconclusive!" Daichi countered, showing a man examining a roll of paper displaying blots of ink, "This will cut the battle damage I take in half! After that happens, I can add one Psychic Ink Card from my deck to my hand. Furthermore, this continuous trap card will allow me to normal summon a psychic ink monster one additional time on each of my main phases."

"That won't save you from taking a nasty hit from my Hurricane Hex Magican! GO! ATTACK! BLOOD MAGIC BARRAGE!" Masika ordered as her monster rose into the sky before conjuring a massive storm of wind, lightning, and rain drops made of blood, which struck against Daichi, staining his glasses and clothing.

 **Daichi: 5500 - 1400 = 4100 LP**

"I may not have been able to inflict as hard of a hit on your life points as I wanted to." said Masika. "But it's going to take a lot more than what you've already shown me to defeat my Hurricane Hex Magician."

…

Over at the other duel, Gazim's Ancient Shadow Serpent let loose a blast of black flame, which completely consumed Friedrich's energy monster, knocking back Friedrich and forcing the older man on his knees.

 **Friedrich: 4000 - 3200 = 800 LP**

"Activate the effect of Psychoanalysis!" Countered Friedrich, coughing into his glove, but looking otherwise unfazed. "I can treat the destruction of Junzi as if it was destroyed by a card effect!"

"What good will that do?" asked Gazim.

"You'll see soon enough!" Friedrich smirked, standing up at his full height before brushing the dust off himself.

"Fine then, keep me in the dark, but with Ancient Shadow Serpent on the field, your defeat is inevitable! I end my turn." Gazim declared before glancing over at Masika's duel. "And judging by the looks of things, it looks like your partner is finished too!"

"Ahhhhh overconfidence. The downfall of many a weak man." muttered Friedrich, straightening his fedora before placing his hand on his deck. "I draw, and now on my Standby Phase of my turn, since Junzi was technically destroyed by a card effect, I can Special Summon him back to my side of the field! Return to me, Junzi the Perfect Force!"

Roaring, Friedrich's massive energy monster rematerialized to the field, as if it had never been destroyed in the first place.

 **Junzi the Perfect Force / DARK / Level 9 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 800**

"Another thing you should be aware of." Friedrich continued, brushing off his pocket watch before returning it to its pocket. "When Junzi is summoned with this effect, I can destroy one card you control.

Gazim stared at Friedrich, slowly taking in what he had just said.

"I'm assuming you know what that means." Friedrich smirked.

"No…no!" Gazim sputtered, unable to believe what was happening as Friedrich's massive energy monster conjured a sphere of crackling white energy between its palms before aiming it at Ancient Shadow Serpent, "You can't! It's not possible!"

As if in response, Junzi launched its sphere of energy at Ancient Shadow Serpent, obliterating the monster.

"I'm afraid it is most definitely possible, my dear boy, and another thing that is quite possible or rather, quite certain, is your fate! Junzi, attack his life points directly! Absolute Perfection!"

Roaring, Friedrich's monster picked up Gazim with one of its massive energy hands before squeezing him extremely hard. Through Gazim's ears, Ruri could hear the sound of his ribs cracking as Friedrich began singing "Oh Fortuna," from "Carmina Burana," in a deep operatic voice.

"O Fortunaaa…velut lunaaaaaaaaaa…staaatu variabiliiiiiiis…"

Junzi slammed Gazim's face into the pavement.

"Semper crescis, aut decrescis; vita detestabiliiiis…"

Flinging Gazim into the air, Junzi grabbed the doomed disciple in another of its arms before slamming him against a concrete wall.

"Nunc obdurat…et tunc curat…ludo mentis aciem…"

Gazim's vision was blurring, but before he could pass out from unconsciousness, Junzi had grabbed him again.

"Egestatem...potestatem, dissolvit ut glacieeem…"

Ruri heard the sound of an arm crack.

"Sors immanis…et inanis, rota tu volubilis…

Status malus, vana salus, semper dissolubilis…"

Ruri's ears were filled with the roar of Gazim's screaming.

"Obumbrata! Et velata! Michi quoque niteris…

Nunc per ludum! Dorsum nudum! Fero tui sceleris!"

With another roar, Junzi flung Gazim into the air.

"SORS SALUTIS! ET VIRTUTIS! MICHI NUNC CONTRARIA!

EST AFFECTUS! ET DEFECTUS! SEMPER IN ANGARIAAA!

HAC IN HORA, SINE MORA, CORDE PULSUM TANGITEEEE!

QUOD PER SORTEM! STERNIT FORTEM! MECUM OMNES PLANGITEEEEE!

The last thing Ruri saw through Gazim's eyes was pavement and a splash of red before her focus shifted to Masika.

 **Gazim: 3500 - 3500 = 0 (LOSE)**

 **Winner: Friedrich**

…

"Gazim!" Ruri heard Masika scream as she watched Freidrich card what was left of Gazim's bloody body.

"Well, that was certainly unfortunate." Daichi sighed, glancing at the scene. "At any rate, it was certainly unnecessary, though I suppose Friedrich's behavior in this situation could be easily predicted, what with the reinforcement he receives from seeing blood. He's rather like a shark in that regard, don't you think, Masika?"

"I will kill you!" Masika vowed, "I WILL KILL YOU!"

"Do you wish to do anything more?" Daichi politely asked, not even flinching at Masika's burst of rage.

Ruri heard Masika grind her teeth together.

"I wish I could do something to you, right now." Masika growled. "But my turn's over. Begin your turn!"

"Then it is my turn again, young lady. I draw!" Daichi declared, drawing his card, however, the minute he did, Masika activated her set card.

"On your standby phase, I activate the continuous trap card, Chains of the Netherworld!" Masika declared, "When this card is activated, I can draw one card from my deck."

Masika drew her card, a face-up card she had shuffled into her deck, causing Daichi's eyes to light up.

"Once I have done so" Masika continued. "I can unleash this card's true potential! As long as this card is on the field, I can declare one summoning condition and nullify it, meaning neither player can use that summoning condition as long as this card is on the field. The summoning condition I choose…is fusion summoning! I'm sending you back to where you belong, fusion scum!"

Daichi stared at Masika, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Then he started laughing, covering one of his eyes with his gloved hand as he threw back his head and let out a hearty cackle.

"What's so hilarious?" Masika growled.

"It's just…" Daichi's body shook with laughter, "Oh my dear Masika…I know it's not really your fault…but…well…you see, while I would normally compliment you on your excellent control strategy…it is, nevertheless, based upon a fundamentally flawed premise!"

"What do you mean?" Masika demanded.

"Well…it's just…" Daichi began, looking apologetic, "…I don't really mean to be rude…but…well, you seem to be assuming that I'm from the Fusion Dimension."

"But you are from the Fusion Dimension!" Masika spat.

"But my dear Masika, that is where you are mistaken!" Daichi exclaimed, blue eyes widening. "An understandable mistake, of course, yet it doesn't change the fact that my origins are not based in Fusion! My true home, the very land of my nativity, the place where I lived, worked, and breathed until roughly three years ago, was right here, in this very city of the glorious Synchro Dimension!"

"WHAT?!" Masika sputtered, eyes widening as she shook her head in disbelief.

"I take it that you don't believe me, so allow me to demonstrate!" Daichi enthused, "I am about to summon a Synchro Monster, a very special Synchro Monster."

"Your bluffing!" Masika insisted.

"Psychic Daemon Theorizer no kouka hasudo!" Daichi declared, revealing a card in his extra deck, a white card. "When Synchro Summoning this monster, I can use any Psychic Ink cards I control or in my hand as the Synchro Materials, treating one of them as a Level one Tuner, and all other cards as Level one non-Tuners! Using my Psychic Ink Fig. 2 as the Level one tuner, I next tune my Psychic Ink Fig. 3 I control, along with the Psychic Ink Fig. 4, Psychic Ink Fig. 5, and Psychic Ink Fig. 6 in my hand in order to Synchro Summon!"

Masika's mouth dropped as Daichi's trap card morphed into a single ring of green light before the other Trap on Daichi's side of the field and three cards in his hand morphed into four spheres of white light, which flew into the center of the green ring as Daichi began his summoning chant.

"Psychic Creature who studies the human mind, unleash your power of deductive reasoning to analyze the way to win this battle! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Psychic Daemon Theorizer!"

Bubbling out from the column of white light Daichi had conjured from his Synchro Summon, a massive multi-colored ink monster with a long serpentine body, a gaping mouth in the center of its body, and multiple arm-like tentacles branching out from the mouth, slithered onto the field, spreading out its tentacles before multiple sets of massive deep-blue eyes, the same color as Daichi's own eyes, opened up at the tips of the tentacles in order to stare at Masika and her monster.

 **Psychic Daemon Theorizer / DARK / Level 5 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

Masika stared at the creature and its stats.

"Is that it then?" she asked, sounding very unsure.

"More or less." Daichi admitted with a shrug, taking a step forward to pat the beast's neck like he would a horse, "This card is my very ace monster, the card I grew up with and learned to duel with. Later in life, I would employ the power of this card in a certain behavioral re-shaping program for losers in the Underground and unruly psychics whose behaviors were inconvenient for Security executives. But that was before I was approached by an Academia agent three years ago, who offered a very intriguing job proposal."

"You betrayed us." Masika breathed, voice quivering.

"On the contrary," Daichi replied, "I have never obligated myself to maintain any sort of allegiance with anyone. My pursuit has always been the discovery of new truths, by whatever means necessary. A task this card is most adept at doing. In the beginning, it is quite weak, but like with any new behavior, new actions and new ways of behaving can be rewritten over the existing frame, much as one paints over a canvas with new ink."

"What do you mean?" Masika nervously asked, backing away from Daichi.

"The effect of Theorizer now activates." Daichi gently explained, a warm smile caressing his cheeks as he gazed at Masika, "You see, when he is Synchro Summoned, I am allowed to guess the name of each card in your hand, and should I guess correctly the name of each card in your hand, I can activate one of a series of rather powerful effects. It's a difficult effect to pull off, for certain, however, since you took the very generous liberty of revealing a few cards in your deck to me last turn, I have no need to guess, since, thanks to the effect of my trap card, I saw what card you drew. The card in your hand is none other than Endymion the Master Magician!"

Masika's face twisted into a grimace before showing Daichi that the only card in her hand was indeed Endymion the Master Magician.

"Now that I have correctly deduced the identity of what is in your hand, thus revealed the truth behind you, I can activate this effect." Daichi declared, raising his hand into the air, "My Psychic Daemon Theorizer can target your Hurricane Hex Magician in order to gain its name, Attribute, Level, Type, ATK, and DEF while stripping these very same things from your own monster.

"No!" Masika shrieked as Daichi's ink monster lashed out with its tentacles, pulling Hurricane Hex Magician into its mouth before sucking on the monster like a leech. Shriveling up like a prune, Masika's monster became a lifeless husk which Theorizer cast aside before it began shaping itself into an inky copy of Hurricane Hex Magician.

 **Psychic Daemon Theorizer / DARK / Level 5 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Change to:**

 **Hurricane Hex Magician / DARK / Level -6 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 4100 / DEF 2000**

 **Hurricane Hex Magician / DARK / Level -6 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 4100 / DEF 2000**

 **Changes to:**

 **Unknown / Unknown / Level 0 / Unknown / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"I'm afraid this is the part where I congratulate you for a stupendous duel, but ultimately say that your efforts to defeat me were all in vain!" Daichi declared, "Be rest assured, however, that your participation has greatly contributed to the realm of scientific inquiry! I now can look forward to a thrilling duel and experiment with your Dark Signer masters! Hurricane Hex Magician, attack her Unknown now!"

Raising its inky scythe into the air, Daichi's Hurricane Hex copy cleaved Masika's monster in two before annihilating Masika with a single blow.

 **Masika: 4000 - 4100 = 0 (LOSE)**

 **Winner: Daichi**

"Thank you once again for an excellent duel." Daichi enthused, as Masika staggered up from the ground, only to see Daichi press a button on his disk.

"NO!" Ruri heard herself scream, only to find that she was once again far too late as Masika became engulfed in purple light and Ruri's focus was flung into the body of yet another disciple.

 **Unknown Horakhty Agent vs. Branford, Aiko, Hiraku, Chiyoko, and Midori**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Beginning of duel.**

 **Turn 1: Unknown Horakhty Agent**

"If your master is watching you, I have this to say to her." The masked duelist droned in a robotic voice that disguised his/her voice. "The Agents of Horakhty have dealt with the power of the Earthbound in the past, and we will surely defeat you now and deliver you to the Professor."

"You'll have to beat us all first!" A short female security officer with spikey black hair, Midori, taunted.

"As a representative of Horakhty's own power, it would be dishonorable of me to not defeat you all on my first turn." The Horakhty agent droned, examining his/her opening hand.

"You can't do that, idiot!" another disciple with large brown sideburns, Branford, countered in a deep voice.

The Horakhty agent ignored him.

"Magic card activate, Red-Eyes Fusion!" the agent declared, revealing his opening Spell Card, "I fuse the level seven Red-Eyes Black Dragon in my deck with the Level six Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon in my deck in order to Fusion Summon!"

"What!?" all five of the disciples exclaimed in unison.

"A fusion summon from the deck!?"

"Is that legal!?"

"Dragon of blackness with the burning red eyes," the Horakhty Agent chanted as his two monsters merged together into the center of a fusion portal above his head, "become one with the burning dragon of the cosmos and unleash fire and judgement upon this world! YUUGO SHOUKAN!" he proclaimed, clamping his hands together before a glowing crimson claw-shaped mark blazed to life on his right arm, "Descend now! Level eight! Falling Meteor Black Dragon!"

Falling from the sky in a raging inferno of fire, the agent's monster, a massive burning black dragon with magma-red eyes, crashed onto the duel field, before unfurling its wings and letting out an ear-splitting roar.

 **Falling Meteor Black Dragon (Treated as "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" with the effect of "Red-Eyes Fusion") / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 2000**

"It's effect now activates!" the agent declared. "I send Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from my deck to the graveyard in order to inflict damage to your life points equal to half that monster's original ATK! Go! Burning Meteor Flame!"

"I activate the effect of my monster!" one of the disciples, a girl with curly brown hair named Chiyoko countered. "By discarding Hanewata from my hand, any effect damage we take this turn becomes zero! So if you were just hoping to burn away our life points with effect damage, you can forget about it!"

"You think that a Horakhty Agent would not have prepared for such hand traps?" The Agent disdainfully replied, "I chain the effect of Red-Eyes Flare Whelp to the activation of your monster's effect! By discarding this card while I control a monster named "Red-Eyes Black Dragon, I can negate the activation of your card or effect and destroy it!"

A small fuzzy fairy with antennae appeared to the disciple's field, ready to block the damage, but before it could materialize, a small flaming baby dragon with skin as black as coal and burning magma-red eyes, shot out from the agent's hand before slamming into the fairy and obliterating it. Before the other disciples could even react, the agent's monster unleashed a raging inferno of fire, burning all five of them.

 **Disciples: 4000 – (2800 / 2) = 2600 LP**

"The duel is now finished." The Agent declared, "In the name of the Crimson Dragon, I condemn you servants of the Earthbound and sentence you to burn! Inferno Fire Blast activate! In exchange for my Falling Meteor Black Dragon, now treated as Red-Eyes Black Dragon being unable to attack this turn, I inflict damage to my opponent's life points equal to the attack of my monster! GO! INFERNO FIRE BLAST!"

Unleashing a massive gout of red-hot flame, the agent's monster torched all five of the disciples, causing them to burst into flames before the Agent mercifully carded them.

 **Disciples: 2600 – 3500 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **…**

 **Unknown Horakhty Agent vs. Youta, Souma, Tomoko, Satomi, and Sakurako**

 **Current State of Duel**

Youta:

4000 LP

1 card in his hand

Controls two face-down Spell/Trap Cards and Arcanite Magician

 **Arcanite Magician / LIGHT / Level 7 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 400 + 3000 = 3400 ATK / DEF 1800 / Spell Counters: 3**

Souma:

4000 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls 4 face-down cards and Vindikite R-Genex

 **Vindikite R-Genex / WIND / Level 8 / Machine / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 1000**

Tomoko:

4000 LP

3 cards in her hand

Controls 5 set Spell/Trap Cards.

Satomi:

4000 LP  
0 cards in her hand

Controls Vylon Omega equipped with Vylon Prism, Vylon Tetra, Vylon Segment, Vylon Component, and Vylon Filament.

 **Vylon Omega / LIGHT / Level 10 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3200 / DEF 1900**

Sakuraki:

4000 LP

0 cards in her hand

Controls 2 set Spell/Trap Cards and 3 copies of Montage Dragon

 **Montage Dragon / EARTH / Level 8 / Dragon / Effect / ATK 7200 / DEF 0**

 **Montage Dragon / EARTH / Level 8 / Dragon / Effect / ATK 7200 / DEF 0**

 **Montage Dragon / EARTH / Level 8 / Dragon / Effect / ATK 7200 / DEF 0**

Unknown Horakhty Agent:

4000 LP

5 cards in his hand

No cards on the field

"Boku no turn…draw!" the agent enthused in a somewhat more upbeat voice, which was still highly distorted by the robotic filter. "You have all done me the honor of showing me your immense power, but I'm afraid that, on my honor as a Horakhty Agent, I must win this duel now!"

"You can't win this duel, especially not now," a tall female security officer with white-and-blonde hair, Satomi, declared. "According to battle royal rules, no player can attack on the first turn, and this is your first turn."

"Must they all lecture me on rules I already know?" the agent sighed. "Oh well, I suppose I shall just have to show them my true power! I activate terraforming in order to add one field spell card from my deck to my hand, which I shall now activate! Behold the beauty of Clear World!"

Surrounding all six of the duelists, multiple translucent crystals materialized onto the field.

"But this is only the beginning!" the agent continued, pulling another card from his hand, "For now it is time to say goodbye to this Field Magic Card as I tribute my Clear World in order to activate an even stronger card! Manifest now! The glorious realm of Clear Universe!"

Above the duelists' heads, multiple spherical crystals materialized in the air above their heads, making it look as if they were battling in the midst of multiple crystalline planets.

"Clear Universe is always treated as Clear World." The agent explained. "Furthermore, this beautiful Magic Card will impose negative effects upon players depending on the attribute of monsters they control! Players who control monsters of the LIGHT attribute cannot set any cards face-down. Players who control DARK monsters must pay one-thousand life points to attack or activate a monster effect. Players with EARTH monsters have the ATK and DEF of their monsters changed to zero during their turns. Player's with WATER monsters must banish one Spell/Trap Card from their hand before activating a Spell/Trap Card. Players with FIRE monsters have their Life Points halved during the end of each of their turns. And finally, players with WIND monsters will be forced to banish any cards sent to their graveyards."

"It's a strong Field Spell." Youta, a medium height male Security Officer with blue hair acknowledged. "But it's negative effects will also hurt you the moment you summon any monster."

"Let's agree to disagree, shall we?" the agent laughed. "My turn continues with this spell card, a card called Nihilistic Annihilation Technique! Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card's effects! Furthermore, if Clear World is on the field, this card enables me to destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field other than Clear World for the small price of discarding my entire hand!"

The massive crystals of Clear Universe began glowing with intense light before rainbow-colored lights emanated from the crystals, striking each spell card on the field other than Clear Universe and obliterating them.

"You just lost all your resources!" Sakurako, a short female officer with a bob-cut of brown hair taunted. "Your field is wide open now with just the field spell card to protect you!"

"Then I suppose I ought to call forth a monster to remedy that." The agent snickered, before extending his hand towards his graveyard. "I activate the graveyard effect of the Nihilistic Fusion Technique Magic Card I just sent to the graveyard! By banishing this card, I can Fusion Summon one Clear monster from my extra deck by banishing monsters from my side of the field, hand, deck, or graveyard! Using this effect, I banish Clear Vice Dragon and Clear Greed Kobold from my deck in order to Fusion Summon!"

Above the agent's head, two translucent crystals appeared before swirling together into the center of a Fusion Portal in a swirl of translucent light.

"Nihilistic dragon of empty vice!" the agent chanted, "Nihilistic thief who fills the void in vain! With your combined indifference, merge together in the empty vortex and annihilate the foolish concept of individuality with true nihilism! YUUGO SHOUKAN!" the agent roared, clamping his hands together before a crimson dragon foot shaped mark blazed to life on his right arm. "Arawayo! Soulless dragon with translucent intent! Level eight! Crystal Clear Vice Dragon!"

Floating through the fusion vortex, a massive translucent spherical crystal with thousands of facets floated over the agent's head like a miniature planet. Within the crystal, light began to bend and fluctuate, until the image of a massive grey dragon with overgrown crystal claws, Crystalline horns and spikes on its body, and crystalline tusks in its mouth, appeared in the center of the crystal.

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 0**

"Crystal Clear Vice Dragon makes it so that I am unaffected by the effects of Clear World." The agent explained, "Furthermore, Crystal Clear Vice Dragon can attack all monsters my opponent controls, once each, but that is not even the best part! You see, whenever my Crystal Clear Vice Dragon battles a monster, its ATK becomes double the combined ATK and DEF of the monster it is battling!"

"But you can't attack this turn!" Satomi countered. "We'll find a way around your monster once our turns come!"

"You're not getting another turn." The agent growled, sounding irritated this time. "I told you already. It would be a stain upon my honor as a Horakhty Agent _and_ as a true Phoenix Guardsman to not defeat servants of the Earthbound like yourselves on my first turn!"

"Then your honor is going to be stained." Youta countered. "Because even you can't just change the rulebook!"

"You severely underestimate my power." The agent sighed, shaking his masked head. "Hopefully your masters won't make the same mistake after they witness your defeat through your eyes! I activate the effect of Clear Kobold! Since my monster was banished, I can add one Nihilistic Magic or Trap Card from my deck or which is currently banished to my hand! The card I choose is Nihilistic Suicide Technique, which I will now activate! When this card is activated, I target one Clear monster I control in order to immediately force all monsters my opponent controls to battle my monster! And since this card does not require me to target any of those monsters for an attack, I'm afraid that Vindikite R-Genex will NOT be protected from this card's effects!"

"Battling outside of the Battle Phase!?" Sakurako yelped.

"And don't think I've forgotten about the one who didn't summon anything." The agent smirked, addressing Tomoko, a female Security officer with black hair draped over her left eye. "I chain the effect of my Nihilistic Generosity Technique Trap Card in my graveyard to the activation of my Nihilistic Suicide Technique! By banishing this card from my graveyard, I Special Summon one Clear Pylon Token to your side of the field in attack position!"

Erupting from the ground in front of the disciple, a large translucent crystal pillar appeared to Tomoko's field.

 **Clear Pylon Token / DARK / Level 4 / Rock / ATK 0 / DEF 2000**

"BATTLE!" the agent roared, "Crystal Clear Vice Dragon, annihilate all my opposition! Begin with Arcanite Magician! Nihilistic Vice Stream!"

Phasing through the massive crystal like a ghost, the agent's monster loomed over the other monsters before unleashing a stream of translucent flame at Youta's monster.

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon: ((3400 + 1800) X 2) = 10,400 ATK**

Generating a magical barrier with its staff, Arcanite Magician attempted to protect itself and its master, but it was quickly annihilated in the face of Crystal Clear Vice Dragon's overwhelming power.

 **Youta: 4000 – 7000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"The second battle!" the agent declared, "Destroy Vylon Omega! Nihilistic Vice Stream!"

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon: ((3200 + 1900) X 2) = 10,200 ATK**

"I'm sorry, Ruri-sama, I have failed you." Satomi apologized, hanging her head down in defeat.

 **Satomi: 4000 – 7000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"The third battle!" the agent roared. "Destroy Vindikite R-Genex! Nihilistic Vice Stream!"

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon: ((2400 + 1000) X 2) = 6800 ATK**

"You won't win this war." Souma, a green-haired Security Officer with goggles over his eyes vowed before he was engulfed in the clear flame.

 **Souma: 4000 – 4400 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"THE FOURTH BATTLE!" the agent cackled, "DESTROY MONTAGE DRAGON! NIHILISTIC VICE STREAM!"

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon: ((7200 + 0) X 2) = 14,400 ATK**

"Please…someone…help me!" Sakurako whimpered as she and her monsters were consumed by the flame.

"THE FINAL BATTLE!" the agent roared, "LET YOUR MASTERS KNOW THAT THEIR DEFEAT IS INEVITABLE! DESTROY CLEAR PYLON! NIHILISTIC VICE STREAM!"

 **Crystal Clear Vice Dragon: ((0 + 2000) X 2) = 4000 ATK**

Saying nothing, Tomoko closed her eyes, accepting her defeat.

 **Tomoko: 4000 – 4000 = 0 (LOSE)**

…

 **Unknown Horakhty Agent vs. Christoff**

 **Current state of duel**

Nine other disciples defeated previously.

Christoff:

4000 LP

No cards in his hand

Controls no cards.

Horakhty Agent

4000 LP

6 cards in his hand

Controls 5 set spell/trap cards

Controls Cyber Dragon Infinity, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Chimeratech Overdragon, Chimeratech Rampage Dragon, and Cyber Dawn Dragon.

 **Cyber Dragon Infinity / LIGHT / Rank 6 / Machine / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2100 + (600) + 2100 = 4800 / DEF 1600 / 3 Overlay Units**

 **Chimeratech Fortress Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 5000 + 5000 = 10,000 / DEF 0**

 **Chimeratech Overdragon / DARK / Level 9 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4000 + 4000 = 8000 / DEF 4000**

 **Chimeratech Rampage Dragon / DARK / Level 5 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2100 + 2100 = 4200 / DEF 1600**

 **Cyber Dawn Dragon / LIGHT / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4000 + 4000 = 8000 / DEF 2800**

The Horakhty agent regarded the last standing disciple, a crimson wing-shaped mark glowing against his right arm.

"I can sense the presence of your master." He intoned in a solemn voice. "No doubt she wishes to gain intel on my strategy. However, that is not something I will allow at this time. Begone!"

Extending his marked arm towards the disciple, Ruri felt her consciousness forcible ripped from Christoff before she was forced into the consciousness of another disciple.

"Just who do you think you are?" a stocky male Security officer named Zolaf, with thick black stubble and an equally thick Swiss accent interrogated, addressing a tall woman with blonde hair and a single streak of black hair, a strange black-and-white mask over her face, and a glowing multi-colored spiral mark on her chest.

"I don't think you really need to know that." The woman purred, slowly stepping towards the officer. "All you need to be concerned with right now is answering my questions. Who turned you into a disciple, and where can I find them?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what your talking about." Zolaf replied, activating his duel disk.

"I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about." The masked duelist replied, "Either way though, it doesn't matter. I will find your master anyway. I just might make your death quicker if you talk and save me some time."

"Nice incentive." Zolaf sarcastically replied. "How about this? You stop pissing me off and I won't kick your butt in a duel!"

"Your kind murdered me once." The duelist whispered, activating her own duel disk, which projected a blade whose surface looked like a shimmering galaxy of stars, "I won't let that happen again. And I won't let your master destroy this universe."

"Ruri-sama is working to liberate us from tyranny!" Zolaf countered.

"Oh, so that's her name, is it?" the masked duelist purred. "Ruri. I shall be sure to pay her a visit. Thank you for telling me that much."

Zolaf blushed, but quickly drew his opening hand.

"DUEL!" Zolaf and the masked duelist declared in unison.

"I'll start things off!" Zolaf declared, pulling two cards from his hand. "I'll start by normal summoning Phantom King Hydride!"

Through a blue portal, Zolaf's first monster, a mounted knight riding a black horse, appeared to his field.

 **Phantom King Hydride / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 300**

"Next!" Zolaf continued, "I will use the effect of my Wandering King Wild Wind in order to Special Summon itself from my hand!"

Appearing next to his first monster, a large warrior with green cape and loincloth, and a panther head entered the duel field.

 **Wandering King Wild Wind / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1300**

"And now it is time for a Synchro Summon!" Zolaf declared as his Phantom King Hydride began synchronizing with his Wandering King Wild Wind, "Dark King of the Highlands, lay claim to what is rightfully yours and rule with supremacy! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Come forth! Dark Highlander!"

Appearing from the column of light of the Synchro Summon, Zolaf's monster, a tall demonic warrior with thick armor, and an intimidating scythe loomed over the masked duelist before letting out a mighty war cry.

 **Dark Highlander / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2300**

The masked duelist didn't even look at the synchro monster looming over her. Far from looking the least bit intimidated, she looked exceedingly bored.

"Not impressed?" Zolaf asked, "Well how about this? Since you apparently already know that I'm a disciple, why don't I show you my full power!? Since I control a Synchro Monster, I can Special Summon the Dark Tuner monster, Shadow King Andorf, to my field!"

Appearing to Zolaf's field, a burly warrior with black skin and orange hair entered the duel field. **Shadow King Andorf / DARK / Level 10 / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1100**

"Andorf's effect activates when it is Special Summoned!" Zolaf declared. "I can add one Equip Spell Card from my deck to my hand and Special Summon two Dark Informant Tokens to your side of the field!"

Adding a card from his deck to his hand, Zolaf next stretched his hand towards the masked duelist, creating two shadowy hooded tokens, whose faces were completely concealed by the hoods they wore. Far from looking perturbed, the masked duelist seemed to be ignoring the monsters on her side of the field.

 **Dark Informant Token / DARK / Level 1 / Fiend / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Dark Informant Token / DARK / Level 1 / Fiend / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"My Dark Informant tokens cannot be tributed, destroyed by battle, used as a Material for a Special Summon, or have their battle positions changed." Zolaf explained. "But the best part about having those tokens is the fact that I can now effectively use Andorf's effect! Once per turn, I can target 1 monster I control in order to reduce its level by 1 for each card on the field. I target my Dark Highlander with this effect in order to reduce its Level to three!"

 **Dark Highlander: Level 7 – 4 = 3**  
"However," Zolaf continued, "I'm not going to Dark Synchro Summon just yet. You'll have to patiently wait to be beaten, young lady. Instead, I will show you the effect of my Dark Highlander! I equip two copies of black pendant onto one of your own Dark Informant tokens!"

 **Dark Informant Token: 0 + 500 + 500 = 1000 ATK**  
"But I'm afraid that wasn't just a generous gift." Zolaf smirked, "Because now I activate the effect of my Dark Highlander! I destroy all of the tokens equipped to your monster in order to inflict four-hundred damage to your life points for each token destroyed, plus an additional one-thousand damage with the effects of each Black Pendant sent to the graveyard!"

Swinging its scythe through the air, Dark Highlander cut the two equip cards from the masked duelist's monster before striking at her with its scythe.

 **Masked Duelist: 4000 – (400 + 400 + 500 + 500) = 2200 LP**  
"I set one card face-down and end my turn." Zolaf finished. "Now it is your turn!"  
"My turn…draw." The masked duelist quietly replied, drawing a card from the top of her deck.  
"During your standby phase," Zolaf declared, "I activate my face-down card, Swift Dark Synchro! This card enables me to Dark Synchro Summon using monsters I control! Furthermore, if I activate this card during my opponent's turn, not only can you not activate any cards or effects in response to the activation of this card or its effects, but I can inflict 1000 damage to your Life Points! Using my card's effect, I Dark Tune my Shadow King Andorf with my Dark Highlander in order to Dark Synchro!"

Exploding into a cloud of ten white stars, which merged with the body of Dark Highlander, Shadow King Andorf caused Dark Highlander to fade into a transparent ghost before the monster exploded into seven black stars.

"When shadows are devoured by darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal a world without light!" the disciple chanted, "DARK SYNCHRO! Claim your inheritance now! Level negative seven! Shadow Highlander!"

Marching onto the field, a taller monster that looked very similar to Dark Highlander, save for the fact that it was greatly obscured by thick shadows, appeared to Zolaf's field.

 **Shadow Highlander / DARK / Level -7 / Fiend / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500  
** "The second effect of Swift Dark Synchro activates!" Zolaf declared. "Take one-thousand damage!"

From the trap card, a burst of dark energy shot out before slamming into the masked duelist's chest, knocking her back a few feet. However, brushing herself off, the masked duelist strolled forward before continuing with her turn.

 **Masked Duelist: 2200 – 1000 = 1200 LP**

"Magic Card activate," the masked duelist declared, "Fallen Star Descent. This card enables me to Special Summon one Fallen Star monster from my hand or deck. Come forth! The Dark Tuner Monster! Fallen Star Knight – Gaia!"

Appearing to the masked duelist's field was a tall female knight with short brown hair and broken dark-green armor. In her right hand was a short sword with a jagged edge.

 **Fallen Star Knight - Gaia / DARK / Level 12 / Warrior / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1000  
** "A dark tuner!?" Zolaf exclaimed, surprise evident in his voice, then you're…"

The masked duelist said nothing as she silently regarded him.

"It makes no matter!" Zolaf decided, "I activate the effect of Shadow Highlander! Any monster you Special Summoned has its ATK halved! Go! Shadow Scythe!"

Silent as a shadow, Shadow Highlander swung his massive scythe through the air, opening up a big gash in the masked duelist's monster.

 **Fallen Star Knight – Gaia: 1900 / 2 = 950 ATK**

"I next normal summon the monster, Fallen Star Knight – Cronus." The masked duelist continued, gently placing another card on her starry duel disk, seemingly unconcerned with everything else happening around her.

Lumbering onto the field, a gigantic titan of a man wearing dark yellow armor over his arms and torso and a short loin cloth over his extremities, entered the duel field, swinging a large scythe in his hands. **Fallen Star Knight - Cronus / DARK / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000  
** "So you can now Dark Synchro Summon a Level negative eight monster." Zolaf mused. "Go ahead, call it out. I'm ready for it!"

"Quick-Play Magic Card activate." The masked duelist calmly countered, "Fallen Star-Light. If I control a Fallen Star Monster, I can negate the effects of all monsters my opponent controls until the end of this turn.  
The entire field began to be illuminated by a dark starlight as the masked duelist activated her card, acting fast, Zolaf responded to the new development.

"Your card may negate my monster's effects, but I can still activate Shadow Highlander's effect in response!" Zolaf declared, "By banishing my two equip spell cards from my graveyard, I can target two monsters you control in order to banish them and inflict five-hundred damage to your life points for each monster banished with this effect! GO! REAPER OF HORRORS!"

Charging through the surge of light, Shadow Highlander swung its scythe through the air, cleaving Fallen Star Knight - Gaia and Fallen Star Knight – Cronus in two before striking at the duelist's chest, sending her falling to the ground before the effect of her card negated the Dark Synchro Monster's effects.

 **Masked Duelist: 1200 – (500 + 500) = 200 LP  
** "You have only two-hundred life points left and nothing but those two zero ATK tokens!" Zolaf growled. "I don't want to have to hurt you, so just surrender! You've already lost!"

The masked duelist gracefully lifted herself from the ground, dusting the dirt from her clothing before regarding Zolaf, seeming to smile behind her mask.

"Sore wa dou kana?" the masked duelist teased. "Because frankly, I think it is you who should give up. Surrender now and tell me where your master is."

"Do you think I'm an idiot to fall for such a bluff?" Zolaf growled. "Of course I'm not going to surrender!"

"Then you leave me no choice." The masked duelist sighed. "Magic card activate. Fallen Star Retroglyph. I special summon as many of my banished Fallen Star monsters as possible in defense position with their effects negated.

Eyes widening, Zolaf watched as both of the masked duelist's monsters reappeared to her field.  
"It is now time." The masked duelist purred, "I dark tune my Level negative twelve Fallen Star Knight – Gaia with my Level four Fallen Star Night – Cronus."

Transforming into twelve spheres of black energy, what was left of Gaia flew towards Cronus, who swallowed the twelve stars whole before clutching at his stomach in pain and exploding into a cloud of eight black stars as the masked duelist began her summoning chant.

"The light of my hopes and dreams has faded, now I pull back the curtain of unbelief and accept the cruel reality of the universe! Servant of my damned soul, arise from the ashes of the fallen star and fulfill my dark purpose! DARK SYNCHRO! Come forth now! Level negative eight! Fallen Nova Dragon!"

Appearing to the duelist's field, a large slender female dragon with pitch-black scales and violet wings entered the field, gazing down at Zolaf and his monster. The monster's body was covered with silver scars, and her frame, while muscular, was extremely emaciated.

 **Fallen Nova Dragon / DARK / Level -8 / Dragon / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000**

Zolaf began shrinking back from the massive dark dragon before glancing at his own powerful monster.

"It's a strong card." He observed, "But even it doesn't have enough ATK to completely defeat Shadow Highlander. Our monsters would just end up destroying each other."  
Silently, the disciple removed her mask, showing her face, a face marked with a hideous scar over her left eye, which was black as coal, while her right eye was a deep blue.

"I can sense the presence of your master watching this duel." The masked duelist intoned looking directly into Zolaf's eyes. "Know this, Ruri. I don't care what Yuu said to trick you into becoming his slave, but I am coming for you, and I will not stop until you and every one of your kind are eradicated from this universe!"

Ruri felt as if she ought to reply, but after witnessing her followers be destroyed again and again and again in the midst of her own impending defeat against Jack Atlas…she felt completely helpless. She wanted to immediately withdraw from Zolaf's consciousness, but something held her in place."

"My name is Miku, and I am your executioner!" the duelist named Miku declared before extending her hand towards her dragon.

"Fallen Nova Dragon's effect!" Miku declared, "I destroy Shadow Highlander and inflict its ATK as damage to your Life Points!"

Opening its mouth, Fallen Nova Dragon unleashed a gout of black flame against Shadow Highlander, obliterating Zolaf's monster, and knocking the disciple back.

 **Zolaf: 4000 – 3000 = 1000 LP  
** "Last chance." Miku warned, walking over to where Zolaf lay heavily injured. "Tell me where Ruri is and I will make your death quick."

"N-never!" Zolaf spat.

Fallen Nova Dragon, feed." Miku commanded, walking away as her dragon descended on the disciple with its teeth bared.

…

"Where is Shun!?" Ruri thought in panic. "Tell me Shun is safe!"

Skimming through the consciousness of her other disciples, she breathed a small sigh of relief as Mita, Santiago, and Pyotr each defeated the Guardsmen they were dueling before driving off.

However, when she saw Shun's duel…

"Majestic Gate's effect!" Adeel declared as Shun's Rise Falcon prepared to destroy his Amaterasu. "By paying half my Life Points and banishing this card and one Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monster from my graveyard, I can Special Summon 1 Majestic Monster from my Extra Deck of the same type as the monster banished with this effect, treating it as if it were properly Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summoned!"

 **Adeel: 2400 / 2 = 1200 LP**

"I banish Orthrus in for this effect!" Adeel roared, a crimson dragon mark blazing to life on his back. "COME FORTH! Fenrir the Majestic Legendary Canine World-Devourer!"

Appearing above his head, a massive crimson dragon mark identical to the mark on Adeel's back, but with a circular doorway attached to the center of the mark, materialized before the doors opened, and Adeel's new monster, a gigantic white wolf with icicles adorning its fur and teeth, charged onto the field.

 **Fenrir the Majestic Legendary Canine World-Devourer** **/ WATER / Level 10 / Beast / Synchro / Effect /ATK 4000 / DEF 3500**

"FENRIR'S EFFECT!" Adeel roared, sweat gleaming on his forhead as he grabbed the neck of his seeing-eye dog, Fluffals, "If it is Synchro Summoned successfully, all other cards on the field are banished and all players take five-hundred damage for each card banished with this effect! Brace for impact! ROAR OF RAGNAROK!"

Letting out a colossal roar, Adeel's massive wolf, blew apart the other monsters participating in the duel, including Shun's Rise Falcon. The shock of the roar was so great, that Adeel and his dog where blown out of their seat, along with Shun, who fell from the back of Rise Falcon.

"SHUN!" Ruri screamed as she saw her brother fly off the trackway through Mayuri's eyes, while Mayuri just barely managed to grab onto the edge of the runway and Hiroto lost control of his bike not far ahead.

 **Shun: 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Hiroto: 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Mayuri: 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Adeel: 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Semal: 4000 – (500 X 7) = 500 LP (WIN!)**

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ruri screamed again as she regained her focus just in time to extend her wings and avoid hitting the ground.

 _"I WILL NOT LOSE! I WILL NOT LOSE MY BROTHER! I WILL NOT LOSE MY FAMILY! I WILL NOT LOSE THIS WAR!"_ Ruri and Jatun roared in unison as she felt the spirit take control. "EARTHBOUND GENESIS'S GRAVEYARD EFFECT, ACTIVATE!" **  
**Feeling energy surge through her body as her eyes and mark lit up with intense white light, Ruri felt Jatun speaking through her mouth as her consciousness melded with the spirit's and they launched themselves into the sky.

" _If Earthbound Genesis is in our graveyard when we would take two-thousand or more damage, we can halve the damage, and if we do, we can add one Field Spell Card and one Earthbound God monster from our deck or graveyard to our hand! YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT US, SIGNER! BEHOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR ADVENT INTO THIS WORLD! WE ADD SANCTIFIED REALM FROM OUR GRAVEYARD TO OUR HAND AND ADD EARTHBOUND GOD JATUN WAQAR FROM OUR DECK TO OUR HAND!"_

Black shadows oozing from her body, Ruri repaired the damage Jack Atlas's monster had left on her skin and clothing when its attack had hit her, leaving her with enough life points to continue the duel.

Ruri 3500 – (4800 / 2) = 1100 LP

" _FURTHERMORE!"_ Ruri and Jatun continued, godly voice echoing across the city, " _OUR MAGIC CARD HAS ANOTHER EFFECT! IN PREPARATION FOR MY ADVENT, TWO CEREMONIAL TOKENS ARE SUMMONED TO MY SIDE OF THE FIELD! COME FORTH, THE ANCIENT AND SACRED OFFERINGS!"_

Through two black portals, a pair of weathered stone states appeared, styled after the fashion of ancient Mayan stone-cutters.

 **Ceremonial Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Rock / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

 **Ceremonial Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Rock / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

From below, Jack looked up at Ruri.

"I will not let you carry out your vengeance." Jack growled, narrowing his eyes at Ruri. "I set two cards face down. Turn end!"

 **Red Demon's Dragon Tyrant: 3500 ATK**

" _NOTHING CAN STAND IN MY WAY NOW!"_ Ruri heard Jatun speak through her mouth, _"PREPARE THYSELF, SIGNER! FOR MY ADVENT IS AT HAND! ORE-SAMA NO TURN! DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"_

Yanking a card from the top of their deck and adding it to their hand, Ruri and Jatun grinned as they saw what they had drawn.

"Wait for me, Shun!" Ruri thought to herself. "I _will_ save you!"

 _"_ _Witness me, father, mother, grandfather, matriarch!"_ Jatun cried, _"I_ will _defeat Burning Soul and pave the way towards our bright future!"_

 _"_ _Field Magic activate!"_ Ruri and Jatun declared in unison, _"Sanctified Realm!"_

Manifesting once again, Ruri's field spell card bathed the field in clouds. But instead of the usual calm white clouds, the clouds of her new Sanctified Realm had darkened and grown restless, as if a storm was about to break out.

 _"_ _Look at the city around you, Burning Soul!"_ Ruri heard Jatun proclaim as she stretched her arms out to indicate the massive metropolis. _"To winners such as yourself, the city is a paradise on earth. But we, the Earthbound, know the truth of this world! The paradise you have created is built upon the bones of the poor and downtrodden! Their spirits cry for vengeance against you and now, they shall have their opportunity to exact their revenge!"_

Feeling her power growing by the second, Ruri could barely remain conscious as Jatun continued to exercise her power through her. In the sky above her, a massive bird-shaped mark, identical to the mark on her back, but over a mile long, illuminated the heavens as she felt herself commence a summon chant.

 _"_ _DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT SKY LORD, I OFFER THEE THE MATERIAL TRIBUTE OF MY MONSTERS, AND THE SPIRITUAL DARK SACRIFICE OF THE SOULS OF THIS CITY WHO CRY FROM THE DEPTHS OF THEIR GRAVES FOR REVENGE AGAINST THEIR TOPS OVERLORDS!"_

Melding together into a multi-colored sphere, what was once Ruri's two Ceremonial tokens rose into the sky before transforming into a massive stone heart, which floated in the center of the colossal white bird mark. From every corner of the city, tens of thousands of lights began flying into the sky, entering the stony veins and arteries of the heart…

…and causing both the stone heart and Ruri's own dead heart to begin beating.

 _"_ _ABSORB THEIR STRENGTH INTO THY BEING!"_ Ruri chanted, feeling the words come to her as she felt a rush of ice-cold blood pump through her veins and her energy surge to even greater levels. _"BREAK THE MAGIC OF THE ANCIENT AND CURSED SEAL THAT BINDS THEE, AND RISE FORTH INTO THE HEAVENS TO CLAIM THIS UNIVERSE AS THINE OWN! EARTHBOUND ADVENT! RISE UP AS A TRUE GOD! JIBAKUSHIN! JATUN WAQAR!_

The beating of the stone heart and Ruri's own heart intensified, making Ruri feel more alive than she had ever felt in her existence, despite being undead. When her heartrate accelerated to the point where it felt like it would burst from the surge of blood and energy, the gigantic stone heart exploded in a massive column of light.

And the Earthbound God came forth.

Unfurling a pair of massive black wings with white markings, Jatun Waqar entered the field, letting out a high-pitched cry as she swept aside some dark clouds to unveil her full glory.

Over three-hundred meters in height, Jatun Waqar's phantasmal crane body was a deep night black, with blazing white lines of energy adorning her body, wings, neck, and head in elegant primordial patterns. Her long neck was the length of her body, and ended in a massive crane head with white markings adorning her face, and running over the massive glowing spherical white orbs that were her eyes. Her long beak was pitch-black and pointed at the tip like an immense spear. Her long and elegant wings were decorated at the bottom edges with rectangular feathers while four long rectangular feathers spread out from the end of each wing like fans. Her tail consisted of three even longer rectangular feathers, and her long legs stretched out from her body, the massive talons of her feet raking the surface of the clouds.

 **Earthbound God Jatun Waqar / DARK / Level 10 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 1800**

 _"_ _BEHOLD MY GLORY!"_ Jatun Waqar roared through Ruri's mouth. _"AT LONG LAST, FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE YOU MURDERED, I SHALL DISPENSE HOLY JUDGEMENT UPON THEE, SIGNER!"_

* * *

 **Featured fan cards and characters coming in the next chapter**

 **Ending A/N: Special thanks goes to my friend, fellow author, and mad genius, Nox Descious, for creating Friedrich and Daichi's duels, and to my beloved kindred spirit and fellow "5 D's" fan, Shimmering Sky, for her editing work. And to all other readers who have contributed to this work, I extend another heartfelt "thank you." This story would not be possible without your continued support and patience. Fear not. I intend to make full use of this vacation time, so much more "Signs of Renewal" will be posted. Anticipate the conclusion of this chapter coming by the end of next week! Until that time, I bid you all, my beloved readers, adieu!**


	29. Part 1: Chapter 14 (Part 2)

**Welcome back, my dear readers. We are not only back, but on a role! With the end of the school semester for me, comes the freedom to unleash the full strength of the Earthbound! Witness their full strength now!**

 **Part 1: Chapter 14 – Mark of the Daughter (Part 2)**

From the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper, one of Yuu's disciples, Aaron Tarleton, watched Ruri and Jack's duel unfold, Dreadroot mask lying on the ground and face lifted up towards the sky as he gazed upon the form of the Earthbound God hovering just beneath the massive heron mark, which dominated the entire skyline of Neo Domino City.

"Admiring your handiwork, Aaron?" A suave voice called from behind the disciple.

Picking up the mask from the ground and affixing it to his face, Aaron turned to face the speaker, a tall man with dark skin, a long goatee with a skull-shaped ornament woven into the hairs, coal black eyes with glowing purple irises, a massive grin with pearly white teeth, some inlaid with jewels, and an elegant red-and-black tuxedo with an immense feathered top-hat to compliment his outfit. By the man's side was a short, hooded figure. Both of them bore a glowing multi-colored spiral mark on their chests.

"One shot was all it took." Aaron murmured to himself as he briefly regarded the man before turning his attention back to the duel taking place overhead, "Just one shot. Yuu never told his full plans. I was just following his orders."

"As do we all." The man laughed, strolling over to clap his hand on Aaron's back, much to the disciple's annoyance. "Still," the man enthused, "y'all can't deny that that over there," he pointed in the direction of the Earthbound God, "Is a beautiful sight! Truly a masterpiece to be proud of, my friend!"

"I'm not your friend." Aaron growled, "And I take no pride in it, Isaac Abrams."

"Mmm, what's this?" the man named Isaac Abrams smirked, "Could it possibly be a bit of remorse? Or are you just afraid that she'll find out the truth?"

Aaron clenched his fists and ground his teeth together.

"Yuu promised to keep it a secret." He growled. "It was just one job! That's all!"

Isaac chuckled to himself, taking another moment to gaze up at the Earthbound God before speaking again.

"So where did your friend, Satoru, run off to?" Isaac inquired. "None of this would have been possible without him helping you out. I'd have thought he'd be up here with y'all, admiring the fruits of his labor."

"Satoru is not my friend, and as for where he's headed, something to do with his pathetic cousin." Aaron grunted.

"I suppose he's perfectly all right to go after Sora." Isaac shrugged. "After all, Sora and Lydia will be necessary for gathering the final pieces we need before we can start phase two. Speaking of which…" he patted the hooded figure on the head, who had waddled over to his side.

"Who is that?" Aaron growled, regarding the hooded figure with a wary expression.

"Oh, I'm sure you already know her." Isaac smirked, "After all, you did meet her and her family back when you did your job in Standard." He pulled back the hood to reveal a small girl with pale skin, long jet-black hair, and wide staring eyes with pitch-black sclera and glowing blue irises.

Aaron nearly jumped out of his boots when he saw her.

"You keep her away from me!" Aaron growled, pointing his finger at her as he backed away.

"Oh, stop your panicking." Isaac snickered. "You don't need to worry about her taking revenge against you. I've taken care of that." He explained, waving his hand in front of the girl's face. Staring with unblinking eyes, the girl didn't seem to register that Isaac even existed.

"What did you do?" Aaron asked, approaching the girl, a curious expression on his masked face.

"Oh, the poor little lady was an absolute mess when I found her stumbling into this dimension." Isaac cooed, patting the girl on her head. "You can imagine how confused she must have been, what with watching her family and friends die before she herself got slaughtered by a genocidal former Academia general, later getting thrown into the Underworld, only to be resurrected, just in the nick of time, by Master Yuu, and finally, after all that, finding herself in her ruined hometown only to learn from Yuu's whisperings that her dear sister had been kidnapped by LDS! She was ready to kill everyone in sight to save her dear sibling by the time she came to me. She might have killed me too! Fortunately, I was able to, shall we say, adjust her focus? You'll find she's quite docile now. Until I give her the express order to kill her sister's kidnapper, she'll be just like a pretty little doll."

"Andel…Reiji…" the girl croaked, voice extremely hoarse.

Aaron backed away from the girl, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"There, there, Adele." Isaac cooed, lowering himself so that he was whispering into the girl's ears, left hand wrapping around her cheek so that his nails were digging into her skin as he pulled her close, while in his right hand, a glowing iron-grey card, which looked like it was made of ghostly steel, pulsated with energy every time he spoke a word. "You will save Andel. You must kill Reiji to save Andel. Remember. Kill Reiji. Save Andel. Kill Reiji. Save Andel. You must focus, Adele, if you want to save Andel. Killing Reiji is the only thing that matters now. Kill Reiji. Kill Reiji. Kill Reiji."

"Reiji…Reiji…" the girl whispered, eyes completely blank.

"Of course," Isaac continued, standing up straight as if nothing had happened, "while our little assassin takes care of our favorite little LDS CEO, Yuu has entrusted you with the job of securing her sister, the conduit. I trust you'll be able to handle that little job?"

Aaron clenched his fists together.

"I let that little whelp slip through my fingers only once. It won't happen again!" he growled. "Even if I have to burn this city the ground like I did her hometown!"

"Ah hah! I love your spirit, my cosplaying friend!" Isaac laughed, clapping Aaron on his thick Dreadroot shoulder plate. "Come on! I happen to know exactly where Reiji is staying! What do you say we pay him a little visit?"

"I'm not your friend, and…I'm…not…cosplaying!" Aaron hissed, looking like he wanted to do nothing more than murder Isaac where he stood.

"Ah, so sensitive." Isaac sighed. "Lighten up, my friend! After all, humble Earthbound souls like ourselves have great reason to rejoice today! With the acquisition of yet another conduit, we'll be one step closer to resurrecting a god! Two gods, in fact!"

"So long as I get a front row seat when Academia, and my family burns, I'll be satisfied." Aaron snarled.

"Given the temperament of our new Dark Signers, I'd say you'll get your wish fairly soon." Isaac smirked as he, Aaron, and the girl began to leave. "All our little Ruri has to do now is defeat her Signer opponent, and who knows? We might even get another conduit in the bargain when Burning Soul falls!"

…

Ruri could not describe the way she felt as she hovered in the air just in front of the immense physical form of Jatun Waqar, the spirit's essence and consciousness taking such a strong hold over her senses that she didn't even know if she existed at all. She felt beyond life or death as eternity itself stretched before her vision. She could taste the certainty of her victory now, as certain as night eventually becomes day. She was omnipotent, omniscient, infallible…

…and she was going to defeat Burning Soul!

 _"_ _It's time for thee to behold my power, Burning Soul!"_ Jatun proclaimed through Ruri's mouth as she gazed upon the miniscule form of Jack Atlas. _"First, since I control a face-up Field Magic Card, I can Special Summon Fallen Angelic Guide from my graveyard! Return to me now!"_

Rising up from the swirling black clouds, Ruri's Burka-wearing angel rose into the air, lantern shining against the dark clouds.

 **Fallen Angelic Guide / LIGHT / Level 1 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

Energy coursed through Ruri's veins as she felt Jatun anticipate her next move.

 _"_ _Now behold my power!"_ Jatun declared, _"Mine is the glory of salvation itself! By sacrificing my Fallen Angelic Guide, I can revive one monster from either of our graveyards or which is banished! Return to me now! Spread your wings and continue your holy work, my noble servant and crusader! Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader!"_

Letting out a mighty shriek, Earthbound God Jatun Waqar lowered its beak over Fallen Angelic Guide, snapping up the tiny angel as if it were a mosquito before the Earthbound God's lines of white energy began glowing like a supernova. In front of her monster, a massive white portal opened up in the sky, through which the relatively tiny form of Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader flew through, brandishing her sword with a fierce determination to either conquer or die.

 **Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader / LIGHT / Rank 6 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2100**

 _"_ _Furthermore!"_ Jatun's voice thundered, as the irises of Ruri's eyes, and the wing-shaped mark over her left eye flashed a bright blood-red. _"Each time I use my effect, my strength grows! Whenever I Special Summon a monster with my own effect, I gain ATK equal to half the ATK of the monster I revived!"_

Veins surging with energy as if they would catch fire, Ruri's consciousness almost became completely engulfed in the rush of ecstasy that accompanied her…Jatun's…increase in ATK.

 **Earthbound God Jatun Waqar: 2800 + 1400 = 4200 ATK**

 _"_ _As it stands, I already have the power to defeat you, but I have something far worse planned for you, Burning Soul!"_ Jatun thundered, and now, Ruri could feel something else taking ahold of her consciousness.

Rage.

Blood boiling in the suffocating hatred and loathing that took hold of her, Ruri began drowning in a sea of images, memories, and emotions that came spilling from the consciousness of Jatun as she and the Earthbound God gazed upon Jack Atlas.

 _"_ _No!"_ she heard herself cry, tears filling her eyes as her father stood above her with the grim news. _"Grandfather couldn't have lost! He couldn't have been destroyed! He was not like the others! He was invincible!"_

Catequil stood above her, silently closing his eyes before turning away his head, saying nothing.

 _"_ _HE CAN'T BE GONE!"_ she screamed. _"HE'S IMMORTAL! IMMORTAL! GRANDFATHER! GRANDFATHER! WHERE ARE YOU!?"_

Darkness encloses her, and suddenly, she is somewhere else in the Underworld.

 _"_ _We are fading in this world."_ A soft humming voice cooed to her as she gazed up at the spectral form of her mother, Aslla Piscu. _"I know you and your father don't want me to leave, but unless my plan succeeds, our kind will all be in danger of total annihilation! Promise me, Jatun, promise me that you will stay strong!"_

 _"_ _I will."_ Ruri heard herself promise. _"But I don't understand. The Matriarch said to wait until the vessels of the Destroyer and Creator God were ready. Why are you choosing to inhabit that mortal's body now?"_

Aslla remained silent.

 _"_ _Never forget that I have always loved you."_ The great hummingbird whispered. _"We must remain loyal to one another if our family is to survive. Promise me, Jatun, no matter what the other Gods think of me, no matter what the Matriarch herself might say, that you will always fight for the welfare of our family!"_

 _"_ _I will."_ Ruri heard herself promise.

Aslla began to fade.

 _"_ _Please mother, no!"_ She suddenly begged as her mother prepared to merge with the mortal vessel who had entered their realm. _"I can't lose you too! Promise me you won't be destroyed! Not like Grandfather!"_

 _"_ _I promise."_ Aslla replied, before vanishing.

Darkness engulfed her again.

This time, she was alone.

Incomprehensible feelings of anguish gripped every fiber of her being as she tore at the feathers of her own beautiful head with her sharp talons in sheer grief.

 _"_ _BURNING SOUL!"_ She heard herself scream, _"QUETZALCOATL! I VOW, UNTIL MY VERY BEING CEASES TO EXIST, I SHALL NOT STOP HUNTING YOU UNTIL YOU AND ALL YOUR WORKS ARE DESTROYED! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR DESTROYING MY MOTHER!"_

Ruri gasped at the immense pain, rage once again consuming her as she only barely managed to regain focus of the duel.

She could feel Jatun's hatred.

She could feel what she wanted to do to Jack Atlas.

 _"_ _Continuous Magic Card activate!"_ Jatun proclaimed through Ruri's mouth as she activated a Spell Card depicting the fall of a heavenly castle. _"Lost Salvation! Now you shall behold true power, Burning Soul! By targeting myself, my Continuous Spell Card becomes equipped to me! Furthermore, when activated, Lost Salvation banishes all monsters from the graveyard before granting me four-hundred attack for each monster banished with this effect! Be purged from the graveyard and become my fuel, Fallen Angelic Guide, Salvation Seraphim Martyr, Salvation Seraphim Priestess, Salvation Seraphim Acolyte, Salvation Seraphim Healer, Salvation Seraphim Apostle, Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor, Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader, Salvation Seraphim Inspired Crusader, Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader, Salvation Seraphim Hermit, Salvation Seraphim Archon, Salvation Seraphim Angel, Salvation Seraphim Oracle, Force Resonator, Red Warg, Red Gargoyle, Red Sprinter, Red Guardna, and Red Mirror!"_

The black clouds of Sanctified Realm began swirling around in an immense tempest as the spectral forms of all the monsters in their graveyards were carried up with the winds. Opening her mouth wide, Jatun Waqar snapped up all the monsters before her body began glowing with immense light.

 **4200 + (400 X 20) = 12,200 ATK**

Ruri felt the rage building. She could feel what she wanted to do not only to Jack, but to everyone associated with him.

 _"_ _I activate the Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force I added to my hand on the previous turn!"_ Jatun declared, slamming the spell card onto the duel disk. _"If I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can target one Salvation Seraphim monster I control in order to rank it up into a monster up to four ranks higher than my monster using my monster as the Overlay Unit!"_

Above Zealous Crusader, a massive wing-decorated double "S" mark, which appeared to be made out of pure crystalline light, appeared before the angelic warrior flew into the center of the symbol and began transforming while Jatun commenced a summoning chant.

 _"_ _Almighty spirit whose soul blazes with holy light as a beacon to all servants of righteousness, ascend into the heavens and lead the servants of God forth to battle as a paragon of perfection and righteousness! RANK UP XYZ CHANGE! Rise up as my servant! Rank ten! Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader!"_

Unfurling three pairs of massive white wings, Ruri's new Xyz monster bathed the entire field in light as she stood against the backdrop of dark clouds like a brilliant star. Paragon Crusader was a tall female angel with stunning white hair and deeply tanned skin. Her body and wings were clad in shining silver-and-gold armor with the mark of the Salvation Seraphim inlaid in the chest-plate in glimmering Lapis Lazuli. In her left hand, she carried a massive glowing shield with the same Salvation Seraphim Mark as the one on her chest, while her right hand hefted an immense glowing white sword with a hilt made of crystalline angel wings, styled like the double "S" symbol and inlaid with Lapis Lazuli jewels. The voices of an angelic choir sounded behind the monster, proclaiming her triumphal arrival.

 **Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader / LIGHT / Rank 10 / Winged Beast / Xyz / Effect / ATK 4000 / DEF 3500 / Overlay Units: 1**

Ruri managed to focus on her monster for a moment, feeling comfort from its holy presence. Her cause was just. She knew that what she and Jatun were doing, was just. The spirits memories had shown exactly why Jack was evil and had to be stopped.

So why did she feel uncertain of her purpose now?

 _"_ _Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader's effect activates!"_ Jatun declared. _"When she is successfully Xyz Summoned, I can attach all cards in my graveyard to my monster as Xyz Material! I have no monsters left, but I can still fuel her strength with Salvation Seraphim Judgement Force, Salvation Seraphim Ascension Force, Salvation Seraphim Consecration Force, Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force, Salvation Seraphim Holy Armor, and Earthbound Genesis! Empower my monster now!"_

From her graveyard, six spheres of light shot into the sky before traveling to Paragon Crusader's sword, where they hovered around the blade like five halos.

 **Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader: 7 Overlay Units**

 _"_ _Furthermore!" Jatun continued, "My Paragon Crusader has another effect! Once per turn, if I have no monsters in my graveyard, I can attach all cards in both our graveyards to my monster as Overlay Units! Your graveyard is mostly cleaned out, but I can still take you Red Gate, and Red Command, for my power!"_

Stretching her sword towards Jack, Paragon Crusader siphoned all cards from Jack's graveyard before those cards morphed into two more spheres of white light, which joined the other six orbiting Paragon Crusader's sword.

 **Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader: 9 Overlay Units**

 _"_ _BATTLE!"_ Jatun roared, the eyes of Ruri and the Earthbound God flaring with light as the spirit's rage once again began to overwhelm Ruri's consciousness. _"Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader, destroy Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant! SALVATION'S ARSENAL!"_

Raising her massive sword into the air and spreading out her armored wings, Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader conjured dozens of glowing white spherical portals adjacent to her wings, though which an equal number of weapons, spears, swords, lances, arrows, muskets, rifles, machine guns, chain guns, cannons, missiles, and a few tanks, materialized into existence before launching their projectiles with thunderous vigor at Jack's monster.

"Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant's effect!" Jack declared, raising his hand towards his monster as his massive dragon deflected a shower of bullets with its blazing wings while dodging several missiles and lances and deflecting some swords with its claws and calloused scar. "Since Gravity Resonator was used as a material in its Synchro Summon, once per turn, I can negate one of your attacks! Gravity Barrier!"

Enveloping itself in its wings, Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant generated an invisible barrier, against which the weapons Paragon Crusader launched at the dragon, bounced off, leaving Jack's monster unharmed. Lowering her sword, Paragon Crusader caused the weapons she had summoned to withdraw back into the depths of their portals before the portals vanished.

Jatun Waqar began laughing.

 _"_ _FOOL! YOUR JUDGEMENT IS UPON YOU! I KNEW YOU MIGHT HAVE A DEFENSE PREPARED, SO I MERELY BAITED IT OUT WITH PARAGON CRUSADER'S ATTACK! NOW I SHALL DELIVER JUDGEMENT UPON YOU BY MY OWN POWER! PREPARE YOURSELF, BURNING SOUL, FOR I SHALL HOLD NOTHING BACK! I WILL SMEAR YOUR BLOOD UPON THIS EARTH AND THRUST YOUR SOUL DOWN TO THE SAME INFERNAL PIT I HAVE PREPARED FOR YOUR OTHER KIND! THERE YOU SHALL SUFFER THE SAME PAIN I FELT WHEN YOU ANNIHILATED MY GRANDFATHER, MY MOTHER, AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR ALLIES! DIE SIGNER!"_

Ruri's eyes widened as she realized what she was saying, and what Jatun was intending to do. She could feel that the spirit meant every word of what she said. She was driven by an intense rage and grief, which Ruri could still barely maintain consciousness against. If Ruri stood by and let the spirit take out her anger against Jack, she would not just defeat the Signer. No. She meant to utterly annihilate him, and then…

Horrific images of the entire city burning crowded Ruri's mind as she descended deeper into the thoughts of the spirit. She wanted blood, destruction, and yet more blood and destruction. And now, as the gigantic heron reared back its head, generating a massive surge of energy in its colossal throat and beak, she could see that she was going to carry out that desire.

"Can I blame her for this?" Ruri thought to herself. "She lost so many she loved. Why shouldn't she seek vengeance for it?"

A new memory came to the surface of her mind. One of her own memories.

 _"_ _WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING US!?" Her brother, Shun, roared as he prepared to pummel a defeated Academia soldier into the ground. "WHO SENT YOU!?"_

 _Ruri was about to run forward to stop him, when another person grabbed his arm._

 _"_ _Stop it, Shun!" Yuto warned, "This isn't helping anything! You've beaten him half senseless! We need to get moving before more come!"_

 _"_ _NO!" Shun roared, "I'm not letting him get away! I can't let him go unpunished for what he did!"_

 _"_ _We will all die if we stay here!" Yuto roared, punching Shun in the gut, causing her brother to stagger back. "We can't let our anger control us, or it will destroy us!"_

 _Ruri watched the scene unfold, remembering the way she felt when Yuto had said that, her own words to Yuto echoing in her head from a previous battle._

"N-no!" Ruri managed to cry though her mouth, abruptly seizing control of her body as Jatun's spirit recoiled in shock. "This isn't right! We can't let our anger consume us!"

 _"_ _What are you doing!?"_ Jatun protested from within her, but Ruri continued, addressing Jack.

"I have seen what you have done, Jack Atlas!" Ruri declared, simultaneously forestalling Jatun's attack declaration.

 _"_ _I'm sorry, Jatun."_ Ruri thought to the spirit. _"I know you want this, but please, we can't let hatred consume us!"_

 _"_ _STOP FIGHTING ME AND LET ME DESTROY HIM!"_ Jatun screamed.

"You've destroyed a lot of lives with your actions." Ruri continued, managing to fight off Jatun's will to continue addressing the Signer, who was staring up at her, eyes wide with astonishment, "You do deserve a great punishment, but I don't want to have to kill you! I am giving you one chance to accept your guilt and surrender! Otherwise, you will face destruction! Surrender now!"

There was a pause for just a moment as Ruri struggled against Jatun's will.

Then, Jack spoke.

"You have found your voice, Ruri." Jack replied, nodding his head, "I am glad I could speak with you. Perhaps there is hope for you, yet."

Ruri was stunned into silence, not understanding what Jack was saying. Meanwhile, she could feel Jatun's rage building up within her, only this time, she could feel some of it directed at her.

"I will never surrender." Jack continued, turning his bike around to continue racing forward. "However, if you can continue to find your voice, Ruri, you may yet manage to become the true victor of this duel."

 _"_ _ENOUGH!"_ Ruri suddenly heard herself scream as Jatun took control of her body once more. _"BURNING SOUL! YOU DIE HERE AND NOW! I ATTACK YOUR LIFE POINTS DIRECTLY! FEEL MY POWER! SACRED VENGEANCE!"_

Through the eyes of the Earthbound God, Ruri saw Jatun unleash a stream of white energy from her beak straight at Jack's bike. The energy from the blast was so intense that the very clouds around the beam were being disintegrated.

"Trap activate!" Jack declared, stretching his hand towards one of his face-downs. "Red Fury! If my opponent declares an attack while I control just one face-up Red Daemon's Dragon monster, I can apply the following effect until the end of this turn! Red Daemon's Dragon monsters I control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, and furthermore, any damage I take this turn is negated and instead is added to the ATK of my monster!"

 _"_ _Did you forget about my Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader!?"_ Jatun sneered through Ruri's face. _"It inherited the effect of the Zealous Crusader I used as its material! Using its effect, I banish three Overlay Units from my monster in order to negate the effect of your Red Fury and destroy it!"_

 **Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader: 6 Overlay Units**

Creating a cross-shaped glyph with her hands and three of the overlay units, Paragon Crusader struck the glyph with her sword, sending a flash of energy into Jack's Tap Card, destroying it.

"Red Fury's second effect!" Jack continued, stretching his hand forward as a phantasmal after-image of his destroyed Trap Card appeared next to his bike. "If this card is destroyed, I can target one Red monster I control in order to inflict damage to your Life Points equal to half the attack of that monster!"

 _"_ _Paragon Crusader's effect!"_ Jatun roared. _"I banish another three overlay units from my monster in order to negate the effect! FEEL THE FURY OF MY ATTACK!"_

 **Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader: 3 Overlay Units**

"Please! Stop this!" Ruri begged, barely managing to stay awake as she drowned in the tide of Jatun's anguish and rage.

 _"_ _STAY OUT OF MY WAY!"_ Jatun thundered back.

"Trap activate! Red Destiny!" Jack roared as the Damage Step began, wing-mark blazing to life on his right arm while he generated a crimson barrier with the power of his trap and his mark, which began deflecting the surge of heat from Jatun's furious attack. As the white energy continued to burn around him, Jack faced Ruri.

"Now is your chance to seize control of this duel and your destiny, Ruri!" Jack proclaimed. "Paragon Crusader cannot simply activate its effect again since it would need to banish Zealous Crusader, who must be attached for the effect to work, so this card's activation cannot be negated! Since I control a Red Daemon's Dragon monster, the damage to my life points from that attack are changed to zero at the cost of enabling the monster who just attacked to attack a second time during this Battle Phase! Furthermore, after this effect resolves, my opponent must choose to activate one of the following effects! The first effect of my card halves both our Life Points, but also doubles the attack of our monsters! The second effect, on the other hand, will double both our Life Points while halving the ATK of our monsters! Choose your destiny now, Ruri! I am placing the outcome of this duel in your hands!"

"What are you doing, Jack?" Ruri thought to herself as she struggled against Jatun's influence. "Why would you even put a card like that in your deck?"

 _"_ _THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS!"_ Jatun thundered through Ruri's mouth as she prepared for her second attack. _"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME WITH SUCH A CHEAP TRICK! I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER, JACK ATLAS BY HALVING YOUR LIFE POINTS AND THEN OBLITERATING WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU! I CHOOSE TO ACTIVATE-…"_

"The second effect!" Ruri gasped, managing to gain control of her body once more.

 **Ruri: 1100 X 2 = 2200 LP**

 **Jack: 2100 X 2 = 4200 LP**

 _"_ _NO!"_ Jatun roared from within Ruri. _"RURI, WHY ARE YOU FIGHTING ME! YOU CAN'T LET THIS SIGNER DECIEVE YOU! WE HAVE TO WIN!"_

"Earthbound God Jatun Waqar is unaffected by my opponent's Spell and Trap Cards and the effects of monsters whose Level or Rank is lower than her own, so her ATK power is not halved." Ruri gasped, managing to maintain control. "However, Tyrant's ATK will still be halved."

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant: 3500 / 2 = 1750 ATK**

 _"_ _WHICH MEANS THAT EVERYTHING YOU DID ULTIMATELY AMOUNTS TO NOTHING!"_ Jatun roared, assuming control once again. _"BECAUSE OF RED DESTINY, I GAIN ANOTHER ATTACK! THIS TIME, YOUR DOOM IS CERTAIN! WITNESS THE RAW POWER OF MY VENGEANCE! BEHOLD THE RAGE OF THE EARTHBOUND! BLAZE OF GLORY!"_

"STOP!" Ruri protested, trying to regain control, but ultimately failing against the suffocating influence of Jatun.

"There is hope for you, Ruri." Jack murmured to himself before stretching his hand towards another of his face-downs.

"Counter Trap Card!" Jack roared as Jatun unleashed another blast of white energy his direction. "Crimson Dragon Release! I pay half my Life Points in order to Synchro Summon one Majestic Synchro Monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from my side of the field, hand, or deck as Material!"

 **Jack Atlas: 4200 – 2100 = 2100 LP**

"I double tune the Neo Majestic Dragon and Red Nova in my deck to the Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant I control in order to Synchro Summon!" Jack proclaimed as a tiny fairy-like dragon with a fluorescent purple body and rapidly beating hummingbird-like wings and a crimson fairy with burning red eyes morphed into a pair of flaming synchro rings, which enveloped his Tyrant in a sphere of flame. Over Jack's back, a massive circular crimson dragon-shaped mark blazed to life as Tyrant began to evolve within the vortex of flame and Jack commenced his summoning chant.

"INVINCIBLE TYRANT AND OMNIPOTENT DEVIL SHALL BECOME ONE IN A SINGLE DECISIVE STROKE HERE AND NOW! IN THE ROARING FURNACE OF MY SOUL, RISE UP AND TAKE FLIGHT WITH THE BLESSING OF THE CRIMSON DRAGON TO SHAKE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! DOMINATE AS AN ETERNAL RULER! LEVEL TWELVE! MAJESTIC RED NOVA TYRANT DRAGON!"

Over the sphere of fire, a gigantic phantasmal image of Jack's Neo Majestic Dragon expanded into the air. Within the phantasmal dragon, Tyrant Dragon began to double in size as it evolved. Bursting free from its cocoon of flame with the explosion of a supernova, Jack's new monster, a massive godly dragon with flaming crimson-and-black scales, rose into the air before shaking the entire city with the force of its roar. The demonic flaming horns on its head and claws on its hands and feet were immense and patterned with shadowy black stripes. An immense burning scar on its right arm, shaped like the circular mark on Jack's back, radiated with light and heat. Six immense red-and-black wings sprouted from its back, the membranes ejecting surging red-hot flames like the exhaust of a jet airplane. It's red-and-black tail doubled the length of the dragon, with a spiked tip that burned with magma-hot flames. Shrinking back from the light, Ruri and Jatun could feel a similar presence they had felt when they had beheld Quetzalcoatl earlier that day.

 **Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon / DARK / Level 12 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 5000 / DEF 4000**

"My Crimson Dragon Release remains on the field as a Continuous Trap Card after it is activated, so long as my monster remains on the field," Jack explained, surging forward on his bike while Ruri and Jatun struggled to shield their eyes from Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon's light, "In addition, because a new monster was summoned, the replay rule takes effect, meaning your attack does not take effect and you must either choose to attack again or not attack any more with that monster for this turn. Furthermore, Red Nova's effect activates! Since it was used as a Material for the Synchro Summon of a monster that used two tuners, I can Special Summon one FIRE Fiend-Type monster from my deck! Come forth! Red Resonator!"

Bursting onto Jack's field in a gout of flame, another Resonator demon with flaming robes appeared next to Jack's bike.

 **Red Resonator / FIRE / Level 2 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200**

"Red Resonator's effect!" Jack declared. "I target my Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon in order to gain life points equal to its ATK!"

 **Jack Atlas: 2100 + 5000 = 7100 LP**

 _"_ _IT DOESN'T MATTER!"_ Jatun roared through Ruri's mouth, her physical body echoing the sentiment with a high-pitched heron shriek. _"I CAN STILL ATTACK YOU DIRECTLY AND YOUR LIFE POINTS AREN'T NEARLY HIGH ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU!"_

"MAJESTIC RED NOVA TYRANT DRAGON'S EFFECT!" Jack roared back, "The effects of my opponent's monsters are negated! Meaning that Earthbound God Jatun Waqar is now stripped of her power!"

Roaring, Jack's monster raised its scar into the air, generating a pulse of crimson light, which slammed into Earthbound God Jatun Waqar, causing the immense heron to reel backwards as white lights began spilling out of its phantasmal form like drops of blood.

 **Earthbound God Jatun Waqar: 12,200 – 1400 = 10,800 ATK**

Ruri reeled back in pain as she experienced the pain Jatun Waqar was feeling of being stripped of her powers. Jatun, however, managed to recover.

 _"_ _I still possess the power of Lost Salvation!"_ Jatun Waqar countered. _"Meaning I am far stronger than your monster! I attack that wretched dragon now! BLAZE OF GLORY!"_

Flapping her immense wings, Jatun rose into the air, blowing away the clouds around her before charging straight at Jack's monster, talons outstretched and beak opened wide as a surge of light and energy built up within her throat. Roaring back at the Earthbound God, Jack's monster charged back at Jatun Waqar, scarred right arm blazing with light.

"MAJESTIC RED NOVA TYRANT DRAGON'S EFFECT!" Jack roared. "If my monster is targeted for an attack, I can banish my monster in order to negate the attack!"

Jatun Waqar fired a blast of white energy at Jack's monster, before swiping one of her talons at the dragon's immense tail. But before either of the attacks could connect, Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon conjured a crimson portal, shaped like the mark on its arm and Jack's back, though which it flew, vanishing from existence as the beam of light flew harmlessly past it.

 _"_ _COME BACK AND FIGHT!"_ Jatun roared in rage and agony before Jack's Majestic Red Nova Dragon suddenly reappeared through the same crimson portal.

 **Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon: 5000 + 2800 = 7800 ATK**

"What happened!?" Ruri exclaimed, briefly managing to regain control before Jatun forced her consciousness aside.

"After the attack is negated," Jack explained, "Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon is re-summoned to the field with its ATK increased by the original ATK of the monster it was battling. Furthermore!" he continued, eyes burning with determination, "Both our monsters immediately battle once again, but my monster cannot be destroyed by that battle! GO! ABSOLUTE MAJESTIC POWER NOVA!" Jack commanded as his dragon reared back its head and unleashed a blaze of crimson star fire from his mouth.

"BLAZE OF GLORY!" Jatun Waqar roared back as she struck back with her own burst of white energy.

Connecting in mid-air, the two blasts of energy slammed against one another, both contending for dominance. However, Jatun's blast proved to be far stronger that Jack's monster as it pushed against the surge of flame, forcing Jacks monster to generate a massive crimson shield made of pure energy from the mark on its arm in order to deflect the blast.

 _"_ _LOST SALVATION'S EFFECT!"_ Jatun roared through Ruri's mouth, _"Your Red Destiny may halve all damage you take this turn, but by returning five of your banished monsters, Red Guardna, Red Warg, Red Mirror, Soul Resonator, and Gravity Resonator to your graveyard, I can double the damage I inflict, canceling out the protection effect of my Sanctified Realm and countering your trap card's effect! TASTE MY FURY!"_

Staggering against the force of Jatun's attack as it doubled in intensity, Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon only barely managed to prevent himself from being disintegrated as he hid behind his energy shield. Around the shield, beams of white energy rained down on Jack Atlas, obliterating segments of the runway as he managed to dodge out of the way of the explosions and shrapnel.

 **Jack Atlas: 7100 – 3000 = 4100 LP**

"Please…stop this!" Ruri begged Jatun as she struggled against the spirit's will.

 _"_ _You have done enough!"_ Jatun shrieked back. _"I activate the effect of Sanctified Realm! Adding one Spell or Trap Card from my deck to my hand! Finally, during my End Phase, due to the effect of Lost Salvation, I take damage equal to the ATK of the monster equipped with that card! Fortunately, thanks to my Sanctified Realm, that minor inconvenience is no concern to me!"_

From the heavens above Jatun, a massive thunderbolt nearly struck against Ruri, before a golden barrier of light, generated by Sanctified Realm, deflected the blast.

"During the End Phase," Jack explained, "My Majestic Monster's effect compels it to be returned to my Extra Deck. However," he continued, "thanks to the effect of my face-up Crimson Dragon Release, I can pay two-thousand Life Points instead!"

Blazing with fiery crimson light, the mark on Jack's back began to glow with intense energy, seemingly draining him of his own life energy.

 **Jack Atlas: 4100 – 2000 = 2100 LP**

 _"_ _Turn end!"_ Jatun declared through Ruri's mouth. _"Heed my words, Burning Soul, this next turn will be your last!"_

"You have shown me your dueling." Jack replied, placing his hand on top of his deck, "But Ruri has also shown me her dueling, and I intend to respond to her will! ORE NO TURN…DRAW!"

Yanking a card from the top of his deck, Jack examined the card before closing his eyes in reverence.

"So, she is who you sensed her to be." Jack murmured to himself. "It seems you desire to fight for her welfare as well, Burning Soul. Very well, as your chosen conduit, I shall carry out your wish."

He placed the card in his hand before extending his hand towards his dragon.

"Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon's effect!" Jack declared as his dragon powered up the flaming mark on his arm. "Once per turn, I can negate the effects of all other cards on the field, destroy them, and increase the ATK of my monster by one-thousand for each card destroyed with its effect! GO! MAJESTIC CRIMSON NOVA BURNING!

 _"_ _Trap card activate!"_ Jatun countered, revealing the trap card resting in her hand, which she had retrieved with the effect of Sanctified Realm, _"Earthbound Glory! If I control an Earthbound God monster, I can activate this card from my hand! Once activated, Earthbound Glory inflicts damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to half the ATK of a face-up Earthbound Monster I control! I choose to target myself for this effect! Burn in my glory!"_

Spreading out her wings and rearing back her head as she let out a high-pitched heron shriek, Jatun Waqar began glowing with immense light before unleashing a wave of energy which headed straight towards Jack's bike.

"Counter Trap Card!" Jack countered, revealing the card he had just drawn, "Burning Soul! If I control a Majestic Monster with a Level or Rank of twelve, I can activate this card from my hand! With its power, I negate the activation of your Earthbound Glory, destroy it, and if I do, I can double the ATK and DEF of one Majestic Monster I control! GO! BURNING SOUL!"

 **Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon: 7800 X 2 = 15,600 ATK**

Jack's entire body became engulfed in blazing flame as his Trap Card activated, a surge of fire exploding forth from Jack's body before slamming into the wall of light and dispersing the energy. Within the flames, Jack sat unburnt and affixed with a determined expression on his face.

Ruri felt Jatun shrink back from the light emanating from Jack's body, enabling her to take control of her body once again. Scrambling to return her focus to the duel, Ruri's gaze passed by Jack, when she spied something that caused her to take a closer look.

Staring up at her from Jack's bike, a different individual was looking her in the eye, a sorrowful expression on his face. His body was phantasmal and semi-translucent, as if it were made up of pure flame, his eyes were white and red, like white-hot fire, and his spikey white hair was streaked with deep red lines. Gazing upon the strange sight, Ruri couldn't help but feel she somehow knew the phantasmal stranger staring at her.

 _"_ _Remember who you were before…please…remember who you used to be…"_ The man whispered.

"What?" Ruri gasped before the roar of Jack's dragon activating its effect took her attention from the spectral burning spirit. Turning her head around, she saw Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon unleash an inferno of crimson flame from the mark on its right arm, consuming everything on the field, including the colossal body of Jatun Waqar, as the immense spectral Heron began shrieking in pain.

The second Jatun Waqar caught fire, Ruri lost all her ability to focus on anything. She could feel herself burning, every nerve of her screaming in agony as it lit up with heat and pain. She had to end the pain! She had to escape! She had to stop it! She had to end it! She had to end it now!

 **Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon: 15,600 + (6 X 1000) = 21,600 ATK**

"Hold on, Ruri!" Jack called to Ruri as she writhed against the pain of Jatun. "I will end this now!"

As blinded by agony as she was, Ruri managed to glance at Jack briefly, but the spirit she had seen before was gone. Unable to think about what it all meant, Ruri let out a scream as she began drowning in the pain once again.

"Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon, direct attack! ABSOLUTE MAJESTIC POWER NOVA!"

Once again, Ruri found herself utterly powerless. Once again, Ruri was the helpless victim awaiting defeat. Almost sinking into unconsciousness, Ruri was about to give up, when she felt Jatun take control once again.

 _"_ _EARTHBOUND GLORY'S GRAVEYARD EFFECT!"_ Jatun roared with a mixture of rage and agony. "I banish my trap card and pay half my Life Points in order to activate one Field Spell Card or one Earthbound Spell or Trap Card from my deck!"

 **Ruri: 2200 – 1100 = 1100 LP**

 _"_ _COUNTER TRAP CARD ACTIVATE! EARTHBOUND VENGEANCE!"_ Jatun screamed with unrestrained rage and agony, _"IF AN EARTHBOUND GOD MONSTER I CONTROLLED WAS DESTROYED THIS TURN, I CAN TARGET THAT MONSTER TO INFLICT DAMAGE TO BOTH OF OUR LIFE POINTS, EQUAL TO ITS ATK! THIS WAR IS NOT FINISHED, BURNING SOUL! I WILL COMPLETE MY WORK!"_

The physical body of Jatun Waqar was still burning above them, taking a massive blast to its chest as the attack of Jack's monster connected. However, instead of disintegrating into ashes, Jatun Waqar spread out her wings, the lines of white energy on her body surging with power before she exploded in a blast of white light, which slammed into Jack and Ruri, knocking them both back.

 **Ruri: 1100 – 2800 = 0**

 **Jack Atlas: 2100 – 2800 = 0**

 **(DRAW)**

…

Jack slowly got up from the ground, feeling cracked ribs and blood dripping from several lacerations on his arms and legs, but otherwise okay.

"It'll take more than this…" he grunted to himself, "…to stop…the king."

Coughing, he pulled himself off the ground, before leaning against his bike, The Wheel of Fortune. Looking over to where he had just dueled, he briefly scanned the surrounding area to see if he could find where Ruri had landed, but gave up when he found nothing.

Raising his mark to his face, he spoke into it.

"Kazama…Emma…please tell me that the both of you are still okay."

"If by okay, you mean that we're still alive even after getting our butts handed to us by two overpowered disciples, who also happen to be our former fellow officers, then yeah, sure, we're just peachy." Emma spat from the other end.

"I saw the explosion." Kazama replied. "Judging by the fact that you're not a corpse, I take it you won the duel?"

"I did not lose the duel." Jack sighed, panting heavily, "Though I cannot claim victory either. The Dark Signer is still active, and in the grip of the Earthbound's control."

"Great!" Emma growled. "Just great! And here I was hoping to hear some good news from you!"

"I'm afraid I cannot oblige you with that." Jack groaned. "If I am not mistaken, these are not ordinary Dark Signers we are dealing with. I believe Qhawa's ancient prophecy is being fulfilled. The reincarnations of the great Creator and Destroyer have been born once again, and it would seem that the Earthbound have claimed some of them as their vessels."

There was silence on the other end.

"What do we do now, Jack?" Kazama asked.

"We do what we have always done!" Jack firmly replied. "We will gather our strength together and defeat this evil! I need you two to stay here and coordinate a defense with the Phoenix Guard the others are gathering. They should be arriving here fairly soon. We will need to be united if this dimension is going to stand a chance in the upcoming hours."

"And what are you going to be doing?" Emma growled.

Jack brushed some glass off his sleeve.

"I have an old friend to see." He replied, "I have a feeling we might need his aid should my power be insufficient."

"Did I mishear you, or did you just admit that you're not infallible?" Kazama asked from the other end.

"You heard no such thing!" Jack snapped. "A king simply knows that he cannot do all things on his own, so he works to shore up any of his weak points with the aid of his allies! That is the strength of a King."

"There it is." Kazama laughed. "For a second there, I thought you'd gone insane!"

"We are facing one of the greatest threats we have ever known." Jack replied, assuming a more serious tone. "No one of us will have the power to turn the tide of this war alone, but just one more soul united to our efforts may prove the deciding factor between victory and defeat!"

"Understood!" Kazama replied, "We'll get on it."

"Please don't die on us, Jack." Emma pleaded. "You're the only true hope we have left."

"That is not entirely true." Jack replied before lowering his mark from his mouth.

"I'm sorry to see that she has been taken by the Earthbound, Burning Soul." Said Jack, seemingly talking to the air. "I can only hope that she and her counterparts will have the strength to fight back against their influence."

…

Ruri slumped against the wall of the skyscraper, feet resting on the floor of a stone balcony. Though she had lost most of her feeling since death, her bleeding wounds still caused her a great deal of discomfort.

She had lost the duel. She had failed her disciples who were counting on her, and now, she had no idea where her brother was.

"Are you beginning to grasp the depth of your failure?"

Ruri's eyes shot up to catch view of a tall young woman, who appeared to be in her late teens, standing above her. Her long hair was raven-black with streaks of white, and her eyes were a clear blue with blazing white irises. She might have been considered beautiful, were it not for the fact that her deeply tanned skin, decorated with elegant white war paint, was also marred with blistering red patches as if she had recently been burned. Upon her back, a pair of white heron wings, scorched coal-black and red but otherwise identical to the ethereal wings Ruri could conjure, fluttered in the air. In the center of her sternum, there was a gaping burning hole, positioned exactly where Jack Atlas's dragon had struck the Earthbound God.

"Jatun!?" Ruri gasped, before the spirit grabbed her by the throat with one of her hands and hoisted her into the air, the talons at the end of her fingers digging into her throat. Despite her injuries, which would have left any normal human dead, Jatun was able to hold Ruri in place with immense strength.

"Why did you stop me!?" Jatun roared, "Our victory was at hand, and yet you took it away from us and let me burn! Had I not intervened when I did, we would have both been completely destroyed!"

"You were out of control!" Ruri gagged back. "I saw what you were planning! You were planning on killing millions!"

"And what did you think we were going to do when we fought our war against Academia and Quetzalcoatl!?" Jatun snarled back. "Sit down and have a picnic with them while we politely discussed peace terms? You saw what the Signer almost did to us! They…will…kill…us!" Her grip tightened over Ruri's throat, hard enough to have choked the young girl to death were she not already dead.

Rage growing, Jatun continued to tighten her grip with each sentence.

"We have to destroy them, Ruri! We could have defeated him! We could have won! But you held me back in that duel! You protected Jack with his own Trap Card! Because of you, the victory that should have been ours is gone!"

Ruri struggled against the grip of Jatun, thinking about what she had just said. It was true, her action had helped Jack survive, and yet…there was something about Jack's move that wasn't quite right.

 _"_ _I am placing the outcome of this duel in your hands!"_

"Jack…could've beaten us…if he had wanted to…" Ruri gagged, barely able to move her vocal chords.

"What!?" Jatun growled, pulling Ruri closer to her burned face.

"His Trap Card, Crimson Dragon Release," Ruri explained, "He could have activated that card at any time, and sealed off your effects, but he didn't! I don't know why, but it was like he was…testing us…testing me…he didn't have to activate any of those trap cards, he could have just summoned his ace monster, and then…his victory would have been all but assured."

Jatun's eyes widened as Ruri's words sunk in, lowering Ruri to the ground, she removed her trembling hand from Ruri's throat before shrinking back from her.

Ruri gagged on the ground as she collapsed. Feeling the deep bleeding marks on her neck, she slowly got on her hands and knees before looking up at her companion and assailant, who suddenly looked far less intimidating and wrathful, as if Ruri's words had deflated her, leaving her as nothing but a quivering husk.

"After all this time…" Jatun trembled, tears streaming down her face as she collapsed to her knees, tattered wings drooping and falling to the ground, "…just when I think I could stand a chance against that Signer…he not only defeats me…but mocks my strength while doing it! Grandfather! Mother! Father! Matriarch! Please…" she wept, clutching at the gaping hole in her chest, as she fell to the ground, "please forgive my weakness!"

Ruri got up on her feet before staring down at the despondent spirit, a mixture of rage, fear, hatred, pity, and empathy storming within her, causing tears to well up in her eyes. She wanted to lash out against the malicious creature for attacking her. She wanted to condemn her for the horrid plans and intentions she had seen in her mind. She wanted to dress her burning wounds and comfort the disconsolate woman, who reminded her so much of herself and her friends as they wept over their defeat in Xyz. She could not tell what she wanted to do with Jatun. The spirit had been a mentor, a sister, a friend, and very nearly, a murderer. At this point, she couldn't make her mind up over what Jatun was.

One thing she did know was this. She was being kept in the dark about too much, and those secrets had nearly destroyed both of them.

"What are you hiding from me!?" Ruri demanded, tears streaming down her eyes as she massaged her throat. "I keep seeing flashes of your memories, but I don't know what any of it means! And now here we are, almost dead, and you insisting that we need to kill people!? I can't do this, Jatun! I can't stay in the dark! You have to tell me what is going on or we'll just keep fighting each other! At this point, I don't even know if I made the right choice aligning myself with you! Tell me who you are! What happened with Jack!? Who is the Matriarch!? Why did you come to me for help in the first place!? Where do I fit into all of this!?"

Jatun slowly rose to her knees, head hanging head down as she covered the hole in her chest with one hand.

"You are right…Ruri." The spirit groaned, "I am also to blame…for this failure. We must be united…if we are going to defeat our enemies." Shakily, she rose to her feet and approached Ruri before nearly collapsing to the ground as she gasped in pain.

"Jatun!?" Ruri called, suddenly feeling immensely concerned as she gazed upon her heavily wounded companion.

"I will heal!" Jatun insisted, waving away Ruri's help as she managed to get back on her feet. "Though it will take…some time." She continued, voice softening. "I would advise against playing my card any time soon. I don't think I'm strong enough right now to manifest. But until I regain my strength, you are right, I will tell you everything. You have a right to know. Just promise me that you will listen to everything I have to say before you cast judgement on me."

"I promise." Ruri replied as Jatun began speaking with her.

…

Sitting upon a simple cubic stone resting in the center of a massive multi-colored spiral mark, Yuu Hashimoto was observing what looked like dozens of holographic screens, which surrounded him until he was encased within several platonic solids including a cube, a tetrahedron, an octahedron, an icosahedron, and a dodecahedron. Moving around his arms, Yuu was rapidly rearranging, shuffling, and tapping various screens as if he were working with the world's most complex Rubik's Cube. By his side, two figures with multi-colored spiral marks on their chest, one an older man with long white hair, pale skin, pinkish-red eyes, and a crimson dragon-shaped mark on his back, and the other, a young adult woman with similar long white hair, icy glowing blue eyes the same color as Yuu's, and a glowing crimson Yin-Yang mark on her right arm, stood by the Dark Signer's side, silently watching him while he worked.

"Phase one of the Universal Renewal progress update," Yuu began, addressing one of the screens, "current status, three of eight vessels converted, three of eight conduits collected, progress towards completion of phase one on schedule. Neo Domino City, November 22, 20XX, 14:26, current status, on high alert but in disarray. Figurehead, Jean-Michell Roger, on track to be eliminated, Security Forces inadequate, downgrade his threat level to nonexistent. Academia invasion threat level minimal but has potential to grow as Leo Akaba prepares to send his full forces to accompany the small recon force, which has begun to cause some minor disturbances. Horakhty Agents potential hindrance to plan, but will be unlikely to move against Dark Signers until the invasion begins in full force."

He swiped aside the screen before rapidly sliding some new screens in front of his face.

"Subject, Ruri Kurosaki," he recited, pulling up an image of the Dark Signer, "Status, wounded in battle but active. Location, financial district of Neo Domino City. Recommended course of action, maintain close observation. Subject, Rin. Status, active. Location, Miss Kimura's orphanage. Recommended course of action, maintain close observation. Subject, Yuzu Hiragi. Status, active. Location, Miss Kimura's orphanage. Recommended course of action, maintain close observation. Subject, Selena. Status, active. Location, Victor's district. Update, recent upheaval has caused her to leave the duel palace and enter the streets of Neo Domino City. Recommended course of action, send Sergey Volkov to intercept and liquidate. Subjects, Yuya Sakaki and Yuto. Status, Yuya Sakaki serving as Yuto's soul conduit, Yuto unable to act except through Yuya's physical body. Location, Public Security Maintenance Bureau Headquarters, Prison Wing. Recommended course of action, Sergey on route to engage, prepare to assume direct control and lend support to disciple if necessary. Subject, Yugo. Status, active. Location, Victor's district. Recommended course of action, maintain close observation. Subject, Yuri. Status, active. Location, unknown, presumably will join Academia invasion force soon. Recommended course of action, continue monitoring Neo Domino city for signs of arrival."

He paused before resuming his work, sliding over another screen, nostrils flaring as he began speaking.

"Subject, Shun Kurosaki. Status, unknown. Location, unknown. Recommended course of action, find some information on Ruri's damnable brother before I lose my mind!"

Angrily swiping away the screen, he turned his attention to several other screens.

"Isaac and Aaron." He called, addressing one of the screens. "I trust that you are in position to retrieve the conduit by now?"

"We are armed and ready!" the voice of Isaac enthused from the other end. "Your Reiji assassin is prepped and ready to murder and her sister is ripe for the picking."

"All we need to do now is work our way through this Security blockade guarding the Council building." The voice of Aaron grumbled from the other side. "Should be easy enough."

"See that it is done, and quickly." Yuu replied, "Failure to secure the conduit will not be tolerated. Understood?"

"Understood." Aaron and Isaac replied from the other end.

"Good." Yuu curtly replied before swiping away their screen and sliding another screen in front of his face.

"Nozomi," Yuu called, narrowing his eyes at the screen. "are you in position to intercept the Phoenix Guard in Xyz?"

The sound of raspy breathing emanated from the screen.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Yuu sighed. "Feel free to destroy Joho and Lizette. Leave Lydia and Natsumi alive. Understood?"

Silence.

"Good." Yuu sighed as he began examining yet another screen.

"Satoru, I understand you've set off to meet with your cousin, Sora?" Yuu inquired.

"Well if it isn't The Supreme Edgelord himself!" Satoru gushed from the other end.

"The next time you call me that, I'm slicing open your throat." Yuu nonchalantly replied. "Continue with your current course. I have instructed Nozomi to not destroy Lydia. I trust that you will be able to successfully bring us Miu if Lydia and Sora are both secured?"

"Oh, most definitely." Satoru replied. "I'll give you another one of your precious conduits, and I'll get back more of my family. It's a win-win for both of us!"

"Make sure it is done." Yuu warned. "I have invested a great deal in you, and I will not tolerate any failure."

"Understood, Supreme Ed-I mean…Master Yuu."

Yuu swiped aside the screen before returning to his work.

"Elbert Neimeyer." He called, addressing another screen.

"Hail?" Elbert called back.

"If I am not mistaken, Academia will be moving against your sector fairly soon as part of Leo's regular efforts to rid the Earthbound presence from that dimension, assuming Daniel Tarleton does not pull them all away from Jorq to assist in the invasion of Synchro. Be ready for whatever force they send, and be ready to perform some retrieval and assassination missions should Nozomi fail me."

"Understood, Master." Elbert replied. "I will not fail you."

"I have been watching your friend." Yuu replied. "She is still well. Perform my labors, and when it is time, I shall bring her to you as I promised."

"I will continue fighting for her." Elbert replied.

"Fight well." Yuu admonished before swiping away the screen. Stopping to analyzing the contents of several new screens, a frown came over his face.

"What has happened?" the man asked, sounding concerned.

"It would seem that mother is gathering the few remaining loyal Phoenix Guard in the Fusion Dimension." Yuu mused, propping his chin against his hand as he observed the screen. "With another contingent of Guardsmen in Xyz, I can only assume that they are also calling over reinforcements from Standard."

"Are you wanting us to stop them?" the woman asked.

"No, Mirai." Yuu replied, swiping aside the screen to observe a new one. "I intend to let them come here. By the end of today, assuming there are no major hindrances to my plan, I will have transformed the Synchro Dimension into an inescapable death trap for them, leaving the other dimensions wide open for invasion. Seijun deciding to empty the other dimensions of their defenses is precisely the type of strategic blunder that will ultimately work to our advantage. We need only defeat them in a single decisive battle here, and the war will be all but won."

"But something is troubling you, Yuu." Mirai insisted, approaching Yuu. "I can tell. What has happened, brother."

Yuu frowned at the screens, remaining silent for some time.

"It is nothing you can help me with, sister." He replied with a sigh. "I can only move forward with the plan, addressing the problems that come our way one by one, such as this one."

He tapped one of the screens, flipping it around so that it was facing Mirai and the older man before it expanded, showing three small figures walking in the distance.

"So, she's decided to come to us." The man sighed. "I always knew Aki was headstrong, but I never expected her to take on an entire legion of familiars by herself. Surely she can't be so foolish."

"Her intent is not to vanquish us." Yuu replied, swiping away the screen so that it vanished into the air. "Her mission is one of stealth and recon, or at least recon, considering the stealth aspect has failed against my security measures. Still, if she continues, she may very well pose a great problem to our efforts, especially if she convinces the Phoenix Guard to divert their forces here instead of focusing on the city where our new young Dark Signers are providing a wonderful distraction."

"You want us to eliminate her?" Mirai asked.

"I do not wish to risk your safety unnecessarily." Yuu sighed, resting his chin against his hand as he observed some more screens. "Besides, I have another task for you."

He tapped another screen, displaying the image of a masked duelist to them.

"Apparently, Miku has decided to spit on the terms we agreed to when I first made her a disciple." Yuu sighed. "She no doubt thinks that I will be unable to act against her with my attention focused on my new Dark Signers and her sister in the Xyz Dimension."

"What has she done?" Mirai asked, sounding exasperated, as if this was a common occurrence.

"Very little, as of yet." Yuu replied. "She has destroyed one of Ruri's disciples and been observing the movements of others. However, if I am not mistaken, Miku intends to undo all my work by destroying the new Dark Signers before the plan can be completed."

"Is she really that foolish?" Mirai sighed.

"Under normal circumstances, I would say 'yes.'" Yuu sighed, "But my confidence in these new Dark Signers has begun to significantly wane. Ruri's decision to enlist Security forces as her allies, for instance, has demonstrated remarkable short-sightedness on her part. Their ability to offer her access to Roger's power infrastructure will soon be rendered moot with his waning power, and in the eyes of the Commons, she will also be aligning herself with the very same people who have oppressed them for decades, an undesirable position to be in if one wishes to win their hearts. Rin's plan to liberate the Underground will hopefully work to remedy this problem, though I doubt she stumbled upon this idea through any brilliance on her part. And as for Yuzu," he snorted, "were it not for her rather unique identity, I'd have never bothered with her in the first place. But then again, the same can be said for all of those counterparts, which is why I am sending you," he continued, turning his head to face Mirai, "to take care of Miku. Make sure she does not undermine my work and please remind her of the consequences for her rebellion."

"Do you wish for me to destroy her?" Mirai asked.

"I may be able to extract some more use from her." Yuu replied, dismissively waving his hand. "Bring her to me after you defeat her."

"It will be done." Mirai replied.

"And what would you have me do, my son?" the older man asked.

Yuu regarded the man who was his father.

"I am assigning you to Neo Domino City." Yuu replied. "Jack and Rua are two more conduits containing the souls I will need for phase two of the plan. While I was originally hoping that the Dark Signers would manage to defeat the two of them, Ruri's recent failure has convinced me that I may need to send a more competent duelist as backup. You will station yourself in the city and await my orders."

"And what about Aki?" the man asked. "She still poses a significant threat."

Yuu rose from his chair.

"I will take care of Aki." Yuu replied. "In my current state, I may not be able to enter the mortal world, save for within the limited confines of the spiral marks, which I doubt she will enter, but she is treading on sacred Nazca ground. The power I can exercise through the familiars there will be more than enough to repel her before she manages to do any significant damage."

"And what of the Dark Signers?" Mirai asked. "I just don't understand it, Yuu. We've been monitoring them like scientists watching rats, but none of those girls are truly ready for this war! Just now, Ruri could have been destroyed, not to mention Rin or Yuzu with the opposition they've faced! Plus, their individual agendas are so different! There's no way we can guarantee that they will all act in accordance with the plan if we don't exercise at least some control over them!"

"Is there not?" a gentle female voice with a thick ancient accent called from the darkness.

Turning their heads around, Mirai, Yuu, and their father turned their heads as a very petit Native American-looking woman built like a dancer, with thin arms and legs, long black hair braided down to her bare ankles, cocoa-colored skin, piercing intelligent eyes with coal-black sclera, earth-green irises, and emerald-green eyeliner around her eyelids, shapely ruby lips curled upwards into a pleasant grin, and a bare midriff with a glowing multi-colored spiral mark glowing against the belly, entered into the light of the mark on the ground, feet making a tinkling sound as golden anklets collided against one another. She was dressed in simple black robes with multi-colored highlights, the robes leaving most of her skin bare save for a few spots on her arms and legs, which were adorned with numerous primitive bracelets and other pieces of jewelry.

Upon seeing her, Yuu, Mirai, and their father bowed.

"Master Qhawa." Yuu intoned, keeping his eyes locked on the floor as he addressed her. "I have done as you instructed. Thus far, all your predictions have proven true. I have every confidence that the Matriarch's great plan will unfold as you foresaw."

"You truly have done well, Yuu." Qhawa replied with a gentle smile before taking Yuu by the hand and lifting him from the floor so that he was now standing a head taller than her. "And you too, Satoshi and Mirai" she continued, taking Mirai and their father, Satoshi, by their hands before raising them from the ground. "thanks to your united efforts, after all these millennia, we are many steps closer to finally bringing peace to the universe. Thank you, all of you. I am truly grateful for your diligence in this work."

Yuu and Satoshi remained silent as they regarded Qhawa. Mirai turned her head from the diminutive woman.

"You were expressing your concern over the Dark Signers. Please tell me what is troubling you." Qhawa prompted, gently lacing her fingers behind her back before waiting for Mirai to respond.

With a sigh, Mirai slowly turned towards her.

"I'm afraid." She admitted. "Afraid that things…that things won't work out."

"And why are you afraid that things won't work out, Mirai?" Qhawa probed. "Are you afraid that the Dark Signers are not strong enough?"

"Yes." Mirai replied, nodding her head, "But more than that. Everything, this whole plan, depends on them and the counterparts of the Destroyer. We should be training them, protecting them, and making sure nothing happens to them. And yet all this time, you've told us to do nothing but watch them, only occasionally allowing us to help them with some secret protection and pieces of information Yuu has whispered in Ruri's ears. The Dark Signers aren't even fully united in purpose. Should even one of them choose to rebel against us, it could be a great detriment to the plan, so why won't you let us get more involved with them? Why let them wander about aimlessly while we sit by, watch, and just hope they can all narrowly escape like Ruri, when we could help them achieve their true potential? I know the Matriarch has given you foresight, but I've also used that power, and I know that it is not always accurate. We can't just sit by and hope that events will unfold like we predicted. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I do, and your concerns are quite legitimate, Mirai." Qhawa patiently replied, nodding her head before gently smiling. "It can be difficult to let go of control, and allow others to make choices without our help, but it is oftentimes a necessary step. Ruri, Rin, and Yuzu are young, and only beginning to come to grips with their new powers. It is tempting to want to hold their hands as they begin the learning process, but it would ultimately be detrimental to their development if we don't allow them to occasionally fall."

"But what if they are destroyed or turn against us?" Mirai asked. "What if they attack Yuu?"

"A reasonable concern." Qhawa acknowledged, "Though you must also remember that I have observed them since the day they were born. I know them, Mirai. They are strong and will not fall as easily as you fear. As for rebelling against us, their desires, their beliefs, the people they love, the dreams they have, all of these things are known to me. Ruri desires justice. Rin craves freedom. Yuzu seeks for peace and happiness. Selena desires acknowledgment. Yuya wishes for approval. Yuto yearns for life. Yugo, bless his soul, deep down, dreams of love. And as for Yuri, his is a quest for daily and hourly relief from immense pain. These desires are all things they will use the Earthbound to fulfill, and so they will all do our work."

"You can't be certain." Mirai countered.

"You are free to believe me as you will." Qhawa shrugged, "Though I would point out to you that if you are concerned about their rebellion, the quickest way to induce such a rebellion against us would be by us directly exercising our authority over them. No." Qhawa sighed, shaking her head. "For now, we must let them maintain their independence. Let them learn and grow in the fires of adversity. Let that fire forge and harden them like steel. Otherwise, they shall never reach their true potential."

"Ruri was nearly destroyed." Mirai protested.

"I am aware, Mirai." Qhawa calmly replied, the tiniest hint of sharpness creeping into her tone. "From a mortal standpoint, the plan seems flawed and full of unnecessary risk, but we must have faith in the great Matriarch." She continued, mark and eyes glowing with intense light as the mark on Yuu's chest and on the floor brightened in response.

"Do not underestimate the power of the new Dark Signers." Qhawa admonished, addressing all three of the room's other occupants with a voice that echoed with godly intensity, "And do not underestimate the wisdom of your master."

Qhawa's eyes and mark dimmed to their normal glow and Mirai nodded her head in reply.

"Still." Qhawa sighed, approaching Yuu, "Your sister is correct in this. The time is soon at hand when our fledgling Dark Signers will need our guidance. I am, therefore, assigning you to teach them a certain lesson. Let them witness the power of the Matriarch first hand."

"You wish for me to duel them?" Yuu asked, raising his eyebrow.

"To teach them by dueling them." Qhawa corrected, reaching into a simple woolen pouch strapped to her side and removing a translucent card before handing it to Yuu. "And I request that you use this in your duel."

Yuu narrowed his eyes as he gingerly took the card in his hands.

"The Matriarch's power itself." Yuu mused, examining the card, "It will hardly be a fair fight."

"War never is a fair fight." Qhawa sighed. "Still, the time for honor is past. The Dark Signers must learn. Do you understand, Yuu?"

"It shall be as you command, Master." Yuu replied with a bow. "When shall I administer this lesson?"

"There will be time for that later." Qhawa replied with a smile. "We shall wait for when the time is right. Our fledgling Dark Signers are children, prone to rebelliousness as children often are. It is inevitable that they will want to test their strength against us fairly soon, and when that time comes, that's when you shall call them here."

Yuu bowed his head in reply.

"The time of renewal is dawning." Qhawa intoned. "Our power and strength rises by the moment even as our enemies gather against us. Soon the powers of the Creator and Destroyer will bend the knee to the Earthbound and serve our purposes. The universe will be reborn and restored to its former glory, and a new order shall reign for all eternity!"

Mirai and Satoshi each bowed before Qhawa, placing their fists over the marks on their chests in a salute. Yuu, however, had turned his back to Qhawa, and was examining a triangular screen.

Qhawa smiled at him.

"Youth and their desire to constantly check their technology." She sighed. "What is it, Yuu?"

"A rather interesting update." Yuu smirked back at her, before examining the screen, a look of delight on his face. "It would seem that Shun's status is no longer unknown. He is alive."

Qhawa raised an eyebrow.

"That is good news, Yuu." She mused. "Be sure to keep him that way. The Matriarch has great plans in store for him."

…

Shun slid down the building's railing, hopping onto the roof of a tenement house below before leaping onto a balcony and hopping down onto the ground, palm slapping the ground as he stuck the landing.

His day had been exceedingly strange, with the Xyz remnant not understanding most of it. However, one fact he did understand. Ruri was alive, and he had to get back to her.

Shun began to set off to search for her, when the low whine of a nearby dog caught his attention.

Turning his head, he caught sight of a German Shepherd whining over the body of a black man dressed in a large jacket and faded cargo pants.

He was about to turn away, when the body suddenly shifted, and the person stared in his direction with a pair of blind milk-white eyes.

"I seem to have fallen." Adeel groaned. "Mind giving me a hand?"

 **FEATURED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS**

 **(Make sure to memorize this segment as there will be a quiz later)**

 **Name: Jatun Waqar / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Salvation Seraphim / Allegiance: The Earthbound / Status: Heavily Wounded**

 **Name: Mayuri (And no, Sky. She is NOT a "Steins;Gate" reference) / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Chaos Goddess / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Active**

 **Name: Hiroto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Zera / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Active**

 **Name: Adeel Haddad / Original concept by: Angelight952 / Deck: Canine / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Heavily Wounded**

 **Name: Semal Haddad / Original concept by: kaploblast / Deck: Celestial Hero / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active**

 **Name: Kyosuke Kiryu II / Original concept by: FanOfKings / Deck: Infernity / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active**

 **Name: Pyotr Ivanov / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Mineral Guardian/Rock Sentinel / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Active**

 **Name: Emma Grayson / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Stygian / Allegiance: Phoenix Guard / Status: Active**

 **Name: Santiago Guevara / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Accel-Light / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Active**

 **Name: Mita Takeda / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: MatRex (Basically what you'd get if you figured that Dinorabbit just wasn't broken enough) / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Active**

 **Name: Justin Fields / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Samurai Destroyer / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Masika / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Spell Counter Magician / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Gazim / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Ancient Sacred / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Daichi Ishikuma / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Psychic Ink / Allegiance: SCIENCE! / Status: Active**

 **Name: Friedrich Hoffman / Original concept by: Nox Descious (Mr. Mad Genius King of Fanfiction to the rest of you) / Deck: Force / Allegiance: Academia / Status: In an operatic bloodlust and loving it**

 **Names: Branford, Aiko, Hiraku, Chiyoko, and Midori / Original concepts by: Donjusticia / Decks:** ** _unknown_** **/ Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Names: Youta, Souma, Tomoko, Satomi, and Sakurako / Original concepts by: Donjusticia / Decks (respectively): Arcanite Magician, WIND Genex,** ** _Unknown Trap-Based Deck,_** **Vylon, and Montage Dragon / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Christoff / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _unknown_** **/ Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Zolaf / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Dark Highlander / Allegiance: Ruri Kurosaki's Faction / Status: Deceased**

 **Name: Miku / Original concept by: Shimmering Sky (She whose shipping pairs must not be mocked!) / Deck: Fallen Star / Allegiance: Unknown / Status: Active**

 **Name: Isaac Abrahms / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: (A rather unique blend of Qliphorts, Trickstars, Madolches, and Elemental Heroes with the central strategy of the deck focusing on FTKing the opponent with Shapesnatch.) / Allegiance: Whichever big shot head honcho happens to be on top / Status: Jazzing to the rhythm of undead life**

 **Name: Aaron Tarleton / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _unrevealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Adele / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _Not fully revealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Elbert Neimeyer / Original concept by: Ghost83 / Deck: Nightmare Puppet / Allegiance Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Nozomi Aikawa / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _Unrevealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Yuu Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _unrevealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Mirai Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _unrevealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **Name: Satoshi Hashimoto / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _unrevealed_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Active**

 **And finally, making her appearance for the first time:**

 **Name: Qhawa Anca Quispe / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck:** ** _It's a secret_** **/ Allegiance: Earthbound / Status: Very active indeed / Trivia: "Qhawa" means "She who watches" in Quechuan. In the Quechuan language, children inherit the surnames of both their father and their mother, thus, "Anca" and "Qhispe" are both surnames, the first coming from her father, and the second from her mother. In Quechuan, "Anca" means "Eagle" and "Quispe" means "Free."**

 **FEATURED FAN CARDS**

Adeel's Monsters

Majestic Gate / LIGHT / Level 7 / Psychic / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / If the only monsters you control are Fusion, Synchro, and/or Xyz Monsters: You can discard this card from your hand to target 1 Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster you control: That target can attack your opponent's LP directly this turn. During your opponent's turn: You can pay half your LP and banish this card and 1 Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster from your GY; Special Summon 1 "Majestic" Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose card type (Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz) is the same card type as the Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster banished for this effect, treating it as if it were properly Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summoned. (You can only use each effect of "Majestic Gate" once per duel).

Adeel's Extra Deck

Amaterasu the Celestial Canine Wolf / LIGHT / RANK 7 / Beast / XYZ / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2600  
2 level 7 monsters  
You can also XYZ summon this card during either player's turn by using 1 "Chibiterasu the Canine Celestial Pup" in your side of the field with 4 Ink counters as the Xyz Material. (If Summoned this way, place 4 Ink Counters on this card). During each Standby-Phase and each time a card(s) is shuffled into the deck, this card gains 1 Ink counter (MAX. 7). During either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Place 3 Ink Counters on this card. If this card would be returned to the deck, you can have this card gain 1 Ink Counter instead. During either player's turn, you can remove any number Ink Counters from this card to activate one of the following effects depending on the number of Counters removed:

2: Target 1 monster: That monster's ATK and DEF is halved until the end of this turn.  
3: Target 1 monster: Shuffle that target into the deck.  
(Original concept by: Angelight952).

Orthrus the Legendary Canine Guardian / EARTH / Level 6 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 600  
1 tuner + 1 or more non-tuner monsters  
Once per turn you can shuffle 1 card from your hand to your deck; Draw 1 card, and if you do and the card you drew was a monster, draw 1 additional card, otherwise send the card you drew to the GY. If a card or effect is activated that would return a card(s) to the hand or deck: You can shuffle any number of cards you control into the deck; Negate that effect, and if you do, you can add a number of cards from your GY to your hand up to the number of cards shuffled into your deck for this effect.  
(Original concept by: Angelight952).

Fenrir the Majestic Legendary Canine World-Devourer / WATER / Level 10 / Beast / Synchro / Effect / ATK 4000 / DEF 3500  
1 "Canine" tuner + 1 or more non tuner "Canine" Synchro monsters  
When this card is Synchro Summoned: Banish all other cards on the field, and if you do, Inflict damage to all player's LP equal to the number of cards banished by this effect X 500. This monster cannot attack the turn its effect is activated. If this card would be returned to the deck by a card effect, you can return all other cards you control into the deck instead, and if you do, you can shuffle cards from your opponent's side of the field or GY into the deck, equal to the number of cards you returned to the deck with this effect.  
(Original concept by: Angelight952).

Semal's Extra Deck

Celestial Hero Superluminal Charger / LIGHT / Level 8 / Thunder / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 2400 /

1 "Celestial" Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monster

This card can attack your opponent directly. If this card is Synchro Summoned using a Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, or Fusion Monster as Synchro Material: This card gains the following effect; This card can make a second attack during each Battle Phase.  
(Original concept by: Kaploblast)

Celestial Hero Galactic Void / DARK / Level 10 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / 3200 / 3000 /

1 Tuner Synchro Monster + 1 or more Synchro Monsters

Spell/Trap Cards, and their effects on the field, cannot be activated. Negate all Spell/Trap Card effects on the field. When this card leaves the field: Draw 1 card.  
(Original concept by: Kaploblast)

Shun Kurosaki's Monsters

Raidraptor Reload Eagle / DARK / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 800 / During either player's turn: You can discard this card from your hand to target 1 "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster you control that has no Xyz Materials; Attach this card and 1 other "Raidraptor" monster from your graveyard to that target as Xyz Material.

Raidraptor Strike Eagle / DARK / Level 3 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1000 / During either player's turn, if a "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster you control battles an opponent's monster with a higher ATK: You can discard this card to target that "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster; That target gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster it is battling.

Shun Kurosaki's Spells

Rank-Up-Magic Rise Force / Spell / Quick-Play / During the Battle Phase, if a "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster you control battled: You can target that "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster; Xyz Summon 1 "Raidraptor" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is 1 Rank higher than the targeted monster, using that target as the Xyz Material, and if you do, the monster summoned by this effect can immediately activate its effect that requires it to detach an Xyz Material.

Pyotr's Monsters

Mineral Guardian - Feldspar Spear / EARTH / Level 2 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 0 / If this card attacks: You can Special Summon 1 "Mineral Guardian" monster from your hand, deck, or graveyard. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned; It inflicts Piercing Damage whenever it attacks a defense position monster.

Mineral Guardian - Diamond Crown / EARTH / Level 2 / Rock / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 2000 / Flip: Special Summon 2 Rock-Type monsters from your hand. A "Rock Sentinel" monster summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:

If it is summoned; Any battle damage it inflicts is doubled.

Pyotr's Extra Deck

Rock Sentinel Igneous / FIRE / Level 6 / Rock / Synchro / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 2800 / 1 Rock-Type Tuner + 2 or more Rock-Type Non-Tuners

If this card is Synchro Summoned Successfully: You can banish any number of Rock-Type Monsters from your GY: Increase the Level of this card by 1 for each card banished with this effect. This card's ATK is equal to its Level X 300. If this card destroys a monster by battle: Increase the Level of this card by the Level of that monster in the GY. If this card would be destroyed, you can reduce its Level by 3 instead (Min. 1). (You cannot use this effect if this card's Level is 3 or less).

Rock Sentinel Sedimentary / WATER / Rank 2 / Rock / Xyz / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 2400 / 3 Level 2 Rock-Type Monsters

If this card is Xyz Summoned Successfully: You can attach any number of Rock-Type monsters in your GY to this card as Xyz Material, and if you do, this card's original ATK becomes equal to the number of Xyz Materials attached to itself at the end of this effect's resolution X 300. You can detach any number of Xyz Materials from this card; Increase the ATK of this card by 300 for each Material detached. If this card destroys a monster by battle: Attach that monster and any Xyz Materials attached to that monster to this card as Xyz Material. If this card would be destroyed, you can detach 3 Xyz Materials from this card instead.

Rock Sentinel Metamorphic / EARTH / Level 6 / Rock / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 2000 / 3 or more Rock-Type Monsters

This card's original ATK is equal to the number of Materials used in its Fusion Summon X 300. When this card is Fusion Summoned Successfully: You can return any number of your banished Rock-Type Monsters to the GY, and if you do, increase the ATK of this card by 300 for each card returned to the GY with this effect. If this card destroys a monster by battle: Increase the ATK and DEF of this card by the respective ATK and DEF of that monster in the GY. If this card would be destroyed, you can tribute 1 Rock-Type Monster you control instead.

Dark Matter Destroyer Golem / DARK / Level -8 / Rock / Dark Fission / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 3500 / 1 Rock-Type Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monster – 1 or more Rock-Type monsters

Increase the ATK of this card by 500 for each non-Base Material used in its Dark Fission Summon. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. If this card battled but was not destroyed, then immediately following that battle: You can send 1 or more face-up cards from your deck to the GY; Inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP for each card sent to the GY with this effect. If this card would be destroyed or you would take damage, you can send 1 face-up monster from your deck to the GY instead.

Pyotr's Spells

Mineral Quarry / Spell / Continuous / Once per turn: You can excavate the top 5 cards of your deck; Send all excavated Level 2 or lower Rock-Type monsters to the GY and banish all other cards excavated by this effect. (Card effects which are activated in the GY are not activated at this time. You can only control 1 "Mineral Quarry").

Mineral Industry / Spell / Continuous / Once per turn, you can target any number of Level 2 or lower Rock-Type monsters in your GY to: Immediately after this effect resolves; Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon 1 Rock-Type monster from your Extra Deck using those monsters as Material. (If Fusion or Synchro Summoning a monster with this effect, the Materials used are banished).

Yami no Kakubunretsu / Spell / Normal / Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card and its effects. Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls. (This change lasts until the card's effects resolve). Dark Fission Summon 1 Dark Fission monster from your Extra Deck using cards from among the cards on your side of the field, hand, graveyard, or that are currently banished as Dark Fission Materials.

Kyosuke Kiryu II's Monsters

Infernity Death Guard / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1700 / Cannot be used as a Synchro Material except for the Synchro Summon of a DARK monster. You can Special Summon this card if this card is the only card in your hand. If this card is Special Summoned, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves; Synchro Summon 1 Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and 1 other "Infernity" monster you control. A monster Synchro Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect.

If it is summoned: Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls.

Emma Grayson's Monsters

Stygian Street Marshal/ DARK/ Level 4/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 100/ Once per turn, you can inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of this card X 100. Each time your opponent takes effect damage, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: That target loses ATK equal to the effect damage its controller took. If a Level 5 or lower Fiend-Type monster destroys a monster by battle, you can activate this effect: Inflict damage to the controller's LP equal to the Level of the destroyed monster X 100.

Stygian Tracker/ DARK/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Effect/ ATK 600/ DEF 100/ Double any effect damage your opponent takes from the effects of your monsters. If this card is destroyed by battle, you can Special Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your Deck.

Emma's Extra Deck

Stygian Street Vigilante/ DARK/ Level 3/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 800/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners  
Your opponent cannot target monsters for attacks except this one. You can discard any number of Fiend Type monsters from your hand: Increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each card discarded with this effect. If this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent's LP. If this card would be destroyed, you can banish 1 Fiend Type monster from your graveyard instead.

Emma's Spells

Stygian Chains / Spell / Normal / If you control a face-up "Stygian" monster: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; Negate its effects, also, it cannot attack. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 "Stygian" monster from your hand or GY.

Soichi Kazama's Extra Deck

Chaos Overlord Archfiend/ DARK/ Level 7/ Fiend/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2600/ DEF 2600/ When this card battles a monster, you can have the ATK and DEF of all monsters your opponent controls each become equal to their respective ATK or DEF (whichever is lower). If a Level 10 or higher Fiend-Type Synchro Monster you control leaves the field, you can Special Summon this card from your graveyard.

Kazama's Spells

Chaos Overlord Barrier / Spell / Continuous / Target 1 Level 7 or higher DARK Fiend-Type Synchro monster you control: While you control that Monster, you take no effect damage less than the ATK of that monster. If that monster leaves the field, destroy this card.

Kazama's Traps

Crimson Purification / Trap / Counter / If you control a monster with a positive Level or Rank that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck (and no "Earthbound" monsters or monsters with a negative Level/Rank): Negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls with a Negative Level or Rank and change their ATK and DEF to 0. Also, those monsters cannot attack

Santiago Guevara's Monsters

Accel-Light Charger/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ If this card is Normal Summoned successfully, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 2 "Accel-Light" monsters from your deck. Their effects are negated and their ATK and DEF become 0.

Accel-Light Lancer/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1900/ DEF 1600/ If this card is Normal Summoned successfully, you can activate this effect, add 1 "Accel-Light" monster from your graveyard to your hand. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Until the end of this turn, cards and effects cannot be activated when an "Accel-Light" monster battles a monster until the end of the Damage Step, also, if an "Accel-Light" monster attacks a defense position monster, inflict doubled Piercing Battle Damage to your opponent's LP.

Accel-Light Follower/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 2000/ If you Normal Summon an "Accel-Light" monster while this card is in your hand, you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card, and if you do, immediately after this effect resolves; Normal Summon 1 "Accel-Light" monster from your hand.

Santiago's Extra Deck

Accel-Light Valkyrie/ LIGHT/ Rank 4/ Warrior/ Xyz/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2400/ 2 Level 4 monsters  
You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Special Summon 1 "Accel-Light" monster from your hand. During either player's turn, you can activate this effect: Synchro Summon 1 "Accel-Light" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control as Synchro Materials, including this card. (If this card is used as a Synchro Material, its Level is treated as 0).

(Well what do you know? It turns out Xyz monsters DO have a Level of 0!)

Accel-Light Pegasus/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Beast/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2000/ 1 Xyz Tuner + 1 Non-Tuner  
Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Accel-Light" monster from your graveyard. If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can target 2 "Accel-Light" monsters among the cards in your graveyard or that are currently banished: Add those cards to your hand.

Delta Accel-Light Cataphract/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Warrior/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3200/ DEF 3000/ 1 Xyz Tuner + 2 Non-Tuner Synchro Monsters  
Cannot be destroyed once per turn. Control of this card cannot change. This card's effects cannot be negated. Once per turn, (Quick Effect): You can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Negate its effects and reduce its ATK and DEF to 0. (If the activation of this effect is negated, you can activate this effect again immediately following the negation of this effect's activation, but cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation or resolution of this effect). If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can target 3 "Accel-Light" monsters in your graveyard: Special Summon them.

Mita Takeda's Monsters

MatRex Polarity Shifter / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Tuner / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 700 / If this card is Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "MatRex" monster from your hand. During your opponent's turn: You can target this card and 1 other "MatRex" monster you control; Multiply the levels of those targets by 1 or -1, and if you do, Synchro or Dark Synchro Summon 1 "MatRex" monster from your Extra Deck using those monsters as Materials. (You can only use each effect of "MatRex Polarity Shifter" Once per turn).

MatRex Atom Splitter / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1600 / If this card is Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "MatRex" monster from your hand. During your opponent's turn: You can target this card and 1 other "MatRex" monster you control; Multiply the levels of those targets by 1 or -1, and if you do, Fusion or Dark Fission Summon 1 "MatRex" monster from your Extra Deck using those monsters as Materials. (You can only use each effect of "MatRex Atom Splitter" Once per turn).

MatRex Matter Cycler / DARK / Level -4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000 / During the turn this card was sent to the GY as a Material for the Special Summon of a "MatRex" monster: You can Special Summon this card from the GY. During your opponent's turn: You can target this card and 1 other "MatRex" monster you control; Multiply the levels of those targets by 1 or -1, and if you do, Xyz or Dark Xyz Summon 1 "MatRex" monster from your Extra Deck using those monsters as Materials.

Mita's Extra Deck

MatRex Dimension Drifter / DARK / Level -8 / Dinosaur / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2200 / 1 Dinosaur-Type non-Dark Tuner – 1 "MatRex" Dark Tuner

This card's effects are treated as Spell Speed 3 Effects. Once per turn, if your opponent Normal Summons a monster: You can target that monster; Return that target to your opponent's hand. Once per turn, if your opponent Special Summons a monster(s): You can negate the Special Summon of that monster(s), and if you do, destroy it.

MatRex Reality Bender / EARTH / Level -8 / Dinosaur / Dark Fission / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2300 / 1 Dinosaur-Type monster – 1 "MatRex" monster

This card's effects are treated as Spell Speed 3 Effects. Once per turn: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; Destroy it. Once per turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card: You can negate the activation of that Spell/Trap Card, and if you do, destroy it.

MatRex Mind Blaster / FIRE / Rank -4 / Dinosaur / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 2800 / 2 "MatRex" monsters

This card's effects are treated as Spell Speed 3 Effects. Once per turn, if an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card; Change the attack target to 1 other monster on the field. Once per turn, if your opponent activates a monster effect: You can detach 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card; Negate the activation of that effect, and if you do, destroy it.

Mita's Traps

Branching Evolution / Trap / Normal / If a Dinosaur-Type monster you controlled was destroyed: You can Special Summon 2 Dinosaur or Reptile-Type monsters from your deck whose total Levels are equal to or less than the Level of the monster destroyed.

Masika's Monsters

Dark Tuner - Dark Magic Purveyor / DARK / Level 12 / Fiend / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / When two or more Spell Counters are removed from a card you control, you can Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard, but if you use this effect, banish it when it leaves the field. When this card is used as a Dark Synchro Material for a Dark Synchro Summon, you can target one face up card on the field that you can place a Spell Counter on; Place three Spell Counters on it.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Tempest Apprentice / DARK / Level 2 / Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 500 / If there is a face up card on the field with a Spell Counter on it, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is sent to the Graveyard for the Synchro Summon of a Spellcaster-Type Synchro Monster, you can target one face up card on the field that you can place a Spell Counter on; Place one Spell Counter on it.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Masika's Extra Deck

Hurricane Hex Magician / DARK / Level -6 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 2000 / Tempest Magician - 1 Dark Tuner

When this card is Dark Synchro Summoned successfully: You can target one face up card on the field that can have Spell Counters placed on it; Place a Number of Spell Counters on it equal to the Number of Spell Counters that were removed so far this turn. This card gains 200 ATK for each Spell Counter on the field. Once per turn: You can remove two Spell Counters from anywhere on the field to target one card on the field; Negate its effects, and if you do, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Masika's Traps

Chains of the Netherworld / Trap / Continuous / Activate only if you control a Dark Synchro Monster and no other monsters: Draw 1 Card. Then, declare one Type of Monster (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Ritual, Pendulum). While you control a Dark Synchro Monster, neither player can Special Summon that type of monster. If you do not control a Dark Synchro Monster, send this card to the Graveyard.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Daichi Ishikuma's Monsters

Psychic Ink Fig. 1/ DARK/ Level 1/ Psychic/ ATK ?/ DEF ?/ When this card is normal summoned: Your opponent adds 1 monster from their deck to their hand and reveals it; This card's Name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, DEF, and effects each become the same as that monster's.

Psychic Ink Fig. 4/ DARK/ Level 1/ Psychic/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ When this card is normal summoned: Your opponent adds 1 Spell Card from their deck to their hand and reveals it; Your opponent chooses to activate 1 of the following effects.  
1\. Add the revealed card to your opponent's hand.  
2\. Shuffle the revealed card into your deck.  
Your opponent cannot activate cards with the revealed card's name while this card is face-up on the field.

Psychic Ink Fig. 5/ DARK/ Level 1/ Psychic/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ When this card is normal summoned: Your opponent adds 1 Trap Card from their deck to their hand and reveals it; Your opponent chooses to activate 1 of the following effects.  
1\. Add the revealed card to your opponent's hand.  
2\. Shuffle the revealed card into your deck.  
Your opponent cannot activate cards with the revealed card's name while this card is face-up on the field.

Psychic Ink Fig. 6/ DARK/ Level 1/ Psychic/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ When this card is normal summoned: Your opponent Special Summons 1 monster from his/her Extra Deck, ignoring the summoning conditions, and if he/she does, this card's Name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, DEF, and effects each become the same as the monster Special Summoned with this effect. If this card is removed from the field, shuffle the monster Special Summoned by this card's effect into your opponent's Extra Deck.

Daichi Ishikuma's Extra Deck

Psychic Daemon Theorizer: Level 5/DARK/Psychic/Synchro/0 ATK/0 DEF

1 Tuner + 4 Psychic Ink Monsters

Effect: You can also Special Summon this card from your Extra Deck using 5 Psychic Ink Cards in your hand or side of the field as Material. (If summoning this card this way, you can treat one of those cards as a Level 1 tuner and all other cards as Level 1 non-tuners). When this card is Synchro Summoned successfully, declare the name of each card in your opponent's hand before revealing your opponent's hand (Min 1.) Activate one of the following effects if you correctly named all cards in your opponent's hand.

1: Target one monster your opponent controls; This card's Name, Level, Attribute, Type, ATK, and DEF become the same as that monster's, and if they do, that target's name, Attribute, and Type becomes "unknown", its level becomes 0, and its ATK and DEF become 0.

2\. Inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each correctly named card.

3\. Send a Number of cards from your opponent's side of the field to the Graveyard, up to the Number of correctly named cards.

(Thanks goes to Nox Descious for coming up with some helpful tweaks to this card).

Daichi Ishikuma's Traps

Psychic Ink Fig. 2/ Trap/ Continuous/ If you control a face-up "Psychic Ink" card, you can activate this card from your hand. While you control a face-up "Psychic Ink" card, any time you would take damage, your opponent activates one of the following effects.  
1\. Halve the damage, and if you do, reveal your hand  
2\. Negate the damage, and if you do, increase your opponent's LP by the damage he/she would have taken.

Psychic Ink Fig. 3/ Trap/ Continuous/ If you control a face-up "Psychic Ink" card, you can activate this card from your hand. While you control a face-up "Psychic Ink" card, any time your opponent activates a card or effect or summons a monster, he she must activate 1 of the following effects:  
1\. Negate the Summon or activation of that card or effect, and if you do, destroy it.  
2\. Shuffle 5 cards from the top of your deck into the deck face-up.

Gazim's Monsters

Dark Tuner - Ancient Shadow Ghost / DARK / Level 12 / Fiend / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / When you gain LP: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, when you gain LP while you control this face up card: Inflict 800 damage to your opponent. Cannot be attacked while you control a face up Synchro Monster.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Ancient Sacred Soldier / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1200 / When this card is normal summoned: You can Special Summon one Ancient Sacred Monster from your hand.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Ancient Sacred Wizard / LIGHT / Level 3 / Fairy / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000 / When this card is Special Summoned: You can target one Ancient Sacred Monster you control. Gain LP equal to its original ATK.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Gazim's Extra Deck

Ancient Shadow Serpent / DARK / Level -5 / Fiend / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2500 / Ancient Sacred Wyvern - 1 Dark Tuner

Up to twice per turn: You can pay 1000 LP; This card gains 1000 ATK, and if it does, you can target one monster your opponent controls to decrease its ATK by 1000 and negate its effects until the End Phase of this turn. During the End Phase of the turn this card was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card, and if you do, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.

(Original concept by Nox Descious).

Friedrich Hoffman's Monsters

Spirit of the Subconscious / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / If you would take damage while you control a face-up "Force" monster, you can banish this card from your GY to change the Damage to 0. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can tribute this card to excavate the top card of your deck and activate 1 of the following effects depending on the type of card excavated before shuffling the excavated card into your deck. (You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect).

Monster: Special Summon 1 "Ido the Supreme Magical Force" from your deck.

Spell: Special Summon 1 "Ego the Supreme Rational Force" from your deck.

Trap: Special Summon 1 "Super Ego the Supreme Existential Force" from your deck.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious)

Spirit of the Unconscious / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / During either player's turn, if this card is on your side of the field or in your hand: You can send this card to the GY. While this card is in your GY: Apply the following effects depending on the monsters you control or that are in your GY.

"Ido the Supreme Magical Force": Any damage you take is halved. Also, double any damage your opponent takes.

"Ego the Supreme Rational Force": Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can look at the top card of your opponent's deck: Place that card on either the top or bottom of your opponent's deck.

"Super Ego the Supreme Existential Force": Once per turn, during either player's turn, if a card or effect is activated: You can make that effect become, "Destroy 1 "Force" monster on the field.

Ego the Supreme Rational Force / DARK / Level 7 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 800 / This card is unaffected by the effects of "Ido the Supreme Magical Force". This card can be Summoned ignoring the effects of "Ido the Supreme Magical Force". If you control a face-up "Ido the Supreme Magical Force": You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). (You can only control 1 "Ego the Supreme Rational Force"). If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the GY: Special Summon this card during the next turn's Standby Phase, and if you do, gain 1000 LP.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious)

Friedrich's Extra Deck

Junzi, the Perfect Force / DARK / Level 9 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 800 / 2 "Force" monsters  
This card can be Summoned, ignoring the effects of "Ido, the Supreme Magical Force". Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Force" monster from your Deck or Graveyard, ignoring the effects of "Ido, the Supreme Magical Force", and if you do, destroy it. If this card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the GY: Special Summon it during the next turn's Standby Phase, and if you do, Destroy cards your opponent controls, up to the number of "Force" monsters you control.

Friedrich's Spells

Psychoanalysis / Spell / Continuous / During either player's turn, when a monster is destroyed by battle, you can treat that monster as if it was destroyed by a card effect. Once per turn: When a Force Monster(s) is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, your opponent reveals the top card of their deck. Then apply one of the following effects depending on the type of card.  
1\. Monster: Send it to the Graveyard and inflict damage to your opponent equal to half its ATK  
2\. Spell: Place that card on the bottom of the deck. Then Gain Lifepoints equal to the ATK of one Supreme Force Monster you control.  
3\. Trap: Place that card back on the bottom of the deck. Then both players draw one card.

(Original concept by: Nox Descious)

Horakhty Agent 1's Monsters

Red-Eyes Flare Whelp / DARK / Level 2 / Dragon / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 800 / If your opponent activates a card or effect while you control "Red Eyes Black Dragon": You can discard this card from your hand; Negate the activation of that card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. During your End Phase: You can banish this card from your GY to target 1 Level 7 DARK Dragon-Type Normal Monster in your GY; Special Summon it.

Horakhty Agent 2's Monsters

Clear Kobold / DARK / Level 2 / Beast Warrior / Effect / ATK 1100 / DEF 600 / While this card is on the field, do not treat its Attribute as DARK. If this card is banished: You an add 1 "Nihilistic" Spell/Trap Card from your deck or which is banished to your hand.

Horakhty Agent 2's Extra Deck

Crystal Clear Vice Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF 0 / "Clear Vice Dragon" + 1 "Clear" monster

You are unaffected by the effects of "Clear World". Negate this card's effects if you do not control "Clear World". This card can attack each monster your opponent controls, once each. If this card battles a monster: This card's ATK becomes equal to double the combined ATK and DEF of the monster it is battling during Damage Calculation only.

Horakhty Agent 2's Spells

Clear Universe / Spell / Field / This card is always treated as "Clear World". Cannot be activated except by tributing 1 Field Spell Card on the field. Each player receives certain effects depending on the monster Attributes they control. LIGHT: You cannot set cards. DARK: You must pay 1000 LP to activate a monster effect or attack. EARTH: The ATK and DEF of your monsters becomes 0 during your turn. WATER: You must banish 1 Spell/Trap Card from your hand before activating a Spell/Trap Card. FIRE: During the End Phase of your turn, halve your LP. WIND: Any card sent to your GY is banished instead.

Nihilistic Annihilation Technique / Spell / Normal / Cannot be activated unless you control "Clear World." Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card. Discard your hand (min. 1); Destroy all Spell/Trap Cards on the field other than Clear World.

Nihilistic Fusion Technique / Spell / Normal / Fusion Summon 1 "Clear" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters on your side of the field or your hand as Material. You can banish this card from your GY; Fusion Summon 1 "Clear" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters from your side of the field, hand, deck, or GY as Material.

Nihilistic Suicide Technique / Spell / Normal / Target 1 "Clear" monster you control; All monsters your opponent controls immediately battle that monster. You can banish this card from your GY to target 1 "Clear" Monster you control; Destroy it.

Horakhty Agent 2's Traps

Nihilistic Generosity Technique / Trap / Normal / Give control of 1 "Clear" monster you control to your opponent, and if you do, negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 "Clear Pylon" Token (Rock-Type/DARK/Level 4/ATK 0/DEF 2000) to your opponent's side of the field. If Special Summoned in defense position by this effect, its Attribute is also treated as LIGHT, EARTH, FIRE, WIND, and WATER.

Horakhty Agent 3's Extra Deck

Cyber Dawn Dragon **/** LIGHT / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4000 / DEF 2800 / _Effects unrevealed._

Zolaf's Monsters

Shadow King Andorf / DARK / Level 10 / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1100 / If you control a Synchro Monster: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, add 1 Equip Spell Card from your deck to your hand and Special Summon 2 Dark Informant Tokens (Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) To your opponent's side of the field. Dark Informant Tokens cannot be destroyed by battle, cannot be tribute or dark sacrificed, cannot have their battle positions changed, and cannot be used as a Material for a Special Summon, even if this card leaves the field. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster you control: Reduce its Level by 1 for each card on the field. (Min -2).

Zolaf's Extra Deck

Shadow Highlander / DARK / Level -7 / Fiend / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500 / 1 Fiend-Type Synchro Monster - 1 Dark Tuner  
Your opponent cannot Synchro Summon monsters. Halve the ATK of any monster your opponent Special Summons. Cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can banish all Equip Spell Cards in the GY; For each card banished with this effect, banish 1 monster your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP for each monster banished with this effect.

Miku's Monsters

Fallen Star Knight - Gaia / DARK / Level -12 / Warrior / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 1900 / DEF 1000 / If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is used as Dark Synchro Material for the Dark Synchro Summon of a "Fallen Star" monster: You can target up to two cards your opponent controls; banish them.

(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Fallen Star Knight - Cronus / DARK / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000 / If this card is Summoned: You can add 1 "Fallen Star" card from your Deck to your hand, then Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Fallen Star" monster from your hand. You must control another face-up "Fallen Star" monster in order to activate and resolve this effect.  
(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Miku's Extra Deck

Fallen Nova Dragon / DARK / Level -8 / Dragon / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000 / 1 "Fallen Star" Dark Tuner + 1 non-Tuner monster  
(This card is always treated as a "Fallen Star" card.) When this card is Dark Synchro Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck; destroy it, then inflict damage to your opponent equal to the destroyed monster's original ATK. Once per turn, when your opponent Special Summons a monster: You can banish that Special Summoned monster. You can only use one effect of "Fallen Nova Dragon" per turn, and only once that turn.  
(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Miku's Spells

Fallen Star Descent / Spell / Quick-Play / Special Summon 1 "Fallen Star" monster from your hand or Deck in Defense Position.

(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Fallen Star-Light / Spell / Quick-Play / If you control a face-up "Fallen Star" monster: Negate the effects of all monsters your opponent controls, until the end of the next turn. You can banish this card from your GY: Add 1 "Fallen Star" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, then banish 1 card you control. You can only activate each effect of "Fallen Star-Light" once per turn.

(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Fallen Star Retroglyph / Spell / Normal / Activate only if a "Fallen Star" monster you control was banished this turn: Special Summon as many of your currently banished "Fallen Star" monsters as possible in Defense Position. Their effects are negated, and they are destroyed during the End Phase of this turn.

(Original concept by: Shimmering Sky).

Jack Atlas's Monsters

Red Djinni / FIRE / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 1500 / If you control a face-up "Resonator" Tuner, you can Special Summon this card from your hand (you can only use this effect of "Red Djinni" once per turn). Once per turn, you can target 1 "Red" or "Resonator" monster you control; Increase its Level by up to 2. A DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster that used this card as a Material gains this effect.

If it is summoned, you can add 1 "Red" Trap Card from your deck to your hand.

Gravity Resonator/ DARK/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ During the turn a DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster is Synchro Summoned: You can discard this card from your hand; Special Summon 1 "Resonator" monster from your deck in face-up attack position. A DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster Synchro Summoned using this card as a Material gains this effect:

Once per turn, if an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can negate that attack.

Soul Resonator/ FIRE/ Level 1/ Fiend/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 500/ If this card is Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "Red" monster from your graveyard (You can only use this effect of "Soul Resonator" once per turn). A DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster Synchro Summoned using this card as a Material gains this effect.

Once per turn, it cannot be destroyed by an opponent's card effect.

Neo Majestic Dragon / LIGHT / Level 1 / Dragon / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / Cannot be tributed except for the Tribute Summon or Ritual Summon of a "Majestic" monster. Cannot be used as a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Material except for the Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon of a "Majestic" monster. If this card is summoned while you control a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster: You can activate 1 of the following effects.

1\. Add 1 "Majestic Fusion" from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

2\. Synchro Summon 1 "Majestic" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control.

3\. Add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic Majestic Force" from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Jack Atlas's Extra Deck

Red Drake/ DARK/ Level 6/ Dragon/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 2500/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuners

Your opponent cannot activate cards/effects in response to the activation/effect of a Level 8 or higher Dragon-Type Synchro Monster you control. Cannot be targeted for attacks while you control a Level 8 or higher Dragon-Type Synchro Monster. If this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you can target 2 "Resonator" Tuner Monsters in your graveyard: Special Summon them.

Majestic Red Nova Tyrant Dragon / DARK / Level 12 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect / ATK 5000 / DEF 4000 / "Neo Majestic Dragon" + 1 Tuner + "Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant"

Unaffected by and cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. The effects of your opponent's monsters are negated. If this card is targeted for an attack: You can banish this card to target the attacking monster; Negate the attack, and if you do, Special Summon this card. Also, this card gains ATK equal to the original ATK of the monster targeted with this effect, cannot be destroyed by battle with that target this turn, and immediately battles that target. Once per turn: You can activate this effect; Negate the effects of and destroy all other cards on the field, and if you do, this card gains 1000 ATK for each card destroyed with this effect. During the End Phase: Shuffle this card into the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Red Daemon's" monster from your graveyard.

Jack Atlas's Spells

Tyrant Synchro/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster. Pay 1000 LP: Synchro Summon 1 "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters you control and from your graveyard as Materials whose total Level is equal to double the Level of the monster being Synchro Summoned. If Summoned this way, that monster gains the effects of all "Red" Synchro Monsters used in its Synchro Summon. During the turn this card is sent to the GY: You can banish this card; Until the end of this turn, Spell/Trap Cards you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. (Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects).

Jack Atlas's Traps

Red Command / Trap / Counter / If your opponent activates a card or effect that would negate the activation or effects of a Spell/Trap Card(s) you control, or would destroy a Spell/Trap Card(s) you control while you control a DARK Dragon-Type Synchro Monster: You can negate the activation of that card, and if you do, destroy it.

Red Burst / Trap / Normal / Target 1 "Red" DARK Level 8 or higher Dragon-Type Synchro Monster you control; Increase its ATK by 1000, and if you do, you can activate its effect. If this card is in your GY when a "Red" monster you control battles: You can banish this card and send 5 "Red" monsters from your deck to the GY to target that monster; Double its ATK until the end of the Damage Step.

Red Dominance/ Trap/ Counter/ After activating this card: Apply the following effects until the End-Phase of your next turn). Face-Up "Red Dragon Archfiend" monsters you control gain 1000 ATK and cannot have their effects negated, also they cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect. If this card is in your GY when you Synchro Summon a "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster using at least 2 tuners as Synchro Materials: You can banish this card from your graveyard; Draw 2 cards.

Red Gate/ Trap/ Counter/ Until the end of your next turn, your opponent cannot activate any effects in response to an effect that would Special Summon a "Resonator," or "Red" monster, also, negate any effect that would negate the Special Summon of a "Resonator," or "Red" monster.

Red Fury/ Trap/ Normal/ If your opponent declares an attack while you control just 1 face-up "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster, you can apply this effect until the end of this turn; "Red Dragon Archfiend" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect, also any battle damage you take is negated, and if it is, the ATK of that "Red Dragon Archfiend" monster you control is increased by the damage you would have taken. If this card is destroyed: You can target 1 "Red" monster you control; Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to half the target's ATK.

Red Destiny / Trap / Normal / Activate during the Damage Step after an opponent's monster declares an attack while you control a DARK Dragon-Type Synchro monster with a Level of 8 or higher: Reduce the damage you take from that attack to 0, and if you do, the monster that attacked when this card was activated can make an additional attack this turn. Also, your opponent chooses to activate one of the following effects;

Halve the LP of both players, and if you do, double the ATK of all monsters on the field.

Double the LP of both players, and if you do, halve the ATK of all monsters on the field.

Crimson Dragon Release/ Trap/ Counter/ Pay half your LP: Synchro Summon, Fusion Summon, or Xyz Summon 1 "Majestic" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field, hand, or deck as Material. (You can only activate 1 "Crimson Dragon Release" per duel). After activating this card, this card remains face-up on the field as a Continuous Trap Card. If a "Majestic" monster you control would shuffle itself into the Extra Deck with its own effect, you can pay 2000 LP instead. If the monster summoned by this effect leaves the field by its own effect, destroy this card.

Burning Soul/ Trap/ Counter/ Activate only if you control a "Majestic" monster with a Level/Rank of 10 or higher. (If you control a "Majestic" monster with a Level/Rank of 12, you can activate this card from your hand). If your opponent activates a card or effect, you can negate the activation of that card or effect, destroy it, and if you do, double the ATK and DEF of 1 "Majestic" monster you control.

Ruri Kurosaki's Monsters

Fallen Angelic Guide/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Fairy/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 Field Spell Card from your deck or graveyard to your hand. If you control a face-up Field Spell Card, you can Special Summon this card from the graveyard. (You can only use this effect of "Fallen Angelic Guide" once per turn). You can reveal 1 monster in your hand: Shuffle that card into the deck, and if you do, the Levels of all monsters you control become the Level of that monster X -1.

Fallen Divine Mentor/ LIGHT/ Level 1/ Fairy/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you have no monsters in your graveyard. If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: The Levels of all monsters you control become equal to their current Level X -1. If you Dark Xyz Summon a monster, you can activate this effect: Attach this card to that monster as a Dark Xyz Material.

Fallen Afterlife Caretaker / LIGHT / level 1 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can banish a number of monsters from your GY to activate one of the following effects depending on the number of monsters banished.

1 or more: Increase your LP by 500 for each monster banished with this effect.

2 or more: Add 1 "Earthbound" Spell/Trap Card from your graveyard to your hand for every 2 monsters banished for this effect.

3 or more: Special Summon 1 Monster from your graveyard for every 3 monsters banished for this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Acolyte/ DARK/ ATK 200/ DEF 100/ Level 1/ You can discard this card from your Hand: Set 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card or "Salvation Seraphim" Spell/Trap card from your Deck. During either player's turn, if this card is in your Graveyard, you can discard 1 card to target 1 Winged-Beast Type Xyz Monster you control: Attach this card to that target as an Xyz Material. (You can only use this effect of "Salvation Seraphim Acolyte" once per turn.

Salvation Seraphim Priestess/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can excavate the top 3 cards of your Deck: Add 1 Excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monster to your hand and send all other cards excavated by this effect to the Graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Healer/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 100/ DEF 1000/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Healer(s)" once per turn with this effect.) Once per turn, you can send the top card of your Deck to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" monster from your Graveyard.

Salvation Seraphim Apostle/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 1600/ DEF 100/ If you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Apostle(s)" once per turn with this effect.) If this card is Special Summoned, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Salvation Seraphim" or "Rank-Up" card from your Deck or Graveyard to your Hand.

Salvation Seraphim Saint/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 1400/ DEF 700/ If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card from your Deck or Graveyard to your Hand. Once per turn, you can send the top 3 cards from your Deck to the Graveyard: Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field up to the number of "Salvation Seraphim" monsters sent to the Graveyard by this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Martyr/ DARK/ Level 3/ Winged Beast/ ATK 300/ DEF 1800/ If this card is sent to the Graveyard by battle or a card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. (You can only Special Summon "Salvation Seraphim Martyr(s)" once per turn with this effect. An Xyz Monster that was Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect:  
If it is Xyz Summoned, you can target 1 card in either player's Graveyard: Attach that target to that monster as an Xyz Material.

Salvation Seraphim Angel/ DARK/ Level 6/ Winged Beast/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ You can send this card from your hand or your side of the field to the Graveyard: Add 1 "Rank-Up" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand. If you have no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-6: The Levels of all face-up "Salvation Seraphim" monsters you control become the declared Level until the End-Phase.

Salvation Seraphim Archon/ LIGHT/ Level 8/ Winged Beast/ Pendulum/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ Left Scale 1/ Right Scale 1/ Pendulum Effect/ You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters except "Salvation Seraphim" monsters, (this effect cannot be negated). Monster effect/ If you Xyz Summon a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster while this card is in your graveyard, you can Special Summon this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" monster from your hand or graveyard. A winged Beast Type Xyz monster Xyz Summoned using this card as a material gains this effect.  
If it is Xyz Summoned, attach up to 2 cards from your Extra Deck to that card as Xyz Material.

And finally, the card you all have been waiting so long for:

Earthbound God Jatun Waqar / DARK / Level 10 / Winged Beast / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 1800 / There can only be one "Earthbound God" monster on the field. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the summon of this card. Negate this card's effects if there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field. Your opponent cannot tribute, dark sacrifice, or use this card as a Material for a Special Summon. This card is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards and the effects of your opponent's monsters whose Level/Rank is lower than the Level of this card. Your opponent cannot target this card for attacks but can attack your LP directly if this monster is the only monster you control. This card can attack your opponent directly. Once per turn, you can tribute 1 monster you control to target 1 monster in either player's graveyard or that is currently banished: Special Summon that target to your side of the field, ignoring the summoning conditions, and if you do, increase this card's ATK by half the ATK of that monster.

(Trivia: "Jatun Waqar" means "Heron" in Quechuan. This card's corresponding real-life Nazca line is depicted in the cover art for this story.)

Ruri Kurosaki's Extra Deck

Salvation Seraphim Inquisitor/ LIGHT/ Rank 1/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 300/ 2 or more (Max 5) level 1 monsters  
You can also Xyz Summon this card using 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control. Xyz Materials attached to that card also become Xyz Materials on this card. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s) while you have no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Banish 3 Xyz Materials attached to this card: Negate the Special Summon, and if you do, destroy it.

Salvation Seraphim Wandering Pilgrim/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Effect/ ATK 1600/ DEF 2000/ 2 Level 3 monsters  
Cannot be destroyed by battle while you have no monsters in your Graveyard. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to excavate the top 3 cards of your deck: Add all excavated "Salvation Seraphim" monsters to your hand and return all other cards excavated by this effect to the top of the Deck in any order.

Salvation Seraphim Wise Hermit/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 2800/ 2 Level 6 "Salvation Seraphim" monsters  
Cannot be tributed or removed from the field while you have no monsters in your Graveyard. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your Graveyard to a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as Xyz Material.

Salvation Seraphim Brave Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 3/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 1800/ DEF 700/ 2 or more (Max 5) Level 3 monsters  
If this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to itself as an Xyz Material. This card gains 100 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to itself. Once per turn, if you have no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Detach any number of Xyz Materials from this card: Inflict 100 damage to your opponent's LP for each card detached for this effect.

Salvation Seraphim Inspired Crusader / LIGHT/ Rank 4/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1400/ 2 or more (Max 5) Level 4 monsters  
When this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. If this card battles a monster, negate that monster's effects and decrease its ATK and DEF by 100 for each of this card's Xyz Materials at the end of the damage step.

Salvation Seraphim Honored Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 5/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 1800/ 2 or more (Max 5) Level 5 monsters  
When this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. If this card destroys a monster by battle, you can banish 2 Xyz Materials attached to this card: This card can make an additional attack on a monster your opponent controls.

Salvation Seraphim Zealous Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 6/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2100/ 2 or more (Max 5) Level 6 monsters  
When this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all "Salvation Seraphim" monsters in your Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. If your opponent activates a Card or effect while you have no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Banish 3 Xyz Materials attached to this card: Negate the activation of that card or effect, and if you do, destroy it.

Salvation Seraphim Paragon Crusader/ LIGHT/ Rank 10/ Winged Beast/ Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 4000/ DEF 3500/ 3 or more (Max 5) Level 10 monsters  
When this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, attach all cards in your Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material. This card gains the effects of each "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster attached to this card as an Xyz Material. Once per turn, if there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can activate this effect: Attach all cards in both player's Graveyard to this card as Xyz Material.

Ruri Kurosaki's Spells

Sanctified Realm/ Spell/ Field/ This card's effects are not applied to players who do not control a monster(s) that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck or who have a monster(s) in their respective Graveyard. Players take no damage. Each card a players controls cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn. Once per turn, the turn player can add 1 Spell/Trap Card from his/her Deck to their respective hand, but that player cannot activate or set that card the turn this effect was activated.

Salvation Seraphim Consecration Force / Spell / Quick-Play / Activate only if you control a "Salvation Seraphim" monster. Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls. If there are no monsters in your GY and you control a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster: You can destroy all Spell/Trap Cards your opponent controls instead, and if you do, inflict 200 damage to your opponent's LP for each Spell/Trap Card destroyed with this effect.

Rank-Up-Magic Pilgrimage Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Target 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose rank is 1 or 2 Ranks higher than that target's Rank by using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster.) You can banish this card from your Graveyard: attach up to 2 monsters from your side of the field, hand, or Graveyard to a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz monster you control as Xyz Material.

Rank-Up-Magic Paragon Force/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Activate only if you have no monsters in your Graveyard. Target 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz monster you control: Xyz Summon 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck whose Rank is up to 4 Ranks higher than the Rank of that target by using that target as the Xyz Material. (Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the summoned monster.)

Salvation Seraphim Holy Armor / Spell Equip/ Equip only to a "Salvation Seraphim" monster you control. Once per turn, you can declare a Level from 1 to 6: Change the equipped monsters Level to the declared Level. If this card is in your Graveyard while there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can banish 1 Spell/Trap Card from your Graveyard: Attach this card to 1 "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as an Xyz Material. If a "Salvation Seraphim" Monster you control would be destroyed while this card is in the field or attached to a monster as an Xyz Material, you can this Card to the GY instead.

Earthbound Genesis/ Spell/ Quick-Play / Card's and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card or its effects. Special Summon 1 "Earthbound" monster from your hand or GY. If you would take 2000 or more damage from an opponent's attacking monster or card effect while this card is in your GY, halve the damage, and if you do, you can add 1 "Earthbound God" Card and 1 Field Spell Card from your deck or graveyard to your hand, also, Special Summon 2 "Ceremonial Tokens" (Rock-Type/EARTH/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0). "Ceremonial Tokens" cannot be tributed except for the tribute summon of an "Earthbound God" monster and cannot be used as a Material for a Special Summon. (You can only use each effect of "Earthbound Genesis" once per duel).

Lost Salvation / Spell / Continuous / Banish all monsters in both player's GY to target 1 Level 10 or higher monster you control; Equip this card to that target, and if you do, the equipped monster gains 400 ATK for each monster banished by this card's effect. If this card or the equipped monster would be destroyed or removed from the field by battle or a card effect, you can return 5 banished monsters to the GY instead. If the equipped monster would inflict battle damage to your opponent's LP: You can return 5 banished monsters to the GY; Double that damage. During each of your End-Phases, take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster.

Ruri Kurosaki's Traps

Salvation Seraphim Judgement Force/ Trap/ Counter/ Activate only when your opponent activates a card or effect or declares an attack while you control a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster and have no monsters in your graveyard: Negate the activation of that card or effect or attack, and if you do, attach the top 4 cards of your deck and up to 1 Monster from your Extra Deck to a "Salvation Seraphim" Xyz Monster you control as Xyz Materials.

Earthbound Glory/ Trap/ Counter/ If you control a face-up "Earthbound God" monster, you can activate this card from your hand during your opponent's turn. Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to half the ATK of a face-up "Earthbound" monster you control. You can banish this card from your GY and pay half your LP; Activate 1 Field Spell Card or 1 "Earthbound" Spell/Trap Card from your deck.

Earthbound Vengeance / Trap / Counter / If an "Earthbound" monster(s) you controlled was destroyed this turn: You can target one of those monsters; Inflict damage to both player's LP equal to half the ATK of that monster. (If an "Earthbound God" monster was targeted by this effect, you can inflict damage to both player's LP equal to the total ATK of that monster instead).

 **Ending A/N: Thank you all once again, each and every one of you, for supporting me as I realize this dream. I truly could not and would not undertake this epic work without you. When we return with the next chapter (my goal is releasing the next chapter by January 12** **th** **) we will be returning to Yuzu and Rin as they face challenges of their own. Following that, it's time to see what confronts Yuya, and the consequences of that conflict.**

 **Another announcement I must point out. While Akaba Reira most definitely played a great deal of spell cards, it was the trap card she played in the 140** **th** **episode that shocked just about every fan. Consequently, as one who was writing this fic with the assumption that Reira was a boy, there are naturally plenty of erroneous pronouns, and unfortunately, a bit of "SoR" lore that I have since had to edit. Consequently, in Special Update 7, or chapter 21, whichever label you prefer, in the segment introducing Adeel and Semal, there have been some slight but significant changes made to the chapter in order to accommodate this revelation. Needless to say, I most definitely felt that Reira would play significant enough of a role in this story to make this change.**

 **Thank you all once again. It is my deep hope that you all have enjoyed this version of my Christmas present to you and that you all have a wonderful holiday season this time of year, whatever holiday that may be (except Zarcmas, I will be tolerating no demon dragons on my watch). Have a happy holiday season and may God bless you. I will see you all again very soon!**


	30. Part 1: Chapter 15 (Part 1)

**Roughly a month since the last chapter. Not bad for an update time. Thanks goes to Nox Descious, Shimmering Sky, and bladWriter3 for their assistance in writing this chapter and to all of you, my readers, for continuing to support this series. Chaos continues to rise in the Synchro Dimension. What hero will come forth to restore order?**

 **Part 1: Chapter 15 – Mark of the Hero (Part 1)**

"Where are we going?" Yuzu called as she held onto Rin's back while riding her D-Wheel. Despite her brief time in the Friendship Cup, she had still not gotten used to the hi-speed machines, especially with Rin's erratic driving. "I thought you said that the underground facility was that way!"

"I'm trying to avoid Security!" Rin called back as she charged straight towards a gap in the runway. "Roger's been sending his entire security force into the streets and I'd rather not have to fight all of them!"

"Rin!? What are you doing!?" Yuzu squeaked as they approached the gap, with Rin showing no signs of stopping. If anything, she was going faster.

"We'll be fine, I'm just gonna jump the gap." Rin explained, eyes focused on her destination. "Yugo and I used to do stuff like this all the time when we trained for the Friendship Cup."

"Stop! We're gonna crash!" Yuzu insisted, flashbacks of her duel against Sergey before the crash flashing through her head.

Rin twisted the accelerator.

Screaming, Yuzu buried her head in Rin's shoulder and held on for dear life, a seemingly irrational response considering she was already dead, but she hardly cared. Sailing through the air, Rin jumped the gap, tires of the supernatural bike squealing before she resumed her course.

"See, what did I tell you?" Rin smirked as she glanced back to see Yuzu shivering with shock. "Nothing to it. You're in good hands, Yuzu."

"Don't…do that…again!" Yuzu gasped, still clinging to Rin.

"Ok, if I was still alive, I think you would have crushed me to death by now." Rin grunted, indicating Yuzu's extremely tight grip. "Seriously, we'll be okay, I know these streets."

"Please…" Yuzu begged, eyes closed as she shook her head, "…I've just had…enough…with crashes today."

Rin's lightning bolt tattooed eyes widened with understanding before she nodded.

"Right." She replied. "Sorry. I'd forgotten how you died. I'm still haunted by my own death sometimes."

Yuzu loosened her grip on Rin.

"No, I should be the one apologizing." Yuzu replied. "I'd honestly forgotten that you were…well…just like me." She looked down at the glowing flower mark on her arm.

"It's a lot to get used to." Rin sympathized as she swerved onto an exit before heading towards another segment of the city.

"How did you die?" Yuzu asked, "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"It's fine." Rin shrugged, fingers tightening on the handles of her bike. "I don't like that it happened, but I've learned to…erm…live with it. As far as how I died, Ruri and I had been planning to escape from Academia for months. We had been locked up in two separate towers, but one day, they moved us into the heart of Academia, probably to do some experiments on us, they'd done a lot of those since we arrived there."

"How horrible!" Yuzu gasped.

"It wasn't really as bad as I made it sound." Rin shrugged. "But needless to say, they weren't exactly pleasant experiences, any of them. Anyway, the night we were moved to our new rooms, Ruri and I were together, and so we figured that we would use that night to escape. We were planning to take out our honor guard and flee with their security passes when they came to check up on us, when the doors actually opened by themselves."

"What?" Yuzu asked, confused by what she had heard.

"That's exactly what we thought." Rin replied. "Earlier, we had heard the sound of dueling outside our room, not an uncommon experience in Academia with all the drills they do, so we didn't think much of it, but then, before we knew it, our doors had opened up, and resting just outside the door were two security passes, one for each of us."

"Who left those?" Yuzu asked.

"I still don't know." Rin replied, "When I first saw them, I almost thought Yugo had found his way to Academia, but he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe one of the soldiers had a change of heart and decided to release us before fleeing."

"I suppose that makes the most sense at this point." Yuzu agreed, thinking of Sora and how many other Academia students might be like him.

"Whoever did do it," Rin continued, speeding past a mob of protesting civilians, "he or she must have kept themselves secret. Anyway, once we had taken those passes, Ruri and I found ourselves fleeing through the halls of Academia. We were planning on raiding an armory for one of the Academia duel disks that could travel across dimensions, but we were cornered by a squadron of Obelisk Soldiers, who chased us to the edge of a balcony. We were getting ready to duel them but…"

Rin's voice trailed off as she looked down at the handle of her bike. Looking off into the distance, Yuzu began pondering how unexpected her own death was when the sight of a large overturned semi-truck sprawled across the highway caught her attention.

"LOOK OUT!" She shouted at Rin, causing her Synchro counterpart to snap out of her trance.

Reacting quickly, Rin placed her hand on Yuzu's knee before glowing with green energy as she continued speeding forward on the bike. Yuzu braced herself for impact against the overturned truck, only to find herself, Rin, and the bike harmlessly passing through the wreckage as if they were ghosts.

"That's a new trick." Yuzu exclaimed as Rin removed her hand from her knee before the green energy faded away and they continued on their way.

"Yene's taught me a lot of things since I became a Dark Signer." Rin admitted, rounding a turn.

"Yene?" Yuzu asked.

"I believe she'd be referring to me, darling." Rin suddenly replied in a suave masculine voice, eyes and marks on her arm and face glowing a bright green. "Yene Paryaqaqa, God of water and rainstorms, creator of sea creatures, trickster and shapeshifter, and mighty champion and hero of the Earthbound Gods. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dark Signer." The spirit finished, holding out Rin's hand to Yuzu.

Hesitantly, Yuzu took the hand that was offered her before the marks on Rin's face and arm faded slightly and her expression changed to her normal one.

"He's a little boisterous, sometimes." Rin admitted before turning around to focus on the road. "But he's been very helpful to me after I became a Dark Signer. He actually approached me and helped me leave the Underworld when Ruri resurrected me."

"Oh, come now, darling, you're being modest with yourself!" Yene laughed through Rin's mouth. "It was your own power that enabled me to rise from the Underworld with you! Where it not for your help, I'd still be stuck within my Nazca line!"

"Does he…talk through you a lot?" Yuzu asked, disoriented by Rin's constant personality shifts.

"I let him." Rin shrugged. "We're basically sharing the same body, so we try and work together. What about you? Who's your Earthbound God?"

"Well…" Yuzu began before feeling the consciousness of Ti'ika Sara tugging at the back of her mind.

 _"_ _Well, do I get to introduce myself, Onee-chan?"_ the spirit giggled in a high-pitched mocking voice. _"Or do you want me to sit in the corner of your pocket like a good little girl?"_

"I don't really know her that well." Yuzu replied, trying to shake off the irritation she felt at the back of her head.

"That's probably for the best, darling." Yene interjected through Rin with a laugh, patting Yuzu reassuringly on the hand. "Sara is one of those characters who tends to drag others down to her…rather short…level. I wouldn't be surprised if the Matriarch assigned her to you because she thought you'd be a good influence on her."

Yuzu suddenly felt rage flare up within her.

"At least I was chosen!" Yuzu heard Ti'ika Sara snarl through her mouth as the mark over her eye and the mark over her arm glowed a deeper red. "If I recall correctly, you only got to claim your vessel because you were pushier than the others!"

"So, the flower finally blooms!" Yene Paryaqaqa laughed. "I must admit that I was worried! I was beginning to think that you had wilted within your vessel."

"I didn't…" Yuzu stuttered, shocked that the spirit had spoken through her, "I didn't mean to…"

"Forgive me, darling." Yene apologized with a smile. "It can be difficult dealing with Sara, believe me, I should know, and I may have egged her on just a little bit,"

 _"_ _Stupid, arrogant, vainglorious…"_ Yuzu heard the spirit mutter within her mind.

"but I can assure you that I have the highest respect for both you and your venerable Earthbound God, Sara." The spirit continued. "Almost as mighty as her sister, Cavillace!"

Yuzu felt even more rage building up within her at the mention of the name, though she had no idea why. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to ignore Sara's growing anger and maintain control over her own emotions.

"So…you all…know each other?" Yuzu asked, trying to remain calm.

 _"_ _I could tell you all about what that idiot, Paryaqaqa, really is."_ Ti'ika Sara growled.

"All of us Earthbound share the same creator god and matriarch." Yene Paryaqaqa replied. "We're basically one great family!"

"A family that doesn't seem to get along too well." Rin sighed. "Seriously, Yene, I don't remember you ever acting like this around Ruri's Earthbound God."

"Jatun has a more congenial personality." Yene replied with a shrug. "Plus, she's prettier." He smugly added, eliciting an involuntary angry snarl from Yuzu as she expressed Sara's inner feelings.

"Sorry." Yuzu apologized, feeling remarkably disoriented.

"Sorry, Yene, but could you leave us alone for a bit?" Rin asked. "We were kind of having a conversation before you butted in."

"Ah, you must forgive me, darling." Yene apologized. "Sara's just like a little sister to me, and I find it quite enjoyable to tease her, but I'll leave you two humans alone now."

 _"_ _Of all the others who could have earned her as a vessel, it had to be an idiot like you."_ Ti'ika Sara growled from within Yuzu before Yuzu felt the consciousness of the spirit slowly fade from her mind. Once gone, Yuzu almost involuntarily breathed a sigh of relief.

"Like I said, it's a lot to get used to." Rin sighed, as if understanding what Yuzu was thinking. "Still, considering the alternative, I'd rather have to deal with a new roommate if it meant being alive than die alone. Believe me, I know all about loneliness and annoying roommates. Annoying roommates are always the better alternative."

"You and Yugo grew up together in an orphanage." Yuzu recalled out-loud, thinking about Rin's last comment.

"How do you know that?" Rin asked, arching her eyebrow.

Yuzu blushed.

"What?" Rin asked, voice acquiring a more sinister edge.

"Well…I was sort of…Yugo sort of mistook me for you and…erm…accidentally dragged me here when he went out to look for you." Yuzu explained.

"Wait…what!?" Rin exclaimed, sounding shocked. "So, wait…how…was he looking for you here!? Were you just walking the streets when that idiot saw you and dragged you away like some stupid troglodyte!?"

"Well, he was actually in Standard when it happened, and it wasn't really his fault!?" Yuzu sputtered, but Rin only seemed to be paying half attention to her.

"Oh, that is just like him!" she huffed, tightening her grip on the handlebars like she was strangling someone's throat. "First, he rushes off without any plan, not that I mind him taking some initiative, it was actually kind of heroic of him to look for me, not gonna lie, not that I doubted he would, of course, but then, the second he finds someone who looks like me, rather than doing the sensible thing, again, I'm not blaming him for confusing me and you, but come on! At some point it should have been freaking obvious that he wasn't dealing with me! I mean, we're not _that_ interchangeable! But NOOOOOO! Instead, he just drags you on back to, wait, did you say he was in Standard, as in, your dimension?"

"Y-yeah." Yuzu hesitantly replied after a brief pause.

"How did he even get there?" Rin asked, sounding both surprised and impressed.

"He said that his dragon took him there." Yuzu replied, surprised that her last statement sounded far less crazy than everything else that had happened to her that day.

Rin blinked at her.

"Clear Wing, huh? Wow. I didn't know it could do that." She replied after a while. "Well, one thing's for certain. Yugo's still full of unexpected surprises." She turned onto another highway, tires squealing as she avoided another overturned truck and some rioting Commons. "Still, Yugo wasn't rough with you when he dragged you here, was he?"

"He was gentle." Yuzu reassured Rin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rin snapped, eyes narrowing.

"Well, just that, it was really disorienting coming here all of a sudden, b-but he was very kind to me once he figured out that I wasn't you." Yuzu explained, face reddening before she remembered something. "Uhm…here!" she continued, pulling out the handkerchief Yugo had given him. "This is yours. Yugo gave it to me when I first came here. I was upset over being separated from my friends and family, but he gave me this to comfort me. It's yours though, so…"

Gingerly, Rin took the blue handkerchief from Yuzu's hand before placing it inside the left breast pocket of her riding outfit.

"All this time, he never gave up on me." Rin sighed, tears forming at the corner of her eyes as she felt at the contours of the handkerchief sticking out against her clothing with her left hand. "Well," she continued, blinking away the tears before focusing again on the road, "Thanks for holding on to this. I'm glad he was good to you. Still, I imagine it must have been very frightening to end up here all of a sudden. I know I was in utter panic when I found myself in Academia."

"I eased into it." Yuzu replied, glad to see that Rin wasn't upset anymore. "Miss Kimura and the other kids at the orphanage were very accommodating and…"

"You've been to my orphanage?" Rin asked. "I mean, I guess it makes sense, Yugo wasn't just gonna throw you out onto the street, but still."

"Yeah, that's where I stayed." Yuzu replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "I, I hope you don't mind me using some of your clothing and sleeping in your bed while I was there."

"Don't worry about it." Rin sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm used to sharing things at the orphanage, just so long as you didn't touch my diary."

"I promise." Yuzu replied, relieved to see that Rin was fine with her stay at the orphanage.

"Funnily enough," Rin continued, swerving to avoid a pothole, "We'll be passing my orphanage fairly soon with our current path. It actually might be nice to visit them. Hopefully Miss Kimura won't freak out that I have tattoos now, but then again, I do kind of look like a criminal with these. Still, it's not like I'd be the first kid she's taken care of who's had a mark put on their face."

Yuzu nodded her head in agreement, remembering how her own appearance had surprised Yuya. Looking off into the distance where the orphanage lay, Yuzu wondered what Rin's reunion might be like, when the roaring sound of a skyscraper collapsing caught her attention.

"Uhm…Rin?" Yuzu hesitantly asked, eyes widening.

"Look, I'm not gonna be doing more crazy stunts, Yuzu." Rin sighed, taking her eyes off the road to look at Yuzu, "I'll drive-…"

"Look!" Yuzu admonished, pointing in the direction of the sound.

Turning her head around, Rin looked in the direction Yuzu was indicating before her own eyes widened.

"Oh no!" Rin gasped as she spied the distant form of an Antique Gear Chaos Giant marching through the streets, colossal metallic frame bulldozing its way through the nearby building and cars as it continued its rampage.

"Academia!" Yuzu called. "They've already started their invasion!"

"When!?" Rin cried, twisting on the accelerator to increase her bike's speed. "When did they get here!? Where did they come fr-…"

Her eyes widened as she looked in the direction of her orphanage.

"NO!" She cried, urging more speed from her bike as she roared forward. "NOT MY HOME! NOT HERE! NOT NOW!"

Yuzu thought of the destruction she had seen when Dennis had dueled Shun, and of what Yuto and Shun had told her about what had happened to their dimension. She had been powerless to stop the horrible things from happening then.

But she was not powerless now.

"Well stop them!" Yuzu vowed, activating her flower-like duel disk, before gripping Rin's waist. "I don't care what kind of daredevil tricks you have to do! You drive, I'll duel!"

Rin turned towards Yuzu before nodding her head in agreement.

"Now your speaking my language!" Rin replied before charging forward with her bike, engines roaring with fury. "Hold on! This is going to be rough!"

…

 **Obelisk Force vs. 6 civilian duelists**

 **Current State of the Duel**

 **Obelisk Red and Blue:**

 **4000 LP each**

 **0 cards in each hand**

 **No cards on the field**

 **Obelisk Gold:**

 **4000 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Antique Gear Chaos Giant equipped with two copies of Antique Gear Ultimate Cannon**

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant / DARK / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4500 + (10 X 200) + (10 X 200) = 8500 / DEF 3000**

 **Civilian 1:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Powered Tuner**

 **Powered Tuner / WATER / Level 4 / Dragon / Effect / ATK 1400 + (500 X 4) = 3400 / DEF 1000**

 **Civilian 2:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Mist Valley Soldier**

 **Mist Valley Soldier / WIND / Level 4 / Winged Beast / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 300**

 **Civilian 3:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in her hand**

 **Controls Chaos End Master**

 **Chaos End Master / LIGHT / Level 3 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1000**

 **Civilian 4:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in her hand**

 **Controls Delta Flyer**

 **Delta Flyer / WIND / Level 3 / Dragon / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 900**

 **Civilian 5:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in her hand**

 **Controls Reese the Ice Mistress**

 **Reese the Ice Mistress / WATER / Level 2 / Sea Serpent / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 800**

 **Civilian 6:**

 **500 LP**

 **0 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Archfiend Interceptor**

 **Archfiend Interceptor / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1600**

"Funny, I thought that the people of the Synchro Dimension would be using more, I don't know, Synchro Monsters!?" An obelisk soldier with a gold gem in the center of his helmet laughed before his companions snickered with him.

"Talk about a waste of training!" another soldier with a red gem in his helmet complained. "I mean, come on! This prey's hardly even worth hunting!"

"Forget about it." A soldier with a green gem in the center of his helmet laughed. "Even if they had Synchro Monsters, this still wouldn't be an exciting duel. Nothing can defeat Chaos Giant!"

"A fact that you Synchro scum are about to learn!" the soldier with the gold gem in the center of his helmet agreed, addressing the crowd of cowering civilians as they looked up at the massive machine. "It's time to joint he rest of your pathetic friends! Antique Gear Chaos Giant! Attack each of their monsters and finish them off! Chaos Cannon!"

Lowering one of its massive cannons towards the opposing monsters, Antique Gear Chaos Giant prepared to destroy all of the opposing duelists when…

VROOM!

"The hell!?" the gold-gem soldier shouted as a large black whale-shaped motorcycle roared above their heads before crashing down between the two sides, a pair of girls with glowing tattoos riding on top of the bike.

"Diminuendo the Melodious Diva's effect!" a rider with a flower tattoo on her arm called as she slammed a card down onto one of the holographic petals of her flower-shaped duel disk. "During the battle phase, if I either control no monsters or control a Melodious Monster, I can Special Summon this card from my hand! Come forth!"

Through a blue portal, a tiny fairy that looked to be about eight years old appeared to the field. She had immense solid blue eyes, Fluffy golden-blonde hair topped with a yellow-and-white daffodil-shaped hat, and a simple white dress that left her small arms and shoulders bare and her tiny naked feet uncovered.

 **Diminuendo the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 2 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1600**

 **INTRUSION PENALTY!**

 **Yuzu: 4000 / 2 = 2000 LP**

"Wait…those girls!?" The green-gem soldier sputtered in amazement when he caught sight of their faces after the monster materialized.

"The fugitives!" The gold-gem soldier agreed.

"If we take them both in, we'll be heroes!" the red-gem soldier exulted. "Let's get them!"

"You won't be taking anyone!" the duelist growled, the mark on her arm and the mark over her eye burning with intense red light. "Diminuendo's effect! When she is summoned with this effect, I can negate the attack of your monster, end the Battle Phase, and increase our life points by the original attack of your monster! GO! Fading note!"

Breathing in deeply, so that her tiny diaphragm began to bulge just a little, Diminuendo let out a high-pitched child soprano note just as Antique Gear Chaos Giant fired its weapons. However, before the beam of concentrated energy could hit any of the monsters below, Diminuendo began to slowly dim her voice level down to a silent warbling whisper, causing the beam of energy to shrink in tandem with the volume of her voice until both it and the musical note faded away completely. Curtseying, the tiny fairy began glowing with gentle golden light before Yuzu and the other duelists became enveloped in the same gentle light.

 **Obelisk Force: 4000 + 4500 = 8500 LP**

 **Civilians: 500 + 4500 = 5000 LP**

 **Yuzu: 2000 + 4500 = 6500 LP**

"So long as Diminuendo remains face-up on the field, the ATK of all monsters on the field drops by five-hundred for each Melodious monster I control, meaning your Antique Gear Chaos Giant loses five-hundred ATK!" Yuzu explained as the heads of all monsters on the field drooped slightly as if they were growing sleepy.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant: 8500 – 500 = 8000 ATK**

 **Powered Tuner: 3400 – 500 = 2900 ATK**

 **Mist Valley Soldier: 1700 – 500 = 1200 ATK**

 **Chaos End Master: 1500 – 500 = 1000 ATK**

 **Delta Flyer: 1500 – 500 = 1000 ATK**

 **Reese the Ice Mistress: 800 – 500 = 300 ATK**

 **Archfiend Interceptor: 1400 – 500 = 900 ATK**

The gold gem obelisk soldier growled as his attack was stopped.

"Who is she?" one of the Civilians asked.

"Does it matter?" another cried. "She just saved us!"

"You scum may have received a reprieve for now," the gold gem Obelisk Soldier shouted. "But nothing can defeat our monster! Turn end!"

"You Academia punks are going down!" Rin growled as she revved up the engine of her bike. "Yuzu! Throw them out of my city!"

"With pleasure." Yuzu agreed, placing her hand on top of her deck. "Atashi no turn, DRAW!" she called as she began her turn.

"Magic card activate, Yuugo!" Yuzu began, activating a copy of the Fusion Spell Card, much to the apparent shock of both the Synchro civilians and the Obelisk soldiers. "Using the Shopina the Melodious Maestra in my hand and the Tam Tam the Melodious Diva in my hand as Material, I Fusion Summon!" she proclaimed as her two monsters, a tall elegant green haired woman in a blue dress and a smaller fairy with a large tam tam appeared above her head before swirling together into the center of a fusion portal as Yuzu began her summoning chant.

"Supreme composer, echoes of the soul! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Fusion Summon! Now come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir!"

Emerging through the Fusion Portal in an enclosed lotus flower, Yuzu's tiny fairy with swirling blue hair slowly rose from the folds of the petal as the flower opened up.

 **Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir / LIGHT / Level 6 / Fairy / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 2000**

"Tam-Tam's effect activates!" Yuzu declared, stretching her hand towards the Obelisk Force. "If she is used as a Fusion Material for a Fusion Summon, I can decrease the ATK of Bloom Diva by five-hundred in order to inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points! GO!"

 **Civilians: 5000 – 500 = 4500 LP**

 **Obelisk Force: 8500 – 500 = 8000 LP**

 **Bloom Diva: 1000 – 500 (minus 1000 more ATK due to Diminuendo's effect) = 0 ATK**

"Are you sure she's here to save us?" one of the Civilians grunted as his Life Points dropped.

"Brace yourselves!" Yuzu warned, "This battle's going to damage a lot of you, but it will destroy Chaos Giant!"

"Seriously!? You're gonna fight that thing!?" a woman exclaimed, stunned into disbelief.

"Your monster has zero ATK thanks to your own monster's effect!" the gold-gem officer growled. "And even if it didn't, it still wouldn't be nearly strong enough to defeat us!"

"BATTLE!" Yuzu countered, stretching her hand towards her monster as Rin and Bloom Diva charged towards Antique Gear Chaos Giant. "Bloom Diva, attack Antique Gear Chaos Giant!"

"Chaos Cannon!" the gold-gem soldier shouted back as his Chaos Giant fired one of its massive cannons at Bloom Diva as the tiny fairy unleashed a wave of sound back at the monster as it began to sing.

"She's going to lose!" one of the civilians cried.

"Don't do it, stop!" another warned.

"Bloom Diva's effect!" Yuzu called, "If it battles a Special Summoned monster, my opponents take damage to their Life Points equal to the difference between the original ATK of Bloom Diva and the monster it is battling before the monster Bloom Diva battled is destroyed! Reflect shout!"

Singing more intensely, Bloom Diva reflected the surge of energy from Chaos Giant's cannon right back at the colossal monster, blowing off the creature's head before causing the entire titanic mass to explode in a blast of gears and scrap metal.

 **Obelisk Soldiers: 8500 – 3500 = 5000 LP**

 **Civilians: 5000 – 3500 = 1500 LP**

Both Obelisk Soldier and Civilian gaped their mouths open at the destruction of the colossal monster. Yuzu, meanwhile, continued her turn.

"I activate De-Fusion in order to shuffle my Bloom Diva into my deck and Summon Tam Tam and Shopina from my graveyard." Yuzu declared as her Bloom Diva split into her original fusion materials.

 **Tam Tam the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1000 – 1500 = / DEF 2000**

 **Shopina the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 7 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 2300 – 1500 = 800 / DEF 1700**

"My monster's effect reduces the ATK of my own monsters, but it doesn't matter." Yuzu continued. "Battle! Shopina the Melodious Maestra, direct attack! Marvelous Wave!"

Raising her baton in the air as she unfolded her butterfly-like wings, Shopina unleashed a storm of wind into the Obelisk Soldier with the gold gem, knocking him back.

 **Obelisk Gold: 5000 – 800 = 4200 LP**

"During my Main Phase, I tribute my Tam Tam and my Diminuendo in order to Tribute Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!" Yuzu declared as her original ace monster appeared to the field, red dress glimmering with sparkling golden light.

 **Mozarta the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 8 / Fairy / ATK 2600 / DEF 2000**

"Because Diminuendo left the field, her effect no longer applies." Yuzu continued as the other monsters on the field began standing up straighter.

 **Powered Tuner: 3400 ATK**

 **Mist Valley Soldier: 1700 ATK**

 **Chaos End Master: 1500 ATK**

 **Delta Flyer: 1500 ATK**

 **Reese the Ice Mistress: 800 ATK**

 **Archfiend Interceptor: 1400 ATK**

"To end my turn, I'll use my Shopina's effect to add Diminuendo from my graveyard to my hand." Yuzu declared as she added a card from her graveyard to her hand. "Turn end."

"Their Life Points are open and they have no cards left." Rin declared as she turned towards the civilians. "It's up to you all now. You know what to do."

Smiling in agreement, one of the civilians cracked his knuckles before eagerly drawing a card to begin his turn.

"I think it's time for a tactical retreat." The green-gem soldier whimpered as he eyed the advancing crowd.

"You won't win, Synchro scum!" the gold-gem soldier vowed before he and the rest of his team pressed a button on their disks and vanished in a flash of blue light.

"Yeah! You'd better run!" A woman shouted, throwing a broken piece of asphalt in the direction of where the soldiers had stood.

"Thank you, Yuzu." Rin whispered to her friend before revving up the engine of her bike while the crowds were distracted. "Now let's go! We have to stop Academia before they do any more damage!"

"Wait!" a man begged, grabbing Rin and Yuzu's arms before they could get away. "You saved our lives! How can we thank you?"

"I don't have time to stay." Rin replied. "Just tell me if there were more soldiers. Did you see any come from that direction?" she continued, pointing in the direction of her orphanage.

"There might have been." The man admitted. "But it was really chaotic. Security had come down here and was treating us like pigs, when all of a sudden, those other guys showed up and started raising all kinds of hell! Security began dueling them…but…well, it was just us by the time it was over, and we would have all been beaten had you two not shown up!"

"Thank you for telling me." Rin replied, revving up her engine before driving away. "You all need to get somewhere safe before this city is overrun."

"Well, what about you, young lady?" another member of the crowd asked, directing her question at Yuzu. "Surely there must be something we can do for you."

Yuzu looked over at the crowds, her mind wandering back to when she had addressed a similar crowd in the friendship cup. They had not listened to her when she warned of Academia's invasion then, but perhaps they would now.

"More Academia forces are likely to show up!" Yuzu warned. "And Rin and I won't be able to be everywhere at once! If you are going to survive, you'll all need to unite and fight together! It doesn't matter if you're Tops, Commons, or even Security! If you don't unite together as one, Academia will destroy everything!"

"She's got that right!" a civilian from the crowd roared in agreement. "Come on, everyone! Let's show these foreign punks who gets to live here!"

"Wait…is that Yuzu? She was in the friendship cup!" another person in the crowd cried.

"I thought Sergey had killed her!" another woman gaped, tears coming to her eyes.

"It's a miracle!"

"They've come to save us!"

"We have to get ready before more of them come!"

"Wait, young ladies, I need to know something!"

But by that time, Rin and Yuzu had already driven away, Rin gunning her bike at full speed towards her home.

"Those people looked like they needed help." Yuzu whispered to herself, wondering if they would be able to make it if more Academia soldiers showed up.

"We can't stay with them forever." Rin replied, eyes fixed on her destination in the distance. "If anything happens to my home…" her voice trailed off.

"We'll save them." Yuzu vowed. "No matter where Academia is, I promise I'll help you defeat them!"

* * *

Jean-Michell Roger's world was in complete chaos. All around him, buildings were burning, people were fighting and rioting, and more and more and more enemies were gathering.

"Sir! Academia forces have captured the distract square! Our security forces are attempting to stop their advance, but they are being overwhelmed!" One subordinate frantically reported, face white with terror.

 _"_ _The district square?"_ Roger thought, feeling strangely distant from all the disorder and incompetence surrounding him. _"And why should that be my concern? You were supposed to coordinate that defense, not me! You fix it!"_

"Tops in district J-218 are requesting assistance!" Another called.

 _"_ _Let them assist themselves!"_ Roger almost said out loud. _"I have far more important things to worry about than their pampered hides"_

"Chief! Academia forces are pushing through to headquarters and surveillance is detecting more teleportation signatures! They are arriving en masse!"

 _"_ _En masse? Idiot. You have no idea what 'en masse' looks like when Academia truly invades. This is nothing more than a preliminary, a probe designed to prepare the city for Fusion's full invasion. Take care of it! Get rid of them so I can focus on more important enemies!"_

"Security forces eliminated!" an officer frantically reported, indicating a screen that was showing a trio of Chaos Giants leveling their cannons at the Public Security Maintenance Bureau Headquarters. "Academia is at our gates! Repeat! Academia is at our gates!"

The building shook in time with the broadcast of a Chaos Giant firing its weapon into the building.

 _"_ _But of course, you can't do it."_ Roger raged to himself, _"Nobody can do it. I am the only one here who can save all your worthless lives! So, I will! Watch, city, as your savior delivers you from your own weakness!"_

Pushing aside a subordinate who was squawking about more bad news, Roger approached his central desk, chess set resting on top of an ornate pedestal before rearranging the pieces so that two rooks were placed directly in front of the queen in a straight line.

Instantly, in response to the rearrangement, the room itself began rearranging, Large metal barricades slamming over the exits, walls lighting up with energy, and a massive holographic screen appearing in the center of the room before a control module with a purple shield-shaped duel disk connected to a VR headset lowered itself to Roger's level.

"Operation Alekhine's gun is now go!" Roger roared as he inserted his right arm into his disk before placing the VR equipment over his eyes and turning towards a male subordinate sitting to his left. "Unleash the volunteers and the GHOST units and place them under my command! Now!"

"All of them sir?" the man yelped. "But half of them haven't had their chips calibrated. The chief of biomechanical engineering said that we'd risk killing them if we activated them-…"

The rest of the subordinate's comment was cut short as Roger pressed a button on his Duel Disk, carding the man instantly.

"All of them." Roger whispered, before releasing the units himself, the rest of his staff doing the first smart thing they had done that day by keeping silent. In front of Roger, the central screen showed the visual feed of his own duel disk armed hologram standing before thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children with blinking chips in the center of their foreheads and a smaller legion of mechanical soldiers, whose robotic legs were built directly into their sleek black D-Wheels.

"Behold city!" Roger and his hologram proclaimed in unison, "Behold your salvation! An endless legion of perfectly loyal soldiers commanded by an immortal leader!"

* * *

General Magni stood before the walls of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, the cowlick of his emerald green hair flying in the wind as a trio of Antique Gear Chaos Giants fired a battery of energy at the building's crumbling defenses. He had served in many campaigns for Academia, even before Leo Akaba became the professor, but this latest conflict had to be his most glorious, for if he succeeded here, he might very well go down in history as the general who conquered Synchro before the main Academia force had even arrived.

"Progress report, Lieutenant Martell." General Magni demanded of a shorter, straw-haired Obelisk officer who, like himself, had chosen to remove his battle mask in favor of displaying his face to his troops.

"Assault squadrons have successfully cleared out all Security forces outside the Public Maintenance Security Bureau HQ." Lieutenant Martell reported, observing a holographic screen projected from his duel disk. At our current rate, we should have their headquarters under our control within an hour.

"Unacceptable!" General Magni barked. "We are making history here! I did not assemble some of Academia's finest soldiers here just so that we could be overshadowed by the likes of Daniel Tarleton and Yuri when those pompous fools deign to march in! Tell the men to redouble their efforts! I want this dimension's political leaders licking my boots within the next half hour!"

"Understood, general." Lieutenant Martell acknowledged.

"What's the status on our perimeter teams?" General Magni continued, impatiently tapping his foot as another barrage of energy from Academia's monsters fired into the fortified Headquarters.

"Most of the perimeter teams have encountered only minor resistance." Lieutenant Martell reported. "Although a few of our soldiers have run into some difficulty with some especially powerful Security forces who, in their words, 'use strange summoning techniques.' Several squadrons have been forced back to Academia for treatment and the remaining forces are requesting backup."

General Magni ground his teeth together with frustration.

"Tell them that the only backup they will be receiving from me is my boot back up their *sses if they can't keep our flanks secured! If I see even one Security squad slip through our perimeter because of their incompetence, then the last thing they will have to worry about will be 'strange summoning techniques!'"

"One of the squadrons reported seeing the fugitives, sir." Lieutenant Martell calmly reported, seemingly unfazed by his superior officer's rant.

General Magni's eyes widened, a flash of fear coming over his face before he turned his attention back towards the Chaos Giants bombarding the HQ building.

"The professor has ordered us not to engage with the fugitives." General Magni replied. "He has other arrangements in mind for them. Our task is to secure this city so that the main invasion force can have a base of operations through which they can finish conquering the dimension. And if my theory is right," he continued, holding up a bloody brain-control chip he had extracted from the skull of a Security officer earlier that day. "then if the Public Maintenance Security Bureau Headquarters falls to our control, then we should be able to nullify this city's entire defense force."

"I have high confidence that you will be correct in your prediction, General." Lieutenant Martell nodded.

"I don't need your confidence." General Magni growled, "What I need is that Uria Scout! Where is he!? He should have finished up his reconnaissance mission and reported to me by now!"

"You'd better calm down, General." A calm friendly voice called seemingly from thin air. "If your heart-rate goes as fast as your expectations, it might end up exploding."

Whipping their heads around, General Magni and Lieutenant Martell faced the direction the voice had come from, but only saw empty air.

"Wipe the smirk off your face, Agent Ichiyanagi, and deactivate your cloaking device." General Magni growled, addressing the empty air.

In response, the air in front of General Magni and Lieutenant Martell began shimmering as light began to bend around a humanoid shape. In a few moments, the illusion of empty air faded away, revealing the form of a short Academia soldier wearing armor and a helmet styled after Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, one of the legendary deities the Shadow Riders of the old Academia worshiped. Stepping forward, the Academia agent removed a field spell card from the slot of his Duel Disk before typing a command onto the screen of his disk, causing his Uria uniform to fold away into a plain blue hoodie he was wearing underneath, revealing a spikey blue-haired boy with dark brown eyes and pale skin.

"You are late, Ibuki," Lieutenant Martell scolded, addressing the boy. 'Your general expected you to finish your reconnaissance of the Security Headquarters fifteen minutes ago."

"My apologies, Lieutenant." Ibuki replied with a modest salute. "But I think you will all be pleased to learn what I found out in that extra fifteen minutes."

"Did you find the control terminal for the brainwashing devices?" General Magni asked, rubbing the blood-stained chip between his fingers.

"I have, General." Ibuki replied with a smile before bringing up a holographic map with his duel disk. "And I have successfully mapped out some secure routes to that terminal for our infiltration teams to follow."

"Good." General Magni grunted, tapping in a few commands into his own disk in order to upload the map into his data. "Once we've breached the wall, our assault forces will storm that terminal and cripple the city's defenses. What else did you find out?"

"Oh, believe me, you'll really like what I have to say next." Ibuki replied, smiling knowingly as he paused for effect.

"Answer your general's question and stop wasting our time!" Lieutenant Martell demanded.

"I was getting to that." Ibuki protested, raising his hands in surrender. "It would seem that the turncoat, Jean-Michell Roger, is the one running Security. He's barricaded himself in his very disorganized control room, and from the looks of things when I last saw him, he's unraveling by the second."

"Jean-Michell Roger!?" Lieutenant Martell exclaimed in shock.

General Magni, meanwhile, clenched his fists.

"Tell our forces to card everyone in that building _except_ Jean-Michell Roger." Magni growled. "Tell them I want him brought before me alive so that I can personally parade him through the streets of Academia as my trophy before publicly executing the traitor myself!" he finished, snapping the chip between his fingers in half as his grip tightened.

"I shall be certain to do so." Lieutenant Martell replied, making a note on his duel disk. "Is there more you have to report, Agent Ichiyanagi?"

"There is." Ibuki admitted, tapping on his duel disk screen to display a photo of a large machine within the facility. "There is a hazard we should be aware of once we begin the full-scale assault on the Headquarters. It seems that Roger has been using some of the Professor's technology to create a massive trans-dimensional warp system."

"And why would he need to build that?" Lieutenant Martell mused, examining the photo of the immense machine. "He already has his duel disk. He could run away from us any time he wanted to. Not that it would do him any good in the end once we have all dimensions under our control."

"Roger has no intention of retreating." General Magni replied. "I know him. He's an arrogant fool, determined to hold onto this city at any cost. How much power does the machine have?"

"Hard to say." Ibuki admitted. "They don't seem to have ever used the machine before, but it would seem that they designed it to warp away at least half the city at full power."

"Half the city!?" Lieutenant Martell exclaimed in shock. "Where in the multiverse would he need to move it!?"

"Not move it. Destroy it." General Magni concluded with grimness. "He knows what we'll do to him once we capture him, so he intends to take us out with him, in one of the greatest funeral fires in history."

"He can't be that insane!" Lieutenant Martell protested.

"Are you calling me a liar?" General Magni growled, glaring at his lieutenant.

"N-no sir!" Lieutenant Martell sputtered, hastily correcting himself. "I, I just meant…I'm just surprised that Roger would resort to such extreme measures!"

"He would." General Magni coldly replied, looking off into the distance. "He's an insecure egomaniac who betrayed and abandoned his own family for the sake of his pride before he did the same thing to his own dimension. He's a volatile, unstable man, and the universe would be well rid of him."

"I heard his treachery was inherited by his daughter." Ibuki smirked. "Apparently she got cold feet during the Xyz invasion and deserted her unit. Apple really doesn't seem to fall far from the tree."

General Magni snorted, not seeming to care about Ibuki's little anecdote.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Just one more thing." Ibuki replied. "It would seem that Roger was busy rounding up his own civilians. I saw several thousand of them herded into cramped warehouses, with even more vehicles delivering additional civilians."

"Evacuation?" Lieutenant Martell asked.

"They seemed to be storing them." Ibuki reported, bringing up a few photos depicting rows upon rows of men, women, and children standing still in dimly lit warehouses.

"What's your game, Roger?" General Magni mumbled to himself before something else caught his attention.

"Why have our batteries stopped?" General Magni growled, noticing that the Chaos Giants had ceased firing their weapons into the Headquarters and were instead turning their heads towards the eastern and western wings of the building.

Lieutenant Martell's eyes widened.

"General…?" he began.

Ibuki activated his Duel Disk.

Looking into the distance, General Magni spied what was approaching his armies from the left and right flanks.

"Well what do you know." He mused as he activated his own Duel Disk. "I never expected you'd be this bold."

Closing in on his army from the east and west were legions of men, women, and children, faint red lights blinking on the center of their foreheads. They were ill equipped, with at least half of them not even armed with a duel disk. Now and then, within the mass of people who were shambling towards Magni's forces like a horde of zombies, an individual would keel over before falling to the ground, eyes, nose, and ears bleeding as they lay still. Zooming around the flanks of the legion on D-wheels were several dozen robotic soldiers, half of them with wires and circuitry poking out of their incomplete limbs and faces. All in all, though it was a massive force, it seemed to be a rather unimpressive one when compared to the disciplined Academia soldiers, who were already arranging themselves into their battle formations. Once they formed up into their ranks, the horde of civilian soldiers and mounted machines stopped before both sides began staring at one another, tension rising as neither faction made a move.

Then, from the center of the horde, marching proudly towards Magni's forces with a smug expression on his face like an overconfident emperor, was none other than Jean-Michell Roger himself. He was wearing his usual posh purple robes, only they were now accented with white highlights. Over his right arm, he was wearing his duel disk. As he approached General Magni's army, a smile playing on his face as if he had no care in the world, General Magni motioned away a pair of Obelisk Squadrons before he and Lieutenant Martell approached the Academia traitor.

"I always knew you were insane, but I admit that even I didn't think you'd be this crazy." General Magni mocked, addressing the pompous Synchro dictator. "Just what exactly do you hope to accomplish with this rabble?"

"Thaddeus Magnison, it's been a long time." Roger gushed, brushing off the mockery with a condescending smile.

"I'm called General Magni now," General Magni growled.

"After the Nordic God?" Roger exclaimed with a laugh, "Well then, I must say, you've come a long way from being that drooling schoolboy who couldn't tell the difference between attack and defense position. It looks like Akaba Leo gave you your own army! What an achievement. Of course, I've been building up my own army since I left Academia." He continued, indicating the people and machines behind him. "Though, in my case, I didn't need someone to give it to me."

"You call this an army!?" General Magni laughed, stepping towards Roger so that he was staring down at the dictator's forehead. Roger, unfazed by the general's imposing figure, looked on with a calm expression, hands clasped behind his back while General Magni indicated the army behind him. "I see a bunch of flea-bitten scum, and rust-caked tin cans you dug up out of the landfill! These shambling corpses are hardly even worth being prey for my men! Half of them aren't even armed! Don't think I don't know what you're doing here, Jean! I saw what you did to the Security forces around here. I drilled open one of their skulls and found this!" he held up the remains of the chip. "Not only did you betray your own dimension, but you stole some of our technology when you did! But it's all gonna come back to bite you. Once I deal with you, these mindless drones will have nobody to lead them, or at least, nobody to lead them until I take the controls. Thank you for this gift, Jean. I might actually let you live for one day just so you can see me put in charge of your own city."

"Take control of my city?" Roger sneered, shaking his head "no." "I think not. Besides, Thaddeus, what would an oaf like you even do with my city? Could you be planning your own coup against the Professor?"

General Magni clenched his fists.

"Unlike you, traitor," General Magni growled, "I have stayed loyal to Academia. And look where it's got me. I have my own army, I have men who obey and respect me, and soon, I'll have your city under my thumb! You, on the other hand, will be lucky if you end up being carded! In the end, you'll die a traitor and a cowardly turncoat. Such a waste, when you were no less than a commanding instructor in Academia!"

"Did you really think that after living under Kagemaru's shadow for my entire life, that I would let myself continue being someone else's pawn when Leo Akaba started his own regime?" Roger growled, looking indignant.

"You could have thrived under the Professor's rule!" General Magni countered. "But instead, you chose to be ground into dust underneath my boots!"

"So, you wish to do battle with me?" Roger asked, an amused grin coming over his face.

"I'm always happy to stamp out scum." General Magni sneered. "I'll just be sure to have your 'army' lick your muck from the sole of my boot once I'm done with you. Wouldn't want your traitor's blood staining my uniform in the moment of my glory."

"Well, I suppose this was inevitable." Roger shrugged as he activated his own duel disk. "Though this hardly seems fair."

"Fair!?" General Magni snorted, "Well who cares if it's fair, Jean! The strong crush the weak and take everything they have! It's the harsh reality of nature, and once I am finished with you, I'll-…"

"It ought to be me against you and two more of your men, just to even things out." Roger sneered, interrupting General Magni mid-speech.

General Magni's face reddened with rage.

"You're being awfully stupid, mocking me at a time like this." General Magni threatened.

"And here I thought that the great and loyal 'General Magni' wouldn't be afraid to face me if his soldiers were helping him." Roger sighed, shaking his head with mock disappointment. "Oh well, I suppose I'll accept your surrender, in that case."

General Magni glowered at him.

"I'll give you one last chance to take that back. Otherwise, I really will have my soldiers gang up on you."

"I welcome the challenge!" Roger countered, before clapping his hands. Around the perimeter of the sky platform where the Public Security Maintenance Bureau HQ stood, immense holographic screens appeared, showing Roger facing off against General Magni. "The whole city will see the duel, and once I defeat you and your so called 'army,' then none will question my position as the true king and ruler of this dimension!"

General Magni looked up at the immense holographic screens, amazed that Roger had given him such a wonderful opportunity.

"If you really want to die that badly, then I'll gratify your wish, Jean." He growled before signaling over Lieutenant Martell. "But I'm not going to stain my honor by fighting you three on one. Lieutenant Martell has trained as my tag partner in past duels, you will find him to be an immensely suitable opponent for your, erm, kingly duel."

The rest of General Magni's soldiers began snickering as Lieutenant Martell joined his general's side.

"But know this, people of Synchro!" General Magni continued, addressing the screens, "I, being the generous leader that I am, humbly gave your head of Security the chance to surrender peacefully, but he spat my offer in my face and condemned you all to inevitable destruction! Today, you will all see the strength of Academia as I, General Magni, no, The Great General Magni, crush your foolish leader with my own hands! Tremble, people of Synchro, and know that your turn will come next, unless you fall down to your knees and surrender this dimension to my control! Any speck of resistance will be wiped out without mercy! Do not make the mistake of this man, or you will all receive his fate!"

"A stirring speech." Roger mocked, sarcastically clapping his hands. "But you forget that I am still here."

Turning towards the screens, he addressed the city with his own speech.

"Citizens of Synchro! Your city is even now threatened by the invading forces of this man! But I, your courageous leader, will deliver you from this horror! Witness your savior now, Synchro, and take heart knowing that I, Jean-Michell Roger, shall defeat all the enemies that threaten us!"

He turned towards Magni and Martell, all three of them placing their hands on their duel disks while the two armies and several million citizens of the City looked on with bated breath.

"All forces! Engage the enemy! Wipe them out!" General Magni ordered as he and Martell began their duel against Roger.

"DUEL!" Magni, Martell, and Roger screamed in unison as, all around them, their armies clashed.

"Martell!" General Magni barked, "Start things off!"

"Yes general!" Lieutenant Martell began, "It's my move and I'll start by activating the Magic Card, Unexpected Dai!"

Slamming a card onto his duel disk, a magic card showing Warrior Dai Grepher warping through a section of interdimensional space appeared before a small tear in the air above Martell's head opened up.

"Since I control no monsters," Martell explained, "I can Special Summon one Normal Monster directly from my deck. Using this card's effect, I Special Summon Gamma the Magnet Warrior! Come forth!"

Appearing through the portal, a pink robotic knight made of magnets appeared to Martell's field before posing in front of him.

 **Gamma the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / ATK 1500 / DEF 1800**

"Next," Martell continued, slamming another card onto his duel disk, "I Normal Summon Beta the Magnet Warrior. Come forth!"

Through a blue portal, a golden robot with a more spherical head and body made of magnets appeared to the field, round hands reaching out with magnet hands like claws.

 **Beta the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / ATK 1700 / DEF 1600**

"Setting a card face-down, turn end." Martell finished, looking over at his General.

"I'm surprised." Roger sneered. "I would have suspected a stronger start from an Academia Lieutenant."

"Battle Royal rules prevent anyone from attacking on the first turn." General Magni lazily replied. "So basically, it means you'll get a bit of a reprieve before any of us decide to go all-out. Speaking of which…" he placed his hand on top of his deck, "It's my turn now…DRAW!"

Yanking a card from the top of his deck, he gave his hand a brief look before idly removing two cards from his hand.

"I'll start by setting a card face-down before normal summoning Alpha the Electromagnet Warrior from my hand."

Through a blue portal, a tall blue machine wielding a shield and a tall staff made up of a rod with copper coiling appeared to the field, electromagnets sparkling with electricity as it lowered its weapon towards Roger.

 **Alpha the Electromagnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 3 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1100**

"When Alpha is summoned, it's effect allows me to add one level eight Magna Warrior from my deck to my hand. Using this effect, I'm adding Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior from my deck to my hand. Turn end." General Magni finished as he tore a card from his deck before showing it to Roger and adding it to his hand. "Now let's see what you power you can muster, traitor."

"My turn." Roger simpered, delicately placing his hand on top of his deck. "Draw!" Scanning his hand with a thoughtful expression he stood still for a considerable amount of time.

"WELL!?" General Magni growled, losing patience. "Are you going to get a move on, or are you just trying to stall because you know you're gonna lose?"

"Patience, Thaddeus." Roger sneered. "Duel Monsters is a game of thought. One cannot simply rush through their turn and expect to win." He looked at General Magni's field, "Though it would seem there are still plenty of those who still try."

General Magni clenched his fists.

"On to business then." Roger continued, extracting a card from his hand and placing it on his duel disk. "I'll start by summoning the level two monster, Chess Master White Pawn, to my field."

Through a blue portal, a large man-sized stone pedestal with an equally tall statue of a medieval soldier standing on top while wielding a marble spear, shield, and plain stone helmet, appeared to Roger's field, blank white eyes staring down at General Magni and Lieutenant Martell as the stone monster stood still.

 **Chess Master White Pawn / LIGHT / Level 2 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"Chess?" General Magni scoffed. "That's what your deck is, Chess!?"

"I find that life itself is very much like a game of Chess." Roger replied as he lazily removed another card from his hand. "One must constantly be positioning, sacrificing, and planning with their pieces in order to overpower their opponent. Speaking of which," he continued, placing the card he had removed from his hand onto his duel disk, "Since I normal summoned one of my pawns, I can activate the Quick-Play Spell Card, Chess Master Move – Torre Attack! This card allows me to Special Summon one level four Chess Master monster from my hand or deck whose attribute is the same as the Pawn I summoned. Behold my opening gambit! Chess Master White Knight!"

Through a blue portal, a marble statue of a knight riding on top of a white horse appeared to Roger's field, hand holding a large stone lance as it stared motionlessly at Magni and Martell.

 **Chess Master White Knight/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000**

"Setting two cards face-down." Roger concluded as two face-down cards appeared in his Spell/Trap Zone before vanishing. "Turn end."

* * *

During her time as a professional news reporter, Melissa Claire had witnessed plenty of riots and other citywide upheavals that most sane people would never have ventured near. She, however, had done her duty as a news agent each time, diving right into the action, sometimes with bodyguards, just to capture the full story…while occasionally covering up other details when she received the directive to do so from Security. She was not one to normally flee from the action, especially when there was a big story to get out of it.

This, however, was different.

In all her time as a news reporter, she had never yet witnessed this level of city-wide chaos. Civilians everywhere were rioting, fleeing, and generally wreaking havoc as they panicked, used the chaos to their advantage, or both. Meanwhile, throughout the streets, rank after rank of masked soldiers with legions of destructive machines at their command, were marching through the city, smashing buildings to rubble and causing civilians to disappear in flashes of purple light. Security was fighting back, but they were getting quickly overwhelmed as new ranks of soldiers appeared, seemingly from nowhere.

"Oh, why couldn't this just be a normal tournament!" Melissa wailed, thoughts of how the morning had quickly spiraled out of control, starting with the rather shocking announcement that Security had taken her sister into custody, and insinuated that harm would come to her if she didn't attempt to silence the Shinji boy's talk of rebellion. She had done her best, and yet, despite her best efforts, the city had just continued to descend into Hell! Now she didn't know what to do.

Her mind drifted to her sister, Aleisha, who had been taken by Security. She had never been that close to Aleisha, what with college, and later, the work of a reporter to keep her busy and Aleisha's tendency to wander off and disappear in order to do who-knows-what with her rather eccentric friends. Melissa had told Aleisha to act like an adult and take responsibility for her life several times, but Aleisha would always ignore her, so she had not bothered with her sister for a while, instead deciding that Aleisha would just have to face the consequences of her actions eventually. She had expected she might get in trouble eventually, but she had never imagined…

A sudden explosion interrupted Melissa in her thoughts. Looking in the direction of where the sound had come from, she saw a trio of massive mechanical giants firing energy weapons into the Public Security Maintenance Bureau Headquarters, the same building her sister was staying in.

If the fighting was spreading there…

Melissa tried to reassure herself, to tell her that the Public Security Maintenance Bureau was one of the most heavily fortified structures in all of Neo Domino City. Even if Aliesha was a prisoner, she would surely be safe from the invasion.

Beneath her helicopter, the immense form of another Antique Gear Chaos Giant materialized into existence before leveling a score of small buildings with one sweep of its massive energy weapon.

Who was she kidding? Whoever this invasion force was, they were crushing the city's defense forces, and more were materializing into existence by the second. Soon, nowhere in the city would be safe.

She and Aliesha would be captured…or worse.

She and her sister had to get out of the city before it was too late. If she hurried, they might be able to hide in another country until the chaos blew over. But first, she had to get her sister.

"Take us there!" Melissa instructed the helicopter pilot, pointing in the direction of the Headquarters.

"It's not safe there!" the helicopter pilot protested. "Scoop or no scoop, we've gotta get out of this city or we'll be the next that invading army kills!"

"I don't care about the scoop!" Melissa hissed, annoyed that the pilot thought her only motivation was to score another sensational news story. "Nowhere in this city is safe, and it's just going to get worse, but I'm not going to just leave here without my sister!"

"Sister?" the helicopter pilot asked, having never heard of her.

"She's in the Public Security Maintenance Bureau Headquarters." Melissa explained. "And besides, this chopper isn't getting very far on the fuel it has. We can quickly refuel at one of the landing pads there and then get far away from this city!"

"I'm pretty certain we have enough fuel to get away now!" the pilot protested.

"Just do it! Please!" Melissa begged. "She's all the family I have."

The helicopter looked Melissa in the eye.

"Very well ma'am" He replied before turning the helicopter towards the battle raging at the top of the sky platform. "But if we get killed, you'll only have yourself to blame."

"Thank you." Melissa wept as they flew towards the building in erratic patterns, desperately attempting to evade the shots fired from the invading army's monsters, and the various soldiers swooping down onto the city with air gliders.

When they reached the platform, Melissa's pilot began searching for a place to land. Meanwhile, Melissa scanned the battlefield, observing the duels occurring below.

 **GHOST Beta 021 vs. Three Obelisk Soldiers**

"So, what's this tin can supposed to be?" An Obelisk Soldier with a green gem in the center of his helmet asked, eyeing the mounted machine with a wary eye as the robotic duelist stared back at them with a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

"Obelisk Soldiers," the machine droned, "you have been designated enemies of the state by the Public Security Maintenance Bureau. Lay down your arms and surrender or you will be eliminated."

The Obelisk Soldiers began laughing.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" an Obelisk Soldier with a gold gem guffawed. "This thing looks like it was ripped from some dystopian cyberpunk movie! What are you gonna do? Terminate me?"

"Hey, HAL! Open the pod bay doors!" an Obelisk Soldier with a red gem laughed.

In response, the machine extended the arm wielding its duel disk towards the soldiers before firing.

"HEY!" All three soldiers cried as three cables of red solid vision shot out from the machine's duel disk before ensnaring their own arms and pulling them in like fish.

"In accordance with directive, Alekhine's Gun, your trial will now be conducted as a trial by combat." The machine droned in an emotionless voice. "All combatants will be given the opportunity to defend themselves with their dueling skills. None will be allowed to disengage until the trial is complete. Due to the state being placed under Martial Law, the victor of the trial shall have the express authority to determine the loser's sentence upon the completion of the trial. The trial shall now commence. Boku no turn!"

Without waiting for the opposing Obelisk Soldiers to steady themselves as they struggled against the immense strength of the machine and its cables, the robotic duelist pulled a card from its hand.

"Summoning monster in attack position, Grand Core Mark II!" the machine called as a large spherical object with small antennae on the side and an immense engine within its yellow-brown metal shell appeared to its field through a blue portal.

 **Grand Core Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Setting three cards face-down." The machine droned as it set three cards into the Spell/Trap Zone. "Turn end."

"You're gonna regret this, you overgrown crash dummy!" The obelisk soldier with the green gem threatened. "It's my move now! I draw and will start by summoning Antique Gear Search Hound!"

 **Antique Gear Search Hound / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200**

"The effect of Search Hound activates when it is summoned!" the obelisk soldier declared as his black mechanical blood hound let out a low howl, conjuring a blue portal. "Using its effect, I Special Summon Antique Gear Hound Dog! Come forth!" he ordered as a larger mechanical hound leaped onto the field before baring its steel fangs at the android.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 3 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect!" The Obelisk Soldier declared. "Even though I can't attack you since this is a battle royal, that doesn't mean your life points are safe! Once per turn, if my opponent controls a monster, I can inflict six-hundred damage to your life points! Go! Hound Flame!"

Opening its mouth wide, Antique Gear Hound Dog let out a gout of flame, which flew strait towards the mechanical duelist.

"Trap activate!" the machine declared before the flame could hit it. "Mekcore Aura!"

To the GHOST drone's left, a trap card depicting the silhouette of an immense machine standing behind a glowing spherical container with an ∞ symbol on its front flipped up. Before the flame could make contact, Grand Core Mark II opened up, sucking the stream of flame into its center before glowing with energy.

 **GHOST Beta 021: 4000 LP**

 **Mekcore Aura: 6 Aura Counters**

"What gives!?" the Obelisk Soldier protested, seeing that his attack had left the drone completely undamaged.

"While Mekcore Aura is active and I control a Core or ∞ monster," the machine droned, "any damage this unit would take is negated, and for every one-hundred points of damage negated, one Aura Counter is placed on Mekcore Aura."

"So, you've sealed off effect and battle damage." The Obelisk Soldier mused. "You know, most duelists would probably just surrender at this point, but not us! We're the Obelisk Force, and if there's one thing we know how to do, it's damage Life Points! I activate the effect of my Antique Gear Hound Dog! Since I control an Antique Gear Monster other than itself, I can fuse it with another Antique Gear Hound Dog in my hand in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!" he declared as his two monsters merged together within the fusion portal before leaping onto the field as a larger twin-headed mechanical hound.

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 5 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1000**

"But I'm not done yet!" the soldier continued. "I next activate Fusion in order to fuse Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog and Antique Gear Search Hound, which can be treated as Antique Gear Hound Dog, together in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!"

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

"I next activate the continuous Magic Card, Fusion Screen!" The soldier declared, as a large translucent energy shield appeared around himself and his companions. "While this card is active, if any player's Life Points would change due to the effect of a card, that player can send one Fusion Monster from their Extra Deck to the Graveyard instead."

"And we have plenty of Fusion Monsters." The Obelisk Soldier's companion with a red gem on his helmet gloated.

"Which means I can now do this!" the Obelisk Soldier declared. "I next activate Fusion Recovery in order to recover the Fusion and Antique Gear Search Hound I used in the Fusion Summon of Triple Bite and add them to my hand before activating Fusion one more time! Behold! I fuse the Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog on my field with the Antique Gear Search Hound in my hand together in order to fusion summon Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!"

Lumbering onto the field, an immense chimeric fusion of robotic hound heads appeared to the Obelisk Soldier's field before bearing the fangs of its immense central mouth at the GHOST drone.

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 9 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2000**

"The effect of Ultimate Hound Dog now activates!" the Obelisk Soldier declared. "When my monster is Fusion Summoned, I can halve the Life Points of all my opponents, meaning that even with your Mekcore Aura active, you'll still lose Life Points since the effect technically does not inflict damage! Furthermore, my companions will be safe, since they can just send their own Fusion Monsters to the Graveyard to avoid the damage! Go! Ultimate Hound Flame!"

Leaping forward, the Obelisk Soldier's Mechanical Hound Dog unleashed an immense geyser of flame from its mouth, searing the metal of the GHOST drone while the other two Obelisk Soldiers each sent a copy of Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog from their Extra Decks to the Graveyard to deflect the damage.

 **GHOST Beta 021: 4000 / 2 = 2000 LP**

"Setting a card face-down. Turn end." Green declared before motioning towards his companion with a gold gem on the center of his helmet.

"We told you you'd regret facing us!" Gold mocked as he drew a card from the top of his deck. "I activate Fusion from my hand in order to fuse two copies of Antique Gear Hound Dog and one copy of Antique Gear Rescue Hound together in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!" he declared as his three-headed mechanical dog leaped onto the field.

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

"Next," the gold-gemmed Obelisk Soldier declared, "I'll activate my own copy of Fusion Recovery in order to add Rescue Hound and Fusion from my graveyard to my hand before Normal Summoning the Antique Gear Rescue Hound I returned to my hand. Come forth!"

Appearing through a blue portal, a large white robotic Saint Bernard leaped next to Triple Bite Hound Dog.

 **Antique Gear Rescue Hound / EARTH / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 2000**

"The effect of Rescue Hound activates when it is summoned!" the Obelisk Soldier declared. "Using its effect, I Special Summon one of the Antique Gear Hound Dogs in my graveyard!"

Letting out a low growl, Antique Gear Rescue Hound dug up a hole in the ground with its large shovel-like paws before shooting a pair of towing cables into the ground and pulling up the smaller Antique Gear Hound Dog.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 3 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

"Next, I activate the Fusion I recovered from my graveyard, Fusing the Triple Bite Hound Dog and the Search Hound on my field together in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!" he declared as his immense chimeric hound lumbered onto the field.

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 9 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2000**

"It's effect now activates!" the gold-gemmed soldier sneered. "GO! Ultimate Hound Flame!"

While the GHOST drone took the full force of the blast, the other two Obelisk Soldiers each deposited a copy of Triple Bite Hound Dog into their Graveyards in order to prevent their Life Points from changing.

 **GHOST Beta 021: 2000 / 2 = 1000 LP**

"Had enough?" the Obelisk Soldier taunted. "Or would you like us to shave off a few more of those Life Points?"

In response, the Android merely straightened itself out, seeming completely unfazed by how low its Life Points were getting.

"The current state of this unit's Life Points are irrelevant." The machine droned. "The opposing players have utilized standard Fusion tactics in precisely the manner this unit predicted. The current threat level of the Obelisk Force is…minimal."

The Obelisk Soldier looked ticked off at that.

"Oh, so you think we're a minimal threat, huh?" he growled. "Well why don't I show you the full extent of our power! I activate Antique Gear Double Imitation, Special Summon Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog and Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog from my graveyard!"

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 5 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1000**

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

"And finally," the Obelisk Soldier proclaimed, raising his hand into the air, "I activate the effect of my Antique Gear Hound Dog in order to Fuse all four of my monsters together into Academia's ultimate superweapon! "Mechanized hounds that inherited ancient souls! Merge your ten heads, and become chaos and tremendous power! Fusion Summon! Appear! Level 10! Antique Gear Chaos Giant!"

In a sudden explosion of light, the Obelisk Soldier's monster, the same colossal mech Melissa had seen Dennis use in his duel against Shun, appeared to the field, forcing Melissa's pilot to swerve out of the way as it nearly came into contact with the machine's immense shoulder plate.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant / DARK / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4500 / DEF 3000**

"I cannot attack now." The Obelisk Soldier explained as he looked up at his impressive monster. "But at this point, our victory is sealed! This entire dimension is ours now!"

"A-Antique Gear Chaos Giant drives Security into a corner!" Melissa found herself shouting through her microphone out of sheer habit before she stopped herself. Overhead, she saw the face of the Security Chief, Jean-Michelle Roger, projected from an immense holographic screen as he addressed the city.

"Stand firm, citizens of this glorious city!" his voice boomed. "Our victory is at hand! With your glorious leader at the head of this mighty army, we cannot fail!"

But what Melissa Claire saw on the actual battlefield told a different story.

 **Uria Scout, Ibuki Ichiyanagi vs. Moira, Clark, and Timothy**

"So, did you all use to duel a lot before today?" Ibuki asked in a friendly voice.

All three of the Synchro civilians, Moira, a teenage girl with curly black hair, Clark, a middle-aged man in a sweat-shirt, and Timothy, a very young and dirty boy who couldn't have been more than ten, stared at him with blank faces, red lights blinking on their foreheads.

"I'll…take that as a 'no.'" Ibuki shrugged. "So, I'll go easy on you all for my first turn. I Summon Sea Scales Amazoness from my hand!"

Appearing to Ibuki's field was a tall muscular mermaid with bronze human skin with bright bluish-green scales covering her extremities. In one of her hands, she wielded a large fish spear with wave patterns carved into the shaft.

 **Sea Scales Amazoness / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 2600**

"When Sea Scales Amazoness is summoned or flipped face-up, I banish all cards I control." Ibuki explained as his monster raised her spear into the air before a massive tidal wave splashed over her, causing the monster to vanish. "With that, I'm ending my turn." He finished with a smile.

"My turn, draw." Moira droned in a completely emotionless voice. "I summon Rose Warrior of Revenge."

Through a blue portal, a red-haired woman wearing black armor and wielding a straight long-sword with a pink hilt appeared to the field.

 **Rose Warrior of Revenge / FIRE / Level 4 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 600**

"That's a pretty impressive tuner." Ibuki whistled. "And not bad on the eyes either. Planning on doing a Synchro Summon with it?"

"Turn end." Moira concluded before Clark stepped forward.

"Oh, come on, is that it?" Ibuki complained, sounding a little disappointed.

"My turn, draw." Clark echoed as he began his own turn. "I normal summon Chainsaw Insect in attack position."

Rampaging onto Clark's field, a large insect with whirring chainsaws for jaws appeared before causing Ibuki to jump back as it roared at the Uria scout.

 **Chainsaw Insect / EARTH / Level 4 / Insect / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 0**

"Now that's the kind of attack power you don't normally see in a Level four monster!" Ibuki exclaimed. "Maybe I shouldn't have wanted you guys to go all-out."

"Turn end." Clark droned.

"Then again, you guys don't seem to be able to do anything much more advanced than a Normal Summon." Ibuki shrugged. "So, what are you gonna do, kid?"

"My turn, draw." Timothy mumbled. "I set one monster face-down before setting one card face-down. Turn end." He finished as two face-down cards appeared to his field.

Ibuki narrowed his eyes at his opponents.

"You know, it really disgusts me that Roger would try and shield himself with you people. You guys aren't even real duelists, like as not." He looked at his hand before returning his attention to his opponents. "It's nothing personal, guys, but I've got a mission to accomplish so… my turn! Draw!"

Quickly plucking a card from the top of his deck, Ibuki began his next turn.

"I activate the Magic Card, Treasures of the Deep! This handy card allows me to draw two cards before banishing one WATER monster from my hand. Using this effect, I draw two cards from my deck before banishing Sea Scales Priestess from my hand."

In the air above Ibuki, the dim afterimage of a mermaid wearing a bead of pears around her forehead and ceremonial robes over her human body, briefly appeared before vanishing.

"Next," Ibuki continued, "If I have a banished Sea Scales monster or a banished Tidal Magic or Trap Card, I can send that card to my graveyard in order to Special Summon Sea Scales Sagess from my hand! I send Sea Scales Amazoness and Sea Scales Priestess to my graveyard in order Special Summon two copies of Sea Scales Sagess to my field! Say hello to the ladies everyone!"

Through two blue portals, two smaller mermaids with bright, long sea-green hair and a ribbon of kelp covering their chests appeared to the field, staring at Ibuki's opponents with a knowing look in their storm-cloud grey eyes.

 **Sea Scales Sagess / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 50**

"Unfortunately, these lovely ladies won't be staying for long." Ibuki continued as he plucked another card from his hand. "I next activate the Magic Card, Tidal Insight!"

Next to Ibuki, a Spell Card depicting Sea Scales Sagess discovering a bright green gem as the tides receded, appeared before glowing with bright blue light and conjuring a massive solid-vision wave of water to crash down on top of his two monsters.

"If I control at least two Sea Scale cards," Ibuki explained, "I can banish all cards I control in order to add any card I want from my deck to my hand. With this effect, I banish the two Sea Scale Sagess I control in order to add the Ritual Spell Card, Birth of the Tidal Dragon from my deck to my hand."

As quickly as the waves came, they suddenly receded, leaving behind a single Spell Card on the ground, which Ibuki picked up and added to his hand before continuing with his turn.

"I'm setting a card face-down." He continued as a single set card appeared in his Spell/Trap Card Zone. "And now, it's time for the real fun to begin! Since I haven't Normal Summoned anything this turn, I Normal Summon the lovely Sea Scales Seductress to my field!"

Swimming through the air, an elegant mermaid with luxuriant locks of deep blue hair, deep ruby-red eyes, and strings of shimmering pink, white, and black pearls covering up her upper half, appeared to Ibuki's field before the creature winked at Ibuki's opponents.

 **Sea Scales Seductress / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 650**

"When Sea Scales Seductress is Normal Summoned, I can banish all cards I control in order to take control of up to three monsters my opponent controls, so long as I banished at least two of my own cards with this effect." Ibuki explained before another massive tidal wave rose up behind Sea Scales Seductress. "Using this effect, I banish my field in order to take control of Rose Warrior of Revenge, Chainsaw Insect, and the set monster! Go! Tidal Allure!"

The massive tidal wave crashed over Sea Scales Seductress and the other monsters before slowly receding, causing Sea Scales Seductress to vanish while Rose, Chainsaw Insect, and the set monster to settle onto Ibuki's field.

"Now, during the end of this turn, I'll have to give control of the monsters I took with Seductress back to their owners before banishing all cards I control, but that's okay because I'm not done yet!" Ibuki declared, revealing the Ritual Spell Card he had added to his hand earlier. "I next activate the Ritual Magic Card, Birth of the Tidal Dragon!"

In a surge of water, the entire duel field containing Ibuki and his opponents became flooded before a large whirlpool formed in the center of the pool of water and a massive choral-covered statue of two sea serpents with gaping jaws, one with a large narwhale-like horn in the center of its head, and another with a broad shield-like fin in the center of its head, rose up from the maelstrom.

"Using the power of Birth of the Tidal Dragon, I return both my banished Sea Scales Sagess to my graveyard in order to Ritual Summon a Sea Scales Ritual Monster from my deck whose Level is equal to the Level of the monsters I returned to my graveyard with this effect!"

In the air next to the statue, the dim afterimages of both of Ibuki's banished Sea Scales Sagess appeared before flying into the mouth of the statue with the horn as Ibuki began his summoning chant.

"Though the tides may recede, the force of the sea can never be held back! Crash upon the shore now with the force of a tidal wave! Gishiki Shoukan! Arawayo! Level two! Sea Scales Striking Dragon!"

Around the statue, the waters suddenly rose up before both of the monolithic sea serpents were submerged. Beneath the surface of the water, bubbles began breaking the surface before an immense living sea serpent, identical to the statue with a narwhale horn on the center of its forehead, appeared to Ibuki's field with an immense splash of water.

 **Sea Scales Striking Dragon / WATER / Level 2 / Sea Serpent / Ritual / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 3400**

"But I'm not done yet!" Ibuki continued. "Sea Scales Striking Dragon never hunts alone! When it is successfully Ritual Summoned, I can Special Summon the Fusion Monster, Sea Scales Shielding Dragon, from my Extra Deck, treating it as if it were properly Fusion Summoned!"

Rising up from the center of the pool of water, the monolithic statue of the sea-serpents rose up once more, the horned statue noticeably missing from the stone pillar. Swimming up close to the statue, Sea Scales Striking Dragon began spraying the statue with water as Ibuki began a second summoning chant.

"As the sea must rise, so must it fall! With the pull of gravity, merge the waters of the tides together before rising once again as the ocean's guardian! Yuugo Shoukan! Arawayo! Level two! Sea Scales Shielding Dragon!"

With a final spray of water, Sea Scales Striking Dragon, blasted off the stone and choral of the remaining sea serpent statue, revealing an immense living sea serpent with a large shield-like fin in the center of its forehead beneath the hard stone. Roaring back at its companion, Sea Scales Shielding Dragon charged towards its companion before the two monsters entwined their two serpentine bodies together so that they looked like a single sea serpent with one horn-tipped head and one shield-covered head.

 **Sea Scales Shielding Dragon / WATER / Level 2 / Sea Serpent / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 0**

"The hunting game is about to come to end!" Ibuki declared. "I now activate the effect of Sea Scales Striking Dragon! During the turn it was Ritual Summoned, I can inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to the number of Sea Scales Monsters I banished this turn times four-hundred and fifty! Since I banished Sea Scales Priestess, two copies of Sea Scales Sagess, and Sea Scales Seductress, that's eighteen-hundred damage to your Life Points! Go! Tidal Spray!"

Opening its mouth wide, Sea Scales Striking Dragon let out a gout of Sea Water into the mind-controlled civilians, hosing them all back.

 **Moira: 4000 – (450 X 4) = 2200 LP**

 **Clark: 4000 – (450 X 4) = 2200 LP**

 **Timothy: 4000 – (450 X 4) = 2200 LP**

"Sea Scales Shielding Dragon's effect!" Ibuki declared. "Any time my opponents take damage while I control Striking Dragon, I can gain Life Points equal to the total damage they took! Go! Tidal nourishment!" he declared as a wave of water washed over him before causing his body to glow.

 **Ibuki: 4000 + (1800 X 3) = 9400 LP**

"And now, Battle!" Ibuki declared, "Sea Scales Striking Dragon, attack player two directly!" he declared, pointing at Moira.

"Trap activate." Timothy droned as Ibuki's monster charged forward with its horn glimmering in the sunlight. "Mirror Force. All attack position monsters my opponent controls are destroyed."

"Nice try." Ibuki countered, "But I activate another effect of Striking Dragon! Once per turn, if my opponent activates the effect of a card, I can banish all cards I control! Go! Tidal Evasion!"

A burst of energy shot out from the trap card, but before it could make contact with any of Ibuki's monsters, they all suddenly vanished in a tidal wave of water, leaving the burst of energy to hit nothing.

"And now," Ibuki continued, "this is where the second effect of my Shielding Dragon comes into play! During the turn it and Striking Dragon were banished simultaneously, I can activate its effect in order to return all monsters that were banished at the time both Striking Dragon and Shielding Dragon were banished back to the field in their original positions! Return now!"

In another crash of waves, all of Ibuki's monsters suddenly returned, as if nothing had happened.

"Battle!" Ibuki declared. "Sea Scales Striking Dragon, attack player two! Tidal Strike!"

Lashing forward, Ibuki's monster, struck at Moira with its horn, knocking the brain-controlled civilian back.

 **Moira: 2200 – 2000 = 200 LP**

 **Ibuki: 9400 + 2000 = 11,400 LP**

"Sea Scales Shielding Dragon," Ibuki continued, "Attack Player four's Life Points directly! Tidal Crash!"

Bashing its large shield-like fin against Timothy, Ibuki's second monster knocked the kid onto his back, where he gazed up at the sky with a blank expression on his face.

 **Timothy: 2200 – 1600 = 600 LP**

 **Ibuki: 11,400 + 1600 = 13,000 LP**

"Next," Ibuki continued, "just because I want you guys to go out with some dignity, I think I'll finish you off with your own monsters. Chainsaw Insect, attack player three's Life Points directly!"

Hopping forward, Clark's immense insect clamped its jaws against the man's chest before throwing him back.

 **Clark: 2200 – 2400 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Ibuki: 13,000 + 2200 = 15,200 LP**

"And now for the final attack!" Ibuki declared. "Rose, Warrior of Revenge, attack Player Four's Life Points directly!"

Racing forward, Rose quickly struck her sword against Timothy before leaping back onto Ibuki's field.

 **Timothy: 600 – 1600 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Ibuki: 15,200 + 600 = 15,800 LP**

"Rose's effect now activates." Ibuki declared. "Since she inflicted battle damage to your Life Poits, she inflicts 300 damage to my opponent's Life Points. Thanks for the hunting game, everyone, but I'm afraid it's all over now!"

Leaping forward, Rose struck Moira across the chest with her sword, causing the last remaining civilian to fall to the ground.

 **Moira: 200 – 300 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Ibuki: 15,800 + 200 = 16,000 LP**

"So, who's next?" Ibuki asked as he pressed a button on his duel disk, carding his opponents before his monsters were banished by the effect of Sea Scales Seductress.

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" a duel disk declared as a GHOST drone sped onto the duel field.

 **GHOST Delta 004: 4000 / 2 = 2000 LP**

"Robot, huh?" Ibuki mused. "I wonder if you'll be-WOAH!" he exclaimed as he just barely managed to dodge the solid vision cable the machine shot from its duel disk. Just as Ibuki managed to regain his feet, the machine shot another solid vision cable from its duel disk, this time managing to ensnare Ibuki's duel disk arm

"Boku no turn." The machine droned as it retracted its cable before slamming down a card. "I discard Marinel Top from my hand in order to add Marine Core Mark II from my hand before normal summoning it."

In front of the GHOST unit, a spherical black machine with small glass portholes on the front and large submarine turbines on either side of its body appeared to the field.

 **Marine Core Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"The defeat of Academia is inevitable." The machine droned as Ibuki looked upon its monster with skepticism. "You have one chance to surrender before you are destroyed."

"I personally like to defy chance." Ibuki grunted as he stood his ground.

* * *

Melissa looked away from the duel. Despite having no love for the Chief of Security, seeing her fellow citizens get crushed left and right by the invading army filled her with despair. At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before they managed to defeat Jean-Michelle Roger himself. And even if Roger had turned out to be a tyrant, Melissa shudder to think what the new overlord would do to her city.

"You're, heh heh, army doesn't seem to be doing its job." General Magni's voice mocked from the big holographic screens as he watched dozens more of Roger's civilian soldiers fall to his men.

"Not too surprising considering the strongest ace monster I've seen is so far is Luster Dragon." Lieutenant Martell added, snickering by his general's side.

"Your lieutenant seems almost as overconfident as you, Thaddeus." Roger sneered, seemingly unfazed by the losses his forces were sustaining. "I must say, I really will look forward to seeing both your faces once victory is snatched from you."

"I don't think you have any idea who you're up against!" Martell growled. "I am an Academia honor student and General Magni's own pupil!"

"I was wondering why your dueling seemed so second-rate." Roger mocked.

"We'll see how long you can keep making snide comments once you see what's coming next." Martell countered. "It's my move! I draw and normal summon Delta the Magnet Warrior from my hand!"

Through a blue portal, Martell's new monster, a blue robot composed of several prismatic magnets, appeared to the field.

 **Delta the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400**

"Delta the Magnet Warrior's effect activates when it is summoned." Martell declared, extracting a card from his deck before showing it to Roger. "Using its effect, I send Alpha the Magnet Warrior from my deck to the graveyard."

Appearing briefly to the field, the faded afterimage of another magnetic soldier with a sword and shield materialized before sinking into a black portal as Martell deposited the card into his graveyard.

"And now it's time for the fun part!" Martell leered as he placed another card from his hand onto his duel disk. "I activate the Magic Card, Dark Hole in order to destroy all monsters on the field!"

In the center of the field, a massive singularity opened up, which began to pull every monster on the field into its center. Bracing against the sudden surge of gravity, Roger extended his hand towards one of his face-downs.

"Trap activate!" he declared, "Chess Master Move – Terrasch Defense! Until the end of this turn, Chess Master monsters I control cannot be destroyed by card effects!"

Each of Martell and General Magni's monsters were torn to pieces as they entered the center of the singularity, however, before the black hole could suck in Roger's monsters, the chess monsters suddenly came alive, limbs moving as the pawn raised his shield into the air and the knight braced himself against the gravitational pull until the singularity faded away.

"So, you've managed to lose all your monsters and accomplish nothing in the process." Roger sneered. "It would seem Leo's really lowered his standards when it comes to honor students."

"Your monster's survival is only a minor inconvenience." Martell countered. "Behold! I activate the second effect of Delta the Magnet Warrior! If it is sent to the graveyard, I can banish Alpha the Magnet Warrior, Beta the Magnet Warrior, and Gamma the Magnet Warrior from my graveyard in order to summon my ultimate weapon! Come forth! Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

From three black portals, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma rose into the air before their magnetic bodies broke apart and began reforming, combining together until the became a single gigantic magnetic soldier composed of parts from all three of the original magnet warriors.

 **Valkyrion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3850**

"And just in case I need to, I'll activate Burial from a Different Dimension, returning each of my banished Magnet Warriors to my graveyard to be used for later." Martell explained, returning his three monsters to the graveyard. "But now that that's done, I can get back to crushing you! Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior, attack and destroy Chess Master White Pawn! Magnetic Blade!"

"Trap activate." Roger lazily replied, not even bothering to look at either Martell or his monster as he stretched his hand towards his face-down. "Chess Master Move – Sicilian Defense. If a Chess Master monster I control would be destroyed by battle, I can make it so that it is not destroyed, and before you argue that I will still take the damage, my Trap Card also makes it so that I take no damage from that battle."

Valkyrion swung its sword down at the white pawn, but before it could connect with the stone chest of the monster, the marble soldier suddenly became animated once again and instead raised its shield into the air in order to deflect the blow.

"Pointless." Roger sneered, shaking his head derisively. "Absolutely pointless. Chess Master Move – Sicilian Defense can be re-set to my field after I activate it, so long as I banish it when it leaves the field next time, so I will be perfectly protected from the next attack that comes my way."

"Turn end." Martell growled, gritting his teeth.

"Keep your composure, lieutenant." General Magni drawled as he lazily drew a card from his deck before beginning his own turn. "Thanks to your plays, our little fugitive is now nearly defenseless."

"And your field is nearly empty." Roger shot back, indicating the lone face-down Magni possessed.

"Not for long." General Magni growled, revealing a card in his hand before stretching his hand towards his field. "It's time to call on my own ace monster. I banish Alpha the Electromagnet Warrior from my graveyard, Beta the Electromagnet Warrior from my hand, and Gamma the Electromagnet Warrior from my hand in order to summon Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior! Elecromagnetic soldiers, combine!"

Appearing to General Magni's field, three robotic soldiers, similar in appearance to Alpha, Beta, and Gamma the Magnet Warriors, but with coiled electromagnets making up their bodies, rose into the air before breaking apart and reforming into a much larger electromagnetic soldier wielding a large electromagnetic pole like a two-handed sword.

 **Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

"Congratulations," Roger mocked, sarcastically clapping his hands together. "You essentially repeated your subordinates turn, only you managed to summon a much weaker monster than his."

"This just shows that you've never mastered the art of teamwork." General Magni shot back as he stretched his hand towards his face-down. "Trap Card activate, Magnetic Warrior Attraction! Once per turn, if I control a face-up Magnet Warrior, Magna Warrior, or Superconductive monster, I can target one Magnet Warrior, Magna Warrior, or Superconductive monster my opponent controls in order to take control of it! Join my field now! Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

Raising its large electromagnetic baton into the air, Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior began attracting Valkyrion to itself before it occupied the monster zone adjacent to Magni's monster. In unison, the two monsters then turned towards Roger, bearing their weapons as they prepared for battle.

"I will next activate Night Beam from my hand, destroying your set Chess Master Move – Sicilian Defense." General Magni continued as his magic card obliterated Roger's set card with a beam of energy, causing Roger to grit his teeth with annoyance.

"Battle." General Magni growled in a cold voice. "Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, attack and destroy Chess Master White Pawn, Magnetic Sword."

Charging towards Roger's marble soldier once more, Valkyrion met with little resistance this time as it cleaved the stone soldier into two pieces with relative ease before bashing Roger with its shield, sending the purple-and-white robed dictator screaming as he flew through the air before landing on his rump.

 **Roger: 4000 – 2500 = 1500 LP**

"Continue the attack." General Magni ordered, not even giving Roger time to get back up as he glared at the Academia traitor with contempt. "Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior, attack and destroy Chess Master White Knight. Electromagnetic Baton."

Coming to life, Roger's Chess Master White Knight charged towards Magni's Berserkion, but with a single swipe of its large electromagnetic baton, Berserkion easily brushed the stone creature aside, smashing it into gravel before bringing down one of its fists against Roger, pounding him right back into the ground just as the dictator managed to get up.

 **Roger: 1500 – 1000 = 500 LP**

"Behold your brave leader, Synchro!" General Magni mocked, addressing the large holographic screens above his head. "His doom is upon him, but I, being the generous leader that I am, shall give him one chance to surrender and acknowledge me as this city's true overlord! Pray that he accepts my offer, otherwise I will grind all of you into the dust, just as I ground this wretched failure into the dust!"

In response, Roger, to the general's amazement, began laughing.

"You really think you've won?" he snickered as he got up before brushing the dust off himself. "Why, my dear colleague, our battle is just beginning!"

"Don't you dare mock your new overlord!" Lieutenant Martell warned. "You have only five-hundred life points and no cards on your field! You should be begging for mercy rather than running your mouth! How can you possibly expect to beat us?"

"End your turn and I'll show you." Roger replied, a knowing smirk coming over his face.

"I would like to see you try." General Magni replied, "If only to see just how spectacularly one man can fail at everything. But first, before I end my turn, I think you ought to catch a glimpse of my full power before you are defeated! Using my face-up Valkyrion the Manga Warrior and Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior as material, I perform a Contact Fusion!"

Upon General Magni's command, his two immense magnet soldiers broke apart into individual magnetic pieces before merging together as Magni began a summoning chant.

"Magnetic Soldiers, with the combined forces of ferromagnetism and electromagnetism, pull yourself together and become an unstoppable force of attraction! Yuugo Shoukan! Crush my pathetic opposition! Level ten! Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot!"

Galloping onto the field with a set of four magnetic hooves, General Magni's new monster, a centaur-like magnet robot with large pink wings on its horse-back, an armored humanoid upper half, a sword in its right hand, and a large electromagnetic cannon over its left shoulder, appeared to General Magni's field.

 **Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot / EARTH / Level 10 / Rock / Fusion / Effect / ATK 4000 / DEF 4000**

"And now," General Magni continued as Roger gazed up at his immense fusion monster, "I think I'll end my turn. Try not waste too much of my time with your last turn. I have a dimension to rule."

"The only part of this dimension I will ever let a piece of scum like you rule is your own personal prison cell." Roger growled, his calm demeanor now gone as a look of immense rage came across his face.

"I'll make you wish you could spend the rest of your days in prison, traitor." General Magni threatened. "Now do your turn!"

"Ore no turn," Roger growled, "draw!"

Looking through the cards in his hand, he sneered before looking at Magni's ace monster.

"I think the first item on the agenda will be dealing with that annoying Fusion Monster." Roger began as he placed a card on his duel disk. "So, I'll start my turn with this monster! Come forth! Chess Master White Rook!"

Ascending up from the ground, a massive marble tower with the statue of a soldier manning a cannon rose into the air before holding still.

 **Chess Master White Rook / LIGHT / Level 4 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 2000**

"And what do you plan on doing with that monster?" General Magni asked, examining White Rook's stats with a skeptical expression on his face.

"Why don't I show you?" Roger asked. "I next banish Chess Master Move – Terrasch Defense from my graveyard in order to activate its second effect, enabling me to add one Chess Master Move card from my deck to my hand, and the card I choose to add to my hand is this," Roger continued as a card popped out of his deck before he added it to his hand, "Chess Master Move – Vienna Game. Would you like to know what this card does?"

"I don't think I particularly care." General Magni coldly replied.

"Well how about I show you rather than explain." Roger replied, slamming down the Spell Card. "I discard one card from my hand in order to activate Chess Master Move – Vienna Game! Now I can target up to two Chess Master monsters in my graveyard in order to Special Summon one Chess Master monster from my hand or deck whose name is the same as each respective target, and the targets I choose are, naturally, Chess Master White Knight and Chess Master White Pawn."

General Magni quickly brought up some data on his duel disk, scowling as he reviewed the stats of Roger's monsters.

"I don't know what your game is, Jean, but I'm not gonna let you play it." General Magni growled. "In response to the activation of your Spell Card, I activate the effect of my Imperion Magnum! Once per turn, I can negate the activation of one of your Magic, Trap, or Monster effects, and if I do, destroy the card! Go, Imperion Magnum! Electromagnetic Pulse!"

Leaning forward, Imperion Magnum aimed its large electromagnetic cannon at Roger's Spell Card before firing a pulse of energy into Roger's card, obliterating it before its effect could go off. Roger grimaced at the destruction of his card, but seemed to quickly recover.

"Very well then." He shrugged. "I don't need Vienna Game to win anyway. I can easily adapt my master strategy to this minor inconvenience. Chess Master White Rook!" he ordered, stretching his hand towards the stone soldier resting atop the white marble tower. "Attack and destroy Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot!"

"And how exactly do you plan on beating my monster with that glorified chess piece?" General Magni mocked. "You could have at least attacked my lieutenant directly, or are you just trying to go out with more dignity with one final glorious suicide rush?"

"I find nothing particularly dignifying about suicide." Roger replied. "It's just another way of being defeated. No. I told you I planned on destroying your monster, and that is exactly what I am going to do. Chess Master White Rook gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster it is battling when it attacks. Go my monster! Prepare to fire on my mark!"

Suddenly leaping to life, the stone soldier standing on top of the aimed the stone cannon it was manning at General Magni's Imperion Magnum before igniting a torch and holding it over the cannon's fuse.

 **Chess Master White Rook: 1000 + 4000 = 5000 ATK**

"FIRE!" Jean-Michell Roger ordered.

Upon his command, the stone soldier brought the torch down on the cannon's fuse, creating a thunderous boom as the marble cannon fired a round stone projectile into General Magni's Imperion Magnum, blasting the massive machine soldier into thousands of pieces and knocking back General Magni.

 **General Magni: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

"Chess Master White Rook loses the ATK it gained at the end of the damage step and changes to defense position after it attacks." Roger smugly explained as the stone soldier retreated back to its pedestal behind the tower's crenulated surface.

 **Chess Master White Rook: 1000 ATK / 2000 DEF (Defense Position)**

"But with that attack done, your 'most powerful monster' has been obliterated with a single blow, leaving both of your life points wide open." Roger exulted, looking very pleased with himself.

"You sure about that?" General Magni countered with an unconcerned look on his face as he brushed himself off. "I activate the effect of Imperion Magnum. When it is destroyed, I can Special Summon one Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior and one Valkyrion the Magna Warrior from my deck, ignoring their summoning conditions. Magnetic champions, reform!" he ordered as the pieces left behind from Imperion Magnum's explosion suddenly rose into the air before reforming into Berserkion and Valkyrion.

 **Valkyrion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3850**

 **Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

"You're just as pathetic of a duelist as I remember." General Magni went on. "No wonder The Professor rescinded your position as an instructor. Had you been the one teaching Academia's future soldiers combat techniques, we would have lost every one of our campaigns."

"We'll see whose tactics are inferior in the end." Roger replied, pulling out one more card from his hand. "I set one card face-down. Turn end."

"Shall I finish him off, General?" Lieutenant Martell begged.

"Be my guest." General Magni replied with a bored expression on his face. "As entertaining of a punching bag this traitor has been, I'm beginning to find even his torment to grow boring."

"I was hoping you would say that." Lieutenant Martell sneered. "Here I go then. It's my move! Draw!"

Looking at the card he drew from the top of his deck, the Lieutenant nodded, a pleased expression coming over his face as he played his card.

"I activate the magic card, Painful Decision, in order to send Beta the Magnet Warrior from my deck to the graveyard and a second copy of Beta the Magnet Warrior to my hand, which I will now summon. Come forth!"

 **Beta the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / ATK 1700 / DEF 1600**

"And now," Lieutenant Martell continued, "Since I control a Magnet Warrior monster, I will activate this, my own copy of Magnetic Warrior Attraction! Return to me now, Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

Stretching out its magnetic hands, Beta the Magnet Warrior pulled General Magni's Valkyrion the Magna Warrior towards himself before the massive robot settled onto Martell's field.

"It's over now!" Lieutenant Martell gloated. "First, Valkyrion the Magna Warrior destroys your defense position Chess Master White Rook! Go! Magnetic Blade!"

Charging forward, Valkyrion the Magna Warrior sliced multiple deep gashes into the side of the tower with its enormous blade, gradually destabilizing the structure before the entire stone edifice crumbled into rubble.

"And now to finish you off!" Martell declared. "Beta the Magnet Warrior, direct attack!"

"Trap activate!" Roger countered, revealing his face-down card, "Chess Master Move – Queen's Gambit! Using my Level two Tuner monster, Chess Master White Pawn, my Level four Chess Master White Knight, and my Level four Chess Master White Rook as Materials, I Synchro Summon!"

"Synchro Summon!?" Lieutenant Martell exclaimed, looking both shocked and amazed.

"Yes, Synchro Summon, you idiot." Roger replied, his contempt now very evident with the expression he was giving Lieutenant Martell. "Did you really think I would spend all this time in this dimension without learning their arts? It's time for you to behold _my_ ace monster! He declared as his White Pawn morphed into a trio of two rings, which enveloped his White Knight and White Rook before causing the two monsters to fade away into a column of eight white spheres as Roger began his summoning chant.

"Pieces set in position by the master of games, unveil the true champion now and place my opponent into check! Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! The regal mistress of the gentleman's game! Chess Master White Queen!"

Appearing from a pillar of white light, Roger's new monster, a tall and elegant white marble statue of a graceful queen wearing a stylish wig and ballroom gown dress while wielding a large two-handed sword, which she held close to her shapely bosom, appeared to the field, stone eyes staring coldly at General Magni and Lieutenant Martell as she gazed down at them with a disdainful expression on her pale face.

 **Chess Master White Queen / LIGHT / Level 10 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000 (Defense position)**

"What…Synchro Summon…but the records show that you…" Martell sputtered, looking through some holographic notes he had pulled up on Jean-Michelle Roger's days in Academia.

"What, did you honestly think I would just copy that pompous Cronos de Medici's dueling style like everyone else?" Roger mocked. "You're a little late to be surprised on that count. Frankly, I think that Academia's dueling strategies have long been in need of an update."

"So, you've thrown your lot in with both a pathetic dimension and their pathetic summoning technique?" General Magni asked, shaking his head with disapproval. "Honestly, Jean, I didn't think I could feel this much contempt for one man, but you're proving me more wrong by the second."

"If you want to feel contempt for someone, why don't you look to your idiotic Lieutenant?" Roger asked, indicating the still blustering Martell. "That fool could have finished me off this turn had he had the presence of mind to take your Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior, rather than that overgrown hunk of metal, Valkyrion. With Berserkion's effect, he could have obliterated my field and attacked me directly, but then again, I've learned from long and hard experience that one generally cannot count on one's subordinates to do the job right."

"General…I…" Martell began as General Magni looked down at him with a stern expression on his face.

"Stop humiliating Academia and end your turn so I can finish things myself." General Magni growled.

"Turn end!" Lieutenant Martell hastily replied.

"Good." General Magni grunted. "I actually like this better, Roger. Now it will be me who gets to destroy you, while everyone in this city watches. Prepare to meet your fate! Draw!"

Quickly pulling a card from his hand, General Magni began his turn.

"I Normal Summon Beta the Electromagnet Warrior," Magni began as a small robotic magnet soldier with an enlarged head entered his field. "And next, I will activate the effect of my Magnetic Warrior Attraction! I take control of Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, and with that done, it's time to contact fusion once more! Return to my field, Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot!"

Breaking apart into thousands of individual magnetic pieces, Magni's Fusion Monster reappeared to the field, metal hooves pawing at the ground as it stared down at Roger's Chess Master White Queen.

"It's over now." General Magni growled. "Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot, attack and destroy Chess Master White Queen! Superconductive Battle Sword!"

With a single blow of its sword, Imperion Magnum obliterated Roger's White Queen, leaving him wide open for an attack.

"Behold the fall of your leader, Citizens of Synchro, and know that your fall comes next! Beta the Electromagnet Warrior, direct attack! Glory on the Academia!" General Magni proclaimed as his monster charged forward, before bashing its fists against Roger's head, sending the dictator flying through the air before roughly landing on the ground.

 **Roger: 500 – 1500 = 0 (LOSE)**

Slowly, General Magni began walking over to where Roger was laying, finger raised above the screen of his duel disk.

"It's over for you now." He whispered as he looked down on Roger, face full of contempt. "Time to die a traitor's death."

Groaning, Roger managed to raise himself slightly from the ground before looking up at General Magni with a knowing expression on his face.

"How can you kill someone who is immortal?" he mocked.

Snarling, General Magni pressed the button on his duel disk, activating the carding function in order to rid himself of Roger once and for all. There was a flash of light, and Roger was instantly gone. Vanished into thin air like every other person who was ever defeated by an Academia soldier.

Only, when the general checked his duel disk, no card of Roger's screaming face came out.

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" General Magni and Lieutenant Martell's duel disks suddenly declared.

"What?" General Magni growled, looking down at his duel disk to see if something had malfunctioned.

"General?" Liuetenant Martell called, sounding afraid.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" General Magni barked, turning towards his Lieutenant before something else caught his attention, causing his eyes to widen with disbelief.

Jean-Michelle Roger was strolling towards them, sparkling with electricity as he took the intrusion penalty, but otherwise looking absolutely confident. His robes had changed slightly from a moment ago, purple robes now streaked with blood-red highlights instead of white highlights and there was an odd reddish tint to his eyes as if he had been possessed by a demon.

 **Jean-Michelle Roger: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

"Impossible." General Magni breathed.

In response, Roger began laughing.

"Impossible, General? Then how am I standing before you?" he mocked, voice much more vicious sounding than it had previously been.

"This is wrong!" General Magni protested with a furious roar. "I defeated you!"

"And yet here I stand, General, very much alive and un-defeated." Roger sneered. "You, see, my dear colleague, unlike most plebeians, my position as Chief of Security affords me certain privileges not available to the average duelist, one of those being immortality."

"Immortality?" Lieutenant Martell sputtered. "But that's impossible!"

From up above in her helicopter, Melissa looked on with a mixture of confusion and horror, unable to understand how the Chief of Security was still standing. What other powers could he be hiding, and what would he do if he found out she was about to commit treason by breaking one of his prisoners free?

The red-tinted Roger inhaled through his nose, as if he could smell his inevitable victory, before addressing his opponents, looking upon them as if they were insects.

"If there is one thing I have learned since coming to this dimension, it's that nothing is impossible." He explained, strolling towards them, while spreading out his arms for dramatic emphasis, "Godly power, omniscience, omnipotence, immortality, all of these things are within my grasp! You, on the other hand, will get to taste every faculty of mortal weakness now as you suffer ultimate defeat at my hands! Ore no turn! DRAW!"

Yanking a card from the top of his deck, an utterly mad expression on his face, Red Roger began his turn.

"I'll start by summoning a monster!" Red Roger declared. "Come Forth! Chess Master Red Pawn!"

Appearing to Roger's field, an exact duplicate of his Chess Master White Pawn, save for the fact that it was made out of blood-red stone, materialized to one of Roger's monster zones, spear glittering in the sunlight as if it were dripping with actual blood.

 **Chess Master Red Pawn / DARK / Level 2 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000**

General Magni managed to recover from his shock just enough to examine the stats of Roger's monster before laughing.

"Nice try, Jean." He nervously laughed. "But even if you've somehow managed to come back from the dead, your dueling is just as pathetic as before! There's no way you can defeat my Imperion Magnum!"

"That's where you are wrong, my simple-minded colleague." Roger laughed. "Just as you have been wrong about so many other things. I activate Chess Master Move, Torre Attack in order to Special Summon a Level four Chess Master monster from my deck whose Attribute is the same as Chess Master Red Pawn's."

"Oh, so trying to summon another Rook, are we?" General Magni growled. "Well sorry to disappoint you, Roger, but I won't let you! I activate Imperion Magnum's effect! Electromagnetic Pulse!"

Before Roger's Spell Card could activate its effect, Imperion Magnum blasted it with the electromagnetic cannon on its soldier, obliterating the physical manifestation of the card in a shower of sparks.

"I knew you would do that, fool." Roger sneered. "Any great chess master will tell you that in order to succeed, one must think several steps ahead of one's opponent. And such is the case here. I activate two copies of Chess Master Move – Vienna Game, discarding a copy of Chess Master Red Bishop and Chess Master Red Knight from my hand in order to Special Summon a copy of Chess Master Red Bishop and a copy of Chess Master Red Knight from my deck! Come forth! Chess Master Red Knight and Chess Master Red Bishop!"

Appearing to Roger's field, a blood-red statue of a knight riding on a horse and a blood-red statue of a Catholic Cardinal with an elegant staff in his hands materialized to Roger's monster zones, the surfaces of their body glittering in the sunlight as if they were bleeding.

 **Chess Master Red Knight / DARK / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000**

 **Chess Master Red Bishop / DARK / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 2000**

General Magni looked through Red Roger's field, sweat beading on his forehead.

"You…can't do anything with those monsters." He growled. "None of them are strong enough to defeat Imperium Magnum, and even if you focused your attacks on Lieutenant Martell, you still wouldn't have enough ATK to defeat him!"

"That's where you are wrong, as usual, General." Red Roger sneered. "Chess Master Red Bishop has the ability to destroy whatever monster it attacks at the start of the damage step AND inflict damage to the controller equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed, meaning that I could easily finish either of you off right now."

General Magni began backing away, repeatedly whispering, "…this is impossible…this is impossible…" to himself as Lieutenant Martell looked on with a very worried expression.

"However," Red Roger continued, "I don't intend to attack you with my bishop, that just feels anticlimactic, don't you think?"

"You can't be beating me…I already beat you!" General Magni protested. "You should be carded by now!"

"Yes, crushing you with a Fusion Monster of my own sounds much more appropriate." Roger mocked, a demonic grin coming over his face.

"A fusion monster?" Lieutenant Martell gasped.

"Naturally." Red Roger replied, reveling in the moment. "As wrong as the two of you have been on nearly everything else, I do have to agree with you both on one thing. Synchro Summoning really does seem to pale in comparison to the might and majesty that is the Fusion Summon, so I think I will use it now!"

"But you don't have any cards in your hand!" Lieutenant Martell protested. "You don't have any copy of Fusion to Fusion Summon anything!"

"And what has your general been doing this entire duel?" Red Roger replied, an annoyed expression coming over his face. "Don't tell me that a so-called 'honor student' like yourself never learned the mechanics of contact fusion."

Lieutenant Martell stared at Roger with his mouth agape.

"Consider this my personal lesson to you, then." Red Roger growled. "Using the summoning condition of the Chess Master Red Queen in my Extra Deck, I send Chess Master Red Pawn, Chess Master Red Bishop, and Chess Master Red Knight from my field to the graveyard in order to perform a contact fusion!"

Above Roger's head, a glowing blood-red fusion portal with the silhouette of a chess board in the background appeared before all three of his monsters rose into the center of the portal and blended together in a swirl of blood-red light as Roger began his summoning chant.

"Dark playing pieces of the gentleman's game, sacrifice your life now for my own amusement in order to give way for a stronger piece to take the board! Yuugo shoukan! Arawayo! Dark mistress of the gentleman's game! Level 10! Chess Master Red Queen!"

Floating down from the red fusion portal, Roger's new chess piece, an exact copy of Chess Master White Queen, but made of blood red stone, descended down to the dictator's field, stony, pupil-less eyes glimmering as if blood were dripping from them as she hefted an equally bloody-looking two handed sword close to her crimson breasts.

 **Chess Master Red Queen / DARK / Level 10 / Fairy / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

"Chess Master Red Queen has the ability to change the ATK of the monster she is attacking to zero until the end of the Damage Step." Roger explained with a sneer. "And with just three-thousand life points remaining to you, General, well…I'm afraid you won't be ruling any dimension any time soon."

"This isn't possible…" General Magni breathed.

"Funny, I was hoping you'd come up with better last words." Roger snorted. "Battle then. Chess Master Red Queen attacks Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot! Checkmate!"

Opening her stone mouth, Chess Master Red Queen let out a shrill banshee-like battlecry before raising her blood-red sword into the air and charging at Magni's monster.

"Martell!" General Magni quickly ordered. "Use the trap card! Protect Imperion Magnum!"

"Right, general!" Martell replied. "I activate the effect of Magnet Warrior Attraction, taking control of Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot!"

Chess Master Red Queen was just a few feet from Magni's monster, but before she could cleave the monster in two, a sudden magnetic pull from Martell's Beta the Magnet Warrior suddenly yanked Imperion Magnum away before setting the monster on his own field.

Roger eyed the field before snorting with derision.

"So, you've decided to pass the baton to your lieutenant." Roger sniffed. "You know I won't waste my attack on Martell, since my Queen doesn't have enough ATK to destroy him, so you're giving him your ace monster, hoping that he'll be able to defeat me in your place."

"Yes." General Magni growled, clenching his fists. "I don't know how you did it, except that you probably cheated somehow, but be that as it may, I'm no fool. I can see when I'm going to lose. But even if I fall today, I still have my army and Academia has far more soldiers coming this way. You will never defeat all of us!"

"Trusting your subordinates to get the job done right." Roger snorted. "How pathetic. Still, I suppose they were much better last words at least. Chess Master Red Queen, attack and destroy Beta the Electromagnet Warrior."

 **Beta the Electromagnet Warrior: 0 ATK**

Leering with an evil smile that caused her stone cheeks to crack slightly, Chess Master Red Queen charged forward before bringing her weapons down on General Magni's monster, cleaving it in two before slicing into Magni and sending the general flying backwards.

 **General Magni: 3000 – 3000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"Checkmate." Roger lazily droned as General Magni's duel disk initiated a forced return, causing the unconscious body of the general to disappear. Once he had vanished, Roger turned towards the cowering Lieutenant Martell.

"Your turn, Lieutenant." Roger mocked as his monster faced Martell, actual blood from General Magni now dripping from her sword.

* * *

"My turn! Draw!" the Obelisk Soldier with the Red Gem in his helmet declared as he ripped card from the top of his deck. "I'll start by activating Antique Gear Double Imitation in order to Special Summon Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog and Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog from my graveyard!"

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 7 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 5 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 1000**

"Next is the magic card, Fusion!" the red-gemmed Obelisk Soldier declared. "I fuse my two monsters together in order to Fusion Summon Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Yuugo Shoukan!" he declared as a his massive hound lumbered out of the fusion portal before activating its effect, knocking back the GHOST drone while his fellow Obelisk Soldiers protected themselves with the effect of Fusion Screen.

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog / EARTH / Level 9 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2000**

 **GHOST Beta 021: 1000 / 2 = 500 LP**

"Now it's time to turn this overgrown tin can into scrap metal." The red-gemmed soldier declared. "I Normal Summon Antique Gear Hound Dog before tributing it in order to activate my Magic Card, Antique Gear Chaos Research! Using the effect of this card, I can add one Antique Gear Chaos card from my deck or graveyard to my hand, and the card I choose is Antique Gear Chaos Factory, which I will now activate!"

Behind the Obelisk Soldier, an immense clock-work factory stuffed with various pieces of Antique Gear machines and dominated by an immense flaming furnace materialized.

"And now it's time for my own chaos monster to appear!" Obelisk Red gloated. "Using my Antique Gear Chaos Factory, I banish the Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog on my field, and the Triple Bite and double bite in my graveyard in order to Fusion Summon!"

From within the factory, a series of clockwork claws reached out before grabbing Red's Ultimate Hound Dog and dumping it into the immense furnace before scrap metal from Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog and Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog were thrown into the slurry of molten metal as Red began his summoning chant.

"Mechanized War Hounds who inherit the souls of ancient soldiers, bare your fangs now and strike down my enemies in the flames of conquest! Yuugo Shoukan! Arawayo! Level ten! Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught!"

In an explosion of flame, Red's new monster, a massive clockwork tank with the head of a robotic wolf, twin cannons capped with the heads of robotic dogs, and a missile turret on the top, rolled onto Red's field on a pair of massive treads, Wolf head roaring as it brought its weapons to bare on the GHOST drone.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught / DARK / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?**

"Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught's ATK and DEF are each equal to the combined Levels of its Materials times three-hundred." Red explained as his immense machine glowed with dark energy.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught: 6300 ATK / 6300 DEF**

"And now I activate Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught's effect!" Red declared. "Once per turn, I can destroy all Magic and Trap Cards one of my opponent controls in order to inflict damage to their Life Points equal to the total amount of their Magic and Trap cards destroyed with this effect times six-hundred! Go! Chaos Barrage!"

Roaring through its central wolf mouth, Chaos Dreadnaught fired a barrage of missiles and artillery rounds from its weapons, which came flying towards the GHOST drone's field in an explosion of flame.

"The conditions for victory have been met." The GHOST drone mused in an emotionless voice. "Phase two can initiate." Jerking its robotic hand towards one of the face downs, the machine responded to the attack.

"Trap activate!" it declared. "Mektimed Pulse!"

Flipping face-up, the GHOST drone's trap card, which depicted a robotic EMP with an ∞ symbol on its front, activated before causing the GHOST drone's Grand Core Mark II to send out a pulse of electric energy, which deflected the incoming missiles and cannon shots before slamming into Chaos Dreadnaught, causing the immense tank to short circuit.

"The heck?" Red exclaimed.

"Mektimed Pulse can, once per turn, negate the activation of a card or effect that would destroy a card or cards on the field." GHOST Beta 021 explained. "Additionally, each time Mektimed Pulse is used, I must destroy one Meklord or Core monster I control, in this case, Grand Core Mark II."

"You're destroying the only monster you control?" the green-gemmed Obelisk soldier asked, as the GHOST drone's Grand Core Mark II began to implode in on itself, creating a small black hole.

"When Grand Core Mark II is destroyed by a card effect," the GHOST drone explained, "All monsters on my side of the field are destroyed before five new monsters are summoned to my field. Initiating Meklord assembly!"

Raising its right robotic arm into the air, the duel disk over its wrist began to transform, becoming broader and more tablet-like as the monster zones rearranged into a plus-shaped formation. From the center of the singularity where Grand Core Mark II once stood, the holographic images of five cards appeared before transforming into new monsters.

"Assemble to the field." The GHOST drone ordered. "Granel Top Mark II!"

Appearing first, a tall thin orange robotic head with a single red robotic eye in its center emerged from the top of the singularity.

 **Granel Top Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 0**

"Granel Guard Mark II!" GHOST Beta 021 continued as a long serpentine orange robotic arm with a broad diamond-shaped shield on its front appeared.

 **Granel Guard Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 500 / DEF 1000**

"Granel Attack Mark II!" the machine continued as a large orange serpentine robotic arm with an immense cannon on its end appeared.

 **Granel Attack Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 0**

"Granel Carrier Mark II!" it proclaimed as an immense orange robotic base with a pair of tank treads on either side emerged from the bottom of the singularity.

 **Granel Carrier Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 700 / DEF 700**

"And finally," the GHOST drone proclaimed as a new monster that looked like an orange spherical robotic chest with an infinity symbol on its front emerged from the very center of the singularity, "Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II!"

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0  
**

"All pieces of Granel act as a single unit." The GHOST drone declared as each of the monsters summoned by Grand Core Mark II began transforming. "Combine now!" it declared as the pieces of the machine joined together, Granel Carrier Mark II detaching to the bottom of Granel ∞ to form the machine's base, Granel Guard and Granel attack becoming the machine's right and left arms respectively, and Granel Top becoming the machines head before the center of the machine opened up to reveal a pulsating core of energy within its infinity symbol.

"Furthermore," the GHOST drone continued, "Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II's ATK and DEF are each equal to half its controller's Life Points."

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II: 250 ATK / 250 DEF  
**  
"But you only have five-hundred life points, so it's not really that strong." The green-gemmed obelisk soldier observed.

"Exactly." The gold-gemmed soldier agreed. "All you managed to do was summon five weak monsters that my Chaos Giant can destroy."

"Basically, you have one last turn before we destroy you." Red concluded. "Turn end."

"Final turn commencing, draw." the GHOST drone began, mechanically drawing a card from the top of its deck.

"Final turn?" Red mocked. "What, do you plan on committing suicide with your monsters before we can get to you?"

"Trap active." Beta 021 droned, extending its robotic arm towards one of its face-downs.

"Meklord Overdrive. If I control a Meklord monster, all machine-type monsters I control gain ATK and DEF equal to their respective Levels times three-hundred."

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II: ATK 250 + 600 = 850 / DEF 250 + 600 = 850**

 **Granel Top Mark II: ATK 500 + 600 = 1100 / DEF 0 + 600 = 600**

 **Granel Guard Mark II: ATK 500 + 600 = 1100 / DEF 1000 + 600 = 1600**

 **Granel Attack Mark II: ATK 1300 + 600 = 1900 / DEF 0 + 600 = 600**

 **Granel Carrier Mark II: ATK 700 + 600 = 1300 / DEF 700 + 600 = 1300**

"Furthermore," GHOST Beta continued as his trap and five monsters began crackling with electrical energy, "After the effect resolves, I take damage equal to the total levels of all Machine-Type monsters I control times three-hundred."

"So, you really are just committing suicide?" the red soldier asked with incredulity.

"Mekcore Aura's effect!" GHOST Beta countered. "Since I control a Meklord monster, all damage I take is negated."

 **Mekcore Aura: 42 Counters**

"Furthermore," GHOST Beta continued as his trap card began glowing with immense energy, "since there are over forty counters on Mekcore Aura, Mekcore Aura destroys itself with its own effect, and I gain one-hundred Life Points for each Aura Counter that was on Mekcore Aura."

With a sudden surge of energy, Mekcore Aura exploded in a shower of sparks before the chest of GHOST Beta opened up, revealing a power core within its body, which pulsated with a sphere of pitch-black energy. Sucking an aura of glowing yellow energy from the trap card into its central core of energy, GHOST Beta began crackling with electricity as its Life Points rose.

 **GHOST Beta 021: 500 + (100 X 42) = 4700 LP**

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II: ATK (4700 / 2) + 600 = 2950 / DEF (4700 / 2) + 600 = 2950**

"So, you've restored your life points and slightly boosted the ATK of one of your monsters, big deal." Obelisk Gold scoffed. "My Chaos Giant can still easily destroy you!"

"Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II no kouka." GHOST Beta droned. "Once per turn, an ∞ monster I control can absorb one of my opponent's Special Summoned monsters in order to gain ATK equal to half that monster's original ATK, plus one-thousand additional ATK if that monster was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. The target is Antique Gear Chaos Giant. Universal Absorption!"

"What!?" Obelisk Gold exclaimed as the infinity symbol on Granel's chest plate opened up before launching dozens of glowing white tendrils of energy into Gold's immense Fusion Monster. Wrapping around the Fusion Monster like tentacles, the tendrils of energy began pulling Antique Gear Chaos Giant towards Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II, causing the massive fusion monster to compact into a smaller and smaller mass of energy until it was absorbed into the machine's power core, which closed up into its normal infinity symbol with a short loud buzz.

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II: 2950 + (4500 / 2) + 1000 = 6200 ATK**

"Sixty-two hundred ATK!?" Melissa Claire exclaimed from her helicopter as she watched the duel, pilot attempting to avoid various attacks from the roiling chaos below.

Meanwhile, GHOST Beta scanned its monster with its golden eyes, incomplete face set in a completely emotionless stare while the Obelisk Soldiers backed away in fear.

"ATK power levels insufficient." The machine droned. "Additional power levels will be required to execute final verdict. Equip Magic Card activate, Meklord ∞ Matrix!"

Over the Meklord's chest, an upright infinity symbol appeared, perpendicular to the infinity symbol already over its chest before a second core of white energy appeared next to the first energy core within.

"Meklord ∞ Matrix enables one ∞ monster I control to equip one additional monster to itself with its own effect." GHOST Beta explained."Furthermore, once per turn, I can target one monster equipped to my ∞ monster with its own effect in order to give it that monster's effects until the end of the turn. Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II no kouka!" it proclaimed, raising its robotic hand into the air as the infinity symbols on the chest of its immense machine shot out an army of tentacles towards Obelisk Green's Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog. "Target Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Universal Absorption!"

Howling like an actual dog in the grip of terror, Ultimate Hound Dog began struggling against the grip of Granel until the immense machine compacted it into a mass of energy before absorbing it into its core.

 **Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II: 6200 + (2800 / 2) + 1000 = 8600 ATK**

"Granel Top no kouka." GHOST Beta continued. "Once per turn, Granel Top can target one monster my opponent controls in order to negate its effects. The target is Antique Gear Choas Dreadnaught."

Firing a beam of red energy from the single eye on its narrow head, Granel caused Obelisk Red's Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught to roar with pain before seemingly shutting down as Granel Top's effect weakened it.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught: 0 ATK / 0 DEF (Effects Negated)**

"Meklord ∞ Matrix's second effect." Granel declared. "By targeting the equipped Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog, Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II gains the original effects of the equipped monster, enabling it to attack three times this turn, while preventing the opposition from activating the effects of Magic or Trap Cards, rendering your face-down cards irrelevant."

"This isn't possible!" Obelisk Gold sputtered.

"Get us out of here!" Obelisk Green protested struggling against the anchor of solid vision before jamming his finger against the teleport button on his duel disk to no avail.

"Why aren't these working!?" Obelisk Red wailed.

"I have nullified the trans-dimensional warp capabilities of your technology." GHOST Beta explained as it crackled with black electricity, golden eyes focused on the three Obelisk Soldiers.

"A verdict has been reached. Under the authority given to this unit by directive, Alekhine's Gun, you are all hereby sentenced to immediate and unequivocal liquidation. Battle. Kikai shikkō kikan Granel ∞ Mark II, destroy all three Obelisk Soldiers. Grand Genocide Cannon."

Lowering its immense cannon towards the Obelisk Soldiers, Granel ∞ Mark II fired a powerful beam of golden energy into Obelisk Green before making a slow sweep towards the remaining two Obelisk Soldiers, who remained trapped by their bindings. Watching from her helicopter, Melissa stared at where Obelisk Green had been before immediately screaming and averting her eyes after realizing that the entire upper half of the soldier's body had been disintegrated.

 **Obelisk Green / Gold / Red: 0 LP (LOSE)**

"Targets eliminated." GHOST Beta reported in a completely emotionless voice as it deactivated its tablet-like duel disk before riding past the charred remains of the Obelisk Soldiers. "Moving on to next objective."

"There should be a landing pad on the south side of the facility." Melissa gagged, unable to erase the graphic scene from her mind. "Get us over there before it's too late!"

* * *

"I need to get out of here." Ibuki thought as he staggered against the effect of the GHOST drone's spell card, which had generated an immense black hole in the center of the duel field that was sucking both players in.

 **GHOST Delta 004: 2000 / 2 = 1000 LP**

 **Ibuki Ichiyanagi: 16,000 / 2 = 8000 LP**

"In addition to halving the Life Points of all players," the machine droned. "Chaos 0 destroys all monsters I control."

Falling into the center of the singularity, Marine Core was crushed into nothingness by the gravitational forces of the black hole. However, the instant the monster was destroyed, a circular portal opened up through which the images of five white cards appeared.

"Marine Core Mark II's effect!" the GHOST drone declared as the blade of its duel disk morphed into a more tablet-like shape. "From my deck, I Special Summon Marinel Top Mark II!"

Appearing first was a black spherical head, similar to a diver's helmet with multiple viewing ports like the eyes of a spider, which glowed with white light.

 **Marinel Top Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 300 / DEF 200**

"Marinel Guard Mark II!" the drone continued as scaffold containing ten black robotic tentacles like the tentacles of a squid appeared at the right of the portal.

 **Marinel Guard Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1800**

"Marinel Attack Mark II!" it declared as a set of what looked like spider pincers with hooked harpoon-like tips appeared.

 **Marinel Attack Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 400**

"Marinel Carrier Mark II!" the drone continued as a large shell-like submarine body with five submarine turbines affixed to its back rose into the air.

 **Marinel Carrier Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 700 / DEF 600**

"And finally, Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II!" the GHOST drone proclaimed as a pitch-black thorax-like robotic piece with a glowing white infinity symbol on its front appeared before the individual pieces of the monster began attaching themselves to it, Marinel Top Mark II forming the monster's spider-like head, Marinel Guard Mark II attaching to the monster's underside so that it had ten squid-like tentacles with large clawed robotic tips, Marinel Attack Mark II attaching itself to Marinel ∞ just below the head in order to form a pair of robotic fangs, and Marinel Carrier Mark II attaching to the back of Marinel ∞ in order to form the monster's shell-like body.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II / WATER / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Well, that's quite the monster." Ibuki gaped as the immense machine stared down at him with multiple glowing white viewports, tentacles and fangs snapping viciously in the air.

"Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II's ATK and DEF are each equal to the total ATK and DEF of its parts." The GHOST drone explained nonchalantly as the center piece of its monster began glowing with energy.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 2000 / DEF 3000**

"It's a cool monster." Ibuki observed, looking over the stats of each piece, "But I already prepared for it. "I've got enough life points to withstand any attack you throw at me. Plus, with the way my deck works, I'll be able to quickly rebuild my field."

"The path to victory has already been calculated." The GHOST drone countered. "This turn will be your last, the inevitable outcome being immediate execution."

"We'll see about that." Ibuki replied, subtly reaching for a button on his Duel Disk.

"The teleportation function on your duel disk has been disabled." The drone commented, noticing what Ibuki was trying to do. "You will not escape."

Ibuki gritted his teeth, bracing himself against the attack.

"Initiating upgrade process." The drone continued, revealing a card in its hand. "First, by tributing Marinel Guard Mark II, Marinel Guard Mark IV can be Special Summoned."

The tentacles on Marinel's underbelly began evolving, the tips growing a pair of larger pincer-like claws.

 **Marinel Guard Mark IV/ WATER/ Level 4/ Machine/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 400 / DEF 2000**

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 2400 / DEF 3200**

"Furthermore, by tributing Marinel Attack Mark II, Marinel Attack Mark IV can be Special Summoned."

The spider-like mouth of the machine began to transform, growing an extra pair of pincers before all four pincers enlarged and began crackling with electricity.

 **Marinel Attack Mark IV / WATER / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 600**

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 2800 / DEF 3400**

"Finally," the GHOST drone continued, "By tributing Marinel Attack Mark IV, Marinel Attack Mark VI can be Special Summoned."

The pincers of the machine expanded, grew wider, and spread out into an X pattern, lightning crackling between the prongs of the fangs before a central spike erupted from the center of the mouth.

 **Marinel Attack Mark VI / WATER / Level 6 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000**

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 3200 / DEF 3800**

"Marinel Attack Mark VI's effect." The GHOST drone declared. "Once per turn, one ∞ monster I control can equip one banished monster to itself in order to gain ATK and DEF equal to the respective original ATK and DEF of the targeted monster. The target is Sea Scales Striking Dragon. Initiate Universal Absorption."

Letting out a high-pitched shriek through its insectile mouth, Marinel launched its robotic pincers into the air with a length of steel cable before the harpoon-like pincers opened up a dimensional tear in the air through which the central harpoon entered. Reeling in the cable, Marinel pulled in Ibuki's Striking Dragon, which had been speared through the body with the central harpoon. Writhing furiously, Ibuki's Ritual Monster struggled in vain as the four other pincers of Marinel's weapon clamped onto the monster's neck before pulling it in, causing Striking Dragon to shrink into a mass of energy which the infinity symbol on Marinel's thorax absorbed.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 5200 / DEF 7200**

"Striking Dragon!" Ibuki cried out, unable to stop his monster from being captured.

"Battle." GHOST Delta 004 continued without emotion.

"Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II, direct attack." Lashing out its tentacles, Marinel pinned Ibuki to the ground, a loud snap from Ibuki's left arm splitting the air.

 **Ibuki Ichiyanagi: 8000 – 5200 = 2800 LP**

"Marinel Top, direct attack." The Drone ordered as Marinel slammed another tentacle into Ibuki.

 **Ibuki Ichiyanagi: 2800 – 300 = 2500 LP**

"Marinel Guard Mark IV, direct attack." It continued as yet another tentacle slammed into Ibuki.

 **Ibuki Ichiyanagi: 2500 – 400 = 2100 LP**

"Marinel Carrier Mark II, direct attack." GHOST Delta 004 continued, watching through black robotic eyes as its immense machine ripped Ibuki from the ground before raising him to the level of its spiked mouth.

 **Ibuki Ichiyanagi: 2100 – 700 = 1400 LP**

Ibuki spat out blood as he looked blearily into the glowing eyes of Marinel. Somehow, it seemed that Roger had managed to take the solid vision of these monsters a step further. Glancing down at the GHOST drone, he noticed a spark of black electricity crackle against the drone's chest.

"Marinel Attack Mark VI," The GHOST Delta 004 droned as Marinel's jaws crackled with electricity while snapping at the air. "direct attack."

Ibuki braced himself for the impact of the jaws, doubtful that he would be able to survive the spiked harpoons tearing open his flesh.

"BATTLE ROYAL MODE COMMENCING! JOINING!" Ibuki's duel disk suddenly declared, causing Ibuki, Ibuki, and Marinel to turn their heads around.

Stumbling towards them with Valkyrion and Berserkion at his flanks, Lieutenant Martell had limped onto Ibuki and GHOST Delta 004's duel field, causing the duel to transition into a battle royal format. A wide gash had opened up Martell's chest, causing blood to flow onto his Obelisk uniform, while he tried to staunch the flow with one of his free arms. A few meters behind Martell, Roger, now dressed in purple robes with white highlights, was strolling towards them, a look of supreme confidence on his face while the tall statue of a white queen with a bloody sword glided emotionless by his side.

 **Lieutenant Martell: 1000 LP**

 **Controls Valkyrion the Magna Warrior and Berserkion the Magna Warrior**

 **Valkyrion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3850**

 **Berserkion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

 **Jean-Michelle Roger: 2000 LP** **Controls Chess Master White Queen**

 **Chess Master White Queen / LIGHT / Level 10 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

"Epsilon the Magnet Warrior's effect!" Martell declared, slamming down a card from his hand. "If an opponent's monster declares an attack, I can Special Summon this card from my hand in order to change the attack to this monster!"

Marinel fired its harpoon-like mouth at Ibuki. However, before the spear-like jaws could hit Ibuki, a small robot made out of magnets, with two immense epsilon shaped magnet claws on its hands, appeared in front of Ibuki before taking the attack.

 **Epsilon the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 300**

The small magnetic robot exploded into dozens of pieces, some of which slammed into Marinel's head, causing the immense machine to drop Ibuki before rubbing at its face with its tentacles.

"If Epsilon is destroyed, I can add one Magnet Warrior or Magna Warrior monster from my deck to my hand before sending one Level 4 Magnet Warrior from my deck to the graveyard." Martell continued, adding a copy of Valkyrion to his hand before depositing a copy of Alpha the Magnet Warrior into his graveyard.

"New variables coming into play." GHOST Delta 004 droned. "Adjusting tactics in light of new situation. Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II no kouka! Once per turn, it can target one Special Summoned monster in order to equip itself with the monster and gain ATK equal to half the ATK of the equipped monster. The target is Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, initiate Universal Absorption!"

Infinity symbol on its chest suddenly expanding, Marinel unleashed a swarm of white tentacles, which wrapped around Valkyrion before pulling the struggling monster into its center, where it dissappeared.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 5200 + (3500 / 2) = 6950 ATK**

"Marinel Top no Kouka!" the GHOST drone continued. "Once per turn, Marinel Top Mark II can target one monster in order to set that monster into face-down defense position! The target is Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior!"

Swimming forward, Marinel unleashed a cloud of black smoke from its tentacles, similar to an octopus ejecting ink, which covered up Berserkion, obscuring the monster before the smoke faded and a face-down card stood in place of Martell's monster.

"Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II's second effect!" GHOST Delta declared. "Once per turn, it can target one set card on the field in order to banish it."

Glowing with energy, the infinity symbol on Marinel's chest lit up before firing a glowing torpedo-like weapon from its core, which blasted against the face-down, causing Martell's Berserkion to explode into nothingness.

"All opposition monsters eliminated." GHOST Delta summarized. "Chances of defeat low. Turn end."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Roger laughed. "Considering that the two of you have no cards on the field or in your hands, I'd say this duel is pretty well wrapped up. A pity Magni's apprentice couldn't protect either his master or his master's army, much less himself!"

"I don't care how low my chances are! I'm seizing control of this duel with my hands!" Martell roared, blood flying from his arm as he ripped a card from the top of his deck. "DRAW!"

"You're not looking good there, Lieutenant." White Roger mocked as he approached the outskirts of the duel field, a cruel smile on his face. "Neither is your friend. Are you sure you both don't want to give up? I assure you, it'd be a lot more pleasant than enduring whatever torment my new favorite toy has planned for you. Isn't that right…erm…Delta 004?" he asked, looking at the label on the GHOST drone's chest.

GHOST Delta 004 remained silent.

"I'm not letting you get away with this!" Martell snarled. "Not after what you did to General Magni!"

"General Magni?" Ibuki groaned, wondering what had happened to their commander. From the look of Martell, it couldn't have been anything good.

"Besides..." Lieutenant Martell breathed, face contorted with pain, "the gods of victory haven't left me yet! I activate the card I just drew! Geomagnetic Reversal! By paying half my life points and banishing one Superconductive Fusion Monster from any player's graveyard, I can Special Summon one each of Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior and Valkyrion the Magna Warrior from among the cards in my hand, deck, graveyard, or which are banished! Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot General Magni entrusted me with for this effect!"

 **Lieutenant Martell: 1000 / 2 = 500 LP**

"Return to me now! Valkyrion the Magna Warrior and Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior!" Lieutenant Martell proclaimed as his two monsters reappeared to his field, reassembling from the ghostly glowing pieces of Imperion Magnum.

 **Valkyrion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3500 / DEF 3850**

 **Berserkion the Magna Warrior / EARTH / Level 8 / Rock / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2800**

Roger sniffed, looking unimpressed.

"I activate Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior's effect!" Ibuki declared, raising his arm into the air. "Any number of times per turn, I can banish one Magnet Warrior monster from my graveyard in order to target and destroy one card my opponent controls, and I think I'm first going to be destroying that overgrown tin can! Go! I banish Alpha the Magnet Warrior in order to target and destroy Marinel ∞ Mark II! Electromagnetic Blast!"

"Kikai shikkō kikan Marinel ∞ Mark II cannot be targeted by an opponent's card effects." GHOST Delta 004 countered, regarding Lieutenant Martell with its soulless black eyes. "Furthermore, Marinel Guard Mark IV prevents any other Marinel Monsters I control from being targeted for attacks or by an opponent's card effects." It continued as Marinel's tentacle arms swarmed around the machine to create a protective barrier.

"Then I'll change the target to Marinel Guard Mark IV!" Martell countered. "Go! Electromagnetic Blast!"

Firing a pulse of energy from its large electromagnetic baton, Berserkion obliterated the tentacles of Marinel, leaving the rest of the machine exposed.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 6550 / DEF 5200**

"I next banish a copy of Beta in order to target and destroy Marinel Attack Mark VI!" Martell declared. "Electromagnetic Blast!"

With a second blast from its baton, Berserkion blasted the robotic jaws of Marinel to pieces, sending the robot reeling back.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 4750 / DEF 4200**

"Next, I banish my other two copies of Beta and a copy of Gamma the Magnet Warrior from my graveyard in order to destroy Marinel Top, Marinel Carrier, and the equipped Sea-Scales Striking Dragon!" Martell roared, sweat beading on his forehead as his wound continued to bleed. "Electromagnetic Blast!"

Leaping into the air, Berserkion slammed its baton into Marinel's robotic frame, bashing off its head and robotic shell body until only its floating torso remained. Reaching into the infinity symbol on the monster's chest, it removed the ghostly form of Sea Scales Striking Dragon, causing the mass of energy to fly into Ibuki's deck.

"Thank you." Ibuki groaned.

 **Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II: ATK 1750 / DEF 0  
**

"And don't think I've forgotten about you, Roger!" Martell roared. "I banish Epsilon the Magnet Warrior from my graveyard in order to destroy Chess Master White Queen! Electromagnetic Blast!"

Twirling its baton into the air, Berserkion slammed its baton into the ground, sending a shockwave into Roger's Chess Master White Queen, which blew his monster into a pile of rubble.

"Well, you do seem to be learning." Roger shrugged. "Too bad it's all for nothing at this point. Or did you forget what happened last time you 'defeated' me?"

"BATTLE!" Martell roared, ignoring Roger. "Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, attack and destroy Marinel ∞ Mark II! Electromagnetic Baton!"

With a single swing of its immense weapon, Valkyrion sent both Marinel and GHOST Delta 004 flying backwards before both machines shorted out and shut down.

 **GHOST Delta 004: 1000 – 1250 = 0 (LOSE)**

"Aw, and I liked that one." White Roger sighed. "These new models are far superior to their anti-synchro predecessors, though I suppose I can't blame the poor people of this dimension for their ignorance regarding other summoning techniques."

"Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior!" Martell continued, pointing at Roger. "Direct attack!"

Roger didn't even flinch as Berserkion charged forward, sending the dictator flying backwards with one blow of its baton.

 **White Roger: 2000 – 3000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

"Surrendering duel." Martell gasped, unexpectedly placing his hand over his duel disk and conceding.

 **Lieutenant Martell: 500 – 500 = 0 (Conceded)**

Ibuki staggered to his feet as Lieutenant Martell ran towards him.

"There's not much time!" Martell gasped. "Roger will be coming back any moment now! We have to retreat while we still can!"

"But you defeated him." Ibuki protested before the two of them began fleeing from the battlefield.

"There's no time to explain!" Lieutenant Martell replied. "I need you to get out of here! Roger's developed some powerful weaponry Academia needs to know about if the invasion is to succeed. I need you to scout out Roger one more time. Figure out how to destroy his weapons and inform the main invasion force before it's too late!"

More Obelisk Soldiers were joining them, running alongside one of their commanding officers as they fled from Roger's encroaching forces. "What about you?" Ibuki protested as he pressed a button on his duel disk, causing his Uria Scout uniform to cover his body and face as it unfolded from his blue hoodie.

"I'm holding the line!" Martell growled. "I'm not giving up on General Magni's ambitions. We WILL destroy Roger and conquer this dimension!"

"Academia forces…" a hoarse voice behind them breathed, "…you are to be eliminated."

Ibuki turned his head, spying a red-haired civilian with a horrific scar disfiguring the right side of his face and a duel disk over his right arm. He was approaching them alone, a glowing red chip blinking on his forehead.

"Go! Now!" Martell barked, forming up with the other Obelisk Soldiers. "We can handle this one easily enough! We just need you to figure out how to destroy Roger and his other machines!"

Nodding his head, Ibuki fished a card from his deck before placing it on his duel disk. "Field Magic, Cloaking Field, activate." Ibuki murmered, suddenly becoming totally transparent before he ran away.

Lieutenant Martell stood at his full height, grimacing against the pain of his wound as he faced the lone civilian fighter with the twelve Obelisk Soldiers who had joined him. It wasn't much of a force, but they would be able to last for a while against Roger's forces.

"Steady men!" Martell called. "This first opponent will be easy, but prepare for whatever reinforcements Roger sends once we defeat him!"

"My turn," the red-haired duelist droned, energy suddenly radiating from his body as he drew the top card of his deck. "Draw!"

 **Sayer Priuer (Divine) vs. Lieutenant Martell and twelve Obelisk Soldiers**

* * *

Kneeling beside the smoking ruins of what had once been her orphanage, Miss Kimura looked up at the massive holographic screens in the sky as they re-played Jean-Michelle Roger's glorious victory against the Academia invaders.

For Miss Kimura and the orphans gathered around her, however, it didn't feel like there was much of a victory to celebrate.

Their home had been destroyed just a few moments after the first warnings of the invasion had blared over city-wide alert systems. Miss Kimura had been evacuating the children under her care when a uniformed soldier had confronted them, a large mechanical dog by his side. Luckily, Security forces had arrived soon afterwards, but by then…

She cradled several cards in her hand, images of the screaming children under her care etched in their frames.

"Area secured." A burly Arrest Corps officer grunted through his mask, speaking into a hidden microphone, which was broadcasting his words to fellow officers. "Preparing to secure civilians as per the protocol outlined under directive Alekhine's Gun."

"Are they going to arrest us?" One of the children by Miss Kimura's side whimpered, looking up at the masked faces of the Arrest Corps officers with fear.

"Where's Milly!?" another boy bawled, tears streaming down his face while Miss Kimura pocketed the cards she was holding before running over to his side to comfort him.

"It's okay." Miss Kimura soothed. "We're going to be alright. Security is here to protect us."

"Citizens!" the Arrest Core Officer barked, grabbing the caretaker's attention.

"As per the ordinances outlined under directive Alekhine's Gun, you are hereby tasked with engaging in voluntary civil service."

"Civil service?" Miss Kimura asked as the remaining children huddled around her.

"On your knees." The officer growled, he and other officers approaching them with sinister-looking devices, which held a glowing red chip at their ends.

"Officer, if you'd please," Miss Kimura protested, "I don't understand what you-…"

Before she could finish, the officer had grabbed the small woman by one of her arms before kicking her in the gut, sending her gagging as she fell to her knees before he pressed the device against her forehead.

"Miss Kimura!" one of the children screamed before the other officers swarmed them, pressing more devices against their foreheads as they held the squirming, screaming, and crying children in place. Looking up into the officer's emotionless mask with fear, Miss Kimura felt her heart-rate rise until she heard an immense throbbing in her ears.

Only…now that she focused on it…the rumbling she heard could not have been her heart.

Turning around their heads in unison, the Arrest Core Officers suddenly removed the devices from Miss Kimura and the children as they all registered the deep thumbing of a motorcycle engine.

"Assets sighted!" the Arrest Core Officer excitedly reported, as they all activated their duel disk. "Repeat! Assets sighted! Send backup immediately!"

Peering into the distance where the officers were looking, Miss Kimura spied a strange whale-shaped D-wheel roaring towards them. But what caught her attention even more than the strange vehicle was the rider piloting it.

"Rin?" she breathed, tears coming to her eyes.

 **Featured Original Characters**

 **Name: Thaddeus Magnison (General Magni) / Original Concept by: thetiger39 / Deck: Electromagnet Warrior / Allegiance: Academia / Status: unknown**

 **Name: Lieutenant Martel / Original Concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Magnet Warrior / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active**

 **Name: Ibuki Ichiyanagi / Original Concept by: ThePLOThand (the hand that plots, the plotting hand, the hand that controls the plot, the plot of land in which the hand lies) / Deck: Sea Scales / Allegiance: Academia / Status: Active**

 **Name: Miss Kimura / Name and personality by: Donjusticia (the unnamed background character Miss Kimura is based on appears when Yuzu and Yugo visit the orphanage) / Deck: None / Allegiance: Synchro Dimension / Status: Active**

 **Names: Moira, Clark, and Timothy / Original concepts by: Donjusticia / Decks: Miscellaneous cards / Allegiance: Jean-Michelle Roger's regime / Status: Deceased**

 **Designation: GHOST Beta 021 / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Granel / Allegiance: Jean-Michelle Roger's regime / Status: Active**

 **Designation: GHOST Delta 004 / Original concept by: Donjusticia / Deck: Marinel / Allegiance: Jean-Michelle Roger's regime / Status: Destroyed**

 **FEATURED FAN CARDS**

Lieutenant Martell's monsters

Epsilon the Magnet Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 300 / If an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, change the attack to this card. If this card is destroyed: You can add 1 "Magnet Warrior" or "Magna Warrior" monster from your deck to your hand, and if you do, send 1 Level 4 "Magnet Warrior" monster from your deck to the GY. (Each effect of "Epsilon the Magnet Warrior" can only be used once per turn).

Lieutenant Martell's Spells

Geomagnetic Reversal / Spell / Normal / Pay half your LP and banish 1 "Superconductive" Fusion Monster from any player's side of the field or GY: Special Summon 2 "Magna" Warrior monsters with different names from among the cards in your hand, deck, GY, or among the cards currently banished

Lieutenant Martell and General Magni's Traps

Magnetic Warrior Attraction / Trap / Continuous / Once per turn, if you control a "Magnet Warrior", "Magna Warrior", or "Superconductive" monster: You can target 1 "Magnet Warrior", "Magna Warrior", or "Superconductive" monster your opponent controls; Take control of that target.

Jean-Michelle Roger's monsters (his first deck was actually the "Checkers Novice" archetype, but he ditched it in favor of something that would make him seem more sophisticated)

Chess Master White Pawn/ LIGHT/ Level 2/ Warrior/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master Red" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master Red Pawn" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master White" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each "Chess Master White" monster you control. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Chess Master White" monster from your graveyard.

Chess Master White Knight/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master Red" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master Red Knight" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master White" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Chess Master White Rook/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Rock/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 2000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master Red" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master Red Rook" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master White" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the attack target until the end of the Damage Step, also, change this monster to defense position at the end of the Damage Step. If a "Chess Master White King" you control would be destroyed, you can tribute this card instead.

Chess Master Red Pawn/ DARK/ Level 2/ Warrior/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 1000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master White" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master White Pawn" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master Red" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, increase the ATK of this card by 200 for each "Chess Master Red" monster you control. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can tribute this card: Special Summon 1 "Chess Master Red" monster from your graveyard.

Chess Master Red Knight/ DARK/ Level 4/ Beast/ Effect/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master White" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master White Knight" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master Red" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

Chess Master Red Bishop/ DARK/ Level 4/ Spellcaster/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2000/ You can tribute 1 monster your opponent controls: Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field. If your opponent controls a "Chess Master White" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master White Bishop" from your hand or deck to your opponent's side of the field. You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master Red" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks a monster, destroy that monster at the start of the Damage Step, and if you do, inflict damage to the controller of that monster's LP, equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.

Jean-Michelle Roger's Extra Deck

Chess Master White Queen/ LIGHT/ Level 10/ Fairy/ Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 1 "Chess Master White Pawn" monster + 2 "Chess Master White" monsters If your opponent controls the required Synchro Materials, you can Synchro Summon this monster to your opponent's side of the field using monsters he/she controls as Materials. You can only control 1 "Chess Master White Queen," You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master White" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, change the ATK and DEF of the monster this card is battling to 0.

(Before eventually settling down with Chess Master White King, she starred in Duel Monster's "Most Eligible Bachelorettes" but that season didn't get very far after all the contestants dropped out. Apparently, aristocratic statuettes don't make great dates).

Chess Master Red Queen/ DARK/ Level 10/ Fairy/ Fusion/ Effect/ ATK 3000/ DEF 3000/ 1 "Chess Master Red Pawn" monster + 2 Level 4 "Chess Master Red" monsters Must be Fusion Summoned by sending the above Fusion Materials to the graveyard (You do not use Polymerization). If your opponent controls the required Fusion Materials, you can Fusion Summon this monster to your opponent's side of the field by sending the required Fusion Materials he/she controls to the graveyard (You do not use Polymerization). You can only control 1 "Chess Master Red Queen," You cannot summon/set monsters except "Chess Master Red" monsters. You can only attack with 1 "Chess Master" monster per turn, also, this card cannot attack your opponent's LP directly. If this card attacks, change the ATK and DEF of the monster this card is battling to 0.

(Despite her bloody exterior, she's actually a very congenial duel monster once you get to know her.)

Jean-Michelle Roger's Spells

Chess Master Move – Torre Attack / Spell / Quick-Play / If you Special Summon a "Chess Master White Pawn" monster or "Chess Master Red Pawn" monster: You can activate this effect; Special Summon 1 Level 4 "Chess Master" monster from your hand or deck whose Attribute is the same as the Attribute of the "Chess Master White Pawn" or "Chess Master Red Pawn" you control.

Chess Master Move – Vienna Game / Spell / Normal / Discard 1 card to target up to 2 "Chess Master" monsters in your GY; For each target, Special Summon 1 "Chess Master" monster from your hand or deck whose name is the same as that target's name.

Jean-Michelle Roger's Traps

Chess Master Move – Terrasch Defense / Trap / Normal / "Chess Master" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects this turn. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card; Add 1 "Chess Master Move" card from your deck to your hand.

Chess Master Move – Sicilian Defense / Trap / Normal / If a "Chess Master" monster you control would be destroyed as a result of battle: You can negate the destruction of that card and change any battle damage you would have taken as a result of that battle to 0. After resolving the effects of this card, you can set this card to your side of the field instead of sending it to the GY, but banish it when it leaves the field.

(Original Concept by: Nox Descious)

Chess Master Move – Queen's Gambit / Trap / Normal / Activate 1 of the following effects:

1\. Synchro Summon 1 "Chess Master White" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters from your GY as Synchro Materials.

2\. Fusion Summon 1 "Chess Master Red" monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters from your GY as Fusion Materials (ignoring the summoning conditions).

GHOST Beta's monsters

Grand Core Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ Once per turn, if this card would be destroyed by battle, it is not destroyed. If this card is destroyed by a card effect, destroy all monsters you control: Then, you can Special Summon 1 each of "Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II," "Granel Top Mark II," "Granel Guard Mark II," "Granel Attack Mark II," and "Granel Carrier Mark II" from your hand, deck, or graveyard.

Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ If this card was Special Summoned by the effect of "Grand Core Mark II", it gains ATK and DEF equal to half the controller's LP. Cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. Once per turn, you can target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls: Equip that target to this card. This card gains ATK equal to half the original ATK of the monster equipped to this card with this effect and gains an additional 1000 ATK if that monster was a Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. You can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card with this effect. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster equipped to this card; Special Summon it in defense position. You can only control 1 "Meklord Enforcer Granel ∞ Mark II."

(Trivia: It's Japanese name used by the GHOST drones translates to "Machine Imperial Enforcer.")

Granel Top Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 0/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Negate the effects of that Target until the End-Phase of this turn. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Grand Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Granel Guard Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 500/ DEF 1000/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. If a face-up "Granel" monster you control is selected as an attack target, you can change that target to this card instead. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Grand Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Granel Attack Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1300/ DEF 0/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. If a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster you control destroys a defense position monster by battle, you can activate this effect: That monster can attack once again in a row. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Grand Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Granel Carrier Mark II/ EARTH/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 700/ DEF 700/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, if a "Granel" monster you control would be destroyed by battle, it is not destroyed. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Grand Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

GHOST Beta's Spells

Meklord ∞ Matrix/ Spell/ Equip/ Equip only to an "∞" monster you control. That monster can equip 1 additional monster to itself with its own effect. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target 1 monster equipped to the equipped monster by its own effect; The equipped monster gains the effects of that target until the end of this turn. You can destroy 1 card equipped to the equipped monster: Inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP. If this card is destroyed, you can Special Summon 1 "Meklord", "Top", "Guard", "Attack", or "Carrier" monster from your graveyard.

GHOST Beta's Traps Mekcore Aura / Trap / Continuous / While you control a "Core" monster or there is an "∞" monster on your side of the field: Any damage you take is negated, also, place 1 Aura Counter on this card for every 100 points of damage that was negated. If this card is destroyed: Gain 100 LP for each counter that was on this card. If there are 40 or more counters on this card: Destroy this card.

Mektimed Pulse / Trap / Continuous / Once per turn: If a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field while you control a "Meklord" or "Core" monster: You can negate the activation of that effect, and if you do, destroy 1 "Meklord" or "Core" monster you control.

Meklord Overdrive / Trap / Normal / If you control a face-up "Meklord" monster: Increase the ATK and DEF of each Machine-Type monsters you control by 300 X its respective Level, and if you do, take damage equal to the total Level of all Machine-Type monsters you control X 300. You can banish this card from the GY to target 1 "Meklord", "Top", "Guard", "Attack", or "Carrier" monster you control: Increase its ATK and DEF by 1000.

GHOST Delta's monsters Marine Core Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ Once per turn, if this card would be destroyed by battle, it is not destroyed. If this card is destroyed by a card effect, destroy all monsters you control: Then, you can Special Summon 1 each of "Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II," "Marinel Top Mark II," "Marinel Guard Mark II," "Marinel Attack Mark II," and "Marinel Carrier Mark II" from your hand, deck, or graveyard.

Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 0/ This card gains ATK and DEF equal to the total ATK of all other face-up "Marinel" monsters you control. Cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. Once per turn, you can target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls: Equip that target to this card. This card gains ATK equal to half the original ATK of the monster equipped to this card with this effect, and gains an additional 1000 ATK if that monster was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. You can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card with this effect. Once per turn: You can target 1 set card your opponent controls; Banish it. You can only control 1 "Meklord Enforcer Marinel ∞ Mark II."

Marinel Top Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 300/ DEF 200/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Change that target to face-down defense position. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Marine Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Marinel Guard Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 1800/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Other "Marinel" monsters you control cannot be selected as an attack target. You can discard this card; Add 1 "Marine Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Marinel Guard Mark IV/ WATER/ Level 4/ Machine/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 400 / DEF 2000 / You can Special Summon this card, from your hand, by tributing 1 "Marinel Guard Mark II" you control. If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Other "Marinel" monsters you control cannot be targeted for attacks or by card effects. Once per turn, you can target 1 set card your opponent controls: Destroy it. (Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this effect). Cannot be used as a Synchro Material the first turn it is summoned.

Marinel Attack Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 1000/ DEF 400/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, if a "Marinel" monster you control attacks a defense position monster: You can change that target to face-up attack position, and if you do, halve the ATK of that monster. You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 "Marine Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

Marinel Attack Mark IV / WATER / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 600 / You can Special Summon this card by tributing 1 "Marinel Attack Mark II" you control. If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, if a "Marinel" monster you control attacks a defense position monster: You can change that target to face-up attack position, and if you do, change that monster's ATK and DEF to 0. Any monster destroyed in battle by a "Marinel" monster is banished.

Marinel Attack Mark VI / WATER / Level 6 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000 / Must be Special Summoned by tributing 1 "Marinel Attack Mark IV" you control. If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn, if a "Marinel" monster you control attacks a defense position monster: You can change that target to face-up attack position, and if you do, change that monster's ATK and DEF to 0 and negate its effects. Any monster destroyed in battle by a "Marinel" monster is banished. Once per turn, one "∞" monster you control can equip 1 banished monster to itself, and if it does, that "∞" monster gains ATK and DEF equal to the original ATK and DEF of the equipped monster. (This ATK and DEF change remains even if this card leaves the field).

Marinel Carrier Mark II/ WATER/ Level 2/ Machine/ Effect/ ATK 700/ DEF 600/ If you do not control a face-up "Meklord Enforcer" monster, destroy this card. Once per turn: If a monster attacks a "Marinel" monster you control; You can change the ATK of the attacking monster to 0 until the end of the turn. You can discard this card from your hand: Add 1 "Marine Core Mark II" from your deck to your hand.

GHOST Delta's Spells

Chaos 0 / Spell / Normal / Activate only if you control a "Core", "Wisel", "Granel", "Skiel", "Marinel", or "Orbitiel" monster. Halve the LP of all players, and if you do, destroy all monsters you control.

Ibuki Ichiyanagi's Monsters

Sea Scales Amazoness / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 2600 / When this Card is summoned or flipped face-up: Banish all cards you control.

Sea Scales Sagess / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 0 /DEF 50 / You can banish all cards you control (min. 2), and if you do, choose 1 card from your deck and place it on top of your deck. If you have a banished Sea Scales or Tidal card you can special summon this card (from your hand)

Sea Scales Seductress / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 650 / You can banish all cards you control (min. 2) and if you do, take control of up to three monsters your opponent controls. Those monsters cannot change their battle positions, also, during the End-Phase of the turn this effect was activated, return control of all monsters your opponent owns to their side of the field, and if you do, banish all cards you control.

Sea Scales Striking Dragon / WATER / Level 2 / Sea Serpent / Ritual / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 3400 / This Card must first be special summoned by the effect of Birth of the Tidal Dragon. When this card is special Summoned; immediately after this effect resolves, special Sea Scales Shielding Dragon from your extra deck (this is treated as a fusion summon). During the turn this monster was Ritual Summoned: You can inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the number of Card that were banished this turn X 450. (This effect can only be used once during your turn). During your opponent's turn, if your opponent activates the effect of a Spell, Trap, or Monster: You can banish all cards you Control. "Sea Scales Shielding Dragon" cannot be destroyed by battle, while in attack position and you take no battle damage from battles involving it.

Ibuki Ichiyanagi's Spells

Treasures of the Deep Sea / Spell / Normal / Draw 2 cards, then banish 1 Water monster from your hand, or, if you do not have any in your hand, send your entire hand to the Graveyard.

Tidal Insight / Spell / Normal / If you Control at least two "Sea Scale" Cards: You can banish all Card you Control; Add 1 Card from your deck to your hand.

Birth of the Tidal Dragon / Spell / Ritual / Return a number of your banished "Sea Scales" monsters to your graveyard, whose total Level is equal to the Level of a "Sea Scales" Ritual Monster that is in your deck or banished, and if you do, Ritual Summon that "Sea Scales" Ritual Monster. If a "Sea Scales" Monster or "Tidal" Card you control would leave the field without being banished while you control a "Sea Scales" Fusion and Ritual Monster, you can banish this card from your GY Face-down instead.

Ibuki Ichiyanagi's Extra Deck

Sea Scales Shielding Dragon / WATER / Level 2 / Sea Serpent / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 0 / 2 "Sea Scales" monsters

During a turn this card and a "Sea Scales Striking Dragon" are banished simultaneously: You can activate this effect; Return all Cards that left the field at the time this card and "Sea Scales Striking Dragon" were banished back to the field in their original positions. (This effect can only be used once per turn). If your opponent takes damage while you control a "Sea Scales Striking Dragon", you can gain LP equal to the damage he/she took. "Sea Scales Striking Dragon" cannot be destroyed by battle while it is in defense Position and you take no piercing damage from battles involving it.

Obelisk Force's monsters

Antique Gear Search Hound / EARTH / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200 / If this card is summoned: You can activate this effect; Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear Hound Dog" from your deck. (You can only use this effect of "Antique Gear Search Hound" once per turn). You can treat his card as "Antique Gear Hound Dog" for the Fusion Summon of an "Antique Gear" monster.

Antique Gear Rescue Hound / EARTH / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 2000 / If this card is summoned: You can activate this effect; Special Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your GY. (You can only use this effect of "Antique Gear Rescue Hound" once per turn). You can treat his card as "Antique Gear Hound Dog" for the Fusion Summon of an "Antique Gear" monster.

Obelisk Force's Extra Deck

Antique Gear Chaos Dreadnaught / DARK / Level 10 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ? / 3 "Antique Gear" monsters

Must be Fusion Summoned with an "Antique Gear Chaos" Spell/Trap Card and cannot be summoned other ways. This cards ATK and DEF are each equal to the combined Levels of the monsters used in this card's Fusion Summon X 300. Once per turn, you can destroy all Spell/Trap Cards one opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 600 damage to that opponent's LP for each card destroyed with this effect.

Obelisk Force's Spells

Fusion Screen / Spell / Continuous / If a player(s) LP would change by a card effect: That player can send 1 Fusion Monster from his/her Extra Deck to the GY; This turn, that player's LP cannot be changed by a card effect.

Antique Gear Chaos Research / Spell / Normal / Discard 1 card OR tribute 1 "Antique Gear" monster you control; Add 1 "Antique Gear Chaos" card from your deck or graveyard to your hand (Except "Antique Gear Chaos Research").

Antique Gear Chaos Factory / Spell / Continuous / During each of your Standby-Phases, discard 1 "Polymerization" or "Fusion" Spell/Trap Card (except "Diffusion Wave Motion") or destroy this card. Once per turn, you can Fusion Summon 1 "Antique Gear" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field, hand, or GY as Material.

Yuzu's monsters

Diminuendo the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 2 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 1600 / During the Battle Phase, if a monster declares an attack while you control no monsters or control a "Melodious" monster(s): You can Special Summon this card from your hand to negate the attack, end the Battle Phase, and increase the LP of all players by the original ATK of the monster whose attack was negated. Monsters on the field lose 500 ATK and DEF for each "Melodious" monster you control.

 **Thank you all once again for your continued support. I aim to complete the next chapter by February 24th, so stay tuned for the return of Yuzu and Rin as they continue to face new threats and come to grips with their growing powers. See you all then.**


	31. Part 1: Chapter 15 (Part 2)

**Welcome, welcome, welcome back everyone! Whoo! This has been a bit of a hiatus, but then again, what's new with SoR? This next chapter has been a doozy to write, and I have been quite busy…**

 **Donjusticia 4 months ago: *Sitting on the couch with a bag of chips in one hand, a bowl full of dip in the other, and an anime marathon on the television* I feel like I'm forgetting something…**

 **I mean, REALLY busy…**

 **Donjusticia 3 months ago: WHOOHOO! Rank 17 in Hearthstone! I am never setting this game down!**

 **I was working very, very hard.**

 **Donjusticia 2 months ago: *Riding on a roller coaster* Oh boy! Here comes the loop! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**

 **But I managed to finally power through and get this next chapter up for you.**

 **Donjusticia 2 days ago: *Crawling out from under a pile of empty chip bags and soda cans* Huh…I'm bored. Whelp, maybe I should start writing again. *Proceeds to rapidly type up, edit, and proofread the chapter in 2 hours flat.***

 **So, I hope you appreciate all the hard work I put into this. As always, it is a true delight for me to write for you, my dear readers. Thanks must also go to the likes of bladeWriter3, Shimmering-Sky, and Epsilon Tarantula for proofreading, and to all of you who submitted OCs that will be appearing in this chapter.**

 **This chapter is especially long and PACKED with new info, so, in order to spare your minds from an info and word overload, I have decided to split this into two pieces. The part following this chapter will be posted next week, so stay tuned for that. With that all said, please enjoy.**

 **Part 1: Chapter 15 – Mark of the Hero (Part 2)**

The red holographic avatar of Roger strolled through the carnage of the battlefield, noting the uniforms of the fallen and happily finding that the majority of casualties on his side came from the largely replaceable civilian volunteers.

Academia, on the other hand, could not claim the same.

"Eighty-Five Percent of all Academia forces in this sector have been eliminated." A white GHOST drone next to Roger reported. "The remaining forces are attempting to regroup and await the arrival of reinforcements."

"Tell the other GHOST units to scour the streets." Roger ordered the drone. "Eliminate them while they're scattered and proceed to eliminate the Earthbound disciples and Common mobs."

"Command confirmed." The drone acknowledged. "Your orders for this unit?"

"I believe our young Academia lieutenant has stayed behind with a few other soldiers to cover the retreat of the rest of their forces." Roger yawned. "You will accompany me so that we can crush them as quickly as possible. Are our other forces already engaging them?"

"Field data suggests that a single civilian volunteer recently began to engage the remaining Academia forces and their lieutenant." The drone confirmed.

"That volunteer has probably been eliminated by now." Roger sighed. "But I suppose it's better than losing more valuable resources. Have all other units hold back. This should be over shortly. Erm…Alpha 005, where are the Academia forces?"

He and the drone had rounded the street corner where the hapless Lieutenant Martell and his few remaining lackeys had gathered for a final stand. But where there had once been several Academia soldiers and their monsters, there now only remained a single red-haired civilian soldier, chip blinking against his forehead as he stared blankly at an empty field covered with ash and craters.

"Alpha 005, explain." Roger prompted. "Where did the Academia forces retreat to?"

"Accessing security camera data." Alpha 005 droned, silver eyes flickering with light. "Footage shows that all Academia forces here were defeated."

"By whom?" Roger asked, "Surely not this one?"

"Records confirm that this individual defeated Lietenant Martell and all Academia soldiers who were accompanying him." Alpha 005 replied.

"And what happened then?" Roger asked, looking around at the empty field. "Did the Academia soldiers retreat back to Fusion?"

"Negative, Chief." Alpha replied, "Records show that they were destroyed by the civilian's monsters. Investigating. Local scanners show that there were spikes in psionic energy emanating from the civilian duelist, similar to the energy used to fuel the systems of the GHOST units. Most likely, this civilian soldier is a psychic duelist."

Roger regarded the civilian standing before him, stroking his chin in thought as he did.

"I've seen this one before. Bring up his records!" he ordered the GHOST drone.

"Accessing records." Alpha 005 droned. "Subject: Sayer Prieur. Tagged as: Former leader of Neo Arcadia Movement. Terrorist. Former Public Enemy #1. Lead an immense cult of loyal Psychics under the pseudonym 'Divine' after his father, Magnus Prieur, was defeated by an unknown duelist. Deposed as leader by another unknown duelist before disappearing. Reappeared approximately three years ago completely delusional and was admitted to a mental institution."

"Delusional? How do you mean?" Roger asked, curious.

"The subject reported that he had been killed by an Earthbound God and been imprisoned within the Underworld before being returned to the physical world through some arcane means involving his father, Magnus Prieur." The drone reported.

"So, he had contact with the Earthbound…" Roger mused, "…just like Sergey did…a psychic too…how did he end up here? What happened to him after he was admitted to the mental institution?"

"Subject, Sayer Prieur, was able to use his remaining allies and influence to secure a position as a participant in the Friendship Cup." The drone replied, "He defeated all other contestants and eventually faced off against Jack Atlas in the final round. Was defeated by Jack Atlas and sentenced to life labor in the Underground. Was heavily medicated to suppress psychic abilities and labored in the Underground before being conscripted as part of the directives provided by Directive Alekhine's Gun."

"And proceeded to defeat an entire Academia squadron by himself." Roger concluded, looking more and more interested. An idea began to form in his head when Alpha 005 suddenly interrupted him.

"Chief, units dispatched to Madame Kimura's Orphanage have encountered resistance." The drone reported.

"Then have our forces there suppress it." Roger growled, annoyed that he had been interrupted. "I want those hostages in my hands so I have a bargaining chip to deal with the Dark Signers."

"Chief, the resistance is coming from two Dark Signers." The drone replied.

Roger's eyes widened with shock. Briefly, a look of immense horror flashed across his holographic face before a new idea suddenly came to him.

"How long can our forces there hold?" he quickly asked.

"This unit calculates that the current force will not last longer than five minutes against the Dark Singer's combined power." The drone replied. "Sending in additional local Security forces as back-up may delay the Dark Signers for an additional fifteen minutes."

"More than enough time." Roger grinned before looking at his psychic soldier. "Outfit Sayer, no, let's call him Divine. Yes, it would seem the gods have given me a gift just when I needed it." He mused, looking very pleased with himself.

"Outfit Divine with equipment to enhance his psychic abilities, similar to what was given to Sergey, and make sure any remnants of the suppressant drug is thoroughly cleansed from his system. Order all Security forces in the local sectors to converge on Kimura's orphanage and await my orders. I want Sayer dispatched to the orphanage within the next ten minutes!"

"Command confirmed." Alpha 005 replied, riding forward before picking up Sayer and putting him on the back of his bike.

"Sergey and now Divine." Roger mused as he watched Alpha 005 and Sayer drive away on the drone's bike. "It's nice to feel like I have some good pieces again."

…

Since arriving in the Synchro Dimension with Yugo, Yuzu had heard plenty about the supposed brutality of Security. Since then, she had experienced several unfavorable encounters with the organization that was supposed to maintain peace in the city. All of those encounters had increased her dislike of their methods. But none of what she had seen Security do could compare to this.

The orphanage had been burnt to the ground, black smoke billowing into the sky from the smoldering stone, wood, and plaster. Security had gathered around the survivors, but unlike any conventional police force tasked with protecting civilians, these officers were man-handling the survivors, most of whom were not even teenagers, and preparing to haul them away in their large transport vehicles, the same vehicles they had used to nearly capture Yuzu. Despite being undead, looking at those vehicles caused Yuzu to feel as if her old electrical wounds had flared up again, causing her blood to boil.

But the anger and resentment she was feeling must have been nothing compared to what Rin was experiencing.

"You…horrible… _MONSTERS_!" She bellowed, voice becoming mixed with the voice of her Earthbound God before she stretched out her hand and launched blasts of black lightning into the Security vehicles, blasting out the glass of both and causing one to explode when its fuel ignited. In response, the security forces formed up into two groups of four, duel disks bared as they prepared for battle.

 _"_ _Cowards! All of you!"_ Yene bellowed through Rin, causing her eyes and marks to light up as her body crackled with more black electricity. _"Striking out against those who aren't even worthy to be considered warriors!? Unforgivable! You scum are hardly worth even being swallowed!"_

It was frightening to see Rin as she was, but given all that Security had been doing, Yuzu could not object to her counterpart's rage. Still, it would be better to resolve the conflict honorably, rather than blast them with lightning like Rin and Yene seemed to want to.

"I'll take the four on the right, if you take the four on the left." Yuzu whispered in Rin's ear, causing her counterpart to turn her head and look at her before nodding.

"Alright." Rin replied. "Let's teach these punks some manners!"

Nodding her head, Yuzu leaped off the back of Rin's bike before landing in front of the four Arrest Corps officers on the right, holographic flower petal blades of her duel disk blooming to life as the device activated. Meanwhile, Rin charged towards the four officers on the left, driving them away from the inhabitants of the orphanage before activating the duel disk on her bike.

"DUEL!" Rin and Yuzu declared in unison, each facing off against their separate opponents.

"No Action Field this time." Yuzu whispered to her duel disk. "I want this duel to be short."

"Funny." the child-like feminine voice of her disk responded. "And I thought you Standard duelists always went for the Action Fields. How else could you play your precious Action Cards?"

"Sara?" Yuzu exclaimed, realizing that the voice was the exact same voice of her Earthbound God. "You're inside my disk?"

"Technically, it's my disk, and I think I've already told you that I live inside you now." The voice sighed.

"Then how are you-…?" Yuzu began before the spirit interrupted her.

"I can project my voice through my creations." Ti'ika Sara explained. "Much like how you could project your own voice through your Earthbound Disciples…if you had any."

"I see." Yuzu sighed, before drawing her opening hand and declaring, "Atashi no turn!"

Quickly looking through her hand, she nodded after deciding on her opening move.

"First, I activate the Field Magic Card, Divine Melodious Stage!" Yuzu declared, placing her field spell card on the top-most petal of her duel disk, "While this card is on the field, once per turn, if I Special Summon a Melodious monster, I can add one Melodious monster from my deck to my hand. Furthermore, my Field Spell Card cannot be destroyed while I control a Special Summoned monster, and I gain five-hundred life points during each of my End Phases for each Melodious Monster I control.

Materializing over the field, an immense opera stage filled with tiny fairy musicians bloomed into existence, gold dust falling from the bright crystal ceiling like snow as the Arrest Corps officers shielded their eyes against the immense light.

"Magic card, Ostinato!" Yuzu continued, activating a card depicting Bloom Diva wreathed in a mobius-shaped swirl of musical notes. "Since I control no monsters, I fuse Tam Tam the Melodious Diva and Mozarta the Melodious Maestra in my deck together for a fusion summon!"

The four officers recoiled in surprise as the spectral images of Mozarta and Tam Tam rose into the air, directly from Yuzu's deck before swirling together into a fusion portal as Yuzu began her summoning chant.

"Echoes of the soul! Supreme Genius! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Yuugo Shoukan! Now come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir!"

Unfurling the petals of her flower as she came into bloom, Yuzu's faithful Fusion Monster appeared to the field, light radiating from her tiny frame as she let out a sustained operatic note.

 **Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir / LIGHT / Level 6 / Fairy / Fusion / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 2000**

"Tam Tam's effect!" Yuzu declared as her Fusion monster glowed with light. "If Tam Tam was sent to the graveyard as a material for a Fusion Summon, I can reduce the ATK of Bloom Diva by five-hundred in order to inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points! Go! Resonating Shout!"

Letting out a high-pitched note, Bloom Diva's voice blew against the five officers, who staggered backwards before regaining their footing.

 **Officer 1: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

 **Officer 2: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

 **Officer 3: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

 **Officer 4: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

 **Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir: 500 ATK**

"Furthermore," Yuzu continued, as her stage lit up with light "the effect of my Field Spell Card activates. Using its effect, I add Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress from my deck to my hand!"

One of the many curtains on the stage folded away, revealing a glimmering card behind its façade. Holding out her hand, Yuzu caught the card as it flew towards her before continuing with her turn.

"I next Normal Summon Canon the Melodious Diva before Special Summoning Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress with her own effect." Yuzu continued, as two blue portals opened up above her head before canon emerged first, musical notes revolving around her like the rings of a planet, and the shy Mezzo-Soprano followed, sixteenth-note wings unfurling before she landed on the ground next to Canon and brushed her long black hair from her face, glasses glimmering with light as she smiled at the audience.

 **Canon the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 2000**

 **Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 1000**

"Mezzo-Soprano's effect!" Yuzu declared, "I declare the Level of seven to change the Levels of all Melodious Monsters I control by the declared Level! Go! Harmonizing Melody!"

Bowing her head, Mezzo-Soprano let out a mild middle-ranged note, musical notes flying from her mouth before swirling around Yuzu's monsters as their levels changed.

 **Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress: Level 7**

 **Canon the Melodious Diva: Level 7**

 **Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir: Level 7**

"And now for the real fun to begin!" Yuzu declared. "Using my Level seven Canon and my Level seven Mezo-Soprano as material, I overlay my two monsters in order to Xyz Summon!"

Grasping hands like old friends, Mezzo-Soprano and Canon smiled at each other before they both leaped into the Xyz Portal, transforming into two streams of gold light as Yuzu began her summoning chant.

"Serene angel flying through the music-filled air with a song of delight in your heart, spread your elegant wings now and touch the mind and heart of all who gaze upon you with your divine inspiration! Xyz Shoukan! Take your place on the stage now! Rank seven! Wing Diva the Melodious Choir!"

In a storm of feathers, Yuzu's Xyz Monster unfurled her black-and-white wings as she twirled through the air, gems in her hair net and dress glimmering in the light of the stage as she sang a beautiful aria.

 **Wing Diva the Melodious Choir / LIGHT / Rank 7 / Fairy / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000 / Overlay Units: 2**

"Wing Diva's effect!" Yuzu declared, "I detach the Overlay Unit, Canon the Melodious Diva in order to Special Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra from my graveyard!"

Spreading out her wings, Wing Diva opened up a portal in the sky through which Mozarta descended to the field in a pillar of light.

 **Mozarta the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 8 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 2000**

"Wing Diva's effect!" Yuzu declared, as her monster began singing a sustained note, slowly forming a sphere of musical notes just in front of her mouth. "Each time I Special Summon a Melodious monster, I can inflict five-hundred damage to my opponent's Life Points! Go! Elegant Surge!"

Voice rising in volume, Wing Diva flapped her wings, sending the sphere of musical notes flying forward before it exploded on the ground in front of the Arrest Corps, sending the officers reeling backwards.

 **Officer 1: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

 **Officer 2: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

 **Officer 3: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

 **Officer 4: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

"Mozarta's effect!" Yuzu declared before the officers could recover. "I Special Summon Shopina the Melodious Maestra from my hand!"

Through another portal, Yuzu's second main-deck maestra appeared to the field, pirouetting before curtseying to the officers.

 **Shopina the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 7 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 1700**

"With a second Special Summon, Wing Diva's effect activates again!" Yuzu proclaimed as her Xyz Monster charged up another attack, "Elegant Surge!"

Roaring with frustration, the four officers lost their footing as a second sphere of sound blasted them backwards onto their backs.

 **Officer 1: 3000 – 500 = 2500 LP**

 **Officer 2: 3000 – 500 = 2500 LP**

 **Officer 3: 3000 – 500 = 2500 LP**

 **Officer 4: 3000 – 500 = 2500 LP**

"Shopina's effect!" Yuzu continued, not losing a bit of momentum. "I target the Canon the Melodious Diva in my Graveyard in order to add it to my hand. And now," she continued, adding the card to her hand, "I will activate Canon's effect! Since I control a Melodious monster, I can Special Summon Canon to my field in defense position!"

 **Canon the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 2000**

"Wing Diva's effect!" Yuzu declared, "Elegant Surge!"

 **Officer 1: 2500 – 500 = 2000 LP**

 **Officer 2: 2500 – 500 = 2000 LP**

 **Officer 3: 2500 – 500 = 2000 LP**

 **Officer 4: 2500 – 500 = 2000 LP**

"Setting a card face-down. Turn end." Yuzu finished, throwing down a face-down as the Officer's recovered. "And because it's my End-Phase now, the effect of Divine Melodious Stage activates, increasing my Life Points by five-hundred for each Melodious Monster I control."

 **Yuzu: 4000 + (500 X 5) = 6500 LP**

"That's an impressive set-up." Rin called from the other side of the field. "Ruri told me you've pretty much mastered Fusion and Xyz Summoning. Why don't I show you how to Synchro Summon? Watch closely! My turn," she declared, eyes glowing a bright yellow, "DRAW!"

Revving up the engines of her bike, she raced past the standing officers before slamming two cards onto her bike's disk.

"Quick-Play Magic Card activate!" she declared, "Synthphonist Reverberation! By sending one Synthphonist monster from my deck to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon one Synthphonist Monster from my hand! Furthermore, I chain a second copy of Synthphonist Reverberation to the activation of the first Reverberation in order to do this twice! Chain link two! I send Synthphonist flutist from my deck to the Graveyard in order to Special Summon Synthphonist Clarinetist from my hand!"

Through a rippling of sound waves, which opened up a portal next to Rin's bike, her first monster, a blue haired female cyborg wearing a black tuxedo appeared to her field, twirling through the air before smiling and brushing back one of her bangs to reveal that the left half of her face was robotic, a red robotic eye glowing with light.

 **Synthphonist Clarinetist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400**

"Chain Link one!" Rin continued, turning around her bike and racing past the officers once again. "I send Synthphonist Violinist from my deck to my graveyard in order to Special Summon Synthphonist Violist from my hand!"

Back flipping onto the field with a happy giggle, a petit cyborg woman, who looked like she could be Synthphonist Violinist's sister, appeared to the field. Like Violinist, she had long curly black hair and wore a feathered tri-cornered hat, though her feathers were smaller and fluffier. None of her eyes were prosthetic, but a blue chip that looked like a beauty mark blinked just below her left eye. Her left leg and left arm were prosthetic, a cute flower ribbon tied to her peg-leg for a bit of decoration.

 **Synthphonist Violist / WIND / Level 2 / Psychic / Gemini / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 1100**

"Now pay attention, Yuzu!" she called, "This is the real deal! Unlike most extra deck monsters, Synchro Monsters require the total levels of their materials to exactly equal their own levels! Furthermore, most Synchro Monsters require at least one Tuner and one or more non-tuners! However, my Synchro Monsters are an exception, since they can be summoned with multiple Tuners, like so! I tune my Level two Synthphonist Violist with my Synthphonist Clarinetist!"

Barely managing to process Rin's rapid dueling, Yuzu watched from her own duel field as Rin's Synthphonist Violist and Synthphonist Clarinetist morphed into a set of six translucent green rings before converging together and spinning around like coins to create a single sphere of swirling green rings.

"Energetic dance of the viola and noble resonance of the clarinet become one! Blend your rich music together, tune to each other's pitches, and unleash a new melody! Synchro Shoukan! Level six! Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!"

In an explosion of sound, the rotating synchro rings burst into a pillar of light before an elegant cyborg woman in a winter white dress with numerous instruments sticking out like cannons, pirouetted onto the field next to Rin's bike, robotic eyes glowing with green light.

 **Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy / WIND / Level 6 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2400**

"I shuffle Synthphonist Reverberation from my graveyard into the deck in order to activate its second effect and shuffle my second Reverberation into my deck in order to chain its effect to the first effect!" Rin continued, she and her Synchro Monster racing around the duel field in a circle, bike kicking up dust as the Officers struggled to keep track of her position. "Chain Link two! Using the effect of Synthphonist Reverberation, I Special Summon Synthphonist Violinist from my graveyard!"

Rising up from a black portal, Rin's Cyborg Violinist tipped her large tri-cornered hat towards the officers before dashing next to Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy's side.

 **Synthphonist Violinist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1000**

"Chain link one!" Rin continued as another black portal appeared next to her bike. "I summon Synthphonist Clarinetist from my graveyard!"

 **Synthphonist Clarinetist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400**

"Time to embrace your true power!" Rin declared. "I Normal Summon Synthphonist Clarinetist in order to unlock its gemini effect! Synthphonist Awakening!"

Crackling with electricity, the hair on Clarinetist's head stood on end before her suit transformed into spikey battle armor, and her prosthetic arm morphed into a combination clarinet and canon.

"Finally," Rin continued, "I activate the effect of Synthphonist Prodigy! Once per turn, I can Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster in addition to my regular Normal Summon or Set! Using this effect, I Normal Summon Synthphonist Violinist! Synthphonist Awakening!"

Laughing, Synthphonist Violinist began crackling with electricity before detaching a metal violin bow from her prosthetic leg as her left arm morphed into a combination sword and violin.

"That's all for now, since I can't attack you yet." Rin finished. "Show me your worst! Turn end!"

Yuzu turned her attention back to her own duel, just as her opponents began making their moves, or at least, their predictable routines she had practically memorized by now.

"Magic card, Fusion!" the first officer declared, activating the card Roger had used to augment their arsenal. "I fuse two Goyo Regent in my hand together in order to Fusion Summon Goyo Emperor! Come forth!"

 **Goyo Emperor / EARTH / Level 10 / Warrior / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 2500**

"Next," the officer continued, "Since I control a Goyo monster, I Special Summon Goyo Regent from my hand before Normal Summoning Tsukubo Defender!"

Next to the familiar Goyo Regent, a squat portly soldier wielding a long wooden pole with a spiked T-shaped end appeared to the field before posing next to Goyo Regent.

 **Tsukubo Defender / EARTH / Level 2 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 200 / DEF 2000**

"Haven't seen that one before." Yuzu admitted, bracing herself against their next move.

"Using my Level two Tsukubo Defender and my Level six Goyo Regent, which is treated as a Synchro Monster, as Material, I synchro summon Goyo King! Come forth!"

 **Goyo King / EARTH / Level 8 / Warrior / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2000**

"Tsukubo Defender's effect!" the officer continued, "If it is used as a Synchro Material, I gain Life Points equal to half the Synchro Monster's ATK or DEF, whichever is higher.

 **Officer 1: 2000 + (2800 / 2) = 3400 LP**

"Building up their field and recovering their life points." Yuzu grimaced, thinking to herself. "Not exactly what I was hoping they'd manage to do, but fortunately, I shouldn't have to worry about too much damage from them."

"Equip Magic Card, Goyo Manriki!" the officer continued, activating a Spell Card that depicted Goyo Guardian ensnaring a monster with a weighted chain. "Since I control a Goyo monster on my field, I equip this card to Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir!"

From the spell card, a set of weighted chains shot out before wrapping around Yuzu's monster, causing the diminutive fairy to cry out in pain as its arms and legs were securely fastened in place.

"My monster!" Yuzu cried out.

"While Goyo Manriki is in play," the officer explained, "The equipped monster cannot attack and has its effects negated. Furthermore, the controller of the equipped monster takes five-hundred damage during each End-Phase."

"Five-hundred damage, during _each_ End-Phase!?" Yuzu exclaimed, realizing what was about to happen.

"Turn end." The officer proclaimed, causing the chains to glow with energy before a similar glow enveloped Yuzu, depleting her energy.

 **Yuzu: 6500 – 500 = 6000 LP**

"My turn!" the next officer declared, wasting no time. "I repeat my partner's previous turn! Summoning Goyo Emperor and Goyo King before replenishing my own life points and equipping Wing Diva the Melodious Choir with Goyo Manriki! Turn end!"

 **Officer 2: 2000 + (2800 / 2) = 3400 LP**

 **Yuzu: 6000 – (500 X 2) = 5000 LP**

"Erg!" Yuzu groaned after recovering from the second energy drain, which had doubled in intensity from the first turn.

"My turn!" the third officer declared before proceeding to repeat the previous two turns. "I equip Mozarta the Melodious Maestra with Goyo Manriki! Turn end!"

"Argh!" Yuzu growled in pain as an actual set of chains sprang out from the spell cards, binding her limbs along with more than half of her monsters.

 **Officer 3: 2000 + (2800 / 2) = 3400 LP**

 **Yuzu: 5000 – (500 X 3) = 3500 LP**

"My turn!" the final officer declared, repeating the last three turns a final time before ending with, "Equipping Goyo Manriki to Shopina the Melodious Maestra! Turn end!"

 **Officer 4: 2000 + (2800 / 2) = 3400 LP**

 **Yuzu: 3500 – (500 X 4) = 1500 LP**

 _"_ _You seem to have quite a lot of bad luck when it comes to chains."_ Ti'ika Sara mused from within her. _"Not that I don't know the feeling of being bound myself. It's quite an awful feeling, isn't it? Want some help, or do you plan on letting Rin save you again?"_

"No need." Yuzu replied. "I've already prepared for this! Atashi no turn!" she declared, drawing a card from the top of her deck.

Without even looking at the card, she proceeded with her turn.

"I activate my face-down card, Melodious Illusion!" Yuzu declared, activating the card she had set during her first turn. "Targeting my Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir, I make it so that she is unaffected by the effects of my opponent's Magic and Trap Cards until the end of this turn while making it so that it can attack up to twice per battle-phase!"

Glowing with light, Bloom Diva suddenly appeared to split into a spectrum of two differently colored Bloom Diva's, which phased through the chains like beams of light before Yuzu stretched out her own hand through the chains towards her monsters.

"Battle!" Yuzu declared, as the Officers backed away in shock, "Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir, attack Goyo Emperor! Reflect Shout!"

Flying forward, the first Bloom Diva sang a high-pitched note into the first Goyo Emperor, blasting it into dust before knocking back all four officers.

 **Arrest Corps Officers: 3400 – 2300 = 1100 LP**

"The second attack!" Yuzu declared. "Bloom Diva, attack a second Goyo Emperor! Reflect Shout!"

Nodding her head, the second Bloom Diva flew forward before proceeding to obliterate the second Goyo Emperor with her effect. Screaming with surprise, the four officers were flipped into the air before all of them landed a few yards away in a heap.

 **Arrest Corps Offices: 1100 – 2300 = 0 LOSE!**

 **Yuzu Win!**

"Nice!" Rin complimented from the other side of the battlefield, giving Yuzu a thumbs up.

Quickly glancing over to the other side, Yuzu checked to see how Rin was doing, expecting to see her struggling against the Arrest Corp's combos like she had. However, contrary to what she had expected, Rin's monsters seemed to be keeping the officer's well under control. She hadn't even taken any damage.

 **Current state of duel**

 **Rin:**

 **4000 LP**

 **1 card in her hand**

 **Controls: Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy, Synthphonist Violinsit, and Synthphonist Clarinetist**

 **Synthphonist Clarinetist / WIND / Level 1 (reduced by 3 due to repeated use of its own effect) / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400**

 **Synthphonist Violinist / WIND / Level 1 (reduced by 3 due to repeated use of its own effect) / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1000**

 **Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy / WIND / Level 6 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2400**

 **Officer 1:**

 **4000 LP**

 **0 cards in the hand**

 **Controls: Goyo Emperor, Goyo Regent, and a Tsukubo Defender set face-down with the effect of Synthphonist Clarinetist**

 **Goyo Emperor / EARTH / Level 10 / Warrior / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 2500**

 **Goyo Regent / EARTH / Level 6 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1600 / Defense Position**

 **Tsukubo Defender / EARTH / Level 2 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 200 / DEF 2000 / Face-down defense position.**

 **Officer 2 and 3:**

 **Mirror of Officer 1**

 **Officer 4:**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in hand**

 **No cards on field**

"My turn!" the final Arrest Corps officer declared, drawing a card from the top of his deck.

"Ever play the point game?" Rin asked Yuzu, completely ignoring the officer.

"I don't think I'm familiar with it." Yuzu admitted, not sure if she should offer to help Rin out.

"It's a little something I learned from my time in Academia." Rin smirked, a knowing expression on her face. "Basically, every time the opponent does something completely predictable, you give them some points!"

"Sounds obnoxious." Yuzu admitted.

"You have no idea." Rin replied before turning her attention back to her opponents. "So, what'll it be? Same turn as the last three?"

"Magic Card, Fusion." The officer replied, Fusing two copies of Goyo Regent in his hand together to summon Goyo Emperor.

 **Goyo Emperor / EARTH / Level 10 / Warrior / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 2500**

"Five points for using the exact same Fusion monster as the other three officers." Rin smirked. "Now are you going to try summoning Goyo Regent and Tsukubo defender before attempting to summon Goyo King?"

The officer made no reply as he Special Summoned Goyo Regent before Normal Summoning Tsukubo Defender.

 **Goyo Regent / EARTH / Level 6 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1600 / Defense Position**

 **Tsukubo Defender / EARTH / Level 2 / Warrior / Tuner / Effect / ATK 200 / DEF 2000 /**

"And five more points! You guys are on a roll!" Rin sarcastically congratulated. "I'm especially impressed that you've fallen prey to the exact same counter I used for all your other teammates! Synthphonist Clarinetist's effect! I target Tsukubo Defender in order to change it to face-down defense position!"

Smirking, Synthphonist Clarinetist aimed its cannon at Tsukubo Defender before firing a blast of soundwaves at the monster. The squatty soldier attempted to brace himself against the blast, but was ultimately knocked off his feet before morphing into a face-down card.

 **Tsukubo Defender / Face-down defense position**

"Naturally, since your tuner is now face-down, you cannot Synchro Summon anything." Rin lazily explained with a yawn. "Also, since Synthphonist Clarinetist's Level is already at one, I don't think I'll use its effect to reduce its level. Now are you going to try activating Goyo Manriki, just so that my Synthphonist Violinist can negate it?"

The officer clenched his fist.

"Turn end." He grunted, keeping a single card in his hand.

"And five-hundred points for a teensy bit of originality!" Rin growled, deliberately passing by the officers so close with her bike that she kicked up dirt into their faces. "My turn, draw!"

Ripping a card from the top of her deck, Rin began her turn.

 _"_ _Not that I think these fools are worthy of it,"_ Yene mused through Rin after she had glanced through the cards in her hand, _"but it would be quite a shame if our new Dark Signer friend didn't get to witness at least a taste of our true power, don't you think?"_

"I was thinking the exact same thing." Rin agreed before turning to Yuzu. "Watch closely, Yuzu! Last turn, I showed you a Synchro Summon, this turn, I'm going to show you how to Dark Synchro Summon! Magic Card activate! Synthphonist Revision! When this card is activated, I can send one Synthphonist Magic or Trap Card from my deck to the graveyard! Using this effect, I send Synthphonist Harmony from my deck to the graveyard."

Depositing a card into her graveyard, Rin proceeded to send Synthphonist Revision to her graveyard before immediately removing the copy of Synthphonist Harmony she had just sent to the graveyard.

"I shuffle the Synthphonist Harmony I sent to the graveyard into my deck in order to activate its second effect!" Rin declared, "Using its second effect, I add Synthphonist Violist from my graveyard to my hand before normal summoning it! Come forth!"

Front flipping through a blue portal, Rin's petit tri-corn wearing cyborg girl appeared to her field, twirling around once on her peg-leg before coyly curtsying to the officers with a playful wink.

 **Synthphonist Violist / WIND / Level 2 / Psychic / Gemini / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 1100**

"Synthphonist Prodigy's effect!" Rin declared, "Since my Violist was already Normal Summoned this turn, I use Prodigy's effect to Normal Summon her once again! Synthphonist Awakening!"

Rocketing into the air with a burst of electricity, Synthphonist Violist laughed with glee as her robotic limbs began morphing before her left arm transformed into a combination broadsword and viola, slightly larger than Synthphonist Violinist's own weapon, and a large metallic viola bow popped out from her leg. Landing on the ground, she cupped her viola arm/broadsword to her chin before grinning and setting her bow to the ready position.

"Synthphonist Violist's effect!" Rin declared, "Up to thrice per turn, I can target one Synthphonist monster I control in order to increase or decrease its Level by one! I activate the effect three times, targeting Synthphonist Prodigy in order to increase her Level by three! Go! Synthphonist Retuning!"

Rapidly sawing at her prosthetic limb instrument, Violist began playing an energetic melody, sending waves of sound into Synthphonist Prodigy, which caused the cyborg woman to glow with green light before its level increased by three.

 **Synthphonist Prodigy: Level 6 + 3 = 9**

"Synthphonist Revision's effect!" Rin declared as she snatched her Spell Card back from the graveyard, "I shuffle it into the deck in order to send my Synthphonist Violist to the graveyard while gaining the ability to conduct an additional normal summon this turn!"

Bowing, Synthphonist Violist slowly sank into a black portal in the ground before Rin revealed a card in her hand.

"Come forth!" Rin declared, as a pool of dark water burst out of the dry ground around her "The Dark Tuner Monster! Dark Tuner Shadow Depths!"

Leaping out of the black water, a creature that looked like the abstract representation of an anglerfish rose into the air before swimming alongside Rin through the air, immense fangs snapping at invisible prey.

 **Dark Tuner Shadow Depths / WATER / Level 2 / Fish / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Dark Tuner Shadow Depth's effect!" Rin declared, raising her arm into the air, "I target my Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy in order to increase my Shadow Depth's Level by the Level of Prodigy!"

 **Dark Tuner Shadow Depths: Level 2 + 9 = 11**

"The time has come!" Rin and Yene declared in unison as their eyes, whale mark on their arm, and lightning bolt marks over their eyes began glowing with energy, "We dark tune our Level Eleven Dark Tuner Shadow Depths with our Level one Synthphonist Clarinetist and Level one Synthphonist Violinist in order to Dark Synchro Summon!"

Off to the side, Yuzu watched as Rin's Shadow Depths exploded into a cluster of eleven white stars, which phased through the bodies of Synthphonist Clarinetist and Violinist before mingling with the single spheres of light within those monster's bodies. Recalling her first experience witnessing a Dark Xyz Summon, Yuzu couldn't help but notice the expressions of pain on Clarinetist and Violinist's faces.

 _"_ _While Synchro Monsters add the powers of their Synchro Materials together to forge a song harmonious to their own power,"_ Rin and Yene chanted in unison, _"the Dark Synchro Monsters are called forth when the powers of its materials are subtracted from one another to delve into the curtained depths and uncover negative energy! Witness its power now!"_

Staring transfixed at the monsters, Yuzu watched as the spheres of light within the monsters began merging together until only nine stars remained, which immediately began to darken before exploding out from the monsters and proceeding to orbit an area of empty space, crackling with black energy as they did. Raising her hands into the air, Rin began chanting as rivers of black water poured out from the ground around Rin, slowly flooding the field.

"From the depths of the abyss, no light can break free! Rise up from the shadowy depths to spread your shadow to the surface world! DARK SYNCHRO! Rise up! Level negative nine! Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie!"

With the conclusion of her chant, a pillar of darkness erupted from the center of the space where the black stars were orbiting, rising into the air and burrowing down into the depths of the growing pool of water before vanishing as something immense moved just beneath the pool's surface. With a sudden roar, Rin's Dark Synchro Monster Burst free from the water on a shimmering chariot, steeds winnowing with demonic fury as their mermaid-like rider brandished her whip through the air. Recognizing the monster from Rin's duel against the Security officers and Phoenix Guard, Yuzu backed away, knowing the immense damage the monster could cause.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie / WATER / Level -9 / Sea Serpent / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 3000**

"Geo Kelpie's effect!" Rin proclaimed, "Since she was summoned using three monsters as material, I can Special Summon one Level negative six or higher monster from my Extra Deck or graveyard! I use this effect now to Special Summon the Level negative six monster, Earhtbound Disciple Geo Selkie, from my Extra Deck! Come forth!"

Rising up from the water, Rin's polar bear-skin wearing monster with a leopard seal tail swam up alongside Geo Kelpie. Narrowing her eyes at the officers, she lowered her whale-bone spear into the water, causing the water around the officer's legs to freeze them in place.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie / WATER / Level -6 / Aqua / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2500**

"You're all probably thinking that you're going to survive this turn." Rin growled. "After all, Goyo Emperor has more ATK than any of my monsters, and your other monsters are in defense position. How about I prove you wrong?"

Extending her hand towards the pool of black water, Rin continued her turn, ignoring the officer's protests as they tried to break free from their icy restraints.

"Dark Tuner Shadow Depth's effect!" Rin declared, "I banish it, Synthphonist Clarinetist, Violist, Violinist, and Flutist from my graveyard in order to target my Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie and enable it to attack once for each Tuner banished with this effect!"

Rising up from the water, the ghostly forms of the monsters Rin had banished flew towards Geo Kelpie before entering into the mer-woman's chest, causing the monster to glow with energy.

"Battle!" Rin roared, rage evident on her face, "While Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie is on my field, monsters I control inflict piercing damage! Between that and the multiple attacks my Kelpie and Prodigy are capable of, I can destroy you all many times over, but I'll be merciful! Earthbound Disciple Geo Kelpie, attack and destroy Officer one's defense position Goyo Regent! Torrential Stampede!"

Lashing at the beasts pulling her chariot, Geo Kelpie bulldozed her way through the first officer's monster, obliterating Goyo Regent and knocking all four officers back.

 **Officer 1: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

"Geo Kelpie's effect!" Rin roared, "Each time my opponents take battle damage, I can inflict effect damage to my opponent's Life Points, equal to the damage they took!"

Cackling with madness, Rin's monster lashed out with her whip, smacking the officer's across their backs before turning her chariot around for another pass.

 **Officer 1: 3000 – 1000 = 2000 LP**

 **Officer 2: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

 **Officer 3: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

 **Officer 4: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 LP**

"The second attack!" Rin roared, "Earthbound Disciple Geo Keplie, attack the second Goyo Regent! Torrential Stampede!"

Running over another Goyo Regent, Geo Kelpie sent the officers flying through the air, causing their ice prison to shatter to pieces as they splashed into the pool of water.

 **Officer 2: 3000 – 1000 = 2000 LP**

"Geo Kelpie's effect!" Rin roared as her monster sent another lash of her whip to strike against the backs of the officers.

 **Officer 1: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 LP**

 **Officer 2: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 LP**

 **Officer 3: 3000 – 1000 = 2000 LP**

 **Officer 4: 3000 – 1000 = 2000 LP**

"The third attack!" Rin roared in unison with her own monster as it ran over another Goyo Regent.

 **Officer 3: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 LP**

"You shouldn't have attacked my family." Rin growled as her monster activated its effect.

 **Officer 1: 1000 – 1000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Officer 2: 1000 – 1000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Officer 3: 1000 – 1000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Officer 4: 2000 – 1000 = 1000**

"Never come here again!" Rin roared as her monster charged into the last Goyo Regent before using her whip to send all four officers flying backwards.

 **Officer 4: 1000 – 1000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Rin Wins!**

Nodding with satisfaction, Rin shut off her duel disk before dismounting from her bike and joining Yuzu as they approached miss Kimura and her group of huddled orphans.

…

On the roof of a nearby building, a pair of Academia agents reclined in a set of lawn chairs, watching the duels with amused smiles on their faces while an antique phonograph played some gentle opera music in the background.

"It would certainly seem that Rin's Id has grown very strong in the past few days." Frederich mused as he poured himself a steaming cup of tea from a china kettle decorated with purple waves and fish. "I would estimate that her dueling proficiency has increased by a factor of about 358% at least as a result. Based on the, admittedly limited, data we collected from Sora's memories, I'd have to say that Yuzu's dueling proficiency has gone up by an even more dramatic margin, suggesting that she is a full-fledged Dark Signer and not merely another disciple. Could Ruri and Rin be focusing on converting their counterparts? What are your thoughts, Daichi?"

"Rin has always been motivated to act as your stereotypical back-alley tough girl." Daichi replied, pouring himself a glass of water from a clear pitcher next to the tea kettle. "Her need to achieve base survival in the environment of the Common's district, coupled with the positive reinforcement of self-fulfillment she receives whenever she comes closer to achieving her ambition of becoming a great duelist have worked together to establish a consistent pattern of aggressive dueling. When I first saw the tapes of her destroying the Academia soldiers, I was not so intrigued that she had lashed out against these Security Officers as I was when she apparently held back in this duel, choosing to merely incapacitate her enemies rather than kill them."

"No doubt she is much more hesitant to kill her own people than six foreigners who abducted her." Friedrich idly replied.

"You do not understand the Synchro Commons as I do." Daichi sighed. "To them, Security represents as great a threat as any of Academia's soldiers. They face the conundrum of daily facing the exact same tyranny and oppression, regardless of who their oppressors are. The fact that Rin chose to hold back here, when in both the Academia duel and this duel, friends she cared about were threatened and the enemy was largely the same, suggests to me that there is another factor in play here, motivating her to resist her urges to kill. Regrettable that I have so little information on Yuzu to work with."

"Are you suggesting that Yuzu is that factor? I sort of, good influence?" Friedrich smirked.

"Such would certainly be a possibility." Daichi shrugged. "Though I think the issue is slightly more complicated than that. No. Comparing the data from this duel to the data from her Academia duel, I am lead to hypothesize that the Rin we saw dueling in Academia was in an altered state of mind, compared to what we are seeing now, or, to put in more colloquial terms, she was almost a completely different person during the Academia duel."

"Careful, Daichi." Friedrich smirked. "It is almost like you are suggesting possession is taking place within these Dark Signers."

"Admittedly, I have witnessed far stranger things." Daichi shrugged, taking a sip of water before recording some notes in one of his many note-pads. "At any rate, I believe it would be wise for the two of us to collect more field data."

"On that, we can agree." Friedrich grunted, taking a sip of tea before reclining in his chair and idly waggling his finger as if he were conducting the opera music. "Much as I hate to admit it, it would be idiotic for us to attempt to apprehend them with their current dueling abilities as advanced as they are." He looked off into the distance, "Especially when even more Security forces are on their way. Might as well enjoy this little field study."

"Would you like a snack?" Daichi asked, holding up a bag, "I brought popcorn."

"Let me guess…" Frederich sighed, "Unsalted and unbuttered, correct?"

"And un-popped." Daichi enthusiastically added, before pouring a handful of raw kernels into his hand and popping them into his mouth with a loud crunch, much to the disgust of Friedrich, who turned away to observe Yuzu and Rin with a small spyglass.

…

Rin dashed across the field before burying herself in the arms of her caretaker, who hesitantly hugged her back, a look of immense shock and relief in her features.

"I've missed you so much!" Rin bawled, embarrassed by the flood of emotions she was experiencing as she reunited with the closest person to a mother she had. "I'm so sorry I disappeared! I must have put you through hell, wondering what happened to me! I wanted to come back, but I just couldn't, they wouldn't let me come back! But…but…oh it's so good to be back!"

"Rin…" Miss Kimura breathed, pulling the tattooed biker girl with black sclera eyes closer to herself. She had a lot of questions, but those didn't matter right now. Listening to the girl speak and feeling how she held her in the embrace, she could tell that it was the real Rin, and not just the…lookalike…Yugo had brought to the orphanage a few days ago. Speaking of which…

She looked up to the girl who was awkwardly standing a few feet away, different tattoos on her arm and face, but otherwise, the exact same features.

"Is that you…Yuzu?" Miss Kimura hesitantly asked.

"Hello, Miss Kimura." Yuzu replied with equal hesitation, rubbing the back of her neck with some embarrassment.

The caretaker looked back and forth from Rin and Yuzu. Twins? That seemed to make the most sense. It was not uncommon for orphan siblings to be separated. Still…what had happened to the two of them? Had they been given criminal markings? And those eyes…she had only ever heard vague myths and legends related to those things…but no…there were much more important things to think about now.

Rin was talking to the other children of the orphanage, hugging some of the girls closer to her age who she had been friends with.

"Where is Kristina?" Rin asked one of them, "And Lilly? What about Shuichi? The Himura twins? Why are there so few of you here?"

"Lilly ran away a couple weeks ago." One of the orphans replied, sadly. "Something about being sick of taking her anti-psychic meds. I wouldn't be surprised if she picked a fight with Security just so that they would take her to the underground. She talked a lot about needing to see her sister. As for Kristina, Shuichi, and the others…" he trailed off, tears coming to his eyes.

Rin looked over to where the orphan was looking and spied the handful of cards in Miss Kimura's hand. Dozens of them bearing the faces of people she had grown up with, some no older than two years.

"I was too slow…" Rin wept, tears streaming down her cheeks as she clenched her fists and teeth in a mixture of despair and rage.

"I thought we were dead when those invaders showed up." Another girl recounted. "One moment, we were watching the Friendship Cup, and then, before we knew it, the city alarms started blaring and a trio of masked people were herding us out with a bunch of robotic dogs snapping at our heels. Once we were all out, they destroyed the orphanage and then started to…just…make us disappear, one after the other. Security showed up before they could do it to all of us and defeated them, but then they turned on us. If it weren't for you two showing up, I don't know what would have happened to us."

Rin only appeared to be half listening. She had taken the cards from Miss Kimura and was staring at the screaming faces, a look of desperation in her face.

Yuzu knew the feelings Rin was experiencing. She had seen people she had known experience this kind of death, faces contorted in fear and agony on the picture of the otherwise blank cards as if their very souls were forever trapped within. Rin must have been desperately wanting to save them, but as far as Yuzu knew, once someone had been carded, there was no way to reverse the process.

Unless…

A thought took hold of Yuzu. Seizing upon the train of thought, Yuzu closed her eyes and attempted to reach out to someone who might indeed know of a way to save them.

 _"_ _You don't need to meditate like a Buddhist monk to contact me, Onee-chan."_ Ti'ika Sara snickered from within. _"Or wait…was it partner? I keep forgetting what you insist on me calling you."_

"Sara." Yuzu pleaded, addressing the spirit by the part of its name she was most familiar with. "Please tell me. You have some amazing powers. You raised me from the dead and gave me the ability to heal people. You must have a way of bringing people back who have been carded. Please show me how to reverse the carding process."

 _"_ _You mean, unbind their corporeal and ethereal essence from their spiritual phylacteries?"_ Sara corrected, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Unbind their…what?" Yuzu asked, completely confused. "I…I don't know. I mean…I just want you to show me how to transform them from a card back into a person."

 _"_ _You humans are always getting things wrong."_ Sara sniffed in derision. _"They've not been 'turned into cards.' That would be like saying_ I'm _a card, when in fact, I am a completely independent, fully actualized, goddess of natural cultivation who exists independent of her spiritual phylactery, or card, as you put it, and has only given you the right to wield my phylactery and call upon my physical form as part of our eternal Dark Signer pact."_

"I have no idea what you're saying." Yuzu sighed. "Just…can you help me out or not?"

 _"_ _I've been_ wanting _to help you."_ The spirit whined, _"But whenever I try, you always push me away!_

"I haven't always pushed you away." Yuzu protested, strangely feeling a little guilty.

 _"_ _Well it sure feels like it."_ Sara sniffed. _"And anyway, I don't feel like you should be treating me this way! I'm not some kind of genie who's supposed to shut up and live in her lamp except for when you summon me to solve all your problems! We're supposed to be one! We could do so much more if you'd just stop fighting me! I bet we could easily unbind those people and restore them to the physical plane of existence."_

"So, will you help me, or not?" Yuzu growled, feeling herself lose her patience.

 _"_ _Well…that depends…"_ Sara replied, causing Yuzu to suddenly feel a sensation of energy building within the marks on her arms and face. _"Are you willing to deepen our bond and accept all of our powers?"_

Yuzu suddenly experienced her vision blurring. Within moments, all her surroundings had darkened until she was standing in the middle of a black void, a petit young girl standing a few feet from her with shadows obscuring most of her figure.

 _"_ _You and I both possess a great deal of power…but we've only been using a fraction of it."_ The girl continued, in Sara's voice. _"To become stronger, we have to be united. I possess the powers of darkness. Your power…"_ she stretched out her hand, causing Yuzu's small bracelet to flash with energy, _"…is the power of light. Both of us possess fundamental powers over life itself, but we're both limited to our spheres of darkness and light, respectively."_

"What do you mean?" Yuzu asked, looking down at her bracelet. "I've never had any special powers. You're the one who's supposed to be the goddess here."

 _"_ _Well, I_ am _a goddess."_ the girl giggled, stepping a little closer, the shadows still obscuring her face and body, _"But have you ever wondered, Yuzu onee-chan, why you possess that bracelet? Why it can do the stuff it does? Why there are three other people who look just like you? Why I_ truly _chose you in the first place?"_

Yuzu stared at the girl, dumbfounded by the knowing smile that seemed to be playing on the spirit's lips.

"What do you know?" Yuzu asked, throat feeling hoarse.

 _"_ _I was never just calling you onee-chan out of affection."_ Sara smirked. _"You and I are more similar than you think. You're not a normal human. You're special. A goddess. You can't remember because your essence has been fragmented…twice now…but that still doesn't change the fact that you possess the powers of creation itself. I'm a little younger than you, well, the original you that is, so I don't know everything about you, but I remember much more about your true nature than you do."_

"That can't be." Yuzu protested, "I mean…I was never…a goddess!? How would I not know that if that were true?"

 _"_ _I can prove it to you."_ Sara insisted. _"Right now, you and I are falling embarrassingly short of our true potential…but if you were to accept the gifts I offer and we were to become one…"_

Yuzu suddenly felt a surge of energy within her marks while experiencing a burning sensation in her pocket. Reaching inside, she pulled out the card of Earthbound God Ti'ika Sara, to find that it was glowing with burning blood-red light. Across from her, Yuzu noticed the girl rising into the air…no…not ascending…she was growing! Sara's body was ballooning in size, stretching, and transforming, until Yuzu was staring up into the face of a massive shadowy figure, taller than a skyscraper.

At once, the creature lit up with blood-red light, illuminating the dark plain to reveal an immense black sunflower with lines of scarlet energy running up its sturdy stem and into its wide flourishing leaves, which stretched out to the side like the legs of a massive millipede. A large blood-red spiral pattern illuminated the face of the sunflower, which was covered with millions of coal-black seeds, each the size of a large bathtub. The flower was fringed by thousands of blood-red petals, while six smaller sunflower heads orbited the circumference of the central flower like six moons. In the center of the main flower, a tiny young girl with cocoa-colored skin, red war paint, a small strip of interwoven vines covering her chest, long black hair decorated with flowers and a small golden headdress, and solid black eyes, stared down at Yuzu with a grin, light streaming down from the central flower like a spotlight.

 _"_ _Then nothing will be impossible for us!"_ Sara proclaimed, youthful girlish voice suddenly becoming more mature and god-like as it reverberated through the shadowy plains.

All at once, the immense flower faded away into a cloud of shadows before the little girl was staring up at Yuzu, youthful face barely reaching Yuzu's belly. Staring down at the tiny girl, who, a second ago, had seemed to encompass all of existence itself, Yuzu felt disoriented. Was this child and that immense god the same creature? Sara looked like she could be barely Ayu's age…if that.

"So, are you ready, onee-chan?" Sara asked, holding out a tiny delicate hand.

"I…" Yuzu hesitated, still trying to process all of what Sara had said. "She had called Yuzu a goddess and had claimed that they could accomplish anything if they combined their powers. Well, that was good, right? She would probably need some godly power at this point if she wanted to find a way to save the people who had been carded and end the war. And yet…"

The distant sound of trucks pulling up and screaming children suddenly caught Yuzu's attention.

"Something's wrong!" Yuzu exclaimed, turning around to find herself standing back on the orphanage grounds, the dark plain having completely vanished from view. In the back of her mind, she could almost sense Sara impatiently tapping one of her tiny feet, a faint sensation of disappointment and impatience prodding at the back of her skull.

"I'll give it some thought." Yuzu promised the spirit before turning her attention towards a legion of Security trucks that had surrounded the grounds of the orphanage. Miss Kimura and the children with her had fled behind the rubble of the destroyed orphanage, while Rin had mounted her bike before zooming around the perimeter and firing bolts of black lightning from her hands into the turrets of the bulky trucks, disabling their weapons.

"Why…won't…you…people…just…QUIT!" Rin bellowed, sweat beading down her face as she fired another bolt of energy at one of the trucks. "Yuzu! What are you doing!? Are you gonna help me, or what!?"

Shaking off her confusion, Yuzu dashed forward before activating her duel disk, blood-red flower petals unfurling as the marks on her eye and arm lit up. In front of her, all the trucks had come to a halt, Security officers pouring out before forming a perimeter around Rin and Yuzu, duel disks raised at the ready position. Just how many people was Roger going to throw at them before he gave up?

"Leave now!" Yuzu warned. "We don't want to fight you, but if we have to, we will!"

"And I am not in the mood to give out many more warnings!" Rin added, raising her crackling lightning-infused hand into the air in a threatening gesture.

Surprisingly, all the Security officers suddenly backed away several paces. Not sure if they were really going to retreat or not, Yuzu kept her duel disk raised just in case, before noticing a line of the officers part to form a gap in their perimeter.

"What are they doing?" Yuzu asked Rin, who had pulled up alongside her on her bike.

"I'm not sure." Rin whispered back to her. "But stay focused. I've not known Security to be the kind of people to just give up."

Behind the gap of officers, a final Security transport vehicle rolled up with its backing facing the orphanage before coming to a stop. Approaching the back doors of the vehicle, a pair of officers stepped forward before throwing the doors of the vehicle open to reveal a scarred, half-starved young adult man with long crimson hair, what looked like mechanical restraints on his arms and legs, and a blinking red chip in his forehead.

Yuzu heard Rin gasp.

"Divine!? _The_ Divine!? Enemy of the state #1!? Leader of the Neo Arcadia Movement!?" she sputtered. "You died in the underground!?"

"Targets…identified." The man Rin called Divine rasped, slowly stepping out of the truck before laboriously struggling against his restraints to raise his duel disk into the air. "Duel commencing…"

"Rin…who is he?" Yuzu asked, apprehension growing.

"Be careful, Yuzu!" Rin warned, "If what I heard about this guy is right, he's a very dangerous…"

"FIELD MAGIC ACTIVATE!" Divine's duel disk announced, "PSYCHIC GRAVITY WELL!"

Before either Yuzu or Rin could even react, Divine's eyes and body lit up with electrical energy as the air around him blurred with distortion. Around Divine, small chunks of debris began rising into the air and orbiting around his body as he slowly lifted himself into the air, defying gravity as a blast of wind smacked Yuzu and Rin in their faces. Struggling against his arm and leg restraints, Divine stretched out his glowing limbs before shouting, generating an immense shock-wave that slammed into Yuzu, Rin, and a few unfortunate Security officers, blasting them all backwards.

Action Duel instincts kicking in, Yuzu managed to right herself and land on her hands and knees. Rin, however, was knocked off her bike and blasted into the rubble of the orphanage while her vehicle was smashed into a building two blocks away.

"A psychic." Rin coughed, before managing to get back onto her feet. "You've gotta be freaking kidding me. A freaking psychic! That's just what I needed to deal with right now!"

"What's a psychic?" Yuzu asked, standing in front of Rin, who now didn't have a duel disk.

"You don't have them in your dimension?" Rin asked, clapping her hands together, bowing her head, and closing her eyes in concentration as her marks began glowing. In moments, Rin was obscured in a thick shadow, which covered her body before fading away to reveal Rin in a new outfit consisting of black-and-green knee-high boots, short shorts, a sleeveless top that left her midriff exposed, and a large duel disk with fangs over the deck slot.

"That's an interesting trick." Yuzu mumbled. "And, as far as psychics go, I've never heard of any in my dimension."

"Well, basically, we're dealing with a real-life superhuman with telekinetic mind-powers, and the ability to take solid vision a step further." Rin grunted, activating her duel disk.

"How do you take things further than solid vision?" Yuzu asked, shielding her eyes against the unnatural winds whipping around the levitating psychic man.

"There was a Psychic girl named Lilly, who grew up with me in my orphanage." Rin explained. "The state made her take some heavy medications to keep her powers suppressed, but one day, she cheeked her meds and decided to duel someone. It was traumatic for everyone to watch a duel monster get cut open to reveal actual flesh and blood."

Yuzu shivered at this, considering the implications of their current duel.

"So basically, he's going to be summoning _actual_ monsters, as in, _actual_ flesh-and-blood creatures to maim and kill us." Yuzu summarized.

"On the nose." Rin replied, bracing herself. "While our monsters will most likely only be solid vision toys."

 _"_ _Oh, but you don't have to settle for that, darling."_ Rin suddenly exclaimed in Paryaqaqa's voice. _"Any duelist can summon actual creatures from the spiritual realm with the right phylactery, psychic or not. It's just that most of you humans don't ever figure out how to do it. But we're a Dark Signer. I'd be glad to teach you how to focus your energy in order to-…"_

"Not now, Yene!" Rin snapped, turning her attention back to Divine, who began addressing them.

"Psychic Gravity Well activates at the start of the duel." Sayer explained. "While active, Field Spell Cards cannot be activated and the field is treated as _not_ having an active field spell card."

"A Field Spell that isn't treated as a field spell?" Rin gawked, "What on earth is the point of-…"

She suddenly paused before looking to Yuzu, who realized at the same time what her counterpart must have concluded.

"It's an anti-earthbound Field Spell." Yuzu breathed.

"Furthermore," Divine continued, shouting over the sound of the whirring debris orbiting his floating body, "Psychic Gravity Well cannot be targeted by card effects or be removed from the field, except by its own effect. In addition, monsters other than Psychic-Type monsters cannot attack unless their controller pays 1000 LP to enable them to attack, and if a player intrudes on this duel, Psychic Gravity Well inflicts 2000 damage to that player's Life Points before increasing my Life Points by the damage inflicted."

"So basically, we're trapped here and not getting any help." Rin summarized. "But the same goes for you! You'll regret coming here!"

"During each of my end phases, I must pay 2000 Life Points or destroy Psychic Gravity Well." Divine finished before drawing his opening hand. "The duel will be conducted with Battle Royal rules. DUEL!"

"DUEL!" Yuzu and Rin exclaimed in unison, responding to Divine's challenge.

"The first turn is mine." Divine called out from overhead. "Magic Card activate! Emergency Teleport! With this card's effect, I can Special Summon one Level three or lower Psychic-Type monster from my hand or deck so long as I banish it during the End Phase. Come forth! Krebons!"

In the air in front of Divine, a dimensional tear opened up, through which a spindly jester-like creature with disconnected floating limbs, a clown cap, and ethereal blocks of light orbiting its body, entered the duel field.

 **Krebons / DARK / Level 2 / Psychic / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 400**

"A tuner." Rin grunted. "Looks like he's going all-out, not that I would have expected any less from Neo Arcadia's leader."

"Okay, what was Neo Arcadia, and what did it do?" Yuzu asked.

"It's a ton of history we don't have time for right now." Rin snapped. "For now, just know that this guy used to be considered one of the most dangerous people on the planet!"

"That's comforting." Yuzu groaned, thoughts drifting to Sergey and what he had done to her. She had honestly ranked him as one of the most dangerous people she had ever known…next to Yuri at least. Could this guy actually be worse than them?

"Next," Divine continued, pulling a card from his hand and revealing it, "since I control a face-up Psychic-Type monster, I can normal summon Armored Axon Kicker from my hand without tributing, come forth!"

Leaping onto the field through a blue portal, Krebons was joined by a hulking muscular cyborg with purple and green armor and thick coiled black wires coming out of the back of its head like dreadlocks.

 **Armored Axon Kicker / EARTH / Level 6 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 1800**

"Here it comes." Rin told Yuzu. "He's ready to Synchro Summon. And I think I know what it is!"

"How would you know that?" Yuzu asked.

"He was an infamous criminal and I watched the Friendship Cup final where he nearly beat Jack Atlas." Rin explained.

"So, this guy almost beat Jack. Great." Yuzu sarcastically replied, as Divine raised his hands into the air, "This duel just keeps getting better and better."

"I tune my Level two Krebons with my Level six Armored Axon Kicker!" Sayer proclaimed as his Krebons morphed into a pair of green synchro rings before surrounding Armored Axon Kicker, who faded into a set of six white stars.

"My flames of hatred burning through my veins," Divine chanted as heat suddenly radiated from his body, causing some of the trash orbiting his person to erupt in flames, "consume my mind with your fury and reign over this world as the undisputed tyrant of thought itself! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level Eight! Thought Tyrant Daemon!"

In an explosion of white light, Divine's Synchro monster, A towering skeletal demon with gold metallic armor and wings, immense glowing gold claws crackling with electricity, and an enlarged head with a pulsating veiny brain just below the skin, appeared to the field, spreading out its claws and unleashing a resounding roar. Looking upon the monster, the way it actually breathed, twitched, blinked, and pulsated with life, Yuzu felt she understood exactly what Rin had meant when she had talked about Psychics taking duel monsters a step beyond solid vision.

 **Thought Tyrant Daemon / DARK / Level 8 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2300**

"That thing's alive. It's an actual creature." Yuzu breathed, unable to quite believe it.

 _"_ _All the so-called duel monsters are real."_ Ti'ika Sara explained within Yuzu. _"It's just that only a few people can fully summon their physical being from the spirit world. We can summon monsters like that, if we work together."_

"I'm not sure how I feel about that." Yuzu replied, glancing at the monsters in her hand and wondering what it would mean if she actually summoned them as real musical fairies.

"Continuous Magic Card activate!" Divine continued from overhead, winds around his body growing in intensity, "Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse!"

Appearing to Divine's field, a Continuous Spell Card depicting Thought Tyrant Daemon unleashing a pulse of crackling white-and-green energy, appeared before glowing with light.

"Once per turn," Divine explained, "I can pay 2000 Life Points in order to banish up to two Psychic-Type monsters from my graveyard and an equal number of 'Psychic' Magic or Trap Cards from my deck before gaining five-hundred Life Points for each card banished with this effect. Using this effect, I banish Krebons and Armored Axon Kicker from my Graveyard before banishing Psychic Blade and Psychic Dimension Breach from my deck!"

Crackling with energy, Divine suddenly screamed in pain as his Life Points dropped, before the ethereal images of the cards he banished appeared and merged inside his body, causing a second surge of energy to repair the damage to his Life Points.

 **Divine: (4000 – 2000) + (500 X 4) = 4000 LP**

"A net loss of zero." Rin mused. "And I'm betting he banished those cards for a reason."

"It definitely wouldn't make sense for him to pay 2000 Life Points, just to gain back the same amount, even if he were thinning his deck in the process." Yuzu agreed. "He must want to banish as many of his cards as possible. Remember anything from the Friendship Cup duel?"

"It's been too long." Rin apologized. "Besides, I doubt Divine hasn't made any changes to his deck since then. What I _do_ remember is that Thought Tyrant Daemon is definitely bad news. He actually managed to _destroy_ Jack's Scarlight with that card, and Jack let's _nobody_ do that!"

"Comforting." Yuzu grimaced. "More and more comforting by the second."

"I next equip Thought Tyrant Daemon with the Equip Spell, Telekinetic Charging Cell." Divine continued, slotting a card into his duel disk and causing a pair of hovering white robotic drones to fly up next to Thought Tyrant Daemon's sides before projecting a golden energy field made up of three rings of light. From where she was standing, Yuzu could feel the energy radiating from Divine's card, beyond the usual tingle she felt from Solid Vision energy.

"While equipped with Telekinetic Charging Cell." Divine explained, "Thought Tyrant Daemon does not require Life Points to be paid in order to activate any of its effects. Setting one card face-down. Turn end." Divine finished, slotting a final card into his duel disk before hanging his head down and staring at Yuzu and Rin, face a blank emotionless slate. "And at the end of my turn, the cost of Psychic Gravity Well is applied, making me pay two-thousand Life Points."

Body surging with electricity, Divine let out a cry of pain as his limbs seized up and his life points dropped.

 **Divine: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

Rin and Yuzu looked at each other before nodding in an unspoken agreement.

"I'll deal with him first." Yuzu said, stepping forward. "He can't duel long with that Field Spell Card draining his life like that. He'll be forced to destroy it very soon. I just need to make sure I take down his life points enough."

"Sounds good to me." Rin agreed. "I want to see what you've learned about Synchro Summoning, anyway. Just be careful of his Thought Tyrant. If I remember correctly, I think it negates effects, so plan around that."

"Got it." Yuzu acknowledged before placing her fingers on the top of her deck. "Atashi no turn! Draw!"

Looking at the card she had drawn, Yuzu managed to contain a visible frown. Her first draw had been Divine Melodious Stage, a field spell she couldn't use right now. Still, she had plenty of other options available to her.

"Magic Card activate, 1st Movement Solo!" Yuzu declared, revealing the first card in her hand before placing it on her duel disk's upper right flower petal. "Since I control no monsters, I can Special Summon a Melodious Monster from my deck! With this effect, I choose to Special Summon-…"

"Thought Tyrant Daemon no kouka!" Divine interrupted, face whipping up to look at Yuzu before he struggled against one of his restraints to stretch his arm towards his breathing monster, who turned its head to face Yuzu, steam billowing up from its jaws as it exhaled. "Up to twice per turn, I can pay one-thousand Life Points in order to enable Thought Tyrant Daemon to negate the activation of a card or effect and destroy it! GO! THOUGHT TYRANT DAEMON! MENTAL SPHERE SUPPRESSION!"

Unfurling its skeletal wings, Thought Tyrant Daemon let out an immense roar before rising into the air, claws, brain, and exoskeleton crackling with energy as it drew energy from Telekinetic Charging Cell before launching a bolt of energy from its forehead into Yuzu's card, obliterating it.

 **Sayer: 2000 LP**

Yuzu shielded her eyes from the dust kicked up by the force of the blast before managing to recover.

"Right." She grimaced. "Effect negation. And not only that, but up to twice per turn, so he can still use it. And thanks to Telekinetic Charging Cell, he doesn't even have to pay any Life Points for it."

She glanced through the cards in her hand, deciding that Divine would inevitably use Thought Tyrant's effect again and trying to decide the best way to bait out the effect.

"I activate the magic card, Fusion!" Yuzu declared, slapping the card on her upper right flower petal.

She hesitated for a moment, waiting to see if Divine would counter the play, but he remained silent. Evidently, he did not consider her fusion summoning a monster to be a significant threat. Perhaps he felt like his Thought Tyrant was strong enough to counter whatever she brought out.

"Using my Quartet the Melodious Songstress and Opera the Melodious Diva in my hand as material," Yuzu continued, raising her hands into the air as a fusion portal appeared above her head and her two monsters rose to the center of the portal before converging in the center as a blur of blue and red light, "I fusion summon!

"Inspiration of the Divine, heroic song, with the guidance of the baton, gather your power! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Come forth to the stage! Schuberta the Melodious Maestra!"

Through the Fusion Portal, the first monster Sora had helped Yuzu Fusion Summon, a slender woman with long flowing orange hair, a gold mask, and an elegant black-and-orange ball gown, twirled onto Yuzu's field before raising her baton into the air.

 **Schuberta the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 6 / Fairy / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000**

"Quartet the Melodious Songstress's effect activates when it is used as a material for the Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon of a Melodious Monster." Yuzu continued, "I can add one Melodious Songstress monster from my deck to my hand. With this effect, I choose to add Contralto the Melodious Songstress from my deck to my hand."

Divine made no move to stop her, so Yuzu plucked a card from her deck and added it to her hand.

"He's not going to use up his Thought Tyrant's effect again unless he actually feels threatened." Yuzu thought to herself. "I don't want to waste another effect, but I have to prioritize certain effects above others."

Looking up at her Schuberta, who, strangely enough, seemed to look back at her as if in silent agreement, Yuzu continued with her plan.

"I activate the effect of Schuberta!" Yuzu declared, "Once per duel, I can target up to three cards in any player's graveyard in order to banish them and increase Schuberta's ATK by two-hundred for each card banished with this effect. Using this effect, I target my own 1st Movement Solo, Fusion, and the Emergency Teleport in your graveyard in order to increase Schuberta's ATK by six-hundred!"

"Thought Tyrant Daemon no kouka!" Divine suddenly declared, as if waking from a trance, the eyes of his monster lighting up with energy in response. "I negate the activation of Schuberta's effect and destroy it! GO! MENTAL SPHERE SUPPRESSION!"

Roaring with fury, Thought Tyrant Daemon stretched out one of his immense clawed hands before launching a sphere of energy into Schuberta, just as she raised her baton into the air to activate her effect. Caught in the midriff by the sphere of energy, Schuberta gasped with pain before stumbling backwards, electricity crackling against her body as she keeled over, wounded but not dead.

"Since Opera was used as one of her Fusion Materials," Yuzu explained, wiping off some dust that had blown into her face from the force of the attack, "Schuberta cannot be destroyed by card effects. And now, since you've already used up both of your Tyrant's negation effects, I can do this! Using my Normal Summon for this turn I call forth the tuner monster, Contralto the Melodious Songstress!"

Smiling in approval, Rin watched as Yuzu's new Songstress, a fairy of medium height and build with pale porcelain skin, shoulder-length brown hair, a crystal tiara on her face, and a shimmering white dress with multiple translucent green sashes over her frame, appeared to the field before singing in a deep feminine contralto voice.

 **Contralto the Melodious Songstress / LIGHT / Level 3 / Fairy / Tuner / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

Yuzu looked through her field, before bringing up a screen to show the cards in her Extra Deck. Recalling everything she had learned about Synchro Summoning, she double checked to make sure that she had everything she needed to call forth her new monster.

"I activate Contralto's effect!" Yuzu declared as her fairy rose into the hair, hands to her diaphragm as she began to raise her voice, "If she is summoned, I can target one monster in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it with its effects negated! Using this effect, I target the Quartet in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it with its effects negated!"

"Trap activate!" Divine suddenly declared, shocking Yuzu, who had almost forgotten about his face-down card. "Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation!"

In response to Divine's declaration, his face-down flipped up to reveal a continuous trap depicting a large wormhole opening up with a legion of cyborg-like monsters, including the Armored Axon Kicker and Krebons, which Divine had summoned earlier, pouring out from the opening.

"Once per turn," Divine explained, "Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation enables me to pay two-thousand Life Points in order to Special Summon 1 Psychic-Type monster from my hand, deck, GY, or that is banished. I activate the effect now!"

Yuzu's eyes widened in astonishment, wondering if she had heard him right.

"But you have exactly two-thousand Life Points!" Yuzu gawked. "If you activate the effect now, you'll lose! Right?" She looked to Rin, looking for confirmation.

Rin's eyes widened before her jaw dropped, suddenly realizing something.

"You can't mean…" she exclaimed, eyes sweeping the line of officers outside the dueling field.

…

From his control room, Roger addressed one of the Security Officers.

"P-206, intrude." He ordered, a satisfied grin coming over his face.

…

With a sudden jerk, one of the Security Officers seemed to wake up before shambling towards the duel field, Duel Disk activating as he languidly drew an opening hand. The second his foot touched down on the property line of the orphanage, the hapless officer was suddenly lifted off his feet as Divine stretched a hand towards the man, who, despite his mind control, was reflexively struggling against the telekinetic grip.

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" the officer's duel disk automatically declared, not a hint of mercy for the man's plight in its voice.

 **P-206: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

Eyes widening, Yuzu realized what was about to happen.

"STOP!" she shouted at Divine in desperation, "Don't-…!"

"Psychic Gravity Well no Kouka!" Divine declared, completely ignoring Yuzu, as he slowly closed his fingers, tightening his telekinetic grip on the struggling man, "If a player takes the Intrusion Penalty, I can inflict two-thousand damage to that player's Life Points before increasing my Life Points by the same amount! TELEKINETIC SINGULARITY!"

Divine made a crushing motion with his hand. In a blink, the Security Officer's body compacted into a sphere of solid matter, before energy streamed out from the sphere and into Divine's floating body.

 **P-206: 2000 – 2000 = 0 (LOSE)**

 **Divine: 2000 + 2000 = 4000 LP**

All of Yuzu's words fled from her mouth as she stared speechlessly at the remains of what had once been a human being plopping into the dirt with a sickening thud.

Rin made a choking noise, face paling before her expression twisted into one of pure hate.

"You monster!" Rin roared, stepping forward to shout at Divine with all her might, "YOU ***ING PSYCHIC MONSTER! JACK SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU IN THE FRIENDSHIP CUP FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID!"

She continued to rant at Divine, but Yuzu didn't hear most of it. Eyes sweeping the lines of Officers, she began to grasp the details of Roger's latest scheme.

"Any time Divine's life points get too low…he'll just sacrifice another person to keep him alive." She breathed. "All these people…" her eyes swept through the line of officers, noticing their faces beneath their glasses and helmets, men and women who had lives and families before their minds were taken from them, "How can I fight this?"

Within her, she felt Sara stir, but Yuzu was growing too numb to pay attention.

"Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation's effect goes through." Divine continued, speaking as if nothing disturbing had happened. "I pay two-thousand Life Points in order to Special Summon Precognate Jacker from my deck! Come forth!"

 **Divine: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

Stretching his hand forward, Divine shot out bolts of electricity, which ripped open a portal in the air, through which an immense crab-like machine with a translucent pod containing an engorged brain hooked up to wires appeared.

 **Precognate Jacker / WATER / Level 7 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 2800**

"When Precognate Jacker is Special Summoned," Divine explained, I can target one monster my opponent controls in order banish both that target and Precognate Jacker. GO! FEEDBACK LOOP!" he ordered as the crab-like machine reared up on its mechanical legs before a set of projectors protruded from its front and generated a storm of vibrating shock waves, which caused both itself and Yuzu's monster to disappear.

"The opponent's monster banished by this effect will return to the hand during their next standby phase." Divine went on. "But because Precognate Jacker was banished from the field, its second effect activates! I Special Summon one Level six or higher Psychic-Type monster from my deck! Come forth! Master Gig!"

Above Divine's head, an interdimensional tear opened up, through which Precognate Jacker's crab-like legs emerged before ripping the tear wider and withdrawing. Through the dark space within the tear, an immense, egg-like machine with large spikes, golden circuitry, and a mask-like face descended to the field, looming over Rin and Yuzu, who became encompassed in its shadow.

 **Master Gig / EARTH / Level 8 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 1400**

Once finished, he turned his head towards Yuzu, who had sunk to her knees in horror, still struggling to process the murder she had just witnessed while wondering what she could have done to prevent it.

"The final part of Precognate Jacker's effect dictates that the opponent must choose to activate one of the following effects." Divine continued, voice as cold and emotionless as ever as he regarded Yuzu. "You have the option of either inflicting damage to my life points equal to the Level of Master Gig times three-hundred, or choosing to make it so that Master Gig cannot attack or activate its effects this turn. Choose."

"We choose to inflict damage to your Life Points!" Rin roared. "That's twenty-four hundred damage that you more than deserve!"

"Only the opponent whose monster was banished by the effect of Precognate Jacker can choose which effect is activated." Divine coldly replied, not even looking at Rin as he regarded Yuzu. "Choose."

Yuzu stared numbly up at Divine before looking over at the other Security officers, and then down to where the compacted body had fallen to the ground, fluids from the deflating sphere darkening the dirt around it.

 _"_ _We have to defeat him."_ Sara murmured from within Yuzu. _"Eventually you will have to accept the reality of this war."_

Yuzu closed her eyes, tears leaking out from the lids.

"I can't do it." She thought back at Sara. "If I do, Roger will just force someone else to intrude."

 _"_ _You can't let your enemies hold that kind of power over you."_ Sara whispered back. _"Your only way to win this war is to defeat Divine and all his shields. Otherwise, you will condemn even more to death by your inaction. Defeat him."_

"At what cost?" Yuzu growled, clenching her fist, thoughts of what her father, Yuya, and others had taught her about dueling and what it ought to be. There had to be another way, one that did not involve trampling over the bodies of innocents to achieve her goals.

"I choose to activate the second effect." Yuzu declared, looking up at Divine. "Master Gig cannot activate its effects and it cannot attack this turn.

"What are you doing!?" Rin cried, "This is exactly what he wanted! He's just going to-…!"

"The choice is made." Divine replied, oddly smiling as his monster, which couldn't have attacked anyway, froze in place while a barrier of energy formed around it. Seeing Divine smile like that, caused Yuzu's heart to plummet as she wondered if she had really made the right choice.

"The chain resolves naturally at this point." Divine continued without emotion, "And since Contralto's effect was technically not negated, Quartet is Special Summoned to your field with its effects negated."

Yuzu closed her eyes in pain, barely noticing as her fairy seemed to materialize right next to her in a kneeling position, Quartet looking at her with what looked like a concerned expression.

 **Quartet the Melodious Songstress / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 400 / DEF 400**

Yuzu clenched her fist in agony. Before looking into the eyes of her monster.

"I had no choice." Yuzu whispered to Quartet. "I wasn't going to let him kill someone else."

Oddly enough, Yuzu had the distinct impression that Quartet nodded in understanding. Whether it had actually happened or she had imagined it, Yuzu felt the motivation she needed to get back on her feet and continue the duel.

"I set a card face-down and end my turn." Yuzu declared, slamming a face-down onto her bottom left flower petal. "At this time, the monster summoned by Contralto's effect is destroyed. However, during the End-Phase, Quartet's effect also activates, enabling to Special Summon a Songstress Monster from my hand or graveyard. I choose to Special Summon Contralto in defense position."

Getting up, Quartet bowed before vanishing in a sparkle of gold dust and then reappearing moments later in front of Yuzu in a defensive stance.

 **Quartet the Melodious Songstress / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 400 / DEF 400**

Rin stared over at Yuzu, who looked back at Rin with an expression of mixed sorrow and resolve. Nodding her head in understanding, Rin turned her gaze up to Divine, the psychic murderer still floating in the air like some kind of supreme god, before clenching her teeth and placing her hand on top of her deck.

"My turn…" Rin growled, "DRAW!"

Looking through the cards in her hand, Rin nodded before activating one of them.

"I activate the Magic Card, Synthphonist Inspiration!" Rin declared. "Using its effect, I reveal three Synthphonist Magic or Trap Cards in my deck before giving you the option to choose one to add to my hand! I choose three copies of Synthphonist Tuning. Go ahead and pick!" she almost spat, revealing the three cards.

"I choose the center Synthphonist Tuning." Divine nonchalantly replied, not seeming the least bit provoked.

Wordlessly, Rin shuffled the card Divine had chosen into her hand before returning the others to the bottom of her deck.

"Next," Rin continued, "I normal summon the Gemini Tuner monster, Synthphonist Bassoonist to my field! Come forth!"

Through the blue summoning portal, Rin's orange-haired cyborg girl with mechanical bassoon wings sticking out of her back appeared to the field before regarding Divine with a grim expression on her face.

 **Synthphonist Bassoonist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Tuner / Effect / ATK 400 / DEF 2000**

"Next," Rin continued, placing another card on her disk, "I activate Synthphonist Tuning in order to add one Synthphonist Monster from my deck to my hand."

Looking up, she eyed Divine as if daring him to activate his Thought Tyrant's effect, but Divine merely hovered silently in the air, regarding her with an emotionless expression on his face. Since he didn't respond, Rin grunted before angrily ripping a card from her deck and adding it to her hand.

"I next activate the Spell Card, Synthphonist Resonance!" Rin declared, slamming down another Spell Card. "When this card is activated, I can Normal Summon all Synthphonist Monsters I control, unlocking any of their Gemini Effects! GO! Synthphonist Awakening!"

This seemed to get Divine's attention, as the psychic duelist immediately launched out his hand towards his Thought Tyrant Daemon.

"Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect!" Divine declared as his monster let out a roar, "I negate the effect of Synthphonist Resonance and destroy it! MENTAL SPHERE SUPPRESSION!"

A bolt of energy launched from the forehead of Thought Tyrant Daemon, striking the holographic face of Rin's Spell Card and causing it to violently explode in a shower of golden sparks.

Recovering quickly from the blast, Rin stretched her hand towards her graveyard before continuing her turn.

"I activate the graveyard effect of the Synthphonist Tuning I used earlier!" she declared, "By shuffling this card from my GY into the deck, I can Immediately Normal Summon one Synthphonist Monster!"

"Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect!" Divine countered, body violently sparking with energy, "I negate the effect of Synthphonist Tuning! MENTAL SPHERE SUPPRESSION!"

This time, the bolt of energy launched from Thought Tyrant struck Rin in the wrist, actually burning the flesh and sending Rin flying into a ruined wall of the orphanage.

"Rin nee-chan!" One of the children wailed.

"Rin!" Yuzu echoed, running to her counterpart's side before helping her back onto her feet and examining the burnt wrist.

"It's okay." Rin grunted. "I can't feel any pain. I'm just surprised Divine's that determined to keep me from using my Gemini monster's effects.

Before Rin could object, Yuzu closed her hand around the wrist before pulsing with energy, healing the burn before letting it go.

"I think Roger's probably aware of what your deck is capable of, so he's ordering Divine to make sure your monsters stay as Normal Monsters." Yuzu surmised as Rin gratefully rubbed her restored wrist with a look of admiration.

"Yeah, well he's right to try." Rin grunted. "But he still has no idea what I'm capable of! Magic Card activate!" she continued, ripping a card from her hand and slamming it onto her disk, "Synthphonist Rehearsal!"

Above the heads of the duelist, what looked like a cross between an auto-repair shot and a curtained stage appeared, robotic arms whirring to life above the curtains.

"With the effect of Synthphonist Rehearsal," Rin explained, "I can Special Summon one 'Sonic Synthphonist' monster from my Extra Deck with its effects negated and its ability to attack restricted. The spell card also requires me to shuffle the card summoned with this effect into the Extra Deck during the End Phase. Using this effect I Special Summon the Synchro Tuner monster, Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant from my Extra Deck! Come forth!"

Behind the curtains, lights turned on, revealing the shadowy silhouette of a young girl standing in the center, mechanical arms surrounding her as they worked to outfit her with various pieces of machinery. When the final piece of equipment had been attached to the woman, the woman leaped forward, flinging aside the curtains with a dramatic flourish to reveal a petit young woman with brilliant fiery red-and-yellow hair tied up with a pair of golden hair pins, what looked like a metallic head-band fused into her forehead, wide golden-brown eyes, ruby lips, a tight red-and-white dress with golden circuitry woven into the fabric, mechanical legs and feet with white rocket boots on the end, a jet-pack on her back, and a large mechanical marching band baton in her white-gloved hands.

 **Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant / WIND / Level 2 / Psychic / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 800**

"I next activate the effect of the Synthphonist Resonance in my graveyard!" Rin declared, "I shuffle it into my deck in order to Special Summon Synthphonist Cymbalist from my hand! Join your music with the others now!" she ordered as her cyborg woman with long blonde hair, an elegant white dress, and a pair of mechanical cymbals attached to her back appeared to the field.

 **Synthphonist Cymbalist / WIND / Level 3 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1100 / DEF 1700**

"I'm ready now!" Rin declared, stretching her hands towards her monsters, "I promise I'll make you pay for everything you've done! You and the person controlling you! I tune my Level two Synchro Tuner, Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant, with my Level four tuner, Synthphonist Bassoonist, in order to Synchro Summon!"

Raising her baton into the air, Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant called out encouragingly to Bassoonist before the two of them launched into the air, morphing into a set of six translucent green rings and swirling together in a sphere of green light as Rin began her summoning chant:

"Musician with the dream of eternal greatness, soothing sound of the bassoon, blend your rich music together, tune to each other's pitches, and unleash a new melody! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Storm onto the field now to bring justice! Level six! Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy!"

The sphere of green light exploded into a shockwave of wind and sound, revealing Rin's signature Synthphonist Synchro Monster, a green-haired cyborg woman with bright green robotic eyes, and a mechanical dress decorated with dozens of mechanical instruments all with their bells and openings pointing outward like cannons.

 **Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy / WIND / Level 6 / Psychic / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2400**

"The effect of Bassoonist activates." Rin declared, as an ethereal image of Synthphonist Bassoonist appeared next to her. "Since she was used as a Synchro Material, I target my Prodigy in order to make it so that she cannot be targeted by my opponent's card effects!"

Bassoonist slowly faded away, leaving a golden aura of protection over Rin's synchro monster.

"I'm only just getting started." Rin warned. "Next, now that I have Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy, I'll-…"

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" the voice of another security officer's duel disk suddenly rang out as another officer stepped forward. "TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

"Wait! But! You can't just-…!" Rin sputtered, looking absolutely horrified as Divine used his powers to life the officer's body into the air.

"NO!" Yuzu roared, suddenly launching herself forward with more strength than she had anticipated and rushing towards Divine.

 **U-826: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

Yuzu leapt into the air, suddenly feeling an urge to smash Divine in the face before he could harm the man. However, before she could come within three feet of him, the Psychic threw out his hand, knocking back Yuzu with a shockwave of energy before effortlessly squeezing his other hand shut and compacting the screaming officer into a sphere of solid fabric and organic matter.

 **U-826: 2000 – 2000 = 0 (LOSE)**

 **Divine: 2000 + 2000 = 4000 LP**

Yuzu screamed as she slammed into the ground, while Rin froze in place with an absolutely horrified expression on her face.

"But I didn't even…I don't…" she sputtered, shaking her head.

"Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation's effect!" Divine declared, launching out his hand to release another burst of energy, which opened up another portal into the air.

 **Divine: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

"We can't keep dueling!" Yuzu cried, managing to get back on her feet. "Not like this! He'll kill all of them just to fuel his card's effects!"

"We can't stop now!" Rin shouted back, clenching her fists. "He'll kill or brain control all of us if we surrender. Our only hope is to defeat him before anyone else intrudes!"

Yuzu looked at the line of Security Officers standing outside the duel, wondering how many more meat-shields Roger would sacrifice before they succeeded in defeating the brutal psychic duelist.

"With the effect of Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation," Divine continued, "I Special Summon Space-Time Police from my deck! Come forth! Enforcer of time itself!"

To Divine's field, a futuristic police officer in a blue hat and uniform with orange orbs of energy, and a mechanical baton with wires connecting into the suit, appeared before pointing its baton towards one of Rin's monsters.

 **Space-Time Police / WIND / Level 5 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 1500**

"The effect of Space-Time Police activates since it was Special Summoned!" Divine declared. "I can target one face-up card my opponent controls in order to banish it. Since I can't target Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy, I will target Synthphonist Cymbalist in order to banish it!"

With a hearty laugh, Divine's Space-Time Police shot a bolt of energy towards Rin's monster, prompting Rin leap into action.

"You're trying to prevent me from Synchro Summoning any more monsters this turn." Rin growled, "But I won't let you get away with that! I activate the effect of the Synthphonist Rehearsal in my graveyard! By Shuffling this card and Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant into the deck, I can target my Synthphonist Prodigy in order to give it the effects of Aspirant until the end of this turn! GO! Synthphonist Rehearsal!"

From Rin's graveyard, an ethereal image of Aspirant appeared, rocket jets fired up and a determined expression on her face as she literally passed her ethereal baton to Prodigy, who took it in her hands before glowing with the electrical energy surging through her circuits.

"Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant can, during either player's turn, enable me to immediately perform a Synchro Summon using monsters I control!" Rin declared, raising her hand into the air. "Since I won't be able to use Prodigy's effect to Normal Summon Cymbalist like I had planned, I'll have to go with this! In response to Space-Time Police's effect, I tune my Level six Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy to my Level three Cymbalist in order to Synchro Summon!"

The energy from Space-Time Police's baton opened up a portal behind Cymbalist, which began sucking the young cyborg girl into its depths. However, before she could be consumed by the singularity, Prodigy surged forward with mechanical thrusters under her dress, stretching out Aspirant's mechanical baton so that Cymbalist could grab hold of it and pull herself free before wrapping her arms around the synchro monster's waist for protection. Looking up, Cymbalist nodded her head at Prodigy, who nodded back before launching into the air like a rocket and morphing into a set of six green rings, which surrounded Cymbalist in their light as Rin began her summoning chant:

"Ascending past all obstacles! Overcoming all flaws and weaknesses! By the strength of your resolve, fly forward at twice the speed of light and lay hold on your greatest dreams! Become the mediator between sensual and spiritual and astound the world with your opulent melody! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! The awe-inspiring composer! Level Nine! Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel!"

In an explosion of lightning and wind, Rin's powerful orange-and-white haired cyborg synchro monster appeared to the field, bells on her elegant dress tinkling, instrument cannons on her body whirring to life, and chips on her face lighting up to project a holographic screen in front of her face as she analyzed Divine with a contemptuous expression in her golden eyes.

 **Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel / WIND / Level 9 / Psychic / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 3300**

 **"** Since the target of Space-Time Police was lost, the effect cannot resolve." Rin growled, standing next to her monster, so tiny by comparison that she barely came up to the woman's waist. "And since Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy was sent to the graveyard, I can target my Synthphonist Bassoonist in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it in defense position. Furthermore, I chain the effect of Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel to the effect of Prodigy in order to target my Cymbalist and Special Summon it from the Graveyard in defense position. Return my two monsters!" She ordered as the two cyborg women rose up from the graveyard before taking up position in the front in a defensive stance.

 **Synthphonist Bassoonist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Tuner / Effect / ATK 400 / DEF 2000**

 **Synthphonist Cymbalist / WIND / Level 3 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1100 / DEF 1700**

"You are lucky that, due to Battle Royal rules, I can't attack you. Otherwise I would destroy you right now, no matter how many meat shields you hide behind." Rin threatened. "But for now, I set two cards face-down and end my turn."

Divine regarded his two opponents from where he was hovering before slowly straining against his limb restraints and placing his hand on top of his deck.

"My turn…DRAW!" Divine declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck before extending his hand towards his Continuous Spell Card. "At this time, the effect of my Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse activates, allowing me to add two of the cards I banished with its effect to my hand. I choose to add Psychic Blade and Psychic Dimension Breach to my hand with this effect!"

In front of the spell card, the two cards Divine had banished shimmered into existence before floating up into his outstretched hand.

"Next," Divine continued, stretching his hand towards his monsters. "I tribute Space-Time Police in order to Tribute Summon Overdrive Teleporter!"

Appearing to Divine's field was a tall man wearing a futuristic blue lab coat with gold highlights and a visor over his face.

 **Overdrive Teleporter / LIGHT / Level 6 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 1200**

"I activate the effect of Overdrive Teleporter." Divine declared, "By paying two-thousand Life Points, I can Special Summon two Level three Psychic-Type monsters from my deck."

"Again!?" Yuzu sputtered, noticing another officer shamble forward towards the duel field. "No! You can't just! STOP!"

But before she could do anything, the effect of Divine's horrible Field Spell Card activated again, enabling Divine to crush the intruding officer into another sphere of bloody matter before absorbing the man's strength into himself.

 **B-277: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Divine: (2000 + 2000) - 2000 = 2000 LP**

Roaring with agony as his Life Points were drained, Divine stretched his hands towards Overdrive Teleporter, before launching a beam of energy into the monster. Rising into the air with a grin, Overdrive Teleporter stretched out his hands, which were glowing with golden energy, before firing two spheres of light into the air from his palms, opening up two portals.

"Come forth!" Divine ordered, "Psychic Commander and Psychic Redactor!"

From the portal on the left, Psychic Commander, a four-eyed cyborg in an officer uniform, hovered in the air while riding on a small hovercraft with a large frontal cannon. Next to Psychic Commander, A crazed cyborg man with immense eyes, a metallic helmet with lightbulbs, and sheets of paper in his arms with parts of the paragraphs blacked out, appeared, eyes twitching as electricity sparked against his head.

 **Psychic Commander / EARTH / Level 3 / Psychic / Tuner / Effect/ ATK 1400 / DEF 800**

 **Psychic Redactor / DARK / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 500**

"The effect of Psychic Redactor activates when it is Special Summoned!" Divine proclaimed, "I can banish 1 Spell Card in my Graveyard in order to target one monster my opponent controls with a Level equal to or lower than its own in order to destroy it and prevent any player from summoning a monster with the destroyed monster's name while Redactor remains on the field. With this effect, I banish Emergency Teleport from my graveyard in order to target the Level three monster, Synthphonist Cymbalist. GO! Mad Redaction!"

Letting out a loud scream, Psychic Redactor shot a bolt of electricity from the helmet on his head, straight into Rin's monster, which screamed before exploding in a shower of sparks. Bracing against the force of the blast, Rin covered her face to prevent any dust from getting into her eyes before lowering her arm to reveal that her face had twisted into a deep scowl.

"Next!" Divine continued, slotting another card into his duel disk, "I tribute my Overdrive Teleporter in order to activate Psychic Dimension Breach! With this effect, I can either add one of my banished Magic or Trap Cards to my hand or Special Summon one of my banished Psychic-Type monsters. I choose to use the first effect, returning Emergency Teleport to my hand before activating it in order to Special Summon Mind Protector from my deck! Come forth!"

Through a dimensional portal, a small clunky robot with enlarged hands and an enlarged head appeared to Divine's field before posing next to his other monsters.

 **Mind Protector / LIGHT / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 2200**

"The field is set up!" Divine declared, raising his hand into the air, "I tune my Level three Psychic Commander with my Level three Psychic Redactor and Level three Mind Protector in order to Synchro Summon!"

Throwing out his hand, Psychic Commander morphed into a trio of rings, which surrounded Psychic Redactor and Mind Protector before the two monsters faded away into six spheres of white light as Divine began his summoning chant:

"Let my inner rage build till my very mind is consumed! With my passion, I call forth the lord who rules above all minds! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Descend to subjugate all erroneous thoughts to your logical patterns! Level nine! Overmind Daemon!"

In an explosive pillar of white light, Divine's new Synchro Monster, an immense winged demon similar in appearance to Thought Tyrant Daemon, but larger and with bulkier white armor over its skeletal frame, appeared to the field before unleashing an immense roar, white armor crackling with electricity as it began charging up with power.

 **Overmind Daemon / DARK / Level 9 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 3000**

"Once per turn," Divine explained, "I can use the effect of Overmind Daemon to target one Psychic-Type monster in my graveyard and banish it. Using this effect, I target the Space-Time Police in my graveyard in order to banish it."

An ethereal image of Divine's Space-Time Police rose up into the air before hovering in front of Overmind Daemon. Stretching out one of its immense clawed hands encased in a robotic shell, Overmind Daemon pulsed with energy, causing the monster to vanish.

"Next," Divine continued, stretching his hand towards his continuous Trap Card, "I activate the effect of Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation!"

Numb with pain, Yuzu watched helplessly as yet another Officer stepped forward to sacrifice himself to Divine's Field Spell, just so the psychic duelist could continue fueling the powerful effects of his cards. Rin meanwhile, averted her eyes, avoiding the sickening sight of the man getting crushed.

 **H-283: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Divine: (2000 + 2000) - 2000 = 2000 LP**

"Using this effect," Divine continued, opening up another portal with his psychic powers, "I special summon the Tuner Monster, Re-Cover, from my deck."

Leaping through the portal was a monster that, strangely enough, was nothing more than a book with a pair of stubby ethereal arms and legs floating just adjacent to the book's borders.

 **Re-Cover / EARTH / Level 1 / Psychic / Tuner / Effect / ATK 700 / DEF 300**

"Master Gig no kouka!" Divine declared, stretching his hand towards his immense egg-like monster, which began sparkling with electrical energy. "I pay one-thousand life points in order to destroy monsters my opponent controls, up to the number of Psychic-Type monsters I control! Since I control Thought Tyrant Daemon, Master Gig, Overmind Daemon, and Re-Cover, I pay one-thousand Life Points in order to target Schuberta the Melodious Maestra, Quartet the Melodious Songstress, Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, and Synthphonist Bassoonist, and destroy them! GO, Master Gig! Existence Erasure!"

 **Divine: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 LP**

The center of Master Gig opened up, revealing a glowing green core at its center, which began charging up, preparing to fire.

"Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel's effect!" Rin countered, stretching her hand towards her own monster. "Since one tuner was used in her Synchro Summon, I target Master Gig in order to negate its effects until the end of this turn! GO! Synthphonic Shock and Awe!"

"Thought Tyrant Daemon no kouka!" Divine replied, "I negate the effect of Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel and destroy it!"

"I was waiting for you to do that!" Rin roared, stretching her hand towards one of her face-downs. "Counter Trap Card activate! Synthphonist Performance! Since I control a Hypersonic Synthphonist monster, I can negate the activation of Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect before shuffling it into the deck!"

Thought Tyrant Daemon fired a beam of energy from its head, aiming for Marvel. However, glowing with energy, Marvel deflected the bolt of energy with a parry from a cello-like shield on her arm before letting loose an immense blast of sound from the instruments on her back and dress. Roaring in pain, Thought Tyrant Daemon covered its ears, which were bleeding with actual blood, before vanishing as it returned to Divine's Extra Deck, its equipped Telekinetic Charging Cell falling to the ground and shattering as the equipped monster left. At that moment, Master Gig fired a pulse of green energy from its central core, aiming for Rin and Yuzu's monsters, but, before the blast could reach any of them, Marvel blasted forward at supersonic speeds before unleashing another pulse of sound from her instruments, deflecting the energy from the blast before causing Master Gig to short circuit and dim as its effects were negated.

Divine, however, looked unperturbed by the counter. Recovering quickly, he stretched his hand towards his graveyard.

"I activate the effect of Telekinetic Charging Cell!" he declared. "I can pay one-thousand life points in order to return this card to my hand!"

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" the duel disk of yet another officer called as another sacrifice stepped forward.

 **G-267: 2000 – 2000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Divine: (1000 + 2000) – 1000 = 2000**

 _"_ _This will not stop."_ Ti'ika Sara warned from within Yuzu. _"He feels no remorse for the lives he has sacrificed. To him, they are nothing more than stepping stones to his victory."_

Yuzu said nothing, too numbed by the horrific murders to respond. There were only three more Security Officers standing outside of the duel, just waiting to sacrifice themselves, meaning that Divine would eventually not be able to use his Field Spell Card to gain infinite life, but did she really have no choice but to watch them die before she could stop him?

"I next tune my Level one Re-Cover with my Level eight Master Gig!" Divine continued as his book monster rose into the air before morphing into a single green ring, which surrounded the immense Master Gig before making the Machine fade into eight spheres of white light as Divine began his summoning chant:

"Direct your rage towards your enemies and blast through them with your power! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! The ultimate psychic soldier! Level nine! Hyper-Psychic Blaster!"

Divine's next Synchro Monster was a tall humanoid soldier encased in futuristic white cybernetic armor with a pair of white wings and a blaster gun, one white and one black, affixed over each of his gloved hands.

 **Hyper Psychic Blaster / EARTH / Level 9 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2500**

"I will next activate the effect of the Psychic Blade I added to my hand this turn." Divine continued, revealing an equip spell card depicting an immense sword with a wide translucent green blade and red handle. "I can pay up to two-thousand Life Points in order to equip this card to one monster I control and increase its ATK by the amount of Life Points payed. I pay 2000 Life Points in order to equip this card to my Overmind Daemon."

"INTRUSION PENALTY!" The second-to-last officer's duel disk declared, "TWO-THOUSAND DAMAGE!"

 **F-781: 2000 – 2000 = 0 (LOSE!)**

 **Divine: (2000 + 2000) – 2000 = 2000 LP**

As what was left of the officer's body dropped to the ground, the same sword depicted in Sayer's Equip Spell Card, materialized in one of the Overmind Daemon's hands. Grasping the immense sword, which was half the demon's own size, Overmind Daemon let out a roar before both it and the sword began glowing with energy.

 **Overmind Daemon: 3300 + 2000 = 5300 ATK**

 _"_ _He could very well destroy us if we don't act."_ Sara warned.

"I know!" Yuzu replied, defiantly stretching out her hand to activate her face-down. "Trap Activate!" she declared, "Legato! When this card is activated, I can add one "Melodious" Monster from my deck to my hand! I choose to add Score the Melodious Diva to my hand with this effect. Furthermore, while this card is face-up on the field, I cannot Normal Summon monsters, but as compensation, face-up Melodious Monsters I control gain two-hundred ATK and DEF for each face-up Melodious Monster I control! I control two, so both my monsters gain 400 ATK and DEF!"

 **Schuberta 2400 + 400 = 2800 ATK**

 **Quartet 400 + 400 = 800 DEF**

"Battle!" Divine declared, once the effect of Yuzu's trap had resolved. "I attack Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel with Overmind Daemon! GO! Mind Overwhelm!"

Pouncing, Divine's Overmind Daemon brought its sword down on Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, who attempted to block the blow with her Cello Shield. However, the sharp blade proved far too powerful as it cleaved through the cyborg's armor, bisecting the woman in two before she exploded in a shower of sparks and scrap metal, throwing Rin back against the rubble.

 **Rin 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

"Next!" Divine continued, "My Hyper Psychic Blaster attacks Quartet the Melodious Songstress!"

"Quartet is in defense position, so I won't take any damage." Yuzu called back, bracing herself for the monster's attack.

"When Hyper Psychic Blaster attacks a defense position monster, it inflicts piercing damage." Divine countered. "GO! Hyper Psychic Blast!"

Levelling its cannon arms at Yuzu's monster, Hyper Psychic Blaster dashed forward before unloading a hailstorm of energy blasts from his twin cannons. Shielding her face, Yuzu got blasted back by the force of the attack as her Quartet got shredded into bits of energy.

 **Yuzu: 4000 – 2200 = 1800 LP**

"At the end of the Damage-Step, the second effect of Hyper Psychic Blaster activates!" Divine continued. "I gain Life Points equal to the difference between Hyper Psychic Blaster's ATK and Quartet's original DEF."

 **Divine: 2000 + 2600 = 4600 LP**

"I next activate the effect of my Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse." Divine continued, stretching his hand towards his Continuous Spell Card. "I pay two-thousand Life Points in order to banish Psychic Commander and Psychic Redactor from my graveyard before banishing Psychic Feel Zone and Psychic Fusion Zone from my deck and gaining Life Points equal to the total number of cards I banished with this effect times five-hundred."

 **Divine: (4600 – 2000) + (500 X 4) = 4600 LP**

"With this done, I end my turn, paying for the effect of Psychic Gravity Well." Divine finished, groaning in pain and crackling with energy as Rin and Yuzu got back on their feet before stepping forward.

 **Divine: 4600 – 2000 = 2600 LP**

"Before the turn ends, I activate the graveyard effect of Synthphonist Performance." Rin declared. "I banish this card in order to set a second copy of Synthphonist Performance from my deck to my field."

"The effect of my Quartet also activates." Yuzu added as a new face-down appeared to Rin's field before fading away. "I Special Summon Contralto the Melodious Songstress from my hand. Come forth!"

In a swirl of musical notes, Yuzu's tuner monster reappeared, white dress rustling in the air as she opened her mouth and began singing.

 **Contralto the Melodious Songstress / LIGHT / Level 3/ Fairy/ Tuner / Effect/ ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

"Since she was Special Summoned," Yuzu continued, "I can Special Summon Quartet from the graveyard with her effects negated and the condition that she is destroyed during the End Phase. Return now!" Yuzu commanded as her other songstress emerged from a black portal in the ground before taking up position next to Contralto.

"However," Yuzu continued as her Quartet began fading away in a puff of gold dust, "Because it is already the End Phase, Contralto's effect activates and Quartet is destroyed. Fortunately, thanks to Quartet's own effect, I can revive her. Return to the field now!" she commanded as the gold dust reformed into Quartet. Standing together, Yuzu's three monsters began glowing with energy as Legato empowered them all with its effect.

 **Schuberta 2400 + 600 = 3000 ATK**

 **Contralto 1200 + 600 = 1800 ATK**

 **Quartet 400 + 600 = 1000 DEF**

"It's my move now." Yuzu breathed, looking to the last Security Officers before placing her hand on top of her deck.

 _"_ _Divine must be stopped. Can we agree on that, at least?"_ Sara asked from within Yuzu.

Yuzu closed her eyes and nodded.

"Yes, Sara." She whispered. "We can agree on that. I WILL stop Divine!"

 _"_ _Even if he kills the last officers to protect himself?"_ Sara prodded.

Yuzu hesitated for a moment before exhaling.

"Yes." She replied. "I can't hold back or he'll just kill even more people, whether or not I try to show mercy."

Sara seemed to nod.

 _"_ _Perhaps we will be able to work together."_ She mused. _"When you are ready to call upon my power, I am here."_

Despite still feeling reservations towards Sara, Yuzu found herself bowing her head in gratitude.

"Thank you." She whispered, before beginning her turn.

"Atashi no turn!" she declared, face set to one of grim resolution. "Draw!"

Looking through the cards in her hand, she nodded before extending her hand towards her monsters.

"I activate the effect of Contralto the Melodious Songstress!" Yuzu declared, "Once per turn, I can declare a Level between one and five in order to change the Levels of all my non-tuner Melodious Monsters to the declared Level until the end of the turn. I declare the Level of four to change the Levels of all my monsters to four!"

Rising into the air, Contralto spread out her hands before singing a sustained deep melodic note, white dust scattering from her dress and onto the monsters she controlled.

 **Schuberta: Level 4**

 **Quartet: Level 4**

Once that was done, Yuzu turned her head towards Rin.

"You were right." She told her. "I was wrong to hold back against Divine. I wanted to protect the people Roger had enslaved, but all I did was enable Divine to get away with even more murder. I promise I won't do that anymore! I will use everything I have learned to defeat him once and for all!"

"We'll do it together!" Rin replied. "Once we defeat Divine here, we'll defeat Roger and make it so that he can never hurt anyone again! Now show me what you've learned!"

Nodding, Yuzu turned her attention towards her monsters, the bracelet on her arm glowing with energy as the two rings, blowing in the wind, closed together until they resembled the rings of a synchro summon.

"I tune my Level three Contralto the Melodious Songstress together with my Level four Quartet the Melodious Songstress in order to Synchro Summon!" Yuzu declared as her Contralto morphed into a trio of three rings, which surrounded Quartet and caused the fairy to fade into four spheres of white light before Yuzu began her summoning chant:

"Insightful master, though the dark silence find the hidden music and compose a masterpiece with the strength of your baton! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Come forth! The quiet master! Level seven! Beethovina the Melodious Maestra!"

In an explosion of white light, Yuzu's new Maestra flew onto the field with a pair of translucent wings rimmed with piano keys. She had long snow-white hair, which was tied up into an elegant hair bun, with a few curly strands bouncing against her shoulders. An ear-trumpet was affixed over her left ear and she wore a white-and-green ball gown while wielding a large white baton like a magic wand.

 **Beethovina the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 7 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2200**

"The effect of Legato activates since a Melodious Monster was Special Summoned, Beethovina's own effect chains to the effect of Legato, and Quartet's effect chains to that effect." Yuzu continued, once her new monster had taken up position on her field. First, Quartet's effect resolves, enabling me to add Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress from my deck to my hand. Next, Beethovina's effect activates, enabling me to add Contralto the Melodious Songstress from my graveyard to my hand." Finally, Legato's effect activates since I Special Summoned a monster, enabling me to Special Summon the Contralto the Melodious Songstress I added to my hand. Come forth once again! Contralto the Melodious Songstress!"

 **Contralto the Melodious Songstress / LIGHT / Level 3/ Fairy/ Tuner / Effect/ ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

"Since Contralto the Melodious Songstress was Special Summoned," Yuzu continued, Its effect activates! I Special Summon Opera the Melodious Diva from my Graveyard! Come forth!"

Raising her voice, Contralto spread out her hands before opening a portal in the air, through which Yuzu's petit pink-haired Opera flew.

 **Opera the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 1000**

"Trap activate!" Divine roared before Yuzu could continue "Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation! I pay two-thousand Life Points in order to Special Summon a second Psychic Redactor from my deck in defense position!"

 **Divine: 2600 – 2000 = 600 LP**

Mercifully, Divine had chosen not to sacrifice the last officer to fuel his Trap's deadly effect. Yuzu, however, still flinched when Divine's mad book-keeper jumped through the portal before screaming at her and her monsters.

 **Psychic Redactor / LIGHT / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 500**

"Its effect activates when it is Special Summoned!" Divine continued. "I banish Psychic Dimension Breach from my graveyard in order to destroy Contralto the Melodious Songstress! GO! Mad Redaction!"

Leaping to the side, Yuzu barely managed to dodge the bolt of energy, which slammed into Contralto, obliterating the monster. However, pulling another card from her hand, Yuzu quickly recovered.

"I Special Summon Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress from my hand!" Yuzu declared as her Songstress with long hair and glasses appeared to her field while singing at a moderately high pitch.

 **Mezzo-Soprano the Melodious Songstress/ LIGHT/ level 4/ Fairy/ ATK 1500/ DEF 1000**

"Next," Yuzu continued, stretching her hand towards her monsters, "I overlay my Level four Mezzo-Soprano with my Level four Opera in order to Xyz Summon!"

Taking each other's hands, Mezzo-Soprano and Opera both transformed into a stream of golden light before draining into the center of an Xyz Portal as Yuzu commenced her summoning chant.

"Beautiful fairy who composes the songs of the heart, raise your baton to the air and touch the souls of all with your supreme genius! Xyz Shoukan! To the stage now! The unrivaled artist! Rank four! Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra!"

In an explosion of multi-colored light, Vivaldina twirled onto the field in her black dress, pony tails held up by her bass-cleft hair clips whipping around her face as she raised her baton into the air before opening her eyes and smiling with confidence.

 **Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Rank 4 / Fairy / Xyz / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 1000 / O. U. 2**

"Vivaldina no kouka!" Yuzu declared, "I detach an overlay unit from my monster in order to draw 1 card. Draw!"

Tearing a card from off the top of her deck, Yuzu glanced at the card, which was a copy of Canon, before deciding to add it to her hand without activating its effect.

"Next," Yuzu continued, revealing the card she had drawn at the start of the turn, "I Special Summon Sonata the Melodious Diva from my hand with her own effect! Come forth!" she ordered as her slim green-haired fairy pirouetted onto the field.

 **Sonata the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

"But Sonata won't be staying for long." Yuzu warned, "I activate the effect of Beethovina! Once per turn, I can tribute one 'Melodious' monster I control in order to Special Summon one Melodious Monster from my deck whose Level is one Level lower or one Level higher than the monster I tribute for this effect. I tribute my Sonata the Melodious Diva in order to Special Summon the tuner monster, Descant the Melodious Diva from my deck! Come forth!"

Rising from a blue portal with a burst of speed, as she beat her hummingbird-like fairy wings through the air, Yuzu's tuner, a petit fairy with short hazel hair, tied up into braids, a short, green top and skirt, which looked like they were woven from leaves, and a harp in her hand, which trailed gold dust, appeared to the field before joining her voice with the voices of Yuzu's other monsters.

 **Descant the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 2 / Fairy / Tuner / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 600**

"It's time!" Yuzu continued, bracelet growing brighter. "I tune my Level two Descant the Melodious Diva with my Level four Schuberta the Melodious Maestra in order to Synchro Summon!"

Hopping into Schuberta's arms, the petit Descant began singing in harmony with Schuberta, strumming her harp as she did so, before Schuberta flung Descant into the air, where she flapped her hummingbird wings a few times before morphing into a pair of synchro rings and encircling Schuberta as Yuzu began her summoning chant.

"With your baton stained with your tears, compose a new song that shall bring forth comfort and catharsis! Synchro Shoukan! Humbly take the stage now! The song of Tragedy! Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra!"

In a burst of light and music, Yuzu's second synchro monster a fairy with Long curly bouncy black hair tied into a ponytail with a large red ribbon, somber blood-red eyes, porcelain skin, and cherry red lips, rose onto the field on top of a blooming black lotus. Tchaikovska wore a black ballroom dress styled with green and bronze patterns, with a large red ribbon on the front of the bust, and another larger ribbon of red fabric on the rear. In her right hand, she carried a large black conductor's baton, dripping with what looked like tears.

 **Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra / LIGHT / Level 6 / Fairy / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000**

"The effect of Descant the Melodious Diva activates since it was used as a Synchro Material for a Synchro Summon!" Yuzu continued, placing her hand on top of her deck, "I get to draw one card from my deck and reveal it, and if it is a Melodious Monster, I can add 1 Melodious Monster from my graveyard to my hand! Sara! Lend me your power now!" she called to her inner spirit, determined to end the duel.

In response to her call, Yuzu felt a sudden surge of power well up within her before gathering at the end of her hand, until an aura of black shadow formed at the tip of her fingers.

 _"_ _Dark…!"_ Ti'ika Sara called from within Yuzu.

"…DRAW!" Yuzu roared, tearing off the card from the top of her deck.

Slowly turning the card around, Yuzu examined the card, a puzzled expression coming over her face.

Dark Tuner Corruption Seed.

"What is this?" Yuzu asked her spirit, wondering why Sara had helped her draw the card.

 _"_ _A tool."_ Sara replied simply. _"When it is time to use it, call upon me, and I will show you how."_

"What do you mean when it's time!?" Yuzu hissed, "I need to defeat Divine now!"

 _"_ _Look,"_ Sara sighed, _"I'm not trying to be rude, but…there's no way you can defeat Divine right now. Our best bet is to prepare for the turn when we can."_

"You've given up on me?" Yuzu groaned, feeling her heart plummet.

 _"_ _Oh, I know we'll win."_ Sara replied, _"I just need to prepare you first. Just trust me. I_ will _unlock our full potential."_

Closing her eyes, Yuzu sighed before showing the card to Divine and continuing with her turn. Very well then. She had reached out to Sara, hoping that the spirit actually would help her, only to be disappointed. She could move on from this. She could win this duel without the spirit's help.

"I activate the effect of Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra!" Yuzu declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "Once per turn, I can send one LIGHT Fairy-Type monster from my graveyard in order to target one card my opponent controls and destroy it! I send Schopina the Melodious Maestra from my deck to the graveyard in order to destroy Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation! GO! Melodic Cannonade!"

Raising her baton and left hand into the air, Tchaikovska puffed out her chest before summoning a garden of large black lotus flowers, which opened up to reveal the barrels of cannons sprouting from the center of their brass-colored interiors. Conducting the cannons, Tchaikovska directed a barrage of artillery fire into Divine's deadly continuous trap card, destroying it.

"The continuous effects of both Tchaikovska and Vivaldina are also applied." Yuzu continued, "Tchaikovksa increases the ATK and DEF of all other Fairy-Type monsters I control by 500, while Vivaldina gives all Fairy-Type Monsters I control an additional 200 ATK!"

 **Beethovina: 2800 + 500 + (3 X 200) + 200 = 4100 ATK**

 **Tchaikovska: 2400 + 600 + 200 = 3200 ATK**

 **Vivaldina: 1800 + 500 + (3 X 200) + 200 = 3100 ATK**

"Battle!" Yuzu declared, "I attack Overmind Daemon with Beethovina the Melodious Maestra!"

"Psychic Gravity Well's effect!" Divine countered, stretching his hand towards Yuzu. Immediately, both Yuzu and Beethovina began struggling against an invisible force, as Divine pushed them back with his telekinetic powers. "My opponent's non-Psychic monsters cannot attack unless one-thousand life points are payed for each attack!"

"I WILL PAY THE COST!" Yuzu roared, feeling energy drain from her as she forcefully pushed back against Divine's barrier, causing Divine to flinch with pain as his invisible barrier broke with a flash of electrical energy.

 **Yuzu 1800 – 1000 = 800 LP**

Freed from the barrier, Beethovina charged forward with her baton raised against Overmind Daemon, who charged back at her with a roar, raising his own immense Psychic Blade into the air, preparing to cleave her in two.

"Score the Melodious Diva's effect!" Yuzu declared, "I discard this card from my hand in order to change Overmind Daemon's ATK to zero!"

Just as Overmind Daemon was about to bisect Beethovina with his blade, Score suddenly swooped down, creating a magical road of light, which blocked the blade before allowing to Beethovina to climb up on the other side and point her baton at Overmind Daemon's snarling face.

 **Overmind Daemon: 5300 – 5300 = 0 ATK**

"Silent Masterpiece!" Yuzu ordered, prompting Beethovina to fire a blast of wind and music into the face of Overmind Daemon, creating a hole that pierced through its head and through its lower back.

Then, without suddenly fading away, the monster slumped over with a groan, blood pouring from the hole in its body. Blinking, Yuzu suddenly recalled what Rin had said about Psychic duelists summoning real monsters. Mercifully, Overmind Daemon's corpse slowly faded away into mist, leaving pools of blood on the ground.

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" two duel disks proclaimed as the last Security officers with Divine stepped into the duel simultaneously, before each getting crushed by Psychic Gravity Well as Divine scrambled to save what was left of his life points.

 **F-058: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **K-456: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Divine: (600 + 2000 + 2000) = 4600 LP**

Raising her baton into the air, Beethovina shot a blast of energy into Divine's face, knocking the murderous psychic duelist out of the air and into the ground, where he crashed with a loud groan of pain.

 **Divine: 4600 – 4100 = 500 LP**

Divine slowly struggled back onto his feet, limbs still sparking with energy.

"Overmind Daemon's effect activates since it was destroyed." Divine declared, raising his hand into the air before firing a bolt of energy into the sky and opening up a portal. "I Special Summon the Space-Time Police I banished with Overmind Daemon's effect! Return to me now!" He ordered as his futuristic police officer reappeared to the field.

 **Space-Time Police / WIND / Level 5 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2300 / DEF 1500**

"Space-Time Police no kouka!" Divine declared, "I banish Beethovina the Melodious Maestra!"

Stonily, Yuzu watched as her lead Maestra vanished into a swirling space-time portal, leaving her alone with her Vivaldina and Tchaikovska. Looking down at her life points with a sickening feeling, she realized that she could do no more.

She had failed to save any of the officers.

There was only one hope now.

"Defeat him." She whispered to Rin, who nodded her head in reply.

"Turn end." Yuzu concluded with sorrow. "At this time, Quartet's effect activates and I Special Summon her from my graveyard in defense position.

 **Quartet the Melodious Songstress: 400 + 500 + 200 + (200 X 3) = 1700 DEF**

Once Quartet had taken up position on Yuzu's field, Rin stepped forward.

"My turn…" Rin declared, silently placing her hand on top of her deck, before glancing back at Miss Kimura and the orphan children she had grown up, who were looking at her with a mixture of awe, hope, and fear.

 _"_ _I feel your compassion and fear for them."_ Yene rumbled from within her, _"Yuzu has given us an opening. We must strike now with all our power if we are to finish off this villain once and for all! Are you ready!?"_

"I swear to protect the people I love." Rin replied, placing her fingers on top of her disk. "I will not let any enemy, Academia, Security, or anyone else, harm them!"

 _"_ _Dark…!"_ Yene called from within her activating his power.

"DRAW!" Rin called, ripping a card from the top of her deck, with a stream of shadow erupting from the tips of her fingers.

"Magic card activate!" Rin declared, slamming down the card she had drawn, "Dark Tuning! I tribute my Synthphonist Bassoonist in order to add Dark Tuner Abyss Light from my deck to my hand before Special Summoning Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel from my graveyard with its ATK and DEF changed to 0! Return now!"

Rising up from a black portal, Rin's synchro monster re-entered the duel field, instruments lighting up as her inner robotic parts whirred to life.

 **Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel / WIND / Level 9 / Psychic / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Next," Rin continued, "since I control a Synchro Monster, I discard my Dark Tuner Abyss Light in order to activate Dark Synchro Mirror! I target my Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel in order to Special Summon two monsters from my deck, one Dark Tuner and one non-Dark Tuner, whose total levels equal the level of Marvel! Come forth now! The Level seven Dark Tuner, Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom and the Level two non-Dark Tuner, Synthphonist Violist!"

In front of Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, a large, black, full-body mirror shimmered into existence before perfectly reflecting the image of Marvel. Looking into the mirror, Rin and Yuzu watched as the reflection of Marvel slowly melted away before reforming into the image of Synthphonist Violist, and the ghostly electric eel of Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom. Stepping through the dark glass of the mirror like it was water, the physical bodies of the two monsters entered the field before the mirror vanished.

 **Synthphonist Violist / WIND / Level 2 / Psychic / Gemini / Tuner / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 1100**

 **Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom / WIND / Level 7 / Thunder / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0**

"Now that she is on the field," Rin continued, stretching her hand towards Violist, "I'll use my normal summon for this turn to unlock the effects of Synthphonist Violist! Synthphonist Awakening!"

Grinning, Synthphonist Violist sparked with electricity, blue, beauty mark chip below her eye blinking with light while her mechanical hand morphed into a combination viola/broadsword, slightly larger than Violinist's weapon, and looking much to big for the petit monster to wield effectively. Nevertheless, with surprising strength, Violist hefted the broadsword up to her chin before detaching a metal viola bow from her peg leg and raising it to the instrumental weapon.

"I next activate Violists effect!" Rin declared, "Up to thrice per turn, I can target one monster I control in order to increase or decrease its Level by one. I use this effect on Violist once in order to decrease her own Level by one, before targeting Marvel twice to increase her Level by two! Synthphonist Re-tuning!"

Sliding the bow of her viola back-and-forth against the strings of her instrument, Violist generated an aura of green energy, which surrounded both herself and Marvel as their levels began to change.

 **Synthphonist Violist: Level 1**

 **Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel: Level 11**

"It's time!" Rin declared, "I Dark Tune my Level seven Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom with my Level one Synthphonist Violist in order to Dark Synchro Summon!"

Roaring, Chaos Maelstrom exploded into a shower of seven black stars, which embedded themselves into Synthphonist Violist, who began thrashing about in pain before stilling and fading away, leaving six black stars which began orbiting an area of empty space as Rin began her summoning chant.

"Endowed with the power of gods who rule over a world with no light, rise up from the abyss now to smite my enemy with your icy fury! DARK SYNCHRO! Arawayo! Level negative six! Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie!"

The stars exploded into a column of black light, through which Rin's polar-bear fur clad mermaid warrior with the lower body of a leopard seal, swam out onto the field. Twirling her whale-bone spear above her head before pointing it in Divine's direction, she sent a blast of freezing air directly into the psychic duelist, knocking him back a few feet.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie / WATER / Level -6 / Aqua / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2500**

"The effect of Chaos Maelstrom now activates!" Rin continued, as an ethereal image of her ghostly eel appeared above Selkie's head. "For the rest of this turn, if a Dark Synchro Monster I control battles, the effects of the opponent's monster are negated and its ATK and DEF are changed to zero!"

"Futhermore," Rin continued, "the effect of Violist also activates. Since she was removed from the field, I can target my Level eleven Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel in order to increase my Life Points by her Level times one-hundred, before increasing the ATK and DEF of Marvel by the amount of Life Points I gained!"

Above Marvel and Rin's head, the ghostly form of Viola reappeared before the diminutive cyborg began playing her viola broadsword, causing both Rin and Marvel to glow with green light.

 **Rin 2000 + (11 X 100) = 3100 LP**

 **Marvel 0 + 1100 = 1100 DEF**

"BATLLE!" Rin roared, eyes and marks burning with green light, "I pay one-thousand Life Points in order to attack and destroy Hyper Psychic Blaster with Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie! Polar Hunting!"

 **Rin 3100 – 1000 = 2100 LP**

Rocketing forward like a missile, Rin's Geo Selkie swam towards Hyper Psychic Blaster with her whale-bone spear raised, grey lines of power along her body flaring with light as the effect of Chaos Maelstrom activated, causing Hyper Psychic Blaster to groan with pain as it become enveloped in an aura of shadow.

 **Hyper Psychic Blaster: 0 ATK (Effects Negated)**

With a savage roar, Geo Selkie pierced through the body of Hyper Psychic Blaster, blood and viscera from the cyborg staining her spear and face before the rest of the monster's physical remains faded from existence. Raising her spear above her head once the work was done, Selkie rose into the air, a murderous look in her eyes, before charging down at Divine to deliver the finishing blow.

"This is it!" Rin thought as she watched. "With this, this duel will finally-…"

A scream from Yuzu suddenly grabbed her attention. Looking to where Yuzu was staring, Rin's breath left her when she spied a young girl, no older than eleven, with a blinking chip in her forehead, charging onto the duel field, a legion of dozens more civilians shambling behind her.

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!" the girls duel disk sang as Divine reached out with his hand, lifting the child into the air.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Yuzu cried, charging forward, eyes and marks glowing a deep blood-red.

Instinctively, Rin found herself charging forward as well, black electricity crackling against her body.

 **Akako: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

With a roar, Rin unleashed a bolt of black lightning into Divine, who shot back a bolt of telekinetic energy of his own from his free hand before performing a crushing motion with the hand holding up the girl.

 **Akako: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

 **Divine 500 + 2000 = 2500 LP**

Rin's bolt of energy struck Divine just as his struck her, sending them both flying backwards. Tears streaming from her eyes, Rin could only watch as the little girl's body slowly began to compact when-…

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yuzu screamed, slamming into the girl and wrenching her free from the telekinetic grip before flinging her out of the duel field. She had not pulled the legs of the girl free from the telekinetic crush in time to spare them from being mangled, but the rest of the girl had been spared. She was writhing and screaming on the ground, mind control unable to inhibit her pain or reflexes, but she was alive. Enraged, Divine made a swiping motion at Yuzu with his hand, sending her flying backwards as she was struck by a blast of telekinetic energy, before Geo Selkie slammed her spear into Divine from overhead.

 **Divine: 2500 – 2000 = 500 LP**

Rin slowly got up from the ground, feeling slight twinges of pain despite her undeath blocking most feeling. Staring up at the legions of civilians pouring out from every corner of the neighborhood to stand just behind Divine, Rin felt her heart sink into a bottomless abyss.

 _"_ _Unforgivable! Utterly unforgivable!"_ She heard Yene rage from within her, _"This duelist has absolutely no semblance of honor! COWARD! Hiding behind the bodies of mortal men, women, and children like this!? I was even trying to hold back for the sake of his mortality giving him a disadvantage against us! Rin! We must hold no punches now! Now is the time to-…"_

"Turn end." Rin wept, sinking to her knees in utter despair. He had won. He had finally beaten them. She had wanted to think she could be strong, to think that she could do what was necessary to beat Roger and Academia, and save her dimension, but this was too much. She couldn't beat Sayer now, not if it meant carving a bloody path through every innocent civilian Roger had taken control of.

 _"_ _Rin?"_ Yene called from within, _"Rin?"_

…

From his control room, Roger was laughing hysterically.

"Useless!" he roared, "Your struggle is utterly, utterly useless! Oh, to think that I had this asset under my thumb after I took control, and that I never exploited it! Why did I waste time with Sergey? Gallagher must have really made efforts to keep this one hidden from me. Could he have been hoping to use him against me? But no, he didn't have the means to make use of him like I could. Still, probably best to arrest him anyway. Psychic Gravity Well…such a genius Field Spell! I can't believe I didn't come up with the concept! Still, I doubt Sayer ever thought to use it like this! I'll need to mass produce it once this is over! Once I crush the Dark Signers, I'll have an army of immortal psychics to rule this, and every other dimension!"

He continued ranting to himself in this manner, the other staff members in the control room quietly working at their computers, not daring to interrupt him.

…


	32. Part 1: Chapter 15 (Part 3)

**Welcome back everyone! This time, the update time is much quicker (hope this doesn't create too high of expectations!) When we last updated, Rin and Yuzu dominated the faceless, characterless mooks, who suddenly became the object of everyone's sympathy the second Divine and Roger use them the way one ought to treat a worthless object! Funny how one's perspective can change so quickly, isn't it?**

 **And speaking of perspective, this chapter will be exploring quite a number of perspectives from different characters. So brace yourself, pull out a notepad to take notes, freshen yourself up on your knowledge of past YGO series, and Incan mythology, and pull up excerpts from the other chapters, because this chapter is going to be PACKED with info! Looking forward to hearing some of your reviews/fan theories at the end of this. Without further ado, enjoy.**

 **Part 1: Chapter 15 – Mark of the Hero (Part 3)**

Divine slowly got to his feet, the scars of his face twisted into a monstrous expression.

"My turn…DRAW!" Divine roared, ripping a card from the top of his deck before stretching his hand towards his continuous Spell Card.

"Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse no kouka!" Divine declared, "I add two of my banished Psychic Cards to my hand!"

 _"_ _Rin…you can't give up now! You can't let him win!"_ Yene urged his companion. _"Think of the people you are protecting! Be their hero now!"_

Rin looked back at Miss Kimura and her fellow orphans before getting to her feet and stretching her hand towards her face-down.

"I WON'T LET YOU!" She roared at Divine, "COUNTER TRAP! SYNTHPHONIST PERFORMANCE! I negate the activation of Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse's effect and shuffle it into your deck! I will also use the graveyard effect of Synthphonist Performance to set another Synthphonist Spell or Trap Card from my deck!"

Rising up, Rin's Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel fired a blast of sound from the instruments on her back into Divine's Trap Card, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks before Divine was forced to shuffle it back into his deck.

"Useless!" Divine roared, when he had recovered from the shockwave. "I tribute my Mad Redactor in order to tribute summon Dimensional Pathfinder! Come forth!"

Descending onto the field was a hooded cyborg with glowing purple orbs protruding from each of its joints. Its eyes were a single red robotic line, which seemed to scan the field, and its mouth was covered with what looked like a gas mask.

 **Dimensional Pathfinder / DARK / Level 6 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 1900**

"Once per turn," Divine continued, stretching his hand towards his monster, which began glowing with purple energy, "I can pay one-thousand life points in order to use Dimensional Pathfinder's effect to add two of my banished cards to my hand."

"No! NO! NO! NOOOOOO!" Yuzu screamed, getting back on her feet and charging at Divine. Rin was also getting on her feet, preparing to fight against the effect of Divine's field spell, but this time, the psychic duelist was ready, launching out both his hands and throwing the two Dark Signers back into the rubble of the orphanage before mercilessly crushing a middle-aged woman who shambled into the duel.

 **Mikasa: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Divine: (500 + 2000) – 1000 = 1500 LP**

"I add the spell cards, Psychic Feel Zone and Psychic Fusion Zone to my hand." Divine declared, holding up his hand and catching a pair of cards that flew into his palm. "And with that done, I will activate them! Psychic Feel Zone no kouka! With this card's effect, I can return two of my Psychic Monsters, one Tuner and one non-Tuner, to my graveyard before Special Summoning one Psychic Synchro Monster, whose level is equal to the total levels of the returned monsters, from my Extra Deck in defense position!"

Above Divine's head, a glowing green portal opened up, through which the ethereal forms of Armored Axon Kicker and Krebons appeared before descending into a black graveyard portal.

"Return to my field now!" Divine ordered, throwing out his hand and firing a bolt of energy into the air, creating a dimensional tear, "Thought Tyrant Daemon!"

With a roar, Divine's skeletal demon with glowing electric claws and bones reappeared to the field, creating a crater as it landed heavily in front of divine before enfolding itself protectively in its demonic wings.

 **Thought Tyrant Daemon: DEF 2300**

"I equip Thought Tyrant Daemon with the Telekinetic Charging Cell in my hand," Divine continued, causing the energy field of rings to reappear around his monster. "and I will continue my turn by activating the other spell card I added to my hand! Psychic Fusion Zone!"

"Great, so Roger gave you a fusion card as well." Rin growled, as Divine's spell projected a Fusion Portal with a greenish tint into the air.

"Incorrect." Divine replied without emotion. "This unit had discovered the secrets of Fusion Summons long before entering into public service."

"What?" Yuzu asked, incredulously, "But how?"

Divine did not answer.

"The effect of Psychic Fusion Zone enables me to banish Psychic-Type monsters from my graveyard in order to Fusion Summon." Divine explained, raising his hand into the air, "With this effect, I banish Overmind Daemon and Armored Axon Kicker in order to Fusion Summon!"

The ethereal images of Divine's monsters rose from a black graveyard portal before swirling into the center of the green-tinted fusion portal in the sky. Crackling with energy, Divine's body rose into the air once again as he commenced his summoning chant.

"Demon who rules over the mind itself, genetically engineered super-soldier with mental powers, transform your collective rage into strength and unleash your fury against those of lower intelligence! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Exterminate the lesser minds! Level ten! Ultimate Axon Kicker!"

In an explosion of lightning, Divine's fusion monster descended from the portal before entering the field. Appearance-wise, the monster looked fairy similar to Thought Tyrant Daemon, but its lower body was more serpentine, and the horns on the sides of its head were more tube-like in appearance. Intense energy crackled all over the surface of the demon's body, some errant bolts of electricity striking random spots of ground as the monster stared down at Yuzu and Rin, who had just barely managed to get back on their feet.

 **Ultimate Axon Kicker / LIGHT / Level 10 / Psychic / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2900 / DEF 1700**

"Battle!" Divine roared, not giving his opponents a moment to rest. "Ultimate Axon Kicker will attack the defense position Quartet the Melodious Songstress! Its effect enables it to inflict piercing damage while also enabling me to gain Life Points equal to the attack of the monster it destroyed! GO! Axon Obliteration!"

Yuzu's eyes widened as Divine's demon let out a savage roar before darting forward like a snake, immense claws crackling with electricity as it reached out for Quartet the Melodious Songstress.

"Please tell me that the card you gave me can counter this!" Yuzu mentally shouted at Sara, looking in vain for some hidden effect within the text of the useless dark tuner.

 _"_ _You're the one who used up Score last turn!"_ Sara complained. _"I just wanted you to hold tight and strategically wait till the opportune moment presented itself! Not waste our life points on a pointless attack!"_

"SARA!" The voice of Yene suddenly exploded from Rin as the two of them stretched their hand towards their graveyard before speaking in unison.

" _WE ACTIVATE THE EFFECT OF DARK TUNER ABYSS LIGHT IN OUR GRAVEYARD!"_ Rin and Yene proclaimed as a ghostly jellyfish with glowing tentacles and an angler-fish lure on the top of its hood appeared to the field. _"If an opponent's monster declares an attack, we can banish this card from our graveyard in order to change the attack target to our Geo Selkie while making it so that our monster cannot be destroyed by that battle! GO! Abyss Lure!"_

Before Ultimate Axon Kicker could complete its attack, its attention was suddenly caught by the ghostly glow of Dark Tuner Abyss Light. Eyes turning the same pale white as the Dark Tuner's lights, Ultimate Axon Kicker advanced forward as if in a trance, before striking at Rin's Geo Selkie, who blocked the strike with her spear.

 **Rin: 2100 – 900 = 1200 LP**

This seemed to get Divine's attention. Turning his head towards Yuzu's counterpart, he furiously pointed a finger at her.

"Space-Time Police will attack and destroy Geo Selkie!" he roared. "GO! Space-Time erasure!"

Charging forward, Divine's Space-Time Police cracked Rin's Geo Selkie against her head, causing the Dark Synchro monster to explode in a shower of sparks before knocking Rin back as she took the damage.

 **Rin 1200 – 300 = 900 LP**

"Finally," Divine continued, "Dimensional Pathfinder will destroy Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, your last monster! Dimensional Clearing!"

Orbs glowing, Divine's Dimensional Pathfinder fired a blast of multi-colored energy into Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel, which consumed the cyborg woman before exploding in a brilliant blast of light, knocking both Rin and Yuzu flat on their backs.

"The turn ends now." Divine concluded, "And I am forced to pay the cost of Psychic Gravity Well, or at least…" he turned his head towards a teenage boy shambling onto the duel field, "…someone else is."

Before Yuzu or Rin could even get back on their feet, the death-toll call of a little boy's duel disk announced his intrusion, draining the kid's life points before Divine finished him off with one swift crushing motion of his hand.

 **Yasuo: 2000 – 2000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Divine: (1500 + 2000) – 2000 = 1500 LP**

Yuzu stared helplessly at the crushed bodies littering the ground around Divine before looking up at Rin, who had gotten to her feet, the glow of Yene still in her eyes. Somehow, despite the hopelessness of their situation, despite all the death surrounding them, she…a sudden thought occurred to her as she remembered the voice of Yene…they, she and her inner spirit, had found the strength to get back on their feet, keep fighting, and even save their teammate when Yuzu and Sara had done nothing but bicker when defeat looked inevitable.

Sara seemed to pick up on what Yuzu was thinking.

 _"_ _I hate him."_ Ti'ika Sara admitted, appearing next to Yuzu as the entire world darkened before she was kneeling inside the dark realm the little god inhabited. _"But I will admit…he's good at working with others. He and that girl have a good relationship."_ She mumbled, looking glumly at the ground.

Yuzu stared at the tiny little girl, who, even when standing up while Yuzu knelt, only came up to her shoulder in height.

 _"_ _Cavillace was the only one who ever liked me."_ Sara went on, angrily kicking at the empty ground, _"And that was only because I was her sister. Hardly anyone even speaks to me, except to tease me…or shove me away."_

She glanced at Yuzu before hanging her head down again, eyes closed as a single tear dropped from them before splashing against the surface of the black mist.

 _"_ _Why did Ch'askancha choose me?"_ she asked, looking off into the distance. _"I can't do this…I'm not Cavillace! Cavillace was strong, and powerful, and beautiful! She and Akllasisa became one of the strongest Dark Signers ever to be created! How am I supposed to do what she did?"_

Yuzu blinked at this. She had never seen Sara like this, Egyptian Gods…she had rarely seen the spirit at all, much less spoken with her. She suddenly felt the urge to learn more.

"Who's Cavillace?" Yuzu asked.

Sara seemed to suddenly notice Yuzu kneeling next to her. Hastily wiping away some tears from her face, she turned her back to her.

 _"_ _My sister."_ Sara curtly replied. _"And why do you care?"_

"I don't know." Yuzu sighed, getting to her feet before continuing. "All of this is still so confusing for me. Just this morning, I thought I was dead, and then suddenly, Ruri brings me back from the dead, and before I know it, I have you living inside me, telling me I should do all these things. But I don't know you, Sara. You've rarely told me anything about yourself. I want to believe you came to me for a purpose; I want to believe that you can help me save the dimensions, like Yene is helping Rin to do, but we can't work together unless we can trust each other."

Ti'ika Sara turned around before looking up at Yuzu, a frown on her young face.

 _"_ _Why can't you trust me?"_ she pouted, _"It's not like I've done anything mean to you. Why can't anyone figure out that things would be better if they just did what I said!?"_ She continued, comically tearing at her long black hair and stamping on the ground like a six-year-old. Oddly enough, Yuzu felt herself smile at this.

"You can't expect people to just do what you tell them." Yuzu replied, feeling like a mother gently scolding a wayward child. "Especially when they don't know you."

 _"_ _So, what am I supposed to do!?"_ Sara whined. _"Let everyone else be stupid, just because they don't like me!?"_

"I never said I didn't like you." Yuzu replied, "But you can start getting more people to like and trust you, if you open up and try to be their friend."

Ti'ika Sara blinked at her, looking confused.

 _"_ _But I keep telling you."_ She sniffled, _"Nobody likes me. You're no different. You hate me too. You don't listen to me, you ignore me, you shove my card in your pocket…why should I even try to be your friend if you won't be mine?"_

Yuzu closed her eyes and sighed.

"You are right, Sara." She replied, "I haven't been fair to you. In my defense, I was dealing with so much strangeness, that I just didn't know what to do with you. But I am willing to try again. Please, will you give me a chance to know you better? The people I love are in great danger. We have to work together if we are gonna stand a chance at protecting them."

Sara looked away.

 _"_ _You just want to use my power to save those mortals."_ She moped. _"You don't really care about me."_

"And what about you?" Yuzu asked, "Do you have anyone you want to protect?"

At this, Ti'ika Sara looked up with an utterly shocked expression. Lips trembling, she quickly began to cry, tears pouring from her solid black eyes.

"Cavillace…" she wept, "…why?"

Before Yuzu knew it, the child god had wrapped her arms around her legs, face buried in her waist as she cried. Hesitantly, Yuzu reached out her hand to pat the little goddess on the shoulder for comfort.

The second her finger brushed against the little girl's shoulder, a vision suddenly took hold of her.

 _A tall, beautiful girl with her same solid black eyes was laughing with her as she sat on her lap, their mother, a middle-aged woman with skin as hard and strong as an oak tree, watching over them in the distance. Cavillace was teaching her how to use her powers to encourage growth in plant life. She was having fun opening the petals of a flower, and was just about to show her sister, when someone began approaching them._

 _"_ _Matriarch!" she heard her mother and sister exclaim before hastily bowing to the figure, her sister pushing her into the ground so that she was bowing to the figure as well._

 _"_ _Cavillace." The figure said from up above. "I would speak with you alone. Pacha, you and your other daughter will leave."_

 _"_ _Come, Sara!" her mom hastily barked, taking her by the hand and leading her off while Cavillace and the Matriarch began speaking. She was feeling very sad, and a little annoyed. Why couldn't the Matriarch visit some other time?_

 _"_ _Mommy? What does the Matriarch want with sister?" she asked._

 _"_ _Hush now, Sara!" her mother replied, "Ours is not to question the will of our creator!"_

 _"_ _But-…" she objected, before mother cut her off._

 _"_ _Be silent!" she ordered, and so she silently stewed, wondering when the Matriarch would leave so she could show her sister the flower she had opened._

 _…_

 _Their home was gone now. The fields of flowers, trees, and grass had been taken from them. All that was left to her, and the other gods imprisoned with her, was the empty void ruled by Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl's brother and their eternal jailor._

 _Her original body was gone as well. She and the other gods imprisoned here had begun to slowly fade, their bodies branded by the marks of their imprisonment. Feeling an ache, she began to rub one of the lines of energy running along her arm. She and the other gods were covered from head to toe by these marks, the marks of the Earthbound. Like tattoos, they would not come off, and worse yet, the marks served to weaken them, slowly, over aeon after aeon of endless time._

 _It was a miserable existence they led now, locked up to slowly fade away. All her fellow gods had fought desperately against their enemies to prevent this from happening, all the gods, that is, except the young ones like Ti'ika Sara._

 _The other gods hated her. They blamed her for being too young and stupid to be of any use in the war. But they were the stupid ones. They were the ones who had gotten them all sealed away in the Underworld. She had spent her time trying to figure out ways they could escape, but none of the other gods wanted to listen to her, choosing, instead, to ignore her very existence, save for the occasional kick in the side or foul curse. Even mother wanted little to do with her, shamed as she was by being associated with Ti'ika Sara, the useless goddess._

 _The only one left who she could talk to now was Cavillace._

 _"_ _Sara," Cavillace called to her as she picked at a fleck of black mist. "come here, we need to talk."_

 _She turned her head and smiled at her sister, but Cavillace did not smile back, her face had a haunted glow to it, as if something were weighing down on her._

 _"_ _What is it, sister?" Sara asked as she sat on her older sister's lap. "Why do you look so sad?"_

 _Cavillace bit her lower lip, looking hesitant to approach the subject. Finally, with a sigh, she began._

 _"_ _Matriarch Ch'askancha has managed to negotiate with Tezcatlipoca." Cavillace began, "The Crimson Devil feels cheated by his brother, and wants to take revenge on him and the dragon race. He has agreed to open the gates of our prison and join our strongest in battle against Eien's fragments and their minion gods."_

 _She felt her heart lighten at the news._

 _"_ _This is wonderful!" she exclaimed, "We'll finally be free!"_

 _"_ _Father is joining them." Cavillace warned. "He will be on the front lines, battling against our enemies."_

 _"_ _But he will win, right?" she asked._

 _Cavillace remained silent._

 _"_ _Right?" she repeated when her sister didn't answer._

 _Cavillace began weeping._

 _…_

 _Her head was buried in her sister's chest as they wept together. Deep in the background, they could hear their mother's voice as she shrieked into the darkness with madness, cursing Eien, her fragments, Horakhty, Zorc, and Armityle, the new creation goddess, Kaishi, and her mortal reincarnation, the destroyer god, Owari, and his mortal reincarnation, Quetzalcoatl the dragon father, and thousands of other foes who had struck down their father and the army he had joined._

 _…_

 _Ti'ika was standing beside her sister and mother, holding Cavillace's hand while legions of other gods stood at attention as the great matriarch addressed them. Things had changed since the last war. For starters, she and Cavillace had grown a little older. Sara was beginning to grow a little more powerful, not like Cavillace, of course, but still, it had come as a pleasant shock to Sara to see how much her powers had grown. Another big change was the bundle tied to Cavillace's back, containing her newborn child._

 _She had been surprised to learn of her sister's pregnancy. In the beginning, she had tried to ask how it had happened, but it was a topic Cavillace ignored, and which mother seemed to hate. It must have really bothered mother, because Sara could not recall another time when Cavillace had been yelled at and beaten so fiercely._

 _Cavillace had weathered the abuse and gone on to raise the infant god, a healthy child with solid black eyes like theirs and a clear blue orb of moon rock embedded in his forehead. Cavillace had kept the child, Huaca, away from mother, but let Sara play with him sometimes. Sara liked Huaca, but she seemed to be in the minority._

 _Some of the gods surrounding them were whispering silent gossip. Following the various conversations, Sara picked up phrases like, "Dishonored her father." Coniraya's whelp." and, "The goddess who swallowed the moon god's fruit."_

 _Sara would have to see if she could find the moon god, Coniraya, and ask him about the rumors. He had once been friendly to herself and her sister, but now he was distant. Like Sara, he was not liked by many of the gods, who considered him to be of low station. It was one of the things that made him appealing to Sara. He did not act too important to speak with her, or at least, not before Cavillace gave birth._

 _The other gods quickly grew silent when the Matriarch began to address them._

 _"_ _The enchantments of our prison grow ever weaker." Ch'askancha proclaimed, "While the reincarnations of Eien, Owari, and Kaishi foolishly fight against one another, splitting themselves and the universe into pieces over and over again, our isolated underworld prison has remained aloof from the repeated calamities, protected by its detachment from the rest of the universe! Quetzalcoatl thwarted our attempts to escape and conquer one of the universe's fragments, but he has grown arrogant in his victory! Even now, the human allies he has called to his aid grow corrupted by their pride! They have oppressed their fellow mortals, and now, those oppressed have come to me, seeking aid! I have answered their cries, and in answering them, have devised a way by which we may finally achieve our freedom! By inhabiting the bodies of these humans, you, my creations, shall walk the mortal plane once again to bring vengeance to our fallen kin!"_

 _A deafening clamor rose up against this proclamation as legions of gods demanded to be the first to inhabit the bodies. Quietly, the Matriarch listened to the pleas of her creations with a regal expression on her face, patient but aloof from their clamor._

 _Then, mother stepped forward._

 _"_ _I offer myself to perform this task!" Mother declared, staring boldly up at the Matriarch. "I, Pacha, Goddess of plant life and earthquakes will inhabit the body of one of these humans and lead our forces against Quetzalcoatl and his cursed civilization!"_

 _"_ _No." Ch'askancha quietly replied. "You will not."_

 _"_ _But-…!" their mother objected, before the Matriarch held up a hand, instantly silencing her._

 _"_ _I have already chosen those who will lead these humans." The Matriarch coolly replied, dismissing mother with a wave of her hand. "Your judgement is too clouded by a desire for personal revenge and so you will not be suited for this task."_

 _Mother bowed her head before slowly beginning to withdraw, shamed in the presence of all the other gods, who began murmuring amongst one another. Amongst the various whispers, she thought she caught more than one god mutter, "Mother of a useless goddess." And "Whore-mother."_

 _The gods quieted as the matriarch called out the names of six powerful gods, one of them being Tezcatlipoca himself, who had fully allied with their cause, and now shared the marks of their curse. Once they had all stepped forward, the Matriarch continued to speak._

 _"_ _Those I have chosen to inhabit these first humans will not be the only ones to participate in this battle. In time, I foresee other humans joining us. Some will, like these humans, be worthy to bear our power. I have chosen others among you who will act as a reserve force. When the time is right, you will join your brethren in possessing a human to carry out our will. The chosen will step forward now."_

 _The Matriarch began listing other names, causing mother to look up with hope, however, her name was never called. Next to her, Sara could feel her sister's grip around her hand tightening._

 _There was a pause from The Matriarch as several dozen more gods approached her stand before bowing to her in respect. Then, subtly glancing over to where Sara and her family were standing, the Matriarch called out one more name._

 _"_ _Cavillace Muru."_

 _Sara felt herself go numb._

 _Don't go! Please! Don't go!_

 _Slowly, Cavillace's grip around her hand loosened. Taking the bundle from her back, she quietly stroked Huaca's head before handing the bundle to Ti'ika Sara and withdrawing, face a stony, emotionless mask._

 _Sara stared at Huaca, who began squirming uncomfortably._

 _This was wrong._

 _Huaca needed Cavillace._

She _needed Cavillace!_

 _"_ _NO! STOP!" Sara cried as she held the bundle, causing some of the other gods near them to laugh or growl with anger before her mother clamped her hand around her mouth with an angry hiss._

 _"_ _I accept the call, Matriarch." Cavillace proclaimed before joining the other gods by humbly prostrating herself before Ch'askancha in a deep bow._

 _Sara could only watch, tears coming to her eyes as she silently begged the great Matriarch to make sure her sister came back._

 _…_

 _Mother was crying again._

 _The Matriarch had told them that they had won a great victory against Quetzalcoatl, whose civilization had been destroyed. Yes, Quetzalcoatl had managed to delay their plans, but the Matriarch's own human, Qhawa, had survived the war, and would lead the other humans who had joined their side, until they achieved final victory._

 _Sara hadn't cared._

 _She had been surprised when news of her sister's destruction didn't cause her to cry, like it had with father. She had thought she would cry until the Underworld itself filled with water. Instead, all her feelings seemed to just…die._

 _Huaca had not been there to cry for his mother. Mother had sent Cavillace's child away to be taken care of by some lesser gods. Sara had objected. Cavillace had given her the child to raise, but mother had silenced her, calling her too young, and stupid, and useless to care for the bastard. She had not even allowed Sara to visit the child, so she didn't know if he was happy or not._

 _She was all alone._

 _She grasped a cloud of mist in her hands before staring at it, thinking of the one who had destroyed Cavillace._

 _Rip_

 _Rip_

 _Rip_

 _Bit by bit, she tore at the mist, scattering it, destroying it, obliterating it. In the back of her head, she could hear her sister's cries. Why had nobody gone to save her? Why had nobody protected her? Cavillace had always been around to protect her younger sister. She deserved to be protected!_

 _"_ _So why didn't you protect her?" Sara heard herself think._

 _Immediately, the tears began to flow._

 _…_

 _Thousands of years had passed, and Ti'ika Sara had used each one of them to grow stronger and smarter._

 _The other gods still hated her, but they could no longer call her "useless." She had grown powerful. Powerful enough to strike back against the people who had mocked her and give them the punishment they deserved. Now, instead of avoiding them, they avoided her._

 _But she had not grown stronger just to get back at her tormentors. No. As the death of Cavillace continued to claw at her heart, she had worked tirelessly to become everything her sister was, proud, strong, capable, a warrior that could finally give her people the revenge they deserved._

 _A warrior who could finally avenge Cavillace._

 _The Matriarch had gathered them together. She was speaking about how the incarnations of the creator and destroyer would grant them their salvation from their curse. All she needed now were eight of their greatest gods to take up the call and guide the mortals incarnations as they were recruited to their cause._

 _"_ _Who among you all is worthy to guide the reincarnations on this path!?" the Matriarch called, causing Ti'ika Sara's heart to hammer._

 _"_ _I am! I am!" she thought, not daring to speak, "I will take up the cause! I will guide the reincarnation and avenge Cavillace!"_

 _"_ _I shall tell you now who is worthy." The Matriarch continued, "Long ago, I, your creator, sifted through each and every one of you, from the greatest to the least, weighing your worth whilst considering the powers, personalities, and natures of the incarnations. After much careful thought, I have chosen the best possible candidates for each counterpart. These are they who have been chosen."_

 _She began reading off names, while explaining which incarnation they had been given to, and why it was they who had been chosen. Ti'ika Sara's apprehension grew as the Matriarch continued listing off names. Looking at the ethereal images of the incarnations, she felt drawn towards one of them. A girl who had a natural affinity to cultivation, like herself._

 _"_ _Her." She thought to herself, "Please let me inhabit her."_

 _The Matriarch indicated the image of the girl with one of her hands. Sara's heart seized up as she waited for the name to be called._

 _Then, finally, her name was called._

 _Head held high like her sister's on the day she was called, Ti'ika Sara began approaching the Matriarch, preparing to make the customary bow and speak the oath pact of the Dark Signers when-…_

 _"_ _Excuse me! Pardon me! So sorry, darling! Hero god of water, storms, sea creatures, and trickery coming through!"_

 _Looking to her side in shock, Ti'ika Sara let out a small shriek of panic as an immense whale of a man with long curly black hair, rippling muscles upon rippling muscles, and immense brick-like white teeth with wave patterns carved into the ivory, plowed through the assembly of gods, in his mad dash to approach the Matriarch. Ti'ika Sara was about to raise her voice in protest, when the gigantic god suddenly bowled past her, causing Sara's arms to flail as she lost her balance and began to fall backwards._

 _"_ _Whoopsie! Apologies, child." The immense god apologized, catching her hand and saving her from the fall before yanking her up and patting her gently on the head._

 _Sara began sputtering and blushing heavily with embarrassment at having her rite of passage interrupted. Above her head, the other gods were laughing hysterically at the comical scene. Some were even congratulating the bumbling imbecile god who had knocked her over._

 _"_ _Idiots! Idiots! All of them, idiots!" Sara thought bitterly to herself. "They're only laughing and congratulating this idiot because none of them would dare to take me on themselves! Who are you, idiot, and what right do you have to shame me like this!?"_

 _The Matriarch did not look pleased._

 _"_ _What are you doing here, Yene Paryaqaqa?" she asked, causing all the other gods to instantly go silent, some choking mid-way on their laughs._

 _"_ _Ah, Glorious Creator and Matriarch Ch'askancha!" Paryaqaqa replied with a dramatic bow, "I, the hero god, Yene Paryaqaqa, god of water, storms, and sea creatures, slayer of fifteen of Quetzalcoatl's dragons-…"_

 _"_ _I am not interested in your titles." The Matriarch coldly replied, a frown coming over her face, "I want to know why a_ very _minor god like yourself felt the need to barge into this ceremony like a fool and waste our time?"_

 _"_ _Ah, about that!" Paryaqaqa continued, not looking the least bit flustered by the Matriarch's cold gaze. "Well, I couldn't help but notice that there was a noticeable gap in gods available for the wind incarnation, so, naturally, I decided it would only be appropriate for me to offer my services to the cause."_

 _"_ _What gap?" The Matriarch asked, eyes narrowed. "I have already chosen someone for the wind incarnation, and it is_ not _you." She looked up at the crowd of gods, seeming to notice them for the first time, before scowling._

 _"_ _Where is Wakamayu?" The Matriarch asked, looking down at Yene Paryaqaqa with a venomous expression._

 _"_ _About that…" the ridiculous god replied, wringing his hands together apologetically, "Well, regrettably, it would appear that the lower half of Wakamayu's mark has mysteriously, uhm, been erased from existence. And well…our curse being what it is, he's experiencing some…er…complications with his own lower half, which would render him a little useless in the upcoming conflict, until he is regenerated that is. And so, he, knowing of my capabilities, humbly asked if I, Yene Paryaqaqa, would be willing to take his place and-…"_

 _"_ _TRAITOR! ASSASSIN! VILE SABATOUR!" A cawing voice suddenly called from behind them. Turning her head, Ti'ika Sara's eyes widened with shock when she spied an important-looking god furiously crawling towards them with his hands, the lower half of his body a blurred mist without sufficient substance to support his upper half._

 _"_ _Ah! Wakamayu!" Yene exclaimed, rushing over to lift the crawling god over his shoulders, "No need to strain yourself! You don't want to exacerbate your condition! Come, I'll take you home right now. No need to worry, I'll fulfill your mission in your place, just like we discussed."_

 _"_ _LIKE WE DISCUSSED!?" Wakamayu roared, pounding at Paryaqaqa's beefy shoulder with his fists, "YOU TRICKED ME! IT WAS NOT A FAIR MATCH! MATRIARCH!" he suddenly called to Ch'askancha, who scowled down at them. "THIS OAF USED HIS FOUL TRICKERY TO STRIP AWAY MY POWERS, HOPING TO LAY CLAIM TO THE GLORY THAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE! I DEMAND THAT YOU PUNISH THIS GOD NOW AND RESTORE ME TO MY STATION!"_

 _"_ _Be silent, Wakamayu!" The Matriarch snapped, instantly causing a deathly silence to hang about in the air while she examined Wakamayu and the god who had apparently tricked him._

 _"_ _I do not care what quarrel happened between you fools." The Matriarch finally said. "The fact that you have allowed yourself to be reduced to this state, Wakamayu, only tells me that you are an incredibly stupid god, who deserves to reap the consequences of his idiocy."_

 _"_ _But I…you…Matriarch!" the bisected god begged._

 _"_ _Not another word!" The Matriarch hissed, silencing him before looking down at Yene. "As for the issue of a worthy candidate for the wind incarnation…"_

 _One of her hands launched out, grabbing Yene Paryaqaqa in a bone crushing grip. Raising the god, who looked like a toy in comparison with her immense form, up to her face, she began examining him, fingers tracing the contours of his body. Yene submitted to the treatment silently, a nervous grin on his face._

 _Finally, the Matriarch set him down._

 _"_ _This one will do." She said with a sigh. "Congratulations, Yene Paryaqaqa. Though you were not one of the original chosen, your cunning has won you a place amongst our ranks. Your personality will synchronize well with the wind incarnation, who will regard you as a friend as she participates in the completion of our work. Complete the rite of passage and speak your oath now."_

 _"_ _Thank you…glorious Matriarch!" Yene replied with a dramatic bow, "I accept this calling and shall do all in my power to guide Rin on her path! You have my word as the Hero God of Water-…"_

 _"_ _That will do." The Matriarch snapped._

 _Ti'ika Sara stood in the center of the other gods, stunned with disbelief as Yene bowed before her. The Matriarch began to call out the name of another god, having seemingly forgotten that Sara had not completed her rite of passage._

 _"_ _Uhm…Matriarch…I…" Ti'ika Sara hesitantly began._

 _The Matriarch's face whipped towards Ti'ika, the multi-colored lines on her face burning with anger._

 _"_ _I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF MY CHILDREN'S SQUABBLING! The Matriarch roared, standing up to her full height before glaring down at Ti'ika Sara with burning anger. "All of you will do as you are commanded for the sake of our salvation, and you will cease pestering me with your idiocy!"_

 _Shrinking, Ti'ika Sara bowed with the others, not daring to utter another peep. This time, the other gods did not laugh at her, but she could feel their resentment as their collective gaze burned into the back of her head._

 _"_ _Think of Cavillace." she thought to herself, "Think of Cavillace. That is why you are here. For her sake."_

 _Suddenly, an immense hand fell onto her shoulder. Flinching, Sara looked up from her crouched position to notice Yene Paryaqaqa staring down at her with a smile._

 _"_ _Don't worry, little flower." The idiotic god whispered. "I heard from Wakamayu that the Matriarch had chosen you. You must be terribly scared, young and inexperienced as you are."_

 _Sara choked back her building fury, not daring to risk an outburst that would grab the Matriarch's attention._

 _"_ _I lost a brother in the last war." Yene went on. "Chacu Challhua. He was young too. Not as young as you, of course, but still, he was younger than me. When he was destroyed, I vowed to protect others like him, so, here I am."_

 _Off to her side, Ti'ika Sara caught the gossiping whispers of gods, who began asking if Ti'ika Sara had swallowed the water god's fruit._

 _She bowed her head in shame, wishing she had never come to learn what that phrase meant._

 _…_

More memories from the little goddess began flashing through Yuzu's field of vision. She saw Ti'ika as she approached her corpse in the underworld, waiting for the power of the Dark Signer Ruri and Jatun to come upon Yuzu before entering the mortal's body and granting her life. She began reliving the rest of the day's events from the perspective of Ti'ika Sara, feeling a pang of guilt as she realized how similar Yuzu's indifferent treatment towards Sara had been to the treatment she had received from the other gods in the vision, before regaining her senses and finding Ti'ika Sara standing before her, solid black eyes wide with shock.

 _"_ _You saw it!?"_ Sara asked, looking both worried and embarrassed.

"I…I mean…I didn't mean to…" Yuzu apologized, still recovering from what she had seen.

Sara's hand reached up to touch Yuzu's face. Closing her eyes, Sara stood still for a heartbeat before removing her hand from Yuzu's face and opening her eyes.

 _"_ _I see."_ She muttered to herself. _"Our bond must have deepened just a little. Kind of annoying that she can see my memories now, albeit in a filtered form that her mortal mind can take, but I suppose this was going to happen eventually…"_

"You said our bond had deepened." Yuzu said aloud, piecing together the memories she had witnessed, "You came to me when I died, but you were…assigned to me by that…that Matriarch? What was her name, Chask-"

 _"_ _SHHHHHHH!"_ Sara hissed, suddenly looking extremely worried. _"You don't just_ say _the creator's name! You're not worthy!_ NO-BO-DY'S _worthy!"_

"I-…" Yuzu replied, but Sara didn't seem to be listening. Clamping her hands together and closing her eyes, Sara seemed to mutter a prayer before looking around the black void, just to be sure, and then returning her gaze to Yuzu before speaking.

 _"_ _Look,"_ The little goddess sighed, _"whether we like it or not, you and I are bonded together. You're probably gonna learn a lot about me, just like I've been learning a lot about you. But unless I give you permission, you don't bring those things up? Got it?"_

Yuzu folded her arms, not exactly feeling angry at the goddess, but still feeling a twinge of annoyance nonetheless.

"Fair enough." Yuzu sighed. "I can understand if you want to keep things private, but the same goes for you. Even if you get to see all my memories, you still have to show respect for them."

 _"_ _It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone."_ Sara pouted. _"I don't have any friends, remember?"_

"Well…" Yuzu replied, thinking about what Sara had went through, "maybe that can change."

Sara silently regarded her, looking both unsure and hopeful. Finally, she let out a little snort of laughter.

 _"_ _But I already said you were my Onee-chan."_ She giggled, a mischievous smile coming over her face, _"We're already supposed to be friends."_

"Don't push it." Yuzu replied, a slight smirk coming over her face. "You and I are still 'partner' until I decide otherwise."

Sara laughed at this, and Yuzu felt herself grinning in reply. Then, just as quickly, she assumed a more serious expression.

"We're still in the middle of the duel." She said to Sara, who immediately calmed down and regarded her with an equally serious expression. "It's my move, and I have no idea how to beat Divine."

Sara nodded her head, looking thoughtful.

 _"_ _The human, Sayer's, dueling talent is no match for either of us."_ The goddess thought out-loud, _"By all rights, he ought to have been killed twice by now…but the crafty little mortal slithered away both times. We'll have to make sure that doesn't happen again, not that we should have any trouble breaking his field. The real trouble is his field spell, and the people the mortal king, Roger, is willing to sacrifice to fuel it. We can easily push Divine into a corner, but until we can take care of that weapon, we will never be able to put out enough damage to defeat him, not without going through however many thousands of people Roger has enslaved."_

"Do you have anything in mind?" Yuzu asked.

Smiling, Sara held out her hand.

 _"_ _Come on, partner."_ Sara replied, _"I have some things I want to teach you."_

…

Rin stood to the side of Yuzu, staring at her counterpart as she continued to hold still, eyes glazed over as if in a trance.

"Yuzu? YUZU!?" Rin called out, before walking up to Yuzu and shaking her. Yuzu didn't seem to even know Rin existed as she continued to stand completely still in a comatose state.

"Yene, do you know what's wrong with her?" Rin thought to her companion.

 _"_ _I sense nothing wrong with her, darling."_ Yene mused, _"At least…not physically or spiritually. Unfortunately, I cannot know if she's experiencing mental or emotional trauma from this duel. Perhaps she has withdrawn, or perhaps Sara is giving her counsel. I cannot know."_

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Rin asked, growing more concerned.

 _"_ _Neither of us have forged a bond with her."_ Yene replied, _"She is beyond either of our power for now. The best thing we can do is focus on the duel and take her place if we must."_

"Yuzu Hiragi has only a few moments before her turn is automatically concluded." Divine observed from above. "If you do not begin your turn and continue, this duel will conclude with my victory."

"Like Hell I'll let you win like that!" Rin spat, placing her hand on top of her deck. "I don't care how many people you hide behind! I'm ending this right now! My move! Dr-…!"

 _"_ _WATASHITACHI NO TURN!"_ Yuzu suddenly called, voiced blended with another younger female voice, _"DRAW!"_

Eyelids opening to reveal Yuzu's eyes glowing with a lurid mixture of red from her flower mark, and flaming blue from her irises, Yuzu ripped a card from the top of her deck before beginning her turn. '

"Yuzu!?" Rin called out, feeling a mixture of shock and relief. "Where the heck have you been?"

Yuzu turned to her, her familiar friendly smile seemingly mixed with the mischievous grin of another.

 _"_ _We've been thinking how best to punish Divine."_ Yuzu and the other voice replied in unison, before turning to their opponent, _"And you'd better believe that it's nothing pleasant! Prepare yourself…Sayer Prieur! You have incurred the wrath of the Gods for the last time!"_

Through the mask of mind control, Rin swore she saw Divine inwardly panicking.

 _"_ _We activate the effect of Canon the Melodious Diva in our hand!"_ Yuzu/Sara declared, slamming the card onto their duel disk before their violet-haired fairy with a golden mask appeared to their field.

 **Canon the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 2000**

 _"_ _Next!"_ Yuzu and Sara continued, stretching their hand towards their Synchro Monster, _"We activate the effect of Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra! By sending Mozarta the Melodious Maestra from our deck to the graveyard, we target our own Legato in order to destroy it! GO! Melodic Cannonade!"_

"You're destroying your own Trap Card?" Divine asked, sounding thoroughly confused before looking at Thought Tyrant Daemon.

 _"_ _You can negate the effect, you know."_ Yuzu and Sara smirked, voice taking on a mocking tone.

"Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect can only be used twice per turn." Divine replied. "If you are attempting to bait out its effect, you will have to do better than that. Losing your own Legato can only carry negative effects for yourself. I will choose to save Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect for your actual plan."

 _"_ _You won't get to save its effect for anything."_ The Dark Signer murmured to herself as Tchaikovska directed her cannons to fire into the continuous trap card, obliterating it. When the smoke had cleared, the Dark Signer raised her head and smiled confidently.

"I'm ready." Yuzu murmured to Sara.

 _"_ _We have everything we need to defeat him."_ Sara replied. _"The power is within us. Hold nothing back."_

"I won't." Yuzu promised, before pulling the key to their victory from her hand while raising her other hand to the sky, the knowledge of what she needed to do flooding her mind.

" _With Legato gone from my field, I am no longer restricted from performing Normal Summons!"_ Yuzu and Sara proclaimed, voices steadily growing more in synch. _"Behold my new power! I Dark Sacrifice Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra and Canon the Melodious Diva from my field, and Thought Tyrant Daemon and Ultimate Axon Kicker from your field in order to call forth the key to my victory!"_

…

"WHAT!?" Roger screamed from his control room, watching as four immense ghostly hands rose up from the earth before grasping all four of the monsters and pulling them underground as a large black sacrificial alter rose up from the ground at the center of the field. "SAYER! NEGATE THE EFFECT! USE THOUGHT TYRANT DAEMON TO-…"

"Error…cannot comply…" Sayer's hoarse voice called from the other side. "Dark Sacrifice…not an effect but…in-game summoning mechanic…"

"SAYER!" Roger screamed, growing white-faced.

…

Feeling power surge through her body, Yuzu, drowned out the screams of the monsters as they sank into the earth before speaking the words that came to her head in unison with Sara, who seemed to stand by her side, holding her hand like they were sisters.

 _"_ _With the offerings willingly given and the sacrifices forcefully taken from our enemy, the price is paid! Let the seed of vice sprout and become the fruit of triumph! DARK SACRIFICE! Level negative seven! Dark Tuner Corruption Seed!"_

The altar in the center of the field burst into black flames before crumpling into ashes. From the pieces of smoldering rock, a legion of twisting oily black vines sprouted from the ground before wrapping around one another and forming into the scarecrow-like form of a young human Yuzu's height, with a bright red fruit shining in the center of its chest like a heart.

 **Dark Tuner Corruption Seed / DARK / Level -7 / Plant / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK -700 / DEF -700**

Yuzu stared at the new creature, who began walking towards her before taking a knee, bowing, and offering its fruit-bearing chest to her.

"What is it doing?" Yuzu asked.

 _"_ _It has accepted us as its master."_ Ti'ika Sara replied. _"It is waiting for you to eat its fruit."_

"Eat its fruit?" Yuzu asked, wondering what the point of eating a solid-vision hologram was. None of the health magazines she had read had recommended the consumption of hard light projections. One eccentric duelist she had read about had tried and burnt the inside of his mouth.

 _"_ _Yes._ Her _power is in there."_ Sara replied, voice taking on a tone of reverence. _"A small fragment of her essence I managed to preserve. Consume it, and we will be invincible."_

Yuzu blinked, feeling the deep sorrow and determination emanating from Sara. Looking down once again at the fruit on the monster's chest, she felt her dead senses suddenly awaken. The fresh scent of the fruit filled her nostrils with clouds of fragrance, while a sudden ravenous hunger took hold of her. Her hand launched out, violently grasping the fruit before tearing it from the monster's chest. As the black vines withered away and turned to dust, Yuzu felt herself cram the fruit into her mouth.

The instant her teeth broke the skin, Yuzu could tell that the fruit was far more than mere solid vision. Juices dribbling down her lips and chin, she chewed the delicious fruit and swallowed it in great gulps, feeling like a starving man coming across food for the first time in weeks. With a final suck, she ripped the last morsel of pulp from the smooth solid stone of the fruit, before swallowing the last bite and spitting the shiny seed into her palm, an immense power building up from the pit of her stomach and spreading into the tips of her fingers and toes.

 _"_ _It feels nice, doesn't it?"_ Sara commented.

Grinning, Yuzu raised the shiny seed into the air, a tar-like substance seeping from the pores of her palm as she continued her turn.

 _"_ _I activate the effect of Dark Tuner Corruption Seed!" Yuzu declared, "When it is summoned, I can activate one of three effects! I choose to activate the first effect of Corruption Seed, targeting my Quartet the Melodious Songstress in order to change her Level to negative seven! Corruption Spread!"_

Stretching out her hand, Yuzu felt herself launch a spray of the tar-like substance into Quartet, who shrieked in shock as the substance crawled over her body as if it had a mind of its own, before completely encasing her. In another moment, the sticky substance seemed to sink into Quartet's skin, completely disappearing before Quartet reemerged, skin paler, eyes, hair, and clothing a shade darker, and sclera now a deep coal black.

 **Quartet: Level -7**

Feeling a rush of ecstasy, Yuzu continued with her turn.

 _"_ _I overlay my Level negative seven Quartet with my Level -7 Dark Tuner Corruption Seed!"_ She declared as Quartet and the seed in her hand began to fade into transparent ghosts before collapsing into the center of an invisible singularity. _"With the seeds of darkness planted in your soul, rise up as an immortal deity of the forest and sing till the trees themselves sway with your melody! YAMI NO XYZ SHOUKAN! Rise up! The eternal guardian of nature! Rank negative seven! Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad!"_

Unfolding from the singularity, a beautiful wild-looking woman with the lower half of a deer with Gryphon wings on its back, a near-naked female upper half with skin like bark, green hair that looked like intertwined vines, leaves, and flowers, and moss covering her ample breasts, leaped onto the earthen field before spreading out her arms, closing her eyes, and singing, glowing lines of orange energy burning against her body as flowers, vines, and saplings began sprouting around her. In her chest and on her forehead were two transparent spots, which revealed the black crystals of the dark overlay units within her body.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad / EARTH / Rank -7 / Fairy / Dark Xyz / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 2800**

Yuzu felt her ecstasy grow a hundred-fold as she finished her first Dark Xyz Summon. Thinking back to when she had seen Ruri use the summoning technique, she wondered why she had criticized her. This thrill she was feeling was just like what she had felt when she had first accomplished Fusion Summoning for the first time, only a million times greater! Why had she held back from learning this technique for so long?

 _"_ _Geo Dryad gains five-hundred ATK for each monster on the field!"_ Yuzu and Sara declared in unison. _"With herself, Tchaikovska, Dimensional Pathfinder, and Space-Time Police on the field, that means she gains a total of two-thousand ATK!"_

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad: (500 X 4) = 2000 ATK**

 _"_ _But that is merely a sample of her full power!"_ They continued, stretching their hand towards their monster. _"I activate the effect of Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad! By detaching the Overlay Unit, Dark Tuner Corruption Seed, from my monster, I can negate the effects of all face-up cards my opponent controls!"_

"WHAT!?" Divine exclaimed, eyes widening.

 _"_ _You understand, don't you?"_ Yuzu and Sara smirked, _"Rin's field only has two set cards, meaning she does not suffer from the effect. You, on the other hand, lose your most powerful weapon! GO, GEO DRYAD!"_ They commanded as the crystal in Dryad's chest compacted into nothingness before the deer-like woman began to hum a soft, soothing tune, _"Bewitching melody!"_

…

Roger examined the stats of Yuzu's monster, comparing it to the info on each of Sayer's cards.

"Psychic Gravity Well cannot be destroyed…but its effects…they are completely vulnerable to negation." he murmured to himself, completely thunderstruck, before angrily pressing a button on his desk.

"ALL UNITS, PROCEED TO INTRUDE ON THE DUEL! NOW! NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

…

Immediately, the chips of hundreds of civilians and security officers alike began to light up before their mindless slaves proceeded to march towards the duel.

Yuzu stared down at the sight, previous feelings of shock and despondency replaced with mere disgust at Roger's pathetic floundering.

 _"_ _Do you honestly think I'm going to let you try that again?"_ She asked, raising her arms into the air before calling on a new power she instinctively sensed rising up within her with the help of Sara. _"Your game ends now! ANCIENT WARRIORS OF THE EARTHBOUND! SOLDIERS OF THE CULTIVATION GOD CLAN! SERVANTS OF THE GREAT RENEWAL! OBEY THE CALL OF YOUR DARK SIGNER! RISE UP AND TAKE UP ARMS AGAINST THE ENEMY, MY EARTHBOUND FAMILIARS!"_

Power seemed to explode from Yuzu as an immense flower-shaped mark appeared on the ground, encompassing Rin, Divine, and herself in its light before figures began bursting from the ground, sprouting like saplings as they rose up and formed ranks around her. Ghostly in appearance, the figures stood with their faces obscured by flower-petal like masks, holes cut into the leaves to reveal black sclera eyes staring out. Male and female, the spritely creatures each wore the same uniform of leaves, vines, and flowers, with a large thorny whip hooked to their side in a loop. In unison, each of the creatures bowed to her, awaiting her command.

Yuzu felt a slight pang of guilt as she looked upon the servants, wondering why she hadn't accepted all her powers earlier so that she could save Yuya and the people who had fallen in this duel. But the feeling quickly evaporated as she prepared to command the spirits. Now was not the time to scold herself for her past weakness. Now was the time for action!

 _"_ _Secure the perimeter!"_ Yuzu and Sara commanded. _"Duel anyone who tries to interfere, but do not harm them! They are not the true enemy!"_

Wordlessly nodding, the familiars charged forward, at least four dozen of them, before forming a perimeter around the duel field and engaging the mind-controlled victims with leaf-like duel disks that sprouted from their arms before anyone could intrude. Divine tried to blast back a few of them with his psychic powers, but four of the familiars merely unsheathed their whips and struck at Divine's limbs, ensnaring each one in a thorny grip before pulling the psychic down and securing him against the ground.

Screaming, Divine could only watch as Dryad's melodic song swept through the duel field, causing his Space-Time Police and Dimensional Pathfinder to sway with dizziness while the spectral image of his Field Spell faded to grey.

"His field spell…it's sealed." Rin exclaimed in wonder as she gazed upon the army Yuzu had assembled, which was managing to hold back the tide of mind-controlled officers and civilians without any apparent difficulty. "When did you learn to do any of this?"

 _"_ _You're welcome."_ Ti'ika Sara said through Yuzu's mouth, causing Yuzu to grin in agreement.

 _"_ _Sara."_ Yene exclaimed with a grin through Rin's mouth, _"So you_ have _finally started to bloom. Took you long enough to Synchronize with your host. I was beginning to worry you'd leave me to do all the heavy lifting! Not that I'd expect you to lift much by yourself anyway, but still."_

Yuzu felt herself scowl.

"Well, however you figured it out, you did it, Yuzu! Divine has nothing left to protect him! We can defeat him now!" Rin added, before a fight could break out. "Now's your chance! Finish him off before he has a chance to recover!"

Yuzu nodded in agreement, stepping towards Divine before stumbling as a sudden surge of exhaustion swept through her body.

 _"_ _Be careful."_ Sara warned. _"You're still new at this. Summoning those familiars left you a little drained. You may need to replenish a little energy before you continue."_

"Agreed." Yuzu grunted before straightening out. "Fortunately," she continued, feeling hungry, "I know the perfect snack for the trick!"

Pulling out the field spell she had drawn at the beginning of the duel, Yuzu continued with her turn.

"Field Magic Activate!" she declared, slotting her field spell card into one of her duel disk's petals, before stepping onto a platform as a theater formed around her, "Divine Melodious Stage!"

Behind her, Yuzu heard the orphan children oohing and awing at the brilliant fairy-filled theater, filling Yuzu with a sense of nostalgia as she thought on the many entertainment duels she had participated in. With a mischievous grin, she decided that, even if this was a brutal war, she could still combine the teachings of You-Show with her new dueling abilities.

 _"_ _After all…"_ Ti'ika Sara added from within Yuzu, sensing her thoughts, _"…who says that justice can't be fun?"_

 _"_ _Since I control Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra,"_ Yuzu declared, _"I can Special Summon Sonata the Melodious Diva from my hand! Everyone give it up for our new performer!"_

Twirling onto the stage, a second copy of Yuzu's fairy with long green hair and a green-and-blue slip appeared before spreading her single harp-like wing and singing a soft song.

 **Sonata the Melodious Diva / LIGHT / Level 4 / Fairy / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000**

 _"_ _But Sonata won't be the only one taking the stage."_ Yuzu continued, feeling Sara play along, as they embraced the entertainer routine, _"Because now, two effects activate! First, once per turn, when I summon a Melodious Monster, Divine Melodious Stage adds one Melodious Monster from my deck to my hand!"_

Taking a card that had popped out of her deck and adding it to her hand, Yuzu and Sara next stretched their hand towards the graveyard before continuing with their turn.

 _"_ _Second,"_ they continued, _"whenever I Special Summon a monster, I can activate the effect of Dark Tuner Corruption Seed from the graveyard! Bloom to the stage once again, Dark Tuner Corruption Seed!"_

Rising up from the ground of the theater, the black vines of Corruption Seed entwined themselves against the columns lining the walls and the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling before a mass of vines in the center formed into the humanoid figure from earlier, a blood-red fruit shining against its chest.

 **Dark Tuner Corruption Seed / DARK / Level -7 / Plant / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK -700 / DEF -700**

Licking her lips, Yuzu launched herself forward with superhuman strength, hands whipping out to rip the fruit from the tangle of vines before shoving it into her mouth and chomping down. Eyes rolling into the back of her head with ecstasy, Yuzu devoured the fruit, juices dribbling down her chin before she spat out the seed and held it up, tendrils of tar-like ooze seeping from her pores before waving in the air like vines as she continued.

 _"_ _Dark Tuner Corruption Seeds effect! I target Sonata the Melodious Diva in order to change her Level to zero! GO! Corruption Cultivation!"_

Stretching out her hand, Yuzu and Sara caused the tendrils of ooze emanating from their body to launch into Sonata before wrapping her into a cocoon of slime and transforming her into a darker version of her previous self.

 **Sonata the Melodious Diva: Level 0**

In her hands, the shiny black seed of her dark tuner seemed to hum with anticipation.

 _"_ _I dark tune my Level negative seven Dark Tuner Corruption Seed with my Level zero Sonata in order to Dark Synchro Summon!"_ Yuzu and Sara declared as the black seed exploded into a swarm of black stars, which embedded themselves into the dark form of Sonata before causing the fairy to fade away, leaving only the black stars to circle a portion of empty space as Yuzu and Sara began their summoning chant.

 _"_ _Cultivator of nature, become one with the darker shadows of the forest, spread your seeds into the curtain of night, and bloom and grow into a new power to shape the destiny of the wilds! YAMI NO SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Unleash the darker powers of creation! Level negative seven! Earthbound Disciple Geo Sprite!"_

In an explosion of black shadow, a mysterious-looking hooded fairy garbed in a black leaves, vines, and flowers, leapt into the air, thick cloak-like wings spreading out like the wings of a butterfly to reveal a fit sleek body garbed in tight-fitting interwoven plant fibers and decorated with lines of green energy. Around her slender waist were holsters bearing various poisonous weapons made from plant material. Around the fairy, a whirlwind of air and thorny vines materialized, encasing her in a sphere of whirling plant life before she landed on the ground next to Yuzu, dispersing the sphere of air and vines and wrapping herself in her wings like a bat.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Sprite / WATER / Level -7 / Fairy / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2700**

"Impressive Dark Synchro." Rin whistled. "Seems you really were paying attention to when I dueled."

Yuzu grinned in reply before stretching her hand towards her graveyard, where more black vines were already sprouting.

 _"_ _Since I Special Summoned a monster, Dark Tuner Corruption Seed returns to my field once more! Behold the infinite cycle of planting and sowing!"_ Yuzu and Sara proclaimed as their faithful servant returned to them.

 **Dark Tuner Corruption Seed / DARK / Level -7 / Plant / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK -700 / DEF -700**

Yuzu was on her monster in less than a second, tearing the fruit from its vine-woven chest before devouring it in one gulp, spitting out the shiny black seed, and sprouting tendrils of inky black essence from her back like a pair of wings.

 _"_ _The effect of Dark Tuner Corruption Seed activates since it was summoned!"_ Yuzu and Sara declared, _"This time, I use the third effect! With its power, I add the Magic Card, Yami no Kakubunretsu from my deck to my hand! GO! Corruption Shaping!"_

Yuzu clamped her hands together into something that felt like a Fusion Summon bow, but with the left hand formed into a fist and placed underneath the palm of her right hand, which had its fingers stuck together and stretched up into the air, so that it looked almost like an inverted mushroom cloud. In response, the tendrils on her back lashed forward before congregating into a single sphere of black ooze from which the Dark Fission Spell Card emerged. Taking the card into her hand, Yuzu raised it into the air before slamming it onto her duel disk.

 _"_ _Using my Dark Tuner Corruption Seed as the Base Material, I subtract Schopina the Melodious Maestra in my graveyard from my monster in order to annihilate and unleash their combined power and forge a new servant from their chaos!"_

Rising into the air, the seed in Yuzu's hand melted into a sphere of translucent liquid, with a pulsating black atom made of seven spheres floating in its center. Next to the atom, the spectral form of Schopina appeared before melting into an atom of seven white spheres, which sunk into the liquid before merging with the central atom.

Shuddering with instability, the compound violently burst apart into a multi-colored nuclear explosion, scattering droplets of the colorless liquid before time stopped mid-way before the droplets made contact with the ground. In another instant, time reversed, causing the droplets to fly backward and the multi-colored mushroom cloud to shrink before the liquid began to form into the shape of a new monster as Yuzu began her summoning chant.

 _"_ _Genius composer of the melodic song, merge now with the seed of darkness and bloom anew as the queen of passion and inspiration! YAMI NO KAKUBUNRETSU SHOUKAN! Grow into the immortal flower of the arts! Level negative seven! Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse!"_

Fully forming and developing color like a photograph, Yuzu's Dark Fission monster emerged as a tall regal fairy wreathed in a thin form-fitting white dress with translucent pink lace wrapped around her waist, arms, and pink flower petal-like wings. The bottom of the fairy's dress bloomed outward like the flowers of a petal, hiding her feet, while her arms, midriff, and ample cleavage were left bare. The skin of the fairy was a deep olive, with pink lines of energy running through it like war paint. An immense flower with pink petals and a blue center was mounted on her back, and on her head, she wore a golden headdress like a crown. Her eyes were a solid black and were decorated with malachite kohl, her hair was a glowing platinum blonde, with two long ponytails draped over her chest, and her voluptuous lips were a deep ocean blue. Twirling through the air, the fairy scattered petals and gold dust as she sang a deep melodic song, at once both triumphant and sorrowful.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse / LIGHT / Level -7 Fairy / Dark Fission / Effect / ATK -1000 / DEF 2800**

 _"_ _Once more, Dark Tuner Corruption Seed returns to my field!"_ Yuzu declared as the black vine humanoid sprouted from the ground, but this time, bearing no fruit on its chest. _"However, since I already used its previous three effects this turn, I cannot activate any of those effects again this turn._

 _"_ _However,"_ She continued, with a triumphant smile, _"I already have everything I need!"_

Yuzu glanced towards her Geo sprite, who nodded her hooded head as if understanding, before unholstering a pair of massive black thorny whips and rising into the air.

 _"_ _Earthbound Disciple Geo Sprite no kouka!"_ Yuzu and Sara declared, eyes glowing with energy. _"Once per turn, I can target a number of cards my opponent controls, up to the number of monsters I control, in order to destroy them! Using this effect, I target Psychic Gravity Well, Dimensional Pathfinder, and Space-Time Police! GO! Uprooting Assassination!"_

Swinging her whips, which began to glow with blood-red energy, Geo Sprite cleaved through all of Divine's cards. With painful screams, Divine's two monsters combusted into flame before they could bleed, ashes scattering into the wind and landing on the dirt before a trio of three black saplings with red lines of energy running through them began to sprout up from the piles of ash. Divine looked on with confusion, warily regarding the black plants.

 _"_ _For each card destroyed with this effect,"_ Yuzu and Sara explained in unison, _"The controller of those cards Special Summons one Earthbound Seed Token to their side of the field for each of their cards destroyed."_

 **Earthbound Seed Token / EARTH / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 400 / DEF 400**

 _"_ _You're probably thinking that this means that you have some protection."_ Yuzu and Sara continued, _"After all, we'll have to weed our way through all of those tokens before we can get to you, and two of my monsters actually have negative ATK. This, however, is where Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad's final power comes into play. You see, she can attack each monster my opponent controls, once each, and if she attacks a defense position monster, she inflicts piercing damage. And since she gains five-hundred ATK for each monster on the field…well…"_

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad: (500 X 8) = 4000 ATK**

 _"_ _I'd say this is it for you…Sayer."_ Yuzu finished before stretching her hand towards her monster. _"BATTLE! EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO DRYAD! ANNIHILATE SAYER NOW! FORCE OF THE WILDS!"_

In response to her command, Geo Dryad held out her hand at arm's length, summoning a long majestic spear made from various entwined living saplings and vines, and ending in a very long and sharp thorn. Flowers sprouted along its shaft before poisonous sap began to drip from the end of the weapon. Galloping forward, the deer woman charged at the hedge of protective tokens, preparing to trample both them and Divine down.

Divine, however, seemed prepared.

"Dimensional Pathfinder no kouka!" he declared, stretching his hand towards his graveyard. "During the turn it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can banish my monster in order to Fusion Summon one Psychic-Type monster from my Extra Deck using monsters in my graveyard as Material!"

Emerging through two black portals, the spectral images of Ultimate Axon Kicker, Thought Tyrant Archfiend, and Dimensional Pathfinder appeared before Dimensional Pathfinder imploded into a green-tinted fusion portal, which the specters of Ultimate Axon Kicker and Thought Tyrant Archfiend entered before blending together as Divine began his summoning chant.

"The black fires of my rage will never be extinguished! Tyrant who rules over thought, Tyrant who destroys the weak-minded, look upon the injustice of a world that lets the inferior persecute the master race and become the supreme dictator to quell this wrong and subjugate all minds to your dominion! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Merge your mind with my own! Level eleven! Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon!"

An explosion of telekinetic energy burst outwards from the portal, causing Yuzu and Sara to stagger backwards, despite their combined power. From the center of the portal, a colossal demon, at least sixty feet tall, emerged from the portal. Similar in appearance to both Thought Tyrant Daemon and Ultimate Axon Kicker, the demon sported a massive head with a crown of sixteen golden-and-green horns, which conducted bolts of electricity emanating from the monster's massive brain, which pulsated openly on its head, exposed to the air. The demon's broad chest and four massive arms were heavily armored like Overmind Daemon, and its lower half was composed of three thick entwined serpentine tails.

 **Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon / DARK / Level 11 / Psychic / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 3000**

At the appearance of the immense monster, Divine seemed to get his second wind. His psychic powers began manifesting in full force, enabling him to levitate off the ground and rise strait up into the sky, until he was eye-level with his monster. Holding out his arms to the side, Divine levitated into the center of the monsters brain, before resting on it like a cushion as massive snake-like dendrites began to slither around his body and limbs before seemingly plugging into the exposed skin.

"Oh my gosh!" Rin exclaimed in shock, backing away, "Did he just…combine…with his monster?"

As if in answer, the mouth of Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon began moving in time with Divine's speech.

 _"_ _The effect of Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon activates when it is successfully Fusion Summoned!"_ The demon declared with a mixture of Divine's voice and its own demonic growl. _"When summoned, all monsters on the field with a Level lower than the Level of this card are banished and I gain eight-hundred life points for each card banished with this effect! GO! DICTATORIAL PURGE!"_

With an almighty roar, Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon fired a blast of black telekinetic energy from its exposed brain and horns, slicing through all three of the Earthbound Seed Tokens, and obliterating Yuzu's Tchaikovska, Dark Tuner Corruption Seed, and Earthbound Disciple Geo Sprite, while Geo Dryad resisted the blast and Geo Muse conjured a pink shield of energy around herself.

 _"_ _GEO DRYAD DOES NOT POSSESS A LEVEL!"_ Yuzu and Sara shouted over the roar of telekinetic energy, _"FURTHERMORE, EARTHBOUND DISCIPLE GEO MUSE IS UNAFFECTED BY MY OPPONENT'S CARD EFFECTS WHILE I CONTROL AN ACTIVE FIELD SPELL CARD!"_

After the monsters had completely vanished, the blast of black energy died down, leaving Divine and his monster to glow with energy as their life points rose from the effects second benefit.

 **Divine: 1500 + (800 X 6) = 6300 LP**

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad: (500 X 3) = 1500 ATK**

 _"_ _Your remaining monsters are irrelevant!"_ Divine declared from up above, voice amplified with the roaring voice of his monster. _"Both of their ATKs are drastically lower than my monsters. Furthermore, my Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon can negate any effect my opponent attempts to activate just by me paying two-thousand life points! And in case you think you can slowly exhaust my life points now that my Psychic Gravity Well is gone, my Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon's effect enables me to gain Life Points whenever my opponent takes damage, so I'll be able to replenish my Life Points with ease!"_

 _"_ _It's definitely a troublesome monster. There's not a card in my deck that could immediately deal with it."_ Yuzu and Sara acknowledged, seemingly resigned to defeat, before a sudden mischievous smile sprouted on their face. _"So, it's a good thing the one card I need is already on the field! BATTLE! Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse, attack Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon!"_

"That monster!?" Rin exclaimed, looking at Yuzu as if her counterpart had completely lost her mind, which, admittedly, did not seem like too remote a possibility after all she'd gone through. "But Geo Muse has negative attack!"

 _"_ _I know!"_ Yuzu and Sara retorted in unison, _"It's what makes it so powerful! Whenever I would take battle damage from a battle involving Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse, my opponent takes that damage instead! This effect is a continuous effect, which is not activated, and therefore cannot be targeted with Dictator's effect! Furthermore, if Geo Muse would be destroyed by battle, I can send 1 face-up monster from my deck or Extra Deck to the graveyard instead! Go, my muse! Catharsis Aria!"_

Flying forward, Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse fearlessly confronted the immense monster, spreading out her arms and holding up her head as if daring the monster to strike at her. She began singing then, a harrowing melody that evoked thoughts of both passion and sorrow. Staring down at the fairy, Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon seemed to move in a trance, immense claw crashing down on the Geo Muse, who didn't even flinch as the claws made contact. Despite her size, Geo Muse bore herself against the force of the impact, song growing in volume and intensity as her eyes and flower on her back began to glow with blood-red energy.

 _"_ _I send the face-up Schopina the Melodious Maestra, which was shuffled into the deck face-up when Geo Muse was Dark Fission Summoned, to my graveyard in order to prevent my monsters destruction!"_ Yuzu and Sara declared in unison as a pink barrier of energy formed around Geo Muse, throwing back the Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon.

 _"_ _Now feel the tragedy you have inflicted on others!"_ Yuzu and Sara roared in unison, as their eyes fell on the crushed bodies littering the duel field. _"Catharsis Cry!"_

With an intense melodic shout, Geo Muse fired a beam of pink energy from the flower on her back, which struck Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon directly in the forehead where Divine was resting, causing the psychic duelist to scream with pain and the immense demon to reel backwards.

 **Divine: 6300 – 4300 = 2000 LP**

 _"_ _I unfortunately cannot destroy you this turn."_ Yuzu and Sara acknowledged. _"But now, you can't use Thought Tyrant Daemon's effect unless you want to deplete what's left of your life points."_

Yuzu smiled at this, before feeling her energy drain away a bit as Sara slowly withdrew from her mind. Turning to Rin, who nodded at her with respect, Yuzu stepped back and let her friend step forward to take the stage.

 _"_ _We must finish him this turn."_ Yene Paryaqaqa warned from within Rin. _"Yuzu's familiars are putting up a good fight, but if Roger keeps sending in reinforcements, eventually their lines will break and we will be forced to face all of them."_

"Could you show me how to summon those familiars?" Rin asked, glancing at Yuzu's familiars, who were steadily being pushed back.

 _"_ _That would only work to stall them a bit longer."_ Yene replied. _"Those soldiers Roger has amassed are not doing his bidding willingly. I think it is time to permanently break his hold over them."_

"You think it's time?" Rin asked.

 _"_ _I see no other way to end this battle."_ The god replied. _"It will take a great deal of energy, but if my physical form was made manifest, then our power would be great enough to put a stop to this dishonorable hostage situation and free Roger's slaves. Are you ready?"_

Rin glanced back at her orphanage family, who were looking upon her as their last hope before nodding her head, sclera lighting up with green light while her irises flamed to life with golden light.

 _"_ _I'm ready."_ Rin and Yene proclaimed in unison before placing their hand on top of their deck.

 _"_ _Watashitachi no turn! DARK DRAW!"_ Yene and Rin declared in unison, gathering their energy to call forth the card they needed. Without even looking at the card, they added it to their hand, already able to feel it was the right one, before continuing with their turn.

 _"_ _Trap activate!"_ Rin and Yene declared in unison, stretching their hand towards one of their face-downs. _"Synthphonist Audition! I pay half my life points in order to Special Summon three Level four or lower Synthphonist Monsters from my deck in face-up attack position! Come forth! Synthphonist Clarinetist, Synthphonist Oboist, and Synthphonist Snare Drummer!"_

Flipping her trap card face-up, which depicted a line of Main Deck Synthphonist monsters performing in front of Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy, who appeared to be judging them, the face of the trap lit up before three tornadoes of musical notes swirled out and blew onto the field before dissipating and revealing Clarinetist, Snare-Drummer, and Oboist.

 **Rin: 900 / 2 = 450 LP**

 **Synthphonist Clarinetist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400**

 **Synthphonist Snare-Drummer / WIND / Level 2 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 900 / DEF 300**

 **Synthphonist Oboist / WIND / Level 4 / Psychic / Gemini / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1800**

From up above, Rin could see Divine's face pale as he quivered against the brain of his ace monster.

 _"_ _You know what is coming, don't you?"_ Rin and Yene said to Divine. _"You've seen this before, and just like then, this same power will be your downfall."_

Raising her hand into the air, Rin and Yene began to draw on every ounce of their power, marks blazing with green light as the card in their hand glowed with the same intense green energy. Looking upon the dead bodies scattered around Divine's field, she knew what she had to do next.

 _"_ _LOOK UPON YOUR WORKS, SAYER! THOUGH YOU ARE ENSLAVED, IT WAS YOU WHO CREATED THE CARD THAT WOULD GIVE YOU THE POWER TO MERCILESSLY KILL AS YOU HAVE DONE IN THIS DUEL!"_ Rin and Yene roared in unison, causing Divine and his monster to stagger back with fear. _"THE BLOOD OF THOSE YOU HAVE SLAIN CRIES FROM THE GROUND FOR VENGEANCE AND I SHALL GIVE IT TO THEM! BEHOLD MY ULTIMATE POWER NOW! GREAT HERO GOD OF THE SEA AND STORMS, I OFFER THEE THE MATERIAL TRIBUTES OF MY SYNTHPHONIST CLARINETIST AND SYNTHPHONIST SNARE DRUMMER AND THE SPIRITUAL DARK SACRIFICE OF THOSE WHO FELL IN BATTLE THIS DAY! TAKE THEIR DESIRES FOR VENGEANCE INTO THY BEING NOW AND BECOME MANIFEST AS THEIR HERO TO CARRY FORTH THEIR DESIRES!"_

Synthphonist Clarinetist and Snare Drummer both morphed into two spheres of multi-colored light, which rose into the sky before transforming into a massive stone heart. From each of the bodies Divine had crushed in the duel, a light rose up before flying into the open veins of the heart. The cards Miss Kimura was holding flew from her grasp before lights escaped from them, leaving the cards blank as dozens upon dozens more lights flew through the air like a school of fish, entering the open veins and causing the heart to light up…

…before beating in time with Rin's own awakening heart.

Feeling her own and Yene's strength growing, Rin continued the summoning.

 _"_ _BREAK THROUGH THE CURSE THAT BINDS YOU TO A HELLISH EXISTENCE!"_ She commanded, _"RISE UP AS A TRUE GOD AND HERO TO BRING JUSTICE AND SALVATION! EARTHBOUND ADVENT! JIBAKUSHIN! YENE PARYAQAQA!"_

The immense heart above their head began pulsating with life, heartrate rapidly increasing in time with the racing heart-rate of Rin's own beating undead heart until the stone exploded into a pillar of white light, and a 300 meter long island of a whale swam down from the heavens.

 _"_ _BEHOLD, PEOPLE OF THE SYNCHRO DIMENSION, YOUR SAVIOR AND REDEEMER!"_ Yene proclaimed through Rin's mouth, causing her to laugh with hearty glee as she felt the rush of excitement the god was feeling at having a physical presence in the mortal world once more.

 _"_ _Yene Paryaqaqa. You were always so full of yourself."_ Ti'ika Sara sighed from within Yuzu, who gazed up at the immense monster in wonder.

The utterly monolithic black whale was so massive that it covered at least 20 square blocks of the city in a canopy of shade, with green light from the patterns on its body casting everything beneath in a sea-green glow. The monumental creature was swimming through the air above them in a slow circle, immense wing-like fins lazily rising and falling inversely to the rising and falling of its island-sized tail. The gargantuan baleen-filled mouth of the creature seemed to be grinning as it gazed down on the field with a pair of confident eyes with green spirals etched into the center of the orb-like pupils. The same black lightning Rin had summoned on occasion crackled against the phantasmal body of the monster, only a single one of these bolts of energy looked capable of leveling a skyscraper with one blast.

 **Earthbound God Yene Paryaqaqa / DARK / Level 10 / Fish / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2900**

"Wait," Yuzu commented, looking up at the immense creature's stats. "I thought he was supposed to be basically a god, but his stats aren't nearly as great as I thought they'd be. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're pretty good, but how is he going to defeat Divine's monster?"

 _"_ _He doesn't need to."_ Ti'ika Sara replied, _"Watch and learn. You are about to witness first-hand the power of the Earthbound Gods."_

Rin's consciousness had ascended higher, literally. Through the eyes of the Earthbound God, she could see the field below, Divine and his monster looking utterly tiny as they quivered before her…their power. Some of the Security Officers had broken through the lines of Yuzu's familiars and were preparing to intrude on the duel, but Rin felt no fear from this. The battle was already over.

 _"_ _JIBAKUSHIN YENE PARYQAQA NO KOUKA!"_ Yene and Rin declared in unison, _"WHEN I AM SUCCESSFULLY SUMMONED, I CAN NEGATE THE EFFECTS OF ALL CARDS MY OPPONENT CONTROLS AND INFLICT TWO-HUNDRED DAMAGE TO THEIR LIFE POINTS FOR EACH CARD WHOSE EFFECT WAS NEGATED! QUAKE BEFORE MY POWER, OH YE WORKERS OF EVIL! DEUS EX HEROS!"_

A surge of black lightning crackled against the skin and fins of the Yene Paryaqaqa as the whale suddenly arched its neck upward, rising up into the air before corkscrewing through the clouds and shaping the skies into a black thunderstorm, which crackled with his same dark lightning and glowed green against the lamp-like blaze of his marks. Head suddenly appearing through the clouds with a roar, Yene Paryaqaqa clapped his fins together, sending an immense bolt of black lightning into Divine and his monster, who both roared in unified pain as the lightning danced around them.

 **Divine: 2000 – 200 = 1800 LP**

More bolts of black lightning were cascading from the sky, creating a barrier around the duel field, which stopped the advancing Security forces dead in their tracks before smaller bolts of lightning struck each individual Security and Civilian slave directly in their foreheads, causing hundreds of chips to short out and the mind-controlled people to awaken before falling on their knees in stunned disbelief. One of the bolts struck Divine in the forehead, causing his own chip to short out before he looked up at the Earthbound God with a gasp of astonishment.

From up above, the immense physical form of Yene Paryaqaqa continued to descend upon Divine and his monster.

 _"_ _YOUR EVIL ENDS HERE! YE WHO HAVE DEFIED THE GODS WILL, SHALL NOW FINALLY FACE YOUR JUDGEMENT AS I, YENE PARYAQAQA, HERO GOD OF WATER, STORMS, SEA CREATURES, AND-…"_

"I surrender." Divine interrupted, slamming his hand on top of his duel disk and conceding.

 **Divine: 1800 – 1800 = 0 (LOSE)**

Yuzu and Rin both blinked with astonishment, Rin abruptly returning to her own perspective. The duel was over. Before either of them had even managed to finish him off. From up above, Yene Paryaqaqa stopped mid-air, immense whale eyes blinking as Divine unplugged himself from the brain of his monster, which began to fade away, before using his powers to slowly levitate onto the ground in front of Yuzu and Rin and bow to them.

"Noble Dark Signers," Divine breathed, prostrating himself before them. "might I, Sayer Prieur, formally known as 'Divine' by my old followers, begin by offering you my humblest gratitude for delivering me from my mental enslavement? Truly, as a man who values the power of the mind as much as I do, no fate can be worse than losing all control over it. Your deliverance of me from that awful hell has put me in your debt. Pray tell, how may I, a humble servant, repay this immense debt to you?"

Yuzu and Rin recoiled from the man's groveling, taking a step back before looking at one another.

"S-serve us!?" Rin stammered, face reddening with rage. "No. Just. No! NO way! You can't…I mean…you don't…you don't get to do everything you did, and just get let off the hook like this!"

"You…killed…all those people." Yuzu breathed, glaring down at the psychic with disgust.

"Indeed." Sayer sighed, in what must have been an attempt to sound sorrowful, but which only managed to come across as indifferent, "And that has been one of my greatest regrets, noble Dark Signers. Though I cannot claim responsibility for the horrors I performed under the mental enslavement of Roger, I acknowledge them as the harrowing acts of murder that they are. Please, my deliverers, you have saved me from an awful fate. Allow me to make up for the heinous acts of my past."

"What do you really want?" Rin asked, glaring down at him. "I know exactly who you are. You and your followers killed thousands of people and never showed any regret for it."

 _"_ _HE WANTS TO AVOID DEATH…AGAIN."_ Yene Paryaqaqa boomed from up above, with what sounded like a tone of exasperation. Turning in the air, the immense whale began to dissolve into a black-and-green mist, which descended onto the field before forming into a seven feet tall Polynesian-looking man with beefy muscles, long curly hair, patterns of green warpaint over every inch of his body, no clothes but a simple loin cloth wrapped around his waist, and immense pearly-white teeth with wave-patterns carved into their surface. The same man Yuzu had seen earlier in her vision of Sara's past. Walking over to the prostrate Sayer, he gazed down at the man with a pair of glowing sea-green eyes.

 _"_ _How many times have you fought against us now?"_ Yene sighed. _"Is this the third time?"_

"You know him?" Rin asked, looking surprised.

 _"_ _Not personally."_ Yene sighed. _"But he and his organization did many things to anger us in the past, not to mention murder two mortals who would later come to us for justice. I had honestly thought Ccarayhua had finally put an end to this man, then his father came along, and somehow figured out a way to resurrect him. Now here I am, left to sort out this one's fate. Any ideas, Rin? I grow weary of this man escaping justice."_

"I have no intention of fighting against your kind any more, noble god." Sayer replied, turning around so that his body was facing Yene, while his head remained bowed. "And believe me…Ccarayhua and Misty…they did a good job making me suffer…" he gulped at this, sweat beading down his face, "You can be assured that I intend no deception in this. I _really_ don't want you to eat me…already experienced being devoured…not…not pleasant."

 _"_ _I would not stain my baleen with your filthy blood."_ Yene spat. _"I have standards! But if you think a coward like you could flatter me by offering your service to me, then…"_

 _"_ _Make him into an Earthbound Disciple."_ Ti'ika Sara interrupted through Yuzu.

Yene blinked at her.

"What?" Yuzu asked, equally confused.

"Why would we want to do that?" Rin asked. "The last thing we want is for him to go away free from this, much less even stronger than before!"

 _"_ _We are wasting time bickering about this man's trial and sentencing."_ Sara huffed through Yuzu, and Yuzu caught Ti'ika silently thinking "idiots". _"If one of us makes him into our servant, the bond will give us access to everything he sees and hears. He will not be able to hide or plot against us, and should he try anything…"_

Sara raised her hand, and in an instant, a pair of familiars leapt forward, before throwing out their whips and ensnaring Divine's throat and limbs in the vines' thorny embrace.

 _"_ _Understood?"_ Sara asked, to which Sayer feverishly nodded, choking against the hold of the whips.

"But why do we need to make him an Earthbound Disciple?" Rin protested. "I know what he's capable of. I lived through Neo Arcadia's terrorism. We can just keep watch over him with our familiars without giving him the power of a disciple."

 _"_ _I agree with Rin."_ Yene replied, stepping to Rin's side. _"Sara, I really don't think-…"_

 _"_ _That's exactly your problem."_ Sara snapped through Yuzu's mouth. _"You don't ever think, Yene. A psychic of immense power is offering his service to us. Are we really going to pass up this opportunity to use his talent?"_

 _"_ _We don't need his kind in our ranks!"_ Yene protested, looking disgusted.

 _"_ _Then execute him."_ Sara sighed, causing Yuzu and Rin to recoil.

 _"_ _You heard me right."_ Sara continued. _"If we keep this man prisoner, without affording us the access to his mind a discipleship bond would provide, then we put ourselves in too much risk. It would be better to get rid of him before he tried anything. Those are our choices. We can either recruit him, use his powers in our campaign against Roger's forces in the underground, and keep a close watch on him, or we will have to find a way to dispose of him."_

Yuzu and Rin looked at each other.

"I don't like it." Yuzu admitted. "But we can't just let him walk free, and I don't want to execute him."

"He deserves to be executed." Rin replied, "But even I don't want to do it. Plus…Sara is right about his talent. It would be incredibly useful if we could use him against Roger and Academia…if I could just have any confidence that he would comply…"

She turned to Yene.

"Is there a way that I could forge a connection with him that would grant me access to his mind without actually giving him the same kinds of powers Ruri's disciples have?"

Yene scratched at the side of his head in thought.

 _"_ _The Discipleship pact affords the recipient access to the Earthbound's power in exchange for the master's intimate access to their thoughts."_ Yene mused, _"As far as I know, it is not possible to simply deny a Disciple their powers any more than it is possible for a Disciple to deny the master's access to their mind once they have given it. I'm afraid that's the way the pact works, darling. Both participants have to give a little something for it to have any effect."_

"Is there any other way we could keep him in check?" Rin probed, "Other than with direct access to his mind?"

 _"_ _There is another way."_ Yene admitted. _"We summon our own familiars, or ask to borrow some of Yuzu and Sara's before planting one or more of them within his soul."_

"Plant them within his soul?" Yuzu asked, looking at her familiars, who continued to stand guard over Sayer, who was gasping for air without garnering any sympathy from anyone standing around.

 _"_ _The familiars are beings of spirit."_ Ti'ika Sara explained with a sigh. _"They can dwell within a person's body just like I can within yours. This method of monitoring Sayer would not be as effective as a Discipleship bond, as we'd be relying on the reports of the Familiars, and there would always be the possibility of Sayer overpowering the Familiars and freeing himself from them, but it might work."_

"Then perhaps we can make a compromise." Rin replied, stepping towards Sayer. "I don't like the idea of Sayer receiving any more power than he already has, but I do like the idea of putting him to good use. Yuzu can plant some of her Familiars in Sayer to watch him, and I could plant some of my own inside him for good measure. That way, all four of us would be able to monitor him, without actually giving him any of our power for him to use against us. If, after a long _long_ time he actually behaves, we might consider making him a disciple. Does this sound good to everyone?"

Yene and Yuzu each nodded their heads. Yuzu felt Sara sigh within her before using her mouth to say, _"I suppose that could work."_

"Sounds good." Rin nodded before turning to Yene. "If you could please help me with this?" she asked.

 _"_ _Gladly, darling."_ Yene replied with a grin before his physical form vanished and Rin's mark and eyes began glowing with green light a moment later. Closing her eyes, Rin seemed to concentrate for several heartbeats before opening her eyes and stretching out her hands.

 _"_ _Come forth, my servants."_ Rin and Yene commanded in unison, _"Rise to the mortal plane once more and perform the services I have tasked you with. Come forth, my Earthbound Familiars!"_

Erupting from the ground around Rin, six pillars of clear water rose up before shaping themselves into humanoid figures wearing frozen ice over their liquid bodies like armor, while wielding swords made of icicles. Bowing to Rin and Yene, the liquid familiars made obeisance to their master before rising up and approaching Sayer, whose eyes widened as, one by one, the familiars phased through his skin and entered his body, the whale-shaped mark on Rin's arm flashing faintly against his arm before fading away.

 _"_ _Command our familiars to do the same."_ Ti'ika Sara instructed from within Yuzu, who nodded her head before obeying, directing six of her familiars to enter into Sayer's body before commanding the two that were holding him with their whips to release his neck.

Sayer fell forward with a gasp, massaging his neck before looking at his two arms where the flower and whale marks had briefly appeared.

"You will always stay in our sight and follow every one of our orders without question." Rin instructed, kneeling down to look Sayer in the eyes as he continued to pant for breath. "Try anything and…what?" she asked, speaking to her god, "…do the familiars hurt him from the inside or something?"

 _"_ _They can emerge from him and duel him."_ Yene replied.

"Right, well, that will happen." Rin continued. "And even if you somehow overpower all of them…" her hand whipped forward, grabbing Sayer's face, "…I won't accept your surrender in our next duel."

"Yes…Dark Signer." Sayer replied, before bowing to them. "You are most generous. I…will definitely do all you command."

The orphans and other civilians had begun to crowd around them. Some of them were falling on their knees with thanks. Others were begging to join them in their fight against Roger. Looking over the heads of the gathering crowd, Yuzu noticed a few groups weeping over the bodies Sayer had crushed, while a mother cradled the unconscious body of the girl whose feet had been crushed.

"Sara," Yuzu whispered, "I'm going to need your help. There's something I have to do."

…

Friedrich lowered his spyglass as the duel came to its conclusion before lazily lifting his teacup from its china plate.

"So, what are your thoughts on the girl's abilities, Daichi?" he asked his companion before taking a calm sip.

Daichi was feverishly taking notes, a shark-like smile as wide as a crescent moon scrunching his cheeks up into his ears.

"Astounding!" Daichi exclaimed, scratching a few more notes into his notepad before comparing them with some older notes. "Absolutely astounding! Not knowing any better, I would say that I was observing two entirely different specimens! A shame that I only have the data from Sora's memories to work with when it comes to Yuzu, otherwise I would be able to create a more complete comparison. Still, it is almost undeniable at this point that their behaviors have undergone some dramatic changes! What fascinating subjects they will be!"

"Indeed." Frederich agreed, setting down his teacup before lacing his gloved fingers together in a contemplative pose. "You would notice the blatantly obvious facts. Allow me to enlighten you on the subtler details you seem to have glossed over in your assessment."

"I do hope you are not referring to the unfortunate psychoanalytical pseudo-science you seem to have confused with actual objective analysis." Daichi simpered, fixing Frederich with a patronizing stare. "When I said that Rin was a completely different person, I merely was stating the fact that her behavior was deviating significantly from previously recorded patters. You do know that I prefer my data to be measurable. Helps with experimenting and drawing conclusions. You know. The scientific method and all that."

Frederich chuckled to himself.

"You limit yourself, my dear colleague." He sighed. "Now, I do admire your discipline, I really do! But I can't help but feel you are limiting your perspective, vainly trying to suppress your other 'nonscientific' urges and thoughts the way you do. It's good to recognize the power of the scientific method, but one must open one's mind to all sources of knowledge in order to evolve."

Daichi smiled thinly at him, as if to say, "Really? This old argument again?"

"There is another presence within them." Frederich continued, ignoring the look. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Daichi." He hastily added when Daichi opened his mouth like he was going to interrupt. "I do not merely speak of unfounded superstitious garbage about ghosts and demons. I speak of the state of their unconscious mind. Some external force, (There now, your behaviorist view can digest _that_ now, can't it?), has taken ahold of their Ego, or perhaps suppressed most of it, enabling them to engage in acts they originally avoided, such as violence and killing. Their traumatic death experiences no doubt served as a catalyst to this transformation, but I sense a raw power behind their psyche beyond that of a mere human in trauma."

Frederich sniffed in deeply, as if catching a whiff of something intriguing.

"This, outside force, this spirit, call it what you will, has established a symbiotic bond with their conscious thought. At first, I thought it a mere parasitic relationship, that of a stronger force taking control of, or at the very least fighting against, the girl's own thoughts. Yuzu especially, seemed to have this type of relationship. But there was a marked difference in their personalities near the end of their duel, a merging, if you will, between their own psychology and the psychology of this external construct. I do believe that we are witnessing something similar to the so-called 'awakening periods' we have had occaision to observe in Yuri, Rin, and Ruri."

Daichi brightened at this before eagerly tearing a notepad out of one of his pockets.

"Truly?" he asked, "Well, I will admit, though I must disagree with your rather unscientific hypothesis, that I failed to notice the similarity in behavioral patterns between this duel and their awakening periods. Hmmm…let me see…"

He began looking through the notes, muttering to himself as he did.

"Illumination of the eyes…elevation in voice patterns…there is some correlation…no erratic behavior from the bracelets…odd considering that there was a measurable rise in their skill level that normally accommodates an awakening period…hmmmm…the events are similar, all right, though there is enough deviation to suggest that we are dealing with an entirely new phenomenon. Did you happen to take notes? I'd like to take into account observational drift."

"Have you taken into your account Academia's chances at defeating them?" a bored condescending voice sneered from behind them.

Frederich was on his feet in an instant, duel disk raised and eyes glaring at the speaker.

"Oh, hello?" Daichi called, turning his head around to greet the stranger before politely rising to his feet, and stepping forward with his hand outstretched, "And who might you be?"

"I'm almost tempted to let you take his hand, if only to watch him burn you to ash." Frederich muttered.

"You know him, then?" Daichi asked, not looking the least bit concerned by the implications from Frederich's previous statement.

"Unfortunately." Frederich sighed. "How long has it been, Akato? Twenty Years?"

"Closer to twenty-two." Akato replied with a wicked smile, eyes burning with fiery light. "But honestly, who's counting? I certainly haven't pined for the days when you stuck those needles in my arms and electro-shocked me to suppress my abilities."

"Wait…Akato…Akato…Akato…" Daichi mused, snapping his fingers in thought before suddenly brightening, a look of recognition coming over his face. "Why of course! Akato Honouzuki! 44th Shadow Rider of the old Academia. I read all about you! You exhibited some of the most frequent instances of arson and general pyromania of any Academia student, psychic or otherwise, in the school's history! I dare say, you may have even topped some of the most infamous arsonists in all of Fusion's history! What a delight to meet such a fascinating subject!"

"Nice to see I have a fan boy." Akato smirked, "Would you like me to sign one of your notebooks?" he asked, conjuring a ball of blue flame above his palm, flame tattoos glowing with light.

"What are you doing here?" Frederich asked, narrowing his eyes.

"How about you answer my question first, Frederich." Akato replied. "The two of you have been sitting there squawking and eating raw seeds like uncooked turkeys for so long, I was hoping you would be able to entertain me with some enlightened conversation."

"To be fair, Daichi was the only one eating raw uncooked seeds." Frederich sniffed defensively.

"Want some?" Daichi enthusiastically asked, holding out the bag of un-popped corn to Akato.

Akato stretched out his hand, instantly igniting the bag and causing Daichi to yelp in surprise before dropping the package, the uncooked kernels popping open madly before bursting into balls of flame.

"I would've preferred a nice stick of takoyaki." Akato mused to himself before turning his attention back to Frederich, who actually looked slightly amused, and Daichi who had stuck his burnt finger into the water pitcher before sucking on it contemplatively.

"Now, about Academia's chances?" Akato continued, "If you were betting men, how much would you put up against your empire actually beating the Dark Signers?"

"What, you really want to know Academia's chances are of defeating those two?" Frederich lazily drawled. "I should think the answer would be obvious."

"Indeed." Daichi enthusiastically agreed before launching into some statistics before Frederich could stop him. "Why, I calculate that less than 2 percent of Academia's duel soldiers are capable of merely matching either Yuzu or Rin in their dueling prowess, especially when factoring in the fact that they seem to be steadily evolving! Why, I'd be surprised if .000005% of Academia's duelists actually exceeded them in power after just one week!"

"My dear colleague…" Frederich silently growled, looking absolutely livid.

Akato laughed in response, clapping his hands before pointing at Daichi.

"I like you!" he snickered. "I might actually spare you after all, if only so you can continue tormenting old Frederich here. Less than .05%, you say? Well, you both had better hope those, what? Three or four duelists? Aren't already occupied with whatever Academia is doing in Xyz."

"Academia is well aware of the bracelet girls' growing strength." Frederich cut in before Daichi could add another anecdote. "Prodigious dueling skill they may have, but you and I both are fully aware that three duelists, no matter how skilled, can defeat an entire empire. One needs an army to hold ground."

"I won't disagree with that." Akato shrugged, "I myself have beheld in a vision a certain godly duelist who thought he could single-handedly destroy a universe. He came close, but ultimately failed in the end. We must accept our limitations as mere individuals and work together at times to accomplish greater goals. But what makes you think these new Dark Signers aren't aware of that fact?"

"They can't amass an army large enough to defeat Academia." Frederich scoffed. "Not in time, anyway."

"Are you so certain, Frederich?" Akato hummed, finger pointing down to the hoard of civilians and security officers mobbing both Yuzu and Rin.

Frederich pulled out his spyglass to take a closer look.

Rin had conjured a large green whale-shaped mark on the grounds of her destroyed orphanage. Within the boundaries of the mark, throngs of men, women, and children of various ages crowded inside before a smaller replica of the whale mark blazed to life on their arms. Other throngs of people were crowding around Yuzu, most of them sick or wounded in some way, Frederich noted, before receiving instantaneous treatment for their afflictions at Yuzu's touch, several of them coming away with a flower-shaped mark on their arm. It did not stop with mere healing either. Eventually, Yuzu and Rin managed to wade through the crowd before reaching the lumps of flesh that had once been humans before the psychic duelist had crushed them. Glowing like a blood-red lamp, Yuzu stretched out her hands while Rin held up a glowing green card, causing a light to fly from the card and into the flesh before the corpses rose into the air. In an instant, bones, muscles, sinews, and skin were reconstituted into their original forms and before the Dark Signers stood the formerly deceased humans, completely restored, save for the black sclera they now had and the flower marks burning against their arms. In another instant, more lights flew from the green card Rin was holding before entering the cards of the carded individuals. In a flash of light, those cards disappeared, replaced by even more stunned humans, who knelt before their saviors in awe. Hundreds of people were now bowing to both Yuzu and Rin.

"Incredible! Utterly, utterly incredible!" Daichi exclaimed behind him, hastily scrawling down new notes. "I must consult my old notes on psychic abilities. Telekinetic molecular reorganization perhaps? Oh, if only I could interview the reanimated! I must know if they have been reconstituted with their original personalities!"

Frederich, however, was much less impressed.

"They are worshipping those girls like they're incarnations of the Messiah." He spat, feeling disgusted by the cult-mentality the girls were inspiring.

"To them, they are, and in a way, it is not inaccurate." Akato observed. "What else can they think after witnessing such miracles? At any rate, I would not be surprised if these girls commanded a much greater mob at the end of the day, if not, an almighty army of followers."

"Almighty?" Frederich scoffed. "They are mere commoners. Sheep. Academia has plenty of experience hunting down this kind of prey."

"They will attract stronger followers." Akato coolly replied. "And believe me, very little of Academia has any real experience hunting this kind of prey. Your soldiers will find themselves in these budding monster's jaws long before they manage to claim their prizes."

"What is it you want, Akato?" Frederich sighed, finger idly raised above the screen of his duel disk. "Are you considering defecting to the Earthbound?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question." Akato sniffed, looking indignant.

"I'm certain I do." Frederich replied, the corners of his mouth twitching upward into a small smile. "But like any good former teacher, I like to hear confirmation from my students."

"'Student' and 'teacher' are somewhat loose terms in this case." Akato sighed, "But if you must know," he gave Frederich a dramatic unfurling of his cloak, letting it hang from his shoulders; showing off a new red skin-tight muscle shirt and blue overcoat, along with a new pair of grey trousers and black shoes with blue flame markings, "I was doing some shopping."

"I was wondering why the mall Frederich and I passed looked a little more scorched than the other buildings here!" Daichi enthused, clapping his hands together with glee.

"Don't play coy with me, Akato." Frederich sternly growled, as if lecturing an unruly child. "You've obviously not come here to kill us, otherwise we'd have started dueling long ago."

"You mean you two would have died long ago." Akato snickered.

"One of us, at least." Frederich sniffed, eyes briefly glancing at Daichi, "So tell me, Akato, what did you want to talk with us about? I do hope you were not intending to waste our time."

"Straight to the point as you have ever been." Akato sighed, clamping his hands behind his back before looking down at Rin, Yuzu, and their followers.

"Very well then." He continued, eyeing Frederich and Daichi, "I shall tell you. I came to you two because I thought you might be useful."

"Elaborate." Frederich commanded, causing Akato to narrow his eyes at the old man in annoyance.

"You really should be more polite, Frederich." Akato growled. "I said you might be useful. Not that you are useful. I'm still mulling over the possibility of frying your entrails into German sausages, with a side of Japanese curry to go with it." He added, glancing at Daichi, who was feverishly taking notes of everything Akato did and said.

"Oh sorry, would you _please_ elaborate." Frederich sighed, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Better." Akato decided with a sigh before continuing.

"While you already know that Academia and I have our fundamental differences, I must admit that I do admire its ambition. I too wish to create a more glorious universe, just not in the way Academia wants to."

"Oh, save the flowery prose." Frederich scoffed. "A more glorious universe, indeed! Your only desire is to plunge the world into unending chaos!"

"Yes." Akato agreed, not looking the least bit fazed. "My goal is indeed chaos. Boundless chaos. It is a noble goal to want such chaos, for it is only with such chaos that the universe can be truly free. Do you know what the goal of the Earthbound is, by chance?"

"No, and I doubt it truly concerns me." Frederich sniffed. "From what I have observed, it would seem that Yuzu, Rin, and Ruri are little more than typical cultists seeking for power. A shame really, considering their abilities, but still, they lack any real vision."

"Yes, I figured Leo would keep such information from you." Akato sneered, before laughing to himself. "Yes, typical of that old man. Wouldn't want anyone getting any dangerous ideas now, would he? He was, after all, the one who overthrew Kagemaru and the Shadow Riders in his famous military coup."

"His takeover was a necessary step for our dimension's continued evolution." Frederich replied matter-of-factly. "Academia was regressing to the stone-age with Kagemaru and his mindless cultists at its head."

"And how far exactly has our precious Fusion Dimension progressed under Leo's glorious leadership?" Akato sneered, "Has your empire managed to clean up the ashes from its various civil wars yet? Or are you too busy covering up your own dimension's destruction with your interdimensional campaigns?"

"Leo's vision is a great one." Frederich countered. "Before him, few in Fusion were even aware of the existence of other universes. But now, thanks to his advances, we have not only achieved global unification for our own dimension, but are amassing the means to achieve interdimensional unification in terms of both physical existence and political infrastructure! Humanity and the universe itself are steadily evolving! What greater cause is there to live for?"

Frederich had raised his fist into the near the end of his sentence, a look of mad triumph coming over his features. Akato, meanwhile, took the opportunity to slowly applaud the old man's enthusiasm.

"Ah yes. Bravo. Bravo. Such zealous enthusiasm, Frederich. I must say, I am touched by your dedication. And I'm sure everyone else in Fusion is all very willing to continue sacrificing their lives and resources for this universal paradise…or was it Leo's dead daughter? I forget what the goal was."

Frederich narrowed his eyes, slowly lowering his fist to adjust his half-moon spectacles.

"The Professor's sentimentality for his old family is a weakness, yes." He acknowledged. "But it is ultimately irrelevant. Whatever the motivation behind his work, the result is the same. Once the Arc-Area project is completed, all of reality will ascend on a path towards a truly glorious future!"

Frederich had involuntarily raised his fist into the air again, causing Akato to roar with laughter.

"Oh, you would make a wonderful cheerleader, Frederich." Akato snickered. "I ought to get you some pom-poms. But return to reality, for a moment. How likely, even with your most optimistic estimates, do you think it will be for Academia to reach this, 'glorious future?'"

"I think it ought to be very likely indeed, what with our unrivaled military power and technology." Frederich fervently replied before narrowing his eyes, "But clearly you disagree."

"I do." Akato admitted, smiling a crooked smile. "In fact, to speak like your companion a bit, I'd estimate that there is a nearly 100% chance that Academia will be utterly crushed under the heel of the Earthbound."

"You do seem to hold these Earthbound in high regard." Frederich sneered. "Think them invincible, do you? I dare say, you must have had your mind utterly blown to bits by the sheer dueling power of one of their followers. I myself was nearly annihilated by one of their number! Or…am I thinking about an event that never occurred?"

"They were quite powerful, to be fair." Daichi commented. "Perhaps a bit more experience and they might've defeated us."

"Quiet you." Frederich growled.

"Oh, I think the both of you have a point." Akato soothed. "Their followers are, on average, formidable enough, though I would hardly call them 'invincible.' Still," he sighed, "though I assure you that I hold the Earthbound race in very low esteem, I cannot deny the power of their leaders. They would most certainly defeat your current Academia, as it is."

"And how do you come to that conclusion?" Frederich sniffed.

Akato smirked at this before leaning forward, an inquisitive expression on his face.

"Tell me, Frederich, what would you estimate the strength of Academia's army to be, in terms of personal?"

Frederich scowled before crossing his arms in thought.

"In total, including auxiliaries, support staff, and reserves, I would estimate our current force at approximately eight-hundred million."

"And the total population killed in the Xyz Dimension without being carded?" Akato probed, "Including your own soldiers and enemies?"

"Estimates generally figure the totals to be around one point five billion." Frederich lazily replied, as if he were merely giving data to a group of stock holders. "The clear majority, naturally, being from the Xyz Dimension."

"And when your campaign in Synchro reaches its conclusion," Akato continued, "assuming it is successful, what do you think the number of casualties will be?"

"We have learned from our mistakes in Xyz." Frederich haughtily replied. "I doubt we will reach even half the casualties we sustained in the previous campaign. Still, factoring in Synchro's more advanced technology, worst-case scenario, I'd say we might see similar casualties, when totaling those sustained on both sides, that is."

"And you are familiar with the power of the Earthbound, correct?" Akato smirked, hand gesturing towards Rin, Yuzu, and their followers.

"I have been paying attention, Akato." Frederich growled. "From what I have seen, they can utilize certain 'dark' summoning techniques, can transfer and receive certain supernatural powers on the level of a powerful psychic, and apparently…" he scowled before glancing down at Yuzu, "…they can…to use a layman's term, 'raise the dead.'"

"Oh good." Akato sneered, slowly clapping his hands, "So you have been paying attention, have you? Well, you are mostly correct. So, tell me, Frederich, based on what you know, which faction do you think would ultimately benefit from a horrific interdimensional war? After Academia and the other dimensions have spilled the blood of their best duelists killing each other off, who will be able to collect the vengeful souls of those duelist into their ranks?"

"…I see your point." Frederich growled, teeth gritted against one another. "But what I want to know is what you hope to gain from our little conversation?"

"Simple." Akato replied with a smile. "You don't want the Earthbound to win. Well, neither do I. Sadly, I don't think either of alone can really stop them. But if we were to work together…"

Frederich snorted at this, a smug grin coming over his own face.

"Did my ears deceive me, or is Akato, the infamous lone anarchist, really that desperate?" Frederich sneered. "I suppose I might be able to pull some strings with the professor and have you pardoned for your treason. But believe me, it will take a great deal of concessions on your part."

"I have no interest in Academia's favor." Akato idly replied, examining his fingernails.

"Oh, well that's really too bad." Frederich cooed. "I suppose we can't have our little alliance now, can we?"

Akato snapped his fingers, causing a wreath of blue flame to encase his hand like a clawed glove without burning the flesh. The sight of the fire caused Frederich to reflexively jerk back his head.

"If I will not have Academia's cooperation, I will simply find another way." Akato evenly replied, tone not growing any more or less menacing. "Still, I do find it a pity that your 'utterly advanced' Academia is fighting so far beneath its full potential."

"And what do you mean by that?" Frederich asked, angry expression not managing to fully hide the intrigue that had crept into his voice.

Akato smiled at this, tattoos and eyes glowing with light as his gaze locked on Daichi and Frederich.

"Tell me, what do you know about the Shadow Riders?" he asked. "I know you served as a lowly doctor and licensed therapist under their rule, Frederich, but did you ever truly understand the mind of your masters?"

"Not a lot I would be interested in understanding." Frederich spat. "Kagemaru and his ilk worshipped a pagan god, Armityle, if my memory is correct, who they believed they could resurrect by retrieving and mastering her pieces, which they believed, were scattered around a certain island's grounds, hence why they built Academia in the first place. Those years had quite the treasure hunts, I am told, but I wasn't there then. I came in later, when Kagemaru had shriveled into a miserable husk kept alive inside a gigantic test tube. One of my first assignments was making sure that living zombie's heart kept beating."

He spat again, evidently disgusted by the memory.

"I heard he and his Shadow Riders actually did manage to collect Armityle's pieces." He continued after composing himself. "Apparently, Kagemaru even used them in his legendary duel against Leo. I didn't see the duel, myself. There was no recording of it, either. I wish there were. I'd have loved to see Kagemaru's shriveled face when all his mysticism evaporated into smoke before his very eyes."

"Such harsh words, Frederich." Akato mused. "Have your scientific pursuits really given you such a low opinion of the believer?"

"Oh, I am open to studying all sorts of theories and philosophies." Frederich replied, "It's useful to broaden one's perspective. I just don't like it when one pattern of thought attempts to suppress all others."

"True, true…but then perhaps you will be open to what I am about to tell you next." Akato mused, eyes misting over into a reverent gaze.

"You already know from scientific fact alone that this multiverse we live in, is not the original state of reality. As a matter of fact, reality has already gone through two previous iterations."

"Two iterations?" Frederich asked, he and Daichi both looking intrigued.

"The so-called 'Original Dimension' Professor Akaba hails from is mis-named." Akato explained. "He does not understand the truth, but I have had it revealed to me. In the first age of reality, a supreme Creator God ruled over all of existence. But this Creator God sacrificed herself in a great conflict that occurred sometime after she began creating other individuals besides herself. She ended the conflict of the first reality, but in doing so, she and the universe were shattered."

"After the war, reality broke into three realms, the Spiritual Realm, the Mortal Realm, and The Underworld. As for the Creator God, she broke into three new gods to rule these realms. Horakhty, the goddess of light, to rule over the Spiritual Realm, Armityle, the goddess of chaos and choice, to preside over the Mortal Realm, and Zorc, the incarnation of darkness, to infest the Underworld. Reality continued in this way, until a new catastrophe, one that involved Leo, occurred once again, which ended up destroying that iteration of reality and replacing it with the one we know today. Just as before, the Creator's pieces were broken into fragments, Horakhty splitting into the three Sengenshin in the Spiritual Realm, Zorc splitting into the three Jashin in The Underworld, and Armityle fragmenting into the three Phantom Demons, who all fell to the dimension that represented her creative essence."

"You mean, Fusion." Frederich clarified.

"Horakhty, Zorc, and Armityle each embodied the three essences that existed in their time." Akato confirmed. "We would recognize them as Tribute for Horakhty, Ritual for Zorc, and Fusion for Armityle. Other gods inspired the creation of other essences, but none of those could have come about without the original essences providing the foundation for their power."

"And these old gods, despite being fragmented, do indeed continue to be a source for great power." Akato went on, breathing in deeply as his tattoos began to glow once again, "And what's more, their fragments all remember who they were! All of them seek to become whole once more, and all of them would, if joined together successfully, shape the whole of reality into the existence they envision!"

"Well, that is certainly an interesting myth." Frederich admitted. "I do recognize some of the names from the various military organizations Leo kept after he took over from Kagemaru. Pray tell, how did you come across this detailed information? It certainly isn't in any of the major religions I have studied."

"Oh, what a story that is." Akato sighed, closing his eyes in reminiscence. "And it starts with a young psychic boy, with a simple desire for freedom, who pursued his freedom, until that fateful day when Kagemaru recognized my Psychic Powers and forced me to participate in his tournament."

"The shadow trials." Frederic mused, stroking his beard. "A training ground for new recruits. If I recall, less than five percent of its participants survived the first week, and less than five percent of those survived through the trials to become a Shadow Rider."

"I never minded killing as a child." Akato recounted, "When I discovered and mastered my powers, I was fascinated by what I could do. I could burn and kill whoever I pleased, with nobody to stop me. I was a free man. Or so I thought. It only took the Shadow Riders three days to find me, overpower me, and imprison me. I fought as hard as I could against them to win back my freedom, but the Shadow Riders didn't let us have any. I was allowed to burn and kill, yes, but only on their terms. And their terms were harsh, indeed."

"Every waking moment of our lives, we dueled, to the death. Food was not given to us. We had to kill and win to earn it! Sleep was not given to us either. I had to kill my taskmaster just for the right to close my eyes. All around me, other acolytes were dying, failing in their life-or-death duels, or shrieking with madness until they took their own lives. They couldn't stand the horrors we were forced to endure. They only wanted the pain to end. But the pain did not matter to me. It did not matter who I fought, who I killed, who I burned, what mattered to me was freedom! Glorious, unfettered, freedom! I fought for every second I could get to myself, to be free from the vile taskmasters, but I was always overpowered in the end. In the end, the Shadow Riders would always make sure you remained a slave!"

Akato's eyes had taken on a haunted crazed look, causing Frederich to take a step back and Daichi to mutter a quiet, "Oh my." But just as quickly as the expression had come, it vanished, leaving Akato with an eerily triumphant expression on his face.

"Eventually, I passed the trial." Akato breathed, "I became the 44th Shadow Rider. Yet nothing changed! Now we were forced to duel our fellow Shadow Riders. We held life-or-death tournaments for cards, rankings, and above all, the fragments. Those who held a fragment of Armityle wished to master the fragment with their dueling, while those without fragments wished to obtain them for themselves and win the glory they afforded. But I did not care for that glory! I craved only freedom! Yet how was I to obtain it? Escape attempt after escape attempt had failed. Fighting and killing had not worked. I could not and would not give up freedom with suicide. They said I could be free if I won a fragment, but I knew better. If I were to win a fragment, I would become Kagemaru's slave forever. I tried to avoid a duel were a fragment was wagered, but eventually they singled me out. I was forced to duel, and at that moment, all hope of freedom seemed lost to me."

"The duel commenced, and I was pushed into a corner. In all my life, I had never faced such a fearsome opponent. I was beginning to understand the power even a single fragment could afford its user. I fought tooth and nail just to stay alive, but to my opponent, it was all a game. All through the duel he tormented me with pain, and yet more pain, hoping that I would finally break and beg for death. But I did not break. I fought against his tyranny. I fought for my freedom. Even when I was about to lose, even when the pain grew nearly unbearable, I fought. And then, just when I was about to lose…she called to me."

A reverent look came over Akato's face as he recounted the experience. Blinking, Frederich shook his head, looking confused.

"Sorry, but, who is 'She?'"

"Armityle." Akato breathed, holding his hand up to his heart. "She reached out to me in my darkest moment. She felt my desire for freedom, and what I was willing to sacrifice for it. Through the fragment, she empowered me. I defeated my rival then, and secured the fragment, Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. Uria became my instructor from then on, and Armityle, my god. It was through this same Uria that I learned the truth and beheld her vision of what the Universe could be, one of unbound freedom!"

Akato paused in his story, allowing the information to sink in. Eventually, Daichi, who had been taking notes, stepped forward.

"And, erm, what happened after that? Do you have this…erm…fragment with you now?"

Akato smiled at this.

"Uria did not wish for me to play the Shadow Rider's game. After forging a spiritual link with me, granting me some of her power, she had me surrender her card to another Shadow Rider, who would end up handing it over to Kagemaru for his duel against Leo. But while Kagemaru would hold her Phylactery, I had Uria's spirit itself to guide me. With her power and guidance, I finally fled from Academia, leaving the Shadow Riders to squabble over Amityle's fragments while I carried out her true work."

"In the beginning, I had hoped to find some followers, fellow Shadow Riders who wanted to bring about the same freedom to the universe I wanted. But it would seem that I was the only Shadow Rider to truly understand Armityle's vision, the glory of the chaotic world she wanted to create! All the other Shadow Riders were blinded by their own stupid personal ambitions! Kagemaru and Amnael with their desire to cheat death, the Tarleton brothers, Tania, Fubuki, and Titan with their desires for Empires, money, and luxury! All of them just couldn't see! It was well that someone with a more glorious vision should defeat them. And yet, after Leo defeated Kagemaru, just when the power of Chaos was at the brink of being released, Leo sealed it away!"

He spat on the floor of the roof, his spittle hissing as it burst into steamy flame.

"The fool seems to fear power and imagination," Akato continued, "so he spends his time trying to control or seal away anything he deems dangerous. He would allow Academia to burn to the ground before accessing the power beneath his own castle! But I intend to do differently. I intend to unleash that power against the Earthbound! The power of Armityle!"

Daichi and Frederich glanced at each other, sharing a look that communicated just how mad they both thought Akato was.

"So that's your plan, is it?" Frederich snorted, looking unimpressed. "Unleash some mad third-of-a-god onto the universe and hope everything works out? Do you honestly think any of us are as interested in watching the universe burn as much as you are?"

"The three of us are more similar than either of you may think." Akato coolly replied, the intensity he had shown during his reminiscence now gone. "Though we may be comfortable with different levels of order, all of us ultimately wish to be unbound. You, Frederich, would see humanity transcend moral and social law to become the limitless superman."

Frederich grunted at this, as if conceding to Akato's point but not wanting to say it.

"You, Daichi, from what I have observed of you," Akato continued, "want no bounds placed on your limitless curiosity."

"What a beautifully poetic way of putting it." Daichi gushed.

"And as for me," Akato finished, "I wish for the universe to no longer be bound by the whims and laws of other wills, divine or not. Armityle is the only god who will do this. All other gods will choose to rule."

"That's all well and good." Frederich sarcastically replied, "I'm just still a little hung up on the fact that, I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE UNIVERSE BURN!"

"You would change your mind quickly, if you knew the wills of the other gods." Akato calmly replied. "Armityle will let the universe burn with chaos, yes, but unlike the other gods, she will also let the universe change! Zorc and Horakhty, on the other hand, while polar opposites in most ways, will ultimately lead the universe to the same fate. Zorc would plunge the universe into eternal darkness, Horakhty in eternal light. Both outcomes would ultimately leave the universe stagnant and boring."

"Yes, but we're not exactly concerned with either Horakhty or Zorc, now are we?" Frederich sniffed, looking ready to leave.

"And what of the Earthbound's goal?" Daichi suddenly asked, earning him a glare from Frederich "You mentioned it before, but you did not elaborate. Also, if I may ask, how do the Earthbound Gods fit at all into your mythos?"

Akato spat in disgust.

"The Earthbound are unworthy to even be called gods." He sniffed. "In the first universe, the Creator God had a sister named Ch'askancha, known as the universe spiral. It was she who first created the primordial gods who would become Earthbound. The Creator God and Ch'askancha would go on to disagree about some fundamental issues, leading up to the way that split the universe in the first place."

"So, in a way," Daichi continued, scrawling down some notes, "According to your own mythos, it is these two warring gods you have to thank for your Armityle existing in the first place. Am I correct in assuming that?"

"You are." Akato agreed, folding his arms. "That, however, is the only thing I can find in my heart for which to thank Ch'askancha. The last thing I want is for her to achieve her goal."

"Which is?" Daichi asked.

Akato paused, looking thoughtful.

"How familiar are either of you with Taoism?" he finally asked.

"Some familiarity." Daichi replied, "But I really have no interest in philosophy. To be perfectly honest, I see no use for it."

"And you, Frederich?" Akato probed.

Frederich sighed.

"Something to do with an innate principle of the universe, called 'Tao.'" He replied. "According to its adherents, it is not a thing that can be understood, Tao is not even a name for a thing, the true Tao cannot be understood, more unintelligible mumbo-jumbo, blah, blah, blah." Frederich finished, forming his hand into a talking mouth with the last three words. "Why do you ask?"

"It is perhaps the best way to understand her vision…if you can even call it that." Akato sighed. "Ch'askancha believes that all should be one, or better yet, she should be all. Tao, if you will. Were her goal to be achieved, Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Good and Evil, Individual and Collective, Chaos and Order, all events of time and eternity, would all cease to have meaning and become a compound in one. Existence itself, under her system, would cease to be a concept, as the nonexistent and existent would also become as one. Clear enough for you?" He asked when he got only blank looks from both Frederich and Daichi.

"I…can't comprehend it." Frederich admitted, looking surprised he had said this. "How…how does this Ch'askancha intend to accomplish…whatever you just described?"

"In the past," Akato explained, "The Gods have shaped reality with the essences of creation, what humanity can only foolishly recognize as 'the summoning techniques.' Ch'askancha is attempting to shape all of reality by creating an opposing counterpart to each essence of creation. If I am not mistaken, her ultimate goal will be to integrate all these essences together into herself, with reality itself following. She must, of course, be stopped before that can be achieved."

"Assuming you are correct, I wouldn't dispute that." Frederich reluctantly agreed. "But what do you want of us?"

Akato smiled.

"Ch'askancha's vision would end the concept of opposition, but Armityle's would not. For Chaos to truly exist, there must be a powerful opposing force of order. Let fire have full sway, and all becomes uniform ash. Let someone build again, and fire can continue burning."

"So, you want us to be an opposing force of order." Frederich summarized. "But why us? Don't you already have Academia as it is now? Why not try throwing a few fireballs at us? I promise we'll resist plenty hard against your…erm…chaos."

"Leo's vision is not great enough." Akato explained. "He cannot forge the empire of order Armityle has envisioned for her chaos to burn against. "But you, Frederich and Daichi, along with other leaders I have chosen, are capable of forging this empire. Together, we shall defeat Ch'askancha and other gods like her, before we finally begin our battle! Armityle, myself, and the forces of chaos shall burn against your walls of order, even as you build from the ashes we leave behind! Together, we shall feed off one another in an endless cycle of change and progression! But for this to happen, I will need you two to work with me, to ensure that Academia is ultimately placed under the control of someone whose vision will not be limited, as Leo's is. Will you do this?" he asked, holding out his hand, which had no more flames dancing around it.

Frederich folded his arms.

"And how do you plan on us accomplishing this?" Frederich asked. "Daichi and I are not exactly high up in the chain of command."

"Rank is a mere illusion." Akato sneered, "It withers before true power like wood against flame. I have a gift for the two of you, a relic I managed to recover on the night of the death of your old mentor, Fehler Verderbnis, known to most by his code name, The Doktor."

Akato's hand disappeared inside his coat before coming out with a small flash drive which he offered to Frederich, whose eyes had widened. Eagerly, Frederich snatched the device from Akato's hand before plugging it into his duel disk and examining the holographic images of DNA, insects, and notes displayed in the air.

"The project!" Frederich breathed in awe. "This is…beautiful! Yes…I…I understand exactly what to do now!"

"Happy now, are we?" Akato asked. "I thought you would be."

"Indeed." Frederich replied before shutting off the images and pocketing the flash drive before looking at Akato. "Though I must admit, frankly, Akato, for someone who emphasizes freedom so much, I'm surprised you gave this to me rather than destroy it when you had the chance. You do realize what you have given me, right? You have effectively given me the power to control thought itself!"

Akato yawned.

"I have no interest in such crude brain control." He admitted. "And even if I did, I wouldn't have the resources or the know-how to make it work. Chaos is far better served if I can place this power in your capable hands. I have no doubt you will use it to forge a very powerful empire of order for Armityle to feed off of."

"Be careful what you wish for, Akato." Frederich sneered. "You might get more than you can handle."

"Glad we can understand one another." Akato sighed before turning away. "I will stay in contact with you, in the meantime, feel free to use my gift however you wish. But remember this, whatever our ideological differences may be, we must never forget who the true enemy is."

"Stagnation." Frederich breathed.

"Stagnation." Akato agreed.

"And what will you be doing?" Daichi asked.

"I am fundamentally opposed to the Earthbound's leader, but the same does not go for her minions." Akato replied. "Personally, I think that these new Dark Signers could prove quite…interesting. There are variables yet to be untapped…"

And with that, Akato departed, vanishing in a flash of blue flame.

Daichi ticked down a few more notes in his notepad before turning to Frederich, who was staring at the flash drive.

"So…just how implicitly do you trust this Akato, Frederich?" he asked.

"From the way you phrased that, it is obvious that you already know the answer." Frederich lazily replied. "No man has ever willingly shared power with another man. All of Akato's talk of building a cooperative empire of order and chaos was clearly nothing but a lie meant to manipulate us."

"On that, we can agree." Daichi sighed.

"However," Frederich continued, fingering the flash-drive, "he was right about one thing. The universe must progress to a higher plane of existence, true, but it is high time that Academia realized that it does not need the professor to do it. A man consumed with grief over his daughter lacks the vision to carry the Arc Area project to its full potential. It will be up to us to ensure that Academia is finally headed by someone who does."

"I would be curious to see the full potential of the project." Daichi admitted with a shrug. "So, how do you plan on carrying out this coup?"

"We merely need to know the playing pieces we are working with." Frederich replied with a smile. "We shall start by controlling Academia's leaders. Commander-In-Chief Bonaparte is fat, lazy, and stupid. He can easily be bribed to our side. Commander-In-Chief Cronus, while loyal to Leo, is also quite cowardly, and could be easily convinced to turn if he sees Leo's position crumbling. Chancellor Sheppard is loyal, intelligent, and has a strong following, but he is far too trusting for his own good. Commander-In-Chief Edo is young, inexperienced, and far too entrenched in his Xyz campaign to be any threat to us. And as for Yuri…" Frederich snorted with laughter, "So long as that trained monkey is allowed to continue having fun breaking his favorite toys, he couldn't care less who his master is."

"You seem to have put a great deal of thought into this." Daichi smugly commented. "It's almost as if this is something you've been contemplating for a while. By the way, I notice that you didn't mention Commander-In-Chief Daniel Tarleton."

"Neither of us will directly assume power, so we must instead ensure that a suitable candidate performs the transition. Daniel is the one we will back. He has already put himself in a powerful position by being a war hero in Xyz, while making sure to not commit his forces to the same grinding campaign Edo has. I would honestly not be surprised if someone as ambitious as Daniel, former top Shadow Rider and now leader of Academia's Special Forces, is not already preparing to seize power. We'll just make sure his ambition comes to fruition."

"A simple plan." Daichi admitted, looking thoughtful. "Who, then, do we really have to worry about?"

"The real problem," Frederich admitted, "in addition to whatever staunch loyalists the Professor has, and the Professor himself, will be those who, officially, don't even exist."

"You couldn't possibly be referring to the Horakhty Agents?" Daichi gushed, sounding very excited.

Frederich nodded smugly.

"Not to brag, of course, but I believe that I not only know the identities of each of their agents, but the identity of their leader."

"And who might they be?" Daichi asked, looking eager.

"It was fairly simple to figure out, for me." Frederich smugly replied. "After narrowing down the possibilities and finding nobody amongst any living candidates, I merely needed to turn my studies to records of highly skilled duelists who had all, officially, died."

"Fubuki, Yusuke, and Ryo!" Daichi exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Shadow Riders, all three, and all three apparently possessing powers that, seem to be, those of a psychic, though with properties not seen in any previous psychics employed by the Shadow Riders. I had my suspicions, myself, though I am still stuck on who the leader could be."

"Yes, well, you were not in Academia, so you couldn't have known." Frederich replied, "There was a certain Professor Daitokuji who worked in Academia during my term as Kagemaru's maintenance worker. A truly clever professor, Daitokuji. Proficient in dueling and alchemy. Shame about his heart condition though. He died fairly young. I myself was by Fehler's side, cutting open his body to perform the autopsy that would go into the official records. Incidentally, about a month after his burial, a strange masked man named Amnael showed up in the ranks of Kagemaru's army before mysteriously disappearing soon after Leo took command."

"What a coincidence." Daichi sighed. "Of course, it would be utterly absurd to assume that Amnael was Professor Daitokuji brought to life through supernatural means."

"You're developing a sense of humor, Daichi." Frederich exclaimed, looking impressed. "Yes. It would seem that we must accept the concept of resurrection as scientific at this point. I must complement Leo. It makes perfect sense that he would keep such powers under his command. What better way to combat other supernatural forces like the Earthbound?"

"Truly." Daichi agreed. "So…how do we overpower them?"

"To that, we merely have to wait." Frederich replied. "Sooner or later, the Horakhty Agents and Dark Signers will clash against one another. If we are lucky, both sides will end up killing each other off. And should any of them survive…well…" he held up the flash-drive, a lustful expression coming over him, "…we have some power of our own to use against them!"

Featured Original Characters (except for Mooks, since they're obviously not important)

Name: Ti'ika Sara / Original Concept by: The Incans (but Donny took plenty of liberties with the mythos) / Affiliation: Earthbound (Clan: Cultivation) / Deck: Dark Seeds / Status: Just a widdle cutey-patootie / Trivia: "Ti'ika" is a Quechuan word for "Flower" while "Mama-Sara" was an Incan Goddess of grain and fertility.

Name: Yene Paryaqaqa / Original Concept by: Some nation that the Incan People conquered, but which they later adopted into their own religion for Donjusticia to later come in and artistic license the crap out of. / Affiliation: Earthbound (Clan: Stormbringer) / Deck: Abyssal Sea Creatures / Status: God of Water, Storms, and Sea-creatures, Hero of the Earthbound, Slayer of fifteen of Quetzalcoatle's dragons, Trickster of the Stormbringers, Winner of Betts, Protector of Children, Lover of Beauty, Bringer of Destiny, Bearer of the longest title in history, etc. etc. / Trivia: "Yene" is Mapuche for "Whale" while "Paryaqaqa" was a Mezzo-American shapeshifting god of Water (who seriously looks A LOT like Maui). I'd say his character for this story is a bit of a mix of Mettaton from "Undertale", Maui from "Moana", and Loki from the Marvel Series.

Name: Frederich Hoffman / Original Concept by: Nox Decious (Executive CEO of DietMook industries) / Affiliation: Academia / Deck: Force / Status: Mad with power

Name: Daichi Ishikuma / Original Concept by: Donjusticia (This guy again…) / Affiliation: SCIENCE! / Deck: Psychic Ink / Status: Mad without power

Name: Akato Honozouki / Original Concept by: EpsilonTarantula (He who shall be known as the alpha and omega to all insect kind) / Affiliation: None (Chaos?) / Deck: Anarchy Agent / Status: Insane either way

Featured Fan Cards

The Mook's Spells

Goyo Manriki / Spell / Equip / Activate only if you control a face-up "Goyo" monster. Equip to 1 monster your opponent controls. The equipped monster has its effects negated and cannot attack, also, during each end phase, inflict 500 damage to your opponent's LP. If a "Goyo" monster you control attacks the equipped monster: You can tribute this card; Take control of the equipped monster.

Trivia: the Manriki (also known as Kusari-Fundo) was a chain with a weight (fundo) at the end, which would be used by Edo police as a throwable non-lethal weapon for incapacitating and apprehending culprits.

Play-Spam Force – Maximum Mook Force! / Spell / Abnormal / Special Summon Goyo King, Goyo Emperor, and pull some variation of cheating nonsense that might or might not put the Protagonist into a corner. (After activating this effect, repeat this effect for each "Mook" in play)

(I plan to use this card a lot more. It's very useful and I give all other writers permission to use it).

Divine's Monsters

Precognate Jacker / WATER / Level 7 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1400 / DEF 2800 / If this card is Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; Banish both this card and that target, but return the target banished by this effect to your opponent's hand during this turn's End Phase. If this face-up card is banished from the field: You can Special Summon 1 Level 6 or higher Psychic-Type Monster (Except "Precognate Jacker") from your deck, and if you do, your opponent chooses to activate 1 of the following effects.

1\. Inflict damage to your opponent's LP equal to the Level of the monster summoned with this effect X 300.

2\. Your opponent cannot declare an attack with that monster or activate that monster's effects this turn.

Psychic Redactor / LIGHT / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1300 / DEF 500 / If this card is in your hand: You can pay 500 LP to target 1 Psychic-Type monster you control; Special Summon this card, and if you do, negate the effects of that target. (You can only Special Summon "Psychic Redactor(s)" If this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Spell Card from your GY to target 1 monster your opponent controls whose Level is equal to or lower than the Level of this card; Destroy it, and if you do, neither player can Summon monsters with that card's name while this card is face-up on the field.

Dimensional Pathfinder / DARK / Level 6 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 2100 / DEF 1900 / Once per turn, you can pay 1000 LP: Add up to 2 of your banished cards to your hand. During the turn this card is destroyed (by battle or card effect) and sent to the graveyard: You can banish this card; Fusion Summon 1 Psychic-Type monster from your Extra Deck using monsters in your Graveyard as Fusion Materials.

Divine's Extra Deck

Thought Tyrant Daemon (Archfiend for those who prefer the localized names) / DARK / Level 8 / Psychic / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2700 / DEF 2300 / 1 Psychic-Type Tuner + 1 or more non-tuner Psychic-Type monsters

If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, gain LP equal to the original ATK of that monster in the GY. Up to twice per turn, during either player's turn, if your opponent activates a card or effect: You can pay 1000 LP: Negate the activation of that card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. If this card would be destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you can banish it instead. During the End-Phase, if this card is banished: You can pay 2000 LP: Special Summon this card.

Supreme Thought Dictator Daemon (Archfiend) / DARK / Level 11 / Psychic / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3300 / DEF 3000 / 1 Psychic-Type Fusion Monster + 1 Psychic-Type Synchro Monster

If this card is Fusion Summoned: Banish all monsters on the field whose Level is less than the Level of this card, and if you do, increase your LP by 800 for each card banished with this effect. This card inflicts piercing battle damage. Any time your opponent takes damage, gain LP equal to the damage inflicted. If your opponent would activate a card or effect, you can pay 2000 LP: Negate the activation of that card or effect, and if you do, banish it.

Divine's Spells

Psychic Gravity Well / Spell / Field / Activate this card at the start of the duel. Field Spell Cards cannot be activated. If a player takes the Intrusion Penalty, inflict 2000 damage to that player's LP, and if you do, gain LP equal to the damage inflicted. Cannot be targeted by card effects or removed from the field except by its own effect. Monsters other than Psychic-Type monsters cannot attack unless the controllers of those monsters pay 1000 LP per attack. The field is treated as not having an active Field Spell Card while this is the only Field Spell Card on the field. (This effect cannot be negated). During each of your End-Phases, pay 2000 LP or destroy this card.

(In a review done by the Synchro Dimension's premiere card expert, this card was rated as, "The most absolutely fair and balanced card ever to be released, with creative mechanics and great gameplay." After the review was published, Divine graciously had his Neo Arcadia minions remove their guns from the reviewer's head.)

Hyper-Psychic Psionic Pulse / Spell / Continuous / Once per turn, you can pay 2000 LP: Banish up to 2 Psychic-Type monsters from your graveyard, and if you do, you can banish an equal number of "Psychic" Spell/Trap Cards from your deck, then gain 500 LP for each card banished with this effect. During each of your Standby-Phases, you can target up to 2 cards banished by this card's effect: Add those targets to your hand.

Psychic Dimension Breach / Spell/ Normal / Tribute 1 Psychic-Type monster you control to activate 1 of the following effects:

1\. Add 1 of your banished Spell/Trap Cards to your hand.

2\. Special Summon 1 of your banished Psychic-Type monsters.

Psychic Fusion Zone / Spell / Normal / Fusion Summon 1 Psychic-Type monster from your Extra Deck by banishing monsters from your graveyard as Fusion Materials.

Divine's Traps

Hyper-Psychic Space-Time Teleportation / Trap / Continuous / Once per turn, you can pay 2000 LP; Special Summon 1 Psychic-Type monster from your Hand, Deck, GY, or which is currently banished.

Yuzu's Monsters

Quartet the Melodious Songstress/ LIGHT/ Level 4/ Fairy/ Effect/ ATK 400/ DEF 400/ Monster Effect/ If this card is used as a Material for the Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon of a "Melodious" monster, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Melodious Songstress" monster from your deck to your hand. If this card is removed from the field, you can activate this effect during the End-Phase: Special Summon 1 "Melodious Songstress" monster from your hand or GY.

Contralto the melodious songstress/ light/ tuner/ fairy/ level 3/ ATK 1200/ DEF 1000/ If this card is summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your Graveyard. The monster summoned by this effect has its effects negated, cannot attack, and is destroyed during the End-Phase. Once per turn, you can declare a level between 1 and 5: Face-Up non-tuner "Melodious" monsters you control become the declared Level until the end of the turn.

(This one was designed based off of my favorite Contralto Singer, Adele.)

Descant the melodious diva/ light/ fairy/ level 2/ tuner/ ATK 900/ DEF 600/ If you control a "Melodious" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand.) (You can only use this effect of "Descant the Melodious Dive" once per turn). If this card is used as a synchro material for a synchro summon, you can activate this effect:  
Draw 1 card and reveal it. If the card revealed by this effect is a "Melodious" monster, you can add 1 "Melodious" monster from your Graveyard to your Hand.

Dark Tuner Corruption Seed/ DARK/ Level -7/ Plant/ Dark Tuner/ Effect/ ATK -700/ DEF -700/ If this card is in the graveyard when you Special Summon a monster(s), you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card. When this card is summoned, you can activate one of these effects (each of the following effects can only be used once per turn):  
1\. Target 1 monster: That monster is treated as having a Level of 0.  
2\. Target 1 monster: That monster is treated as having a Level of -7.  
3\. Add 1 Yami no Kakubunretsu from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

Yuzu's Extra Deck

Beethovina the Melodious Maestra/ Light/ Level 7/ fairy/ Synchro/ effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2200/ 1 "Melodious" tuner + 1 or more non-tuner "Melodious" monsters  
If this card is Synchro summoned successfully, you can target 1 "Melodious" monster in your graveyard: Add that target to your hand. Once per turn you can tribute 1 face-up "Melodious" monster you control: Special Summmon 1 "Melodious monster from your hand or deck whose Level is either 1 Level higher or 1 level lower than the monster tributes for this effect. You cannot summon non-LIGHT monsters the turn you activate this effect.

Tchaikovska the Melodious Maestra/ Level 6/ LIGHT/ Fairy/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2000/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-tuner Fairy-Type monsters  
Other Fairy-Type monsters you control gain 500 ATK and DEF. Once per turn you can send 1 LIGHT Fairy-Type monster from your Deck to the Graveyard to target 1 card on the field: Destroy it.

Wing Diva the Melodious Choir/ Light/ Rank 7/ Fairy/ Xyz/ ATK 2000/ DEF 1000/ 2 level 7 "Melodious" monsters  
Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. You take no damage from battles involving this card. Inflict 500 damage to your opponent each time you Special Summon a "Melodious" monster(s). Once per turn you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Special Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your Hand or Graveyard.

Vivaldina the Melodious Maestra/ light/ fairy/ rank 4/ ATK 1800/ DEF 1000/ 2 level 4 "Melodious" monsters  
Once per turn you can detach 1 Xyz material from this card: draw 1 card. Then if the card drawn by this effect was a level 4 or lower "Melodious" monster, you can reveal that monster: Special Summon it. Fairy-Type monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each Xyz material attached to this card.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Muse/ LIGHT/ Level -7/ Fairy/ Dark Fission/ Effect/ ATK -1000/ DEF 2800/ 1 Rank/Level 7 or higher monster - 1 Rank/Level -7 or Lower monster  
This face-up attack position monster is Unaffected by your opponent's card effects while you control a face-up Field Spell Card. This card can declare 1 attack During each player's Main-Phases. This card cannot be destroyed by battle, also, your opponent takes any damage you would have taken from battles involving this monster.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Sprite/ WATER/ Level -7/ Fairy/ Dark Synchro/ Effect/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ 1 Dark Tuner + 1 monster with a Level  
Once per turn: You can target a number of cards on the field, up to the number of monsters you control; Destroy them, and if you do, Special Summon a number of "Earthbound Seed Tokens" " (Plant Type / EARTH / Level 1 / ATK 400 / DEF 400) in defense position to each player's side of the field, equal to the number of cards that player controlled that were destroyed. If a monster you control would be destroyed, or a player would take damage, you can Dark Sacrifice 1 "Earthbound Seed Token" on the field instead.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Dryad/ EARTH/ Rank -7/ Fairy/ Dark Xyz/ Effect/ ATK 0/ DEF 2800/ 2 Level -7 monsters  
This card gains 500 ATK for each monster on the field. This card can attack each monster your opponent controls once each. If this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict piercing damage to your opponent's LP. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Dark Xyz Material from this card: Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls.

Yuzu's Spells

Divine Melodious Stage (Not writing this one out again, you can look it up in chapter 6)

Yami no Kakubunretsu/ Spell/ Normal/ Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card and its effects. Negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls. (This change lasts until this card's effects resolve). Dark Fission summon 1 Dark Fission monster from your Extra Deck using monsters from your side of the field, hand, GY, or that are banished as Material.

Yuzu's Traps

Legato / Trap / Continuous / You cannot Normal Summon Monsters. (This effect cannot be negated). When this card is activated: You can add 1 "Melodious" monster from your deck to your hand. "Melodious" Monsters you control gain 400 ATK and DEF for each face-up "Melodious" monster you control. Once per turn, if you Special Summon a "Melodious" monster, you can activate this effect: Special Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your hand.

Rin's Monsters

Synthphonist Clarinetist/ WIND/ Level 4/ ATK 1600/ DEF 1400/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.  
Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Change it to face-down defense position, and if you do, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min 1).

Synthphonist Bassoonist/ WIND/ Level 4/ ATK 400/ DEF 2000/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ If this card is used as a Material for a Synchro Summon, you can target 1 monster you control: That target cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.  
If a monster(s) you control is targeted by a card or effect, you can negate that effect, and if you do, you can reduce this card's level by 1 (Min. 1).

Synthphonist Snare-Drummer/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Pendulum/ Effect/ Left Scale 9/ Right Scale 9/ ATK 900/ DEF 300/ Pendulum Effect/ You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters except Synthphonist monsters. (This effect cannot be negated.) Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" Tuner from your Hand. Monster Effect/ Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1-3: The levels of all monsters you control become the declared level until the end of this turn.

Synthphonist Violist / WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 1100/ If this card is removed from the field, you can target 1 "Synthphonist" monster you control; Gain LP equal to that monster's Level X 100, and if you do, that target gains ATK and DEF equal to the LP you gained. This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.  
Up to thrice per turn, you can target 1 "Synthphonist" monster you control: Increase or Decrease its Level by 1. (Min. 1 and Max. 12).

Synthphonist Violinist/ WIND/ Level 4/ Psychic/ Gemini/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 1700/ DEF 1000/ This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.  
Once per turn, if your opponent activates a Spell/Trap card, you can negate the activation of that Spell/Trap card, and if you do, shuffle that card into the Deck. Then, you can reduce the level of 1 monster you control by 1 (Min 1).

Dark Tuner Abyss Light / WATER / Level 1 / Sea Serpent / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / You can Special Summon this card from your hand if you control a Synchro or Dark Synchro monster. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster you control: This card's Level becomes equal to the Level of that target. During either player's turn, if your opponent declares an attack when this card is in your GY: You can banish this card to target 1 monster you control other than the attack target; Change the attack target to the targeted monster, and if you do, the monster targeted by this effect cannot be destroyed by that battle.

Dark Tuner Chaos Maelstrom / WIND / Level 7 / Thunder / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0 / If this card is used as a Dark Synchro Material: You can activate this effect; Until the end of this turn if a Dark Synchro Monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can negate the effects of the monster it is battling at the start of the Damage Step, and if you do, change its ATK and DEF to 0.

(And, of course, in all its glory)

Earthbound God Yene Paryaqaqa/ DARK/ Level 10/ Fish/ Effect/ ATK 2700/ DEF 2900/ There can only be one "Earthbound God" monster on the field. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the summon of this card. Negate this card's effects if there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field. Your opponent cannot tribute, dark sacrifice, or use this monster as a Material for a Special Summon. This card is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spell/Trap Cards and the effects of your opponent's monsters whose Level/Rank is lower than the Level of this card. Your opponent cannot target this card for attacks but this card does not prevent your opponent from attacking directly. This card can attack your opponent directly. When this card is summoned successfully, negate the effects of all cards your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 200 damage to your opponent for each card whose effect was negated with this effect. If a player activates a card or effect, (except the effect of this card), you can negate the activation of that card or effect, and if you do, destroy it. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this effect except this one: Your opponent can negate this effect. If he/she does, they take 800 damage.

Rin's Extra Deck

Sonic Synthphonist Aspirant/ WIND/ Level 2/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 800/ DEF 800/ 1 "Tuner" + 1 "Synthphonist" monster  
If this card is Synchro Summoned successfully, you can shuffle 1 card from your hand into the deck: Draw 2 cards. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves; Synchro Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control as Material.

Sonic Synthphonist Prodigy/ WIND/ Level 6/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 2400/ DEF 2400/ 1 Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters  
This card can attack once per Battle-Phase for each Tuner used as a Synchro Material for its Synchro Summon. Once per turn, you can Normal Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can target 1 Gemini monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon it.

Hypersonic Synthphonist Marvel/ WIND/ Level 9/ Psychic/ Synchro/ Tuner/ Effect/ ATK 3300/ DEF 3300/ 1 Synchro Tuner + 1 or more "Synthphonist" monsters  
Monsters destroyed by battle with a "Synthphonist" monster are shuffled into the Deck instead of being sent to the Graveyard. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can target cards on the field up to the number of Tuners used in this card's Synchro Summon: Negate the effects of those targets until the end of the turn. Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your Hand or Graveyard.

Earthbound Disciple Geo Selkie / WATER / Level -6 / Aqua / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 2500 / 1 Monster with a Level – 1 Dark Tuner

Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the Synchro Summon or Dark Synchro Summon of your monsters. If a monster you control attacks an opponent's defense position monster: That monster inflicts piercing damage. Your opponent cannot activate his/her set Spell/Trap Cards.

Rin's Spells

Synthphonist Reverberation / Spell / Quick-Play / Send 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your deck to the GY; Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your hand. You can shuffle this card from your GY into the Deck; Special Summon 1 "Synthphonist" Monster from your GY. (This card's effects are negated unless they are activated in a chain with 2 or more "Synthphonist" cards).

Synthphonist Revision / Spell / Quick-Play / Send 1 "Synthphonist" Spell/Trap Card from your deck to the GY. You can Shuffle this card from your GY into the deck; send 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your side of the field, hand, or deck to the GY, and if you do, this turn you can Normal Summon 1 monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set.

Synthphonist Tuning/ Spell/ Normal/ Activate only if you control a face-up "Synthphonist" Tuner monster. Add 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Deck to your Hand. You can shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Immediately after this effect resolves; Normal Summon 1 Synthphonist monster. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Tuning" once per turn.)

Synthphonist Resonance/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Immediately after this effect resolves: Normal Summon all face-up "Synthphonist" Gemini monsters you control. You can Shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck: Special Summon 1 level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monster from your Hand. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Resonance" once per turn.)

Synthphonist Inspiration/ Spell/ Normal/ reveal 3 "Synthphonist" Spell Trap cards from your Deck. Your opponent selects 1 to add to your Hand and the rest are returned to the bottom of your Deck in any order desired. You can Shuffle this card from your Graveyard into the Deck: Shuffle 1 "Synthphonist" monster from your Graveyard into the Deck. (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Inspiration" once per turn.)

Synthphonist Rehearsal/ Spell/ Quick-Play/ Special Summon 1 "Sonic Synthphonist" monster from your Extra Deck ignoring the summoning conditions. That monster's effects are negated and it cannot attack, also, shuffle it into the Extra Deck during the End-Phase. You can shuffle this card and 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster from your graveyard into the deck to target 1 "Synthphonist" Synchro Monster you control: This turn that Target gains the effects of the "Synthphonist" monster shuffled into the Extra Deck with this effect. (This is a quick effect). (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Rehearsal" once per turn).

Dark Tuning / Spell / Normal / Tribute 1 monster you control; Add 1 Dark Tuner Monster from your deck to your hand, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard, but that monster's ATK and DEF become 0. (You can only activate 1 Dark Tuning per turn).

Dark Synchro Mirror / Spell / Normal / Discard 1 card to target 1 Synchro Monster you control: Special Summon 2 monsters from your deck (1 Dark Tuner and 1 non-Dark Tuner) Whose combined Levels are equal to the Level of the targeted Synchro Monster. (You can only activate 1 "Dark Synchro Mirror" per turn).

Rin's Traps

Synthphonist Performance/ Trap/ Counter/ Activate only if you control a "Hypersonic Synthphonist" Synchro Monster. Negate the activation of a card or effect, and if you do, shuffle that card into the deck. You can banish this card from your graveyard: Set 1 "Synthphonist" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your Spell/Trap Card Zone, but that card cannot be activated this turn. (This is a quick effect). (You can only use each effect of "Synthphonist Performance" once per turn).

Synthphonist Audition/ Trap/ Continuous/ Pay half your LP: Special Summon 3 Level 4 or lower "Synthphonist" monsters from your deck in face-up attack position. Those monsters cannot attack. If any monster Special Summoned by this effect leaves the field, destroy all monsters Special Summoned by this card's effect. If this card is removed from the field, shuffle all monsters Special Summoned by this card's effect into the deck. (You can only control 1 face-up "Synthphonist Audition").

 **Special thanks goes, once again, to bladeWriter3 and Epsilon Tarantula for editing, and for Epsilon graciously allowing me to use his fan-name he generated for "The Doktor." Check out his stories if you want to see more of Fehler.**

 **Now that this chapter is finished, the next items on my agenda are to comlete birthday stories for my great friends Shimmering-Sky, Nox Descious, and bladeWriter3. Once these short stories are done, its off to the next short chapter of YGO Vrains Abridged before I get to the next SoR chapter! I don't know if the next chapter is much to get excited about, but I'll let you guys judge based on the cast list.**

 **Chapter 16: Pawn of the Earthbound**

 **Featuring:**

 **Yuya Sakaki/Yuto**

 **Yugo**

 **Yuri**

 **Selena (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know most of you are not interested in seeing this utterly BORING character, but I eventually had to get to her. Keep your loud and obnoxious complaints to yourselves).**

 **Barret (a proud drinker of DietMooks since episode 38)**

 **Bandit**

 **Delta 026**

 **Aleisha Claire**

 **Melissa Claire**

 **Sergey Volkov**

 **Dark Signer Yuu Hashimoto**

 **Zarc (Another boring character I know most of you have no interest seeing in action).**

 **So yeah, sorry that it'll be mostly filler next chapter. But that is sadly how stories go. Sometimes the action picks up, and sometimes it just slows down. Still, I appreciate your continued support and reviews. Speaking of which, starting from this chapter onward, I'm going to start responding to your reviews, since I just have so much fun doing so in "Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains Abridged" (If you haven't checked out that story, give it a look).**

 _Nox Descious chapter 31 . Jun 2_

 _HI! Nox Descious here and I am here to tell you about this amazing product!_

 _Are you writing a Yugioh ARC V fanfiction? Do you want to keep the story going for fifty or one hundred chapters, but you find that the big action scenes and showdowns are happening by chapter fifteen? Do your big bads and bigger bads like Leo and Zarc have to wait till the very end to make an appearance? Is it too early for your Big Bad Wannabe like Roger to be defeated? Do you want some of your other characters to get their chance to shine and create some dramatic tension WITHOUT sacrificing everybody's favorite Super Mook, Sergey? Well look no further!_

 _Introducing DIET SUPER MOOK! The great threat level and shock value of a regular Super Mook but with HALF THE CALORIES!_

 _Yuri: This is stupid..._

 _Nox: Just say your line Yuri!_

 _Yuri: Grrrrrr fine... Ahem. DID YOU SAY HALF THE CALORIES?!_

 _Nox: That's right my hair gel addicted friend!_

 _Yuri: HEY!_

 _DIET SUPER MOOK! With several different flavors to choose from! BLUEBERRY BARRET! BANANA BATTLE BEAST! NUTELLA NUMBER 96! And introducing the Latest Flavor! DIVINE STRAWBERRY SAYER!_  
 _It's so easy to set up you can't possibly fail! Just take our patented state of the art Diet Super Mook and place him or her in a duel against two characters that you love, but you know they won't get to do much otherwise at least for quite awhile! Regular fanfiction writers get flamed by their fans when popular characters only get to duel regular mooks! And then they get accused of demoting their beloved characters to extras! But with Diet Super Mook, all those problems magically go away! Don't believe me, just listen to the words of our satisfied customers!_

 _Rin: At first i was worried that my fanfiction author, Donjusticia, wouldn't give me the oppurtunity to be a strong independent female world destroying dark signer who dont need no man like Ruri is, but then he tried Diet Super Mook! With the Strawberry Sayer Flavor, not only do i have a bigger baka than Yugo to take out my anger on, but the voices in my head telling me to turn completely evil have gotten louder, and the horrifying images of innocent background NPCs being slaughtered like cattle will never go away! Heh Heh... Heh Heh... they will...never...go...away..._

 _BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Call now for your Diet Super Mook and we will throw in Scarring your main characters for life and a massive case of PTSD ABSOLUTELY FREE!_

 _DIET SUPER MOOK: STRAWBERRY SAYER! A taste so great, it will blow your mind! LITERALLY! With only half the calories!_

 _(camera moves to a very annoyed Selena in a skimpy purple bikini gesturing with her waving hands towards Sayer, who is sitting on a chair looking incredibly confused)_

 _Selena: How long do i have to do this? This is stupid!_

 _Nox: Until we make enough money to get Ice Cream Cometh and Moonlight Sorrow off the ground again! Besides, I am not paying you for back sass!_

 _Selena: You aren't paying me at all you cheapskate! And i draw the line at being forced to wear this skimpy bikini!_

 _Nox: Well its not my fault that my fanfictions dont make any money, otherwise I actually could pay you! Besides, the reason i have you wearing a bikini is because products ALWAYS sell more if there is a smoking hot woman showing it off! And i could not hire any Victorias Secret Models so i decided to Settle with Selena's Secret, which isnt much of a secret anymore!_

 _Selena: MY FEELINGS FOR YURI IS NOT A SECRET! IT IS A FALSE RUMOR! FALSE!_

 _Nox: You guys already confessed each others feelings and had a make out session in Moonlight Sorrow. EVERYBODY knows you two are an item now!_

 _Selena: DANG IT!_

 **Don't worry Selena. You don't have to worry about Nox Descious's utter LEWDNESS any more! I, Donjusticia, will not only feature you in the next chapter, but will NOT force you to wear a bikini (unless you count your scantily clad dark signer outfit, or fused half-naked furry wolf girl form…)**

 **Selena: Thanks Don, wai…WHAT WAS THAT LAST PART!?**

 **Well, I'm glad to see you're on board with this! And like I said, I will request absolutely no fanservice from you or any of the bracelet girls.**

 **Selena: You'd better not.**

 **Except for this. *Hands Selena a script***

 **Selena: DON'T…YOU…DARE…! *gets forced into a maid outfit***

 **The Blend S Opening! (But it's an Arc-V Meme now)**

 **Yuzu: Smile!**

 **Rin: Sweet!**

 **Ruri: Sister!**

 **Selena: Sadistic…**

 **Reira: Surprise!**

 **Zarc and Ray: Service!**

 **Yuri: STARVE VENOM FUSION DRAGON! *blows up the rest of the meme***

 **Thanks for the review, Nox. Birthday Present coming soon, even if late. Stay tuned.**

 _Cipher Drake chapter 31 . Jun 1_

 _HOLD UP, A NEW CHAPTER?_

 _WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN BOI I FRIGGIN MISSED YA SO MUCH!_

 **BOI I NEVER BE LEAVIN! BOI, I SAY BOI! YOU AINT NEVER SEEN THE LAST OF DONNY-J! DONNY-J IS HERE TO STAY!**

 _bladeWriter3 chapter 31 . Jun 1_

 _First of all, "2 hours flat," that is a big fat lie. Second, under normal circumstances I'd complain about an unresolved cliffhanger... except I already know how it's going to end, so it doesn't bother me._

 _Third, the duels. Yuzu and Rin creaming those Security mooks like they were no big deal was to be expected, mooks are the most common fodder in existence._

 _*Divine abuses the effect of Psychic Gravity Well*_

 _DANG IT! That just proves my point. That was low, way past the Moral Event Horizon and just straight up evil. And why do I get the feeling a Deus Ex Machina is needed to end this conflict._

 _Yuzu Synchro Summoning (finally I might add, seeing as how Contralto was teased ALL the waaaaay back in the card section of Chapter 6) was awesome to see. Now she has all 3 OG Extra Deck Summoning Methods, and who knows which ones she'll be getting next (Oh wait, I do.)_

 _To my fellow SoR readers, don't worry. I will take it upon myself to make sure Donny not only posts the next chapter next week, but that he'll work on the following one right after. Mostly because I... You know what, I'm gonna stop here to avoid potential spoilers, and I know PLENTY of them._

 _Reward: One Angry Rin_

 _Rin *surging with electricity*: KILL ALL THOSE SECURITY BAKAS! *shoots more lighting*_

 **You mean "two hours flat is a big FLAT lie!" *insert laughing track.* Also, yeah, yeah, yeah, bladeWriter-San, or should I call you, Taskmaster-San, seeing as how you've borrowed Blue Angel's whip to beat me into submission any time I try to take a short and healthy four month break. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. Thanks for your help! Please don't beat me…**

 _BladeBlaster chapter 31 . May 31_

 _Yugo you need to go encourage your waifu !_

 **Yugo: Rin! You can do this! I believe in you!**

 **Yuzu: I'm not Rin.**

 **Yugo: Oh! Sorry! Rin, look into my eyes! Remember all that we have gone through together! You can overcome this!**

 **Selena: Who the heck are you?**

 **Yugo: Did I get it wrong again!? Sorry! Rin! The real Rin this time…I've always wanted to tell you…I LOVE YOU!**

 **Ruri: …? Have we even met?**

 **Yugo: Dang it! Why does every girl I meet look exactly like Rin!? Oh well, at least I can always recognize you, D-wheel.**

 **D-wheel: Vroom! Vroom!**

 _ScalchopWarrior chapter 31 . May 31_

 _WHOA, A NEW CHAPTER!_

 _So it's been a while, huh? I'll just try and remember as much as I can..._

 _All right, so this was mostly a duel chapter, with two chapters. I'll break it down based on the duels I guess?_

 _First was just a simple one, Rin, and Yuzu vs their respective batch of generic cannon fodder. Not too much to say other than how enjoyable it is to watch them absolutely destroy Securities. It's very cathartic and soothing. Almost like a massage. But for my eyes. And mind. And...what was I talking about again?_

 _Oh yeah, Synthphonists are freaking amazing and Rin is my waifu_

 _Wait, no, that's not what I wanted to say...or is it?_

 _It was very enjoyable is what I'm trying to say_

 _The second duel is Rin and Yuzu vs Divine (not sure why I'm telling you since you wrote it and stuff...), and...oh boy. That was definitely...a card game? I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to react to the duel. There's definitely the strategy of the card game with Yuzu and Rin, as usual, playing around the negations like bosses, and Divine himself doing pretty well, especially with his whole Field Spell._

 _Course, that Field Spell is also the most disgusting thing ever at this point._

 _God, from a conceptual standpoint, Roget's strategy of using the generic cannon fodder as...well, fodder sounds pretty good, but when you factor in psychic abilities that...you know, MURDER the ones used up...yeah, it's not so many rainbows and sunshine anymore..._

 _With this chapter, I can now definitively say that, yes indeed, Roget is the most disgusting Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic villain I've ever read. Going into the duel I can say I expected multiple things, but Divine (more Roget) sacrificing Securities to fuel his cards was not one of those things_

 _Wow, now I feel like an asshole for calling them fodder earlier..._

 _Dang_

 _Anyway, great chapter as always! Duels are...well, they're not fun, but they're definitely notable, as well as nicely written! Character is on point and we've got juuuust the right amount of "nope" in this chapter._

 _Yep, definitely a quality Donjustica chapter!_

 _All right, farewell for now, and see you in a few months!_

 _;D_

 _ok im kidding pls dont take months i need this story in my life senpai_

 **Rin X Yugo was honestly my absolutely favorite ship as well. They…are…just…so…cute. And yeah. And of course Synthphonists are awesome! Donfreakingjusticia designed that archetype after all!**

 **And I am glad people are feeling for the "fodder." It makes me feel like I'm doing my job right when people actually get a stab of pain in the gut when a character dies. For that to happen with background characters is a great big "YES!" for me. I'll have to kill off some major characters now. Who should I start with?**

 _Epsilon Tarantula chapter 31 . May 31_

 _Akato: In the four months it has been since this thing updated, I managed to get a deal with some other crazy author to torture a bunch of ponies and Kamen Riders. And that took, like, two hours!_

 _Jeremie: And we STILL don't have our story updated!_

 _Me: I'M GETTING TO IT!_

 _And now, confirmation that Yuzu got stuck with the Token Mini-Moe of the Jibakushin. My condolences, though patience is a virtue. Not surprised that he's cheating._

 _Annnnd Daiichi eats unpopped popcorn. That is disgusting. Overall, a dueling chapter, but a fascinating one. Interested to see next chapter._

 **Ti'ika Sara: *Looking absolutely as moe as moeishly possible* Yes, I am indeed cute. Cuter than any other earthbound god in existence. But don't worry, male readers. Even though I** ** _look_** **like a six-year-old, I am actually MILLIONS of years old, so I'm a perfectly legal loli, thank you very much. No doubt my IMMENSE fan-base will not be able to hold back their praise and adoration as they draw millions upon millions of pieces of fan-art, all dedicated to my glory. I am, after all, one of the most beautiful goddesses in existence.**

 **Yene Paryaqaqa: *Laughs hysterically in the distance***

 **Ti'ika Sara: SHUT UP, YENE! And you, Epsilon! Get back to writing Garage Kids AND Omen of Uncertainty or else I WILL destroy you!**

 **Yuzu: But I thought we were gonna focus on saving your family. I mean, after all, that's one of your main motivations, right?**

 **Ti'ika Sara: Oh come on, Yuzu! Did you actually fall for that fake flashback!? This was never about saving my sister! I just made all that up!**

 **Yuzu: Wha…you made that all up!?**

 **Ti'ika Sara: Of course I did! Cavillace doesn't even exist! The only reason I possessed you was so that I could use your body to eat some Szechuan sauce!**

 **Yuzu: Szechuan sauce?**

 **Ti'ika Sara: *Steadily getting crazier* That's right Yuzu! None of this was about family or revenge! It was always about the Szechuan sauce! I want it! I want my Mulan McNugget Sauce! I'm gonna get it even if it takes me 300 more chapters to get it! 300 more chapters, Yuzu! 300 more chapters! 300 MORE CHAPTERS!**

 _Guest chapter 31 . May 31_

 _When will yuya get a turn in this_

 **Probably never. I mean, after all, everyone knows this fanfic is all about bracelet girl fanservice. And OCs! Can't forget about the OCs! Who wants to see the other more irrelevant characters anyway?**

 **Have no fear. I have BIG plans for Yuya, EARTHBOUND BIG plans for Yuto, SUPREME KING DRAGON SIZED PLANS for Yuri, and…more or less average plans for Yuugo Shoukan.**

 **Yugo: HEY!**

 **Thanks for the review!**

 _Royal2 chapter 31 . May 31_

 _Good chapter man can't wait for the next one and welcome back. It's been a while._

 **I am never truly gone, Royal2. Strike me from the internet, and I shall simply return back stronger than you could possibly imagine! Thanks for the review.**

 **Also, guess what everyone! Rin and Yuzu are recruiting disciples now! It's that time again! Everyone's favorite time!**

 **IT'S OC TIME! *Confetti rains down***

 **That's right! SoR doesn't have enough characters, so I need you readers to overload me with even more! So yes, I will be accepting new OCs now, but AT MY DISCRETION and with the following caveats:**

 **1.** **Only people who have not submitted an OC can submit a new one.**

 **2.** **Only 1 OC per person. (So I'm afraid that those of you who had a family of octuplets ready will have to find some other writer).**

 **3.** **Go easy on the decklists.**

 **4.** **No submitting in the Review Section.**

 **5.** **No Vampires, Elves (Dark or otherwise), Succubi, or Cat-girls! (Sentient talking dogs are fine, however).**

 **Thank you all for your continued support. What other items do I have on the agenda…**

 **Oh yeah!**

 **Greninja, if you are still reading this, theTiger39 would be interested in using your characters in a story of his, but needs your permission. I would PM you if I could, but I can't PM guests, so consider making an official account. (Same goes for you other guests, I can interact with you all a lot better if you have an actual account and signing up is completely free).**

 **I will see you all when the next chapter is finished (hopefully soon). Until then, stay awesome, stay humble, stay humbly awesome, and may God bless you!**


	33. Part 1: Chapter 16 (Part 1)

**DISCLAIMER!**

 **As you all know, "Signs of Renewal" deals with some truly dark and disturbing themes. If you are easily disturbed by blood, murder, masochism, sadism, or clinical insanity, please take caution!**

 **Special Thanks goes once again to my dear friends, bladeWriter3 and CorinnetheAnime for helping me to proofread and complete this chapter. Further thanks, naturally, goes to all of your for continuing to support me as I continually strive to grow and improve in my writing abilities. As part of this development, there is a new development in the duels, in which monster position will be expressed by their ATK value being italicized for attack position and DEF value being italicized for defense position. Thank you bladeWriter3 for giving me this idea and for helping to create four of the duels featured here.**

 **And, of course, happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans, and to my distant British Cousins, cheer up! At least you guys got to conquer India, and most of Africa, and Australia, and New Zealand, and Hong Kong, and a whole lot of other territories I will not enumerate at this time.**

 **Without further ado, ENJOY!**

 **Part 1: Chapter 16 – Pawn of the Earthbound (Part 1)**

 **The 4 remaining**

 **Yugo Vs. Duel Chaser – 429**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Duel Chaser – 429**

 **1800 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Goyo Chaser and a face-up Goyo Emperor**

 **Yugo**

 **2600 LP**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon**

"Battle!" Yugo ordered, stretching his hand towards his monster, "Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider, attack Goyo Chaser! Its effect activates when it attacks, increasing its ATK by 100!"

 **Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider: 2200 + 100 = 2300 ATK**

Obeying his command, Yugo's sword-like rocket blasted forward, the mechanical rider on top making a pass with its smaller sabers while its main sword pierced Goyo Chaser's body.

 **Duel Chaser – 429: 1800 – 400 = 1400 LP**

It had been absolute chaos after Shun's duel against Crow. In moments, Yugo suddenly found himself in the midst of a full-blown war waged amongst the factions of the rioting Commons, the tyrannical Security forces, and the invading Academia Soldiers. He had managed to escape from his confinement in the duel palace, but not without continual resistance from almost all sides of the conflict. No matter where he turned, it seemed that there was always some duelist bent on capturing or carding him.

Escaping, however, was not Yugo's objective, he had another goal in mind, one that had completely consumed him the moment he had woken up that morning.

 _I'm here. -Rin-_

Such a short message, notwithstanding, no written words had made such a profound impact on Yugo.

Rin was here! She was out there! And no matter who stood in his way, he would find her!

"Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider can make a second attack during each Battle Phase!" Yugo continued, face hardened with a fierce determination. "Battle! Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider, attack Goyo Emperor!"

"Goyo Emperor has higher attack than your monster!" Duel Chaser – 429 replied. "You are wasting this attack and your Life Points!"

"Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider's effect!" Yugo countered, "When it attacks, I can increase its ATK by 100!"

"That still won't be enough." Duel Chaser – 429 spat. "The victory is still mine."

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effect!" Yugo roared, enacting his true strategy. "If a Level five or higher monster activates its effect, I can negate the effect and destroy it before having my Clear Wing gain the destroyed monster's ATK! Dichroic Mirror!"

Unfurling its green translucent wings, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon proceeded to unleash its power on Yugo's own monster, reducing the robotic sword to dust before surging with energy as it gained its ATK.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon: 2500 + 2300 = 4800 ATK**

"Forty-eight hundred attack!?" the duel chaser gasped.

"Battle!" Yugo roared, "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, destroy Goyo Emperor! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Rising into the air so rapidly that it generated a sonic boom, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon performed a dive once it had risen several hundred meters, rapidly spinning like a top before ramming into Goyo Emperor and obliterating the monster.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" the duel chaser cried as he lost control of his bike before crashing.

 **Duel Chaser – 429: 1400 – 1500 = 0 (LOSE)**

"I'm coming for you, Rin." Yugo vowed. "I won't let anything get in my way! Just hold out a little longer."

Yugo surveyed the vast expanse of the smoking city. Rin had to be out there somewhere. The letter was genuine. He recognized her handwriting…or at least…the heart shape she liked to decorate her notes with. But then…why hadn't she just come to him?

Yugo shook his head. Rin would scold him for his stupidity. Of course, she couldn't just meet him! She had broken into the duel palace…somehow? Of course, she had to leave unless she wanted to be arrested…assuming she was worried about being arrested after breaking in?

"Stay focused, Yugo." He told himself, shaking away the nagging confusion. "You know Rin's out there. All that matters is finding Rin. Just find Rin, just find…"

A flash of yellow from another track caught his eye. When he turned his head, it was gone.

"Just find Rin, just find…"

A sudden roar from the other trackway grabbed hold of Yugo's attention.

A rider atop a yellow motorcycle with a front shaped like a skeletal dragon, and sides shaped like a pair of translucent yellow wings, suddenly used an overturned semi-truck trailer to bridge the gap between their two track-ways before deftly landing a few meters behind Yugo's bike and speeding up to him.

"Great, who is this?" Yugo grumbled to himself, taking a closer look at the rider.

She was a petit girl wearing a bright yellow biker suit with a short translucent yellow cape pinned to the shoulders. Over her head, she wore an American flag helmet with a translucent visor, which revealed a young girl with curly blonde hair, sharp yellow eyebrows, a small upturned nose, slightly tanned skin, and deep blue eyes. She did not look like any Academia soldier Yugo had seen, and she was definitely not Security, but what Common could afford a bike like hers? Could she be some kind of Top bounty hunter?"

"Well, today looks like my lucky day." The girl whooped. "I was hoping I would run into someone important here, but I never thought I'd find one of Yuri's lookalikes."

Yugo blinked at the girl in complete confusion. She was speaking English.

"Uhmmmmmm…" Yugo buzzed, trying to think of every English word he knew. "…Herro!" he tried, snapping his fingers and pointing at the girl, "Shadup! Okay! Zank You!"

He stopped naming off more words after remembering what Rin had told him about them being swear words. Hopefully, however, at least one of the words he had spouted would work.

There was a pause from the girl as she looked at him skeptically, head cocked to the side.

"You're not very bilingual, are you." The girl remarked in almost perfect Japanese.

Yugo breathed an immense sigh of relief.

"Oh! You speak Japanese!" he breathed, "Sorry! I didn't understand a word you'd said earlier!"

"I could tell." The girl admitted. "Names Bandit, by the way. 1st Lieutenant Bandit of Academia's Hamon Strike Teams."

"Bandit?" Yugo asked, trying to process what she had said, "Hamon Strike Teams? YOU'RE ACADEMIA!?"

"That's…what I just said." Bandit replied, "As for you, no introduction is necessary, Yuugo."

"It's YUGO!" Yugo shouted, "…and how did you almost know my name?"

"Well, you _are_ one of the top people on the professor's hit list." Bandit explained, "Plus," she seemed to blush a little, "I _am_ a big fan of yours."

"F-fan!?" Yugo sputtered, reddening a little himself.

"Yep." Bandit replied, nodding her head, "I mean, we _are_ technically enemies, but that doesn't mean I can't think you're dueling is really cool. I mean…the way you single-handedly defeated three of our Obelisk Soldiers with just that one dragon of yours, AWESOME! Plus, I found some footage of your duel in the Friendship Cup, and that was just as amazing! I am so stoked to get to duel you now!"

"…f-fan?" Yugo weakly repeated, still just as confused.

Bandit frowned.

"You're not very bright…are you?" she asked. "Then again…you're no slouch when it comes to dueling, maybe you're just slow on the uptake in regular life. I know I sometimes am. I always feel more alive when I'm dueling. OH! Speaking of which, I studied the duel techniques of your dimension. Want to do a speed duel?"

"Speed…duel?" Yugo asked, eyes widening.

"Yep!" Bandit replied. "The members of the Hamon Strike Teams are required to study the duel tactics of the enemy dimensions. I never really got into Xyz Summoning, or using those weird roller blades they have, but I did get myself a D-wheel, my own turbo deck, and a Turbo Field to go along with it. Interested?"

Yugo stared back at Bandit, who looked very eager to begin. He _was_ interested. Speed Duels were always his favorite dueling format, and he had worked very hard on his own turbo deck, but still…

"I'm not here to play around." Yugo growled, turning his back to her, "I have someone I need to find, leave now."

"Ooh…you sound almost like Yuri." Bandit laughed. "Well, if that's your reply then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to do this!"

"TURBO FIELD ACTIVATE!" an announcer voice from her bike called out, before a serrated blade-shaped duel disk materialized into existence over the bike's dashboard, "SPEED INVASION!"

With a sudden whirring, the skeletal translucent wing segments of Bandit's bike unfurled, wing membranes glowing with energy before a solid-vision holographic field surrounded them in a wide circle, preventing either of them from escaping. Over Yugo's own dashboard, the twin-winged blade of his duel disk unfurled to life as he was forced to participate.

"Turbo field recognized," his duel disk beeped, "side decking to turbo deck commencing, please choose an option…"

A display on his duel disk displayed a screen showing a list of pre-programmed deck recipes. Currently, there were only two, "Normal" and "Turbo". Reaching forward, Yugo tapped on "Turbo" before his duel disk began to automatically remove some of the cards in his deck before replacing them with ones Yugo had specified in the deck recipe.

"Side decking complete." The duel disk buzzed. "Ready to duel."

"Awesome!" Bandit exulted in response to Yugo's duel disk before pulling up next to him so that their bikes were parallel. "Now why don't you explain to Yugo the ins and outs of Academia's turbo field." She told her own duel disk.

"Speed Invasion." Bandit's duel disk recited, "Magic Card, Type: Turbo Field. Effect: Activate this Card at the start of the duel. Unaffected by card effects. If a player activates a non-Speed Spell: That player takes 2000 Damage. The player to reach checkpoint 1 goes first. Each time a player Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck: They place 1 of their Speed Counters on this Card. During each End-Phase: Each player places 1 of their own Speed Counters on this Card. If a player takes Damage: He/She removes 1 of his/her Speed Counters from this Card for every 1000 points of damage taken."

"That right there is the checkpoint." Bandit explained, indicating a distant pillar of light, first one to get there goes first! Ready?"

Yugo gripped the handles of his bike, determined to win this duel, while, admittedly, feeling a little revved up at the prospect of engaging in one of his favorite duel formats.

"Speed!" Yugo called, preparing to start as a holographic countdown appeared in front of them.

"DUEL!" He and Bandit declared in unison as the countdown reached zero before flashing "GO!"

With a flap of its wings, Bandit's D-wheel shot forward with surprising speed, catching Yugo off guard as he struggled to catch up with her. Ever so slowly, his and Rin's bike began to gradually gain ground, but whatever fuel Bandit was using in her academia D-Wheel was obviously superior, because she seemed to be keeping ahead with relative ease.

Coaxing more speed from his bike as he twisted the accelerator, Yugo managed to shoot forward until he was right up to the bumper of Bandit's bike…only just noticing that the checkpoint up ahead was just behind a jagged track-way hole created from the errant blast of some Academia soldier from earlier.

Gritting his teeth, Yugo launched himself forward, showing no hesitation as he pursued his goal. With a roar, Bandit's bike suddenly launched into the air, mechanical wings unfolding to create a type of hang glider as she soared over the gap. At the same time, Yugo used the curved wall of the trackway to launch his own bike into the air. Corkscrewing through the air in a narrower arc than Bandit, Yugo managed to crash his bike upright on the other side before passing through the checkpoint first, just as Bandit's bike gracefully landed just behind.

"The first move is mine!" Yugo roared, drawing his opening hand.

"Wow!" Bandit exclaimed from behind. "Now THAT is what I was talking about! This is going to be the best duel of my career! No hard feelings if I have to card you at the end, right?"

"You won't be carding anyone." Yugo countered. "Because I am winning this duel no matter what! I normal summon the Tuner Monster, Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

Through a blue portal next to his bike, Yugo's large four-sided pyramid dice appeared to his field, slowly rotating in the air to show the mysterious eyes on its faces, while a rocket booster on its base propelled it forward.

 **Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 3 / Machine / Tuner / Effect /** ** _ATK 300_** **/ DEF 1500**

"Next," Yugo continued, "Since I control a WIND monster, I can Special Summon Speedroid Taketonborg!"

On the other side of Yugo's bike, a spinning wooden propeller appeared, keeping up with Yugo and his other monster as they raced ahead.

 **Speedroid Taketonborg / WIND / Level 3 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 /** ** _DEF 1200_**

"Here it comes!" Bandit grinned. "You're gonna synchro summon!"

"I am!" Yugo agreed, raising his hand into the air, "I tune my Level three Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice with my Level three Speedroid Taketonborg in order to Synchro Summon!"

Rocketing forward, Yugo's Tri-Eyed Dice morphed into a trio of rings through which the spinning Taketonborg passed before fading into a set of three stars as Yugo began his summoning chant.

"Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level 6! Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama!"

Bursting out of a pillar of light, Yugo's monster, a mechanized Kendama toy with a robotic rider controlling it and a pointed tip appeared to the field, air whistling around it as its aerodynamic body sped along the track-way.

 **Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama / WIND / Level 6 / Machine / Synchro / Effect /** ** _ATK 2200_** **/ DEF 1600**

 **Yugo Speed Counters: 1**

"Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama's effect!" Yugo declared as his monster turned around so that its tip was pointed towards Bandit. "Once per turn, I can banish one 'Speedroid' monster from my graveyard in order to inflict five-hundred points of damage to my opponent's life points! I banish Speedroid Taketonborg for this effect! Cursed blade strike!"

Lighting up with energy, the tip of Maken Dama shot out a burst of energy, which struck Bandit across the shoulder, causing her to flinch but not pull back.

 **Bandit: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP**

"Setting a card face-down, turn end." Yugo finished, slamming a last card on his duel disk before the face-down materialized to his field.

 **Yugo Speed Counters: 2**

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 1**

"You summoned a strong monster, and even managed to inflict some damage to me." Bandit mused, a happy smile on her face. "Not bad, Yugo, not bad at all. But you're gonna have to be a lot more daring in this duel if you're going to beat me! My turn! Draw!"

Smiling at the card she had drawn, she continued with her turn.

"Let me show you what I mean!" Bandit declared, "If you wanna be a conqueror and end up on top, you've gotta be willing to risk everything! Speed Spell activate! Reckless Boost! I toss a coin and if the result is heads, I gain four speed counters! Otherwise, I lose four speed counters!"

"Your gambling?" Yugo asked, completely surprised. "Most of the other Academia soldiers he had faced had been much more cautious and calculating.

"The game's all about gambling," Bandit replied with a smirk, "and the winners are the one's who are the most daring! Calling heads!" she declared as a holographic coin appeared in front of her bike before launching into the air.

"Please land on tails, please land on tails!" Yugo silently prayed to himself, knowing full-well the kind of advantages having more speed counters afforded one in a speed duel.

The holographic coin landed on the ground in front of Bandit before spinning around like a top. Slowly, the spinning began to die down, before the coin was revealed to have landed on…

Tails.

"YATA!" Yugo whooped, glad that the goddess of victory had answered his prayer.

Bandit, however, was wearing an immense grin.

"Quick-Play Speed Spell activate!" Bandit declared, "Trick Coin! If I activate a card or effect that requires a coin toss, I can pay one speed counter in order to change one of the coin results!"

"NANI!?" Yugo exclaimed, hopes shattered in an instant.

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 0**

"Looks like luck was on my side, after all." Bandit smirked as the holographic coin suddenly flipped onto heads.

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 4**

"That's not luck!" Yugo whined. "You rigged that!"

"Sorry! Can't hear you over me winning!" Bandit called back as her bike suddenly rocketed forward, literally leaving Yugo in a cloud of dust as her back tire kicked up a pile of powdered cement, leaving Yugo to cough and gag as he passed through the cloud.

"Now that I have the speed counters I need," Bandit continued, "I can activate this! Speed Fusion! I pay two Speed Counters in order to Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using cards on my field or in my hand as material!"

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 2**

"There's a speed spell version of fusion!?" Yugo exclaimed, completely caught off guard.

"I told you that we'd studied your dimension's tactics." Bandit smirked, "And that allowed us to adapt your own techniques and cards to our needs! Using the effect of Speed Fusion, I fuse together Barrel Dragon and Blowback Dragon in order to Fusion Summon!"

In the air above Bandit, a fusion portal appeared before two cards, one depicting an armless mechanical dragon with a pistol for a head, and the other depicting a similar mechanical dragon, but with three pistol heads, glowed with light before swirling together in a blend of red and blue as Bandit commenced her summoning chant.

"Dragon that plays a deadly game of chance, Dragon that gambles with lives, with your chambers locked and loaded, spin your roulette barrels and unleash a jackpot of bullets! YUUGO SHOUKAN! See, it's just like your name!"

"YUGO! MY NAME'S YUGO!" Yugo bellowed over the chant.

"ARAWAYO!" Bandit roared over him as her monster rolled onto the field, "Level eight! Gatling Dragon!"

Built like an armored tank, Bandit's fusion monster was an immense mechanical dragon with three imposing Gatling cannons for heads and a pair of chariot-like wheels, which it used to speed along the track before turning around to face Yugo, mechanical heads roaring with a robotic dragon cry as their lower jaws opened up underneath the barrels of the cannons.

 **Gatling Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2600_** **/ DEF 1200**

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 3**

"Now that my monster is out," Bandit continued, "I activate Trick Coin's graveyard effect! By paying one speed counter, I can add this card from my graveyard to my hand!"

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 2**

"And now it's time for my favorite part, betting time!" Bandit continued, "I activate Gatling Dragon's effect! By tossing a coin three times, I can destroy as many monsters on the field as possible, but not more than the number of heads. GO! Gatling Roulette!"

In front of each of Gatling Dragon's cannons, a holographic coin appeared before getting flipped into the air as the barrels of Gatling Dragon began to spin like the barrel of a gun in a roulette game. When the coins had landed, one of them had landed on tails, while the other two had landed on heads.

"Whelp, looks like I didn't win the jackpot." Bandit complained. "Now Gatling Dragon's effect will make it so that it destroys both of our monsters…unless…" she held up the Trick Coin card in her hand.

"That card again?" Yugo complained. "That takes away all the fun in a game of chance!"

"I always have more fun when I know I'm gonna win." Bandit retorted. "I pay one speed counter in order to change one of Gatling Dragon's coin results to tails.

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 1**

"Now, FIRE!" she ordered in English as Gatling Dragon turned all three of its barrels on Yugo's monster before unleashing a hailstorm of armor-piercing bullets into the mechanical Kendama, tearing it into scrap metal before the entire monster exploded, forcing Yugo to shield his face from the debris.

"But I'm not done yet!" Bandit continued, "Battle! Gatling Dragon, attack Yugo directly! Rapid-Fire Roulette!"

Swerving to the side, Yugo stretched out his hand.

"Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice no kouka!" Yugo declared, "I banish this card from my graveyard in order to negate your monster's attack!"

In front of Yugo, Tri-Eyed dice appeared before conjuring a triangular shield, which the bullets of Gatling Dragon slammed into before the dice disappeared.

"Nice save." Bandit complimented with a smug expression on her face. "But you'd better hope you get a little luckier in the future, otherwise, I'm gonna roll all over you. Setting two cards face-down, turn end!"

 **Bandit Speed Counters: 2**

 **Yugo Speed Counters: 3**

"Ore no turn!" Yugo declared, drawing a card from the top of his deck. "I'll start by normal summoning Speedroid Frisbeetron from my hand!"

Through a blue portal in front of Yugo, a small mechanical frisbee whirred through the air like a miniature flying saucer, before suddenly unfolding and transforming into a tiny robot with a pair of half-circle frisbee wings on its back.

 **Speedroid Frisbeetron / WIND / Level 1 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 0_** **/ DEF 200**

"If Speedroid Frisbeetron is normal or special summoned," Yugo explained, "I can Special Summon one Level one monster from my deck! Come forth! Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!"

Next to Frisbeetron, a simple six-sided dice with red eyes on its faces and six floating spheres around its body appeared to Yugo's field.

 **Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 1 / Machine / Tuner / Effect / ATK 100 /** ** _DEF 100_**

"Already setting up for another Synchro Summon?" Bandit asked, looking at the info on Yugo's cards. "Hmmm, but I guess you can't really summon anything that powerful. Those cards' combined levels are only two."

"That's all I need!" Yugo replied, "Using my Level one Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice and my Level one Speedroid Frisbeetron as Material, I synchro summon!"

Morphing into a single green ring, Red-Eyed dice floated over Frisbeetron, which dissolved into a single star as Yugo began his summoning chant.

"Fly past the odds and roll a new possibility! With the blessing of the goddess of victory, seize the future revealed in your dragon-eyes! Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level two! Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice!"

Bursting through the pillar of white light, a large twenty-sided dice appeared to Yugo's field, fierce dragon-eyes printed on each of its faces. As soon as it had appeared, the faces of the dice began to unfold, creating an origami-like dragon made from triangular folds, with a pair of wings on its side with rocket jets for propulsion.

 **Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 2 / Machine / Synchro / Tuner / Effect /** ** _ATK 200_** **/ DEF 2000**

 **Yugo Speed Counters: 4**

"A synchro monster _and_ a tuner!?" Bandit exclaimed, eyes going wide.

"The effect of Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice activates when it is Synchro Summoned!" Yugo declared, "I can target one WIND monster in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it! Return now! Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama!"

 **Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama / WIND / Level 6 / Machine / Synchro / Effect /** ** _ATK 2200_** **/ DEF 1600**

"The effect of Speedroid 5 6 Plane activates when a monster is Special Summoned to my field." Yugo continued, revealing a card in his hand, "I Special Summon 5 6 plane to my field! Come forth!"

Soaring onto the field, a small toy airplane propelled by a twisted rubber band appeared to Yugo's field before flying next to his two other monsters.

 **Speedroid 5 6 Plane / WIND / Level 5 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 1800_** **/ DEF 0**

"Speedroid 5 6 Plane no kouka!" Yugo continued, "I target one monster my opponent controls in order to reduce its ATK by six-hundred!"

Flying forward, Yugo's plane fired a spray of bullets into Bandit's Gatling Dragon, causing the machine to roar in rage.

 **Gatling Dragon: 2600 – 600 = 2000 ATK**

"Hi-Speedroid Kendama's effect!" Yugo continued, "I banish the Speedroid Frsibeetron in my graveyard in order to inflict five-hundred damage to your life points! Cursed Blade Strike!"

"This again!?" Bandit complained as Maken Dama fired another bolt of energy into her.

 **Bandit: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP**

"Battle!" Yugo ordered, "Hi-Speedroid Kendama, attack Gatling Dragon!"

"Trap Activate!" Bandit Countered, "Gambler's Draw! I toss a coin, and if it lands on heads, I get to draw three cards! Otherwise, I have to pay three-thousand life points!"

"That's all your life points!" Yugo exclaimed.

"Better hope I'm lucky then." Bandit smirked before the holographic coin tossed itself into the air. Landing on the ground, the coin spun a few times before landing on heads.

"Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!" Bandit whooped in English before drawing three cards, "And I didn't even need to use the Trick Coin for that one!"

"I have no idea what you just said, but it doesn't matter!" Yugo retorted, "Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama still destroys your monster!"

Flying forward like a lance, Maken Dama pierced through the hull of Bandit's Gatling Dragon, obliterating the monster.

 **Bandit: 3000 – 200 = 2800 LP**

"Not bad, but not good enough, Yugo!" Bandit taunted, "Since a DARK Machine-Type monster I controlled was destroyed, I activate the effect of the Desperado Barrel Dragon in my hand, Special Summoning it! Say hello to my counterattack!"

"Hello." Yugo practically squeaked as a towering mechanical dragon with three gargantuan pistols for heads appeared to Bandit's field, all three heads roaring with robotic fury.

 **Desperato Barrel Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 2800_** **/ DEF 2200**

 _"_ _She immediately replaced her monster with an even stronger one."_ Yugo thought to himself. _"I was hoping to be able to attack her directly with my monsters, but since none of my monsters are strong enough, I guess I'll have to move straight to the second part of my strategy."_

"Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice's effect!" Yugo declared, "During either player's turn, I can immediately perform a Synchro Summon using my Dragon-Eyed Dice and other monsters I control as Material!"

"Desperato Barrel Dragon's effect!" Bandit countered, "During the Battle-Phase of either player's turn, I can toss three coins in order to destroy a number of monsters on the field, equal to the result! GO! DESPERATO ROULETTE!"

Yugo gasped in shock as the barrels of Desperato Barrel Dragon's pistols began spinning around. In front of each of the cannons, three holographic coins were tossed into the air. When they landed, two landed on heads, while one landed on tails.

"Bad luck, Yugo," Bandit smirked, "It looks like ALL THREE of the results are heads! Trick Coin activate!" she ordered, revealing her other face-down, "I pay a Speed Counter in order to change the last coin result to heads! Say goodbye to all three of your monsters!"

 **Bandit's Speed Counters: 1**

Roaring, Desperato Barrel Dragon fired its immense pistols into all three of Yugo's monsters, blasting them all into holographic dust before he could even blink.

"Since all three results were heads," Bandit continued, "I also get to draw a card. Now, what are you gonna do, Yugo?"

Yugo grit his teeth with frustration. There was only one thing he could do at this point.

"Turn end." He declared. _"Please keep waiting for me, Rin. I promise I_ will _win this duel!"_

 **Bandit's Speed Counters: 2**

 **Yugo's Speed Counters: 5**

"It's my move then!" Bandit declared, "Your life points are wide open now and I have a monster with twenty-eight hundred ATK. Hopefully I don't draw something that can beat you. DRAW!"

Bandit smirked when she saw what she had drawn.

"Looks like you still have rotten luck, I'm honestly feeling sorry for you at this point." Bandit consoled. "First, I'm paying a Speed Counter in order to add the trick coin back from my graveyard to my hand."

 **Bandits Speed Counters: 1**

"And now that that's done." Bandit continued, "I Normal Summon Twin Barrel Dragon! Come on out!"

Coming on out to her field was a smaller robotic dragon, a double-barreled pistol for a head.

 **Twin Barrel Dragon / DARK / Level 4 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 1700_** **/ DEF 200**

"Twin Barrel Dragon's effect activates when it is Normal Summoned!" Bandit declared, "I target your face-down card in order to toss two coins. If both results are heads, that card is destroyed.

 _"_ _Please!"_ Yugo begged, _"Just give her two tails!"_

But whatever gods were listening to him must have misheard. Both results were heads.

"FIRE!" Bandit ordered, as her miniature robot dragon fired both barrels of its gun into Yugo's set card, which was revealed to be a card called Speed Beacon, obliterating it.

"Sorry, Yugo." Bandit seemed to almost sincerely apologize. "This really has been a lot of fun, but, war is war, and I have a mission to fulfill. Battle! Desperato Barrel Dragon, Attack Yugo's Life Points directly! Desperato roulette jackpot!"

 _"_ _Rin, wherever you are, please pray for me,"_ Yugo thought for himself, _"I'm risking it all on this last chance!"_

"Speed Beacon no kouka!" Yugo roared, stretching his hand towards his GY. "This card's field effect enables me to Special Summon a Speedroid Monster from my hand or deck if an opponent's monster attacks, however, since it is in the GY, I can banish this card in order to roll a six-sided dice and Special Summon one Speedroid Monster from my graveyard whose Level is equal to the dice result! If I cannot summon any monsters with this effect, I lose half my life points!"

Bandit's eyes widened in astonishment.

"You had a defense all ready for me in case for when I attacked directly." She summarized. "The first effect would have let you summon any monster you needed, but since I destroyed that card, you're going to have to bet everything on this one roll!"

"This is it!" Yugo agreed, "My destiny roll!"

In front of Yugo, a holographic dice appeared. Watching with baited breath, Yugo and Bandit both eyed the dice as it launched itself into the air.

 _"_ _I have a level 1, 2, 5, and 6 monster in my graveyard."_ Yugo thought to himself, _"The probability of getting a monster I can summon is actually not that bad, but the question is whether or not I'll get something that is useful."_

Landing on the ground, the dice bounced once, before coming to a stop at 5.

"Speed Beacon's effect!" Yugo declared as a portal in his graveyard opened up, "I special summon the Level five monster, Speedroid 5 6 Plane! Come forth!"

Soaring into the air once more, Yugo's rubber band-powered plane took up position in front of him, frontal cannons aimed at Bandit's monsters.

 **Speedroid 5 6 Plane / WIND / Level 5 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 1800_** **/ DEF 0**

"Speedroid 5 6 Plane's effect!" Yugo declared, "I target your Desperado Barrel Dragon in order to reduce its ATK by six-hundred until the end of this turn!"

Zipping forward, Yugo's plane unloaded a stream of bullets into Bandit's monster, driving it back.

 **Desperado Barrel Dragon: 2800 – 600 = 2200 ATK**

"Huh," Bandit grinned, eyeing Yugo's monster, "And you summoned that card in attack position, so that you wouldn't take as much damage. That's pretty good, but not quite good enough! Battle! Desperado Barrel Dragon attacks Speedroid 5 6 Plane!"

Roaring, Desperato Barrel Dragon unleashed its destructive firepower on Yugo's plane, blasting the toy into shreds while blasting back Yugo.

 **Yugo: 4000 – 400 = 3600 LP**

"Twin Barrel Dragon, direct attack!" Bandit continued, her smaller robotic dragon obediently leaping forward and firing a twin blast of rounds into Yugo.

 **Yugo: 3600 – 1700 = 1900 LP**

 **Yugo's Speed Counters: 4**

"Setting three cards face-down." Bandit declared. "Turn end!"

 **Desperado Barrel Dragon: 2800 ATK**

 **Bandit: 2 Speed Counters**

 **Yugo: 5 Speed Counters**

 _"_ _I managed to survive that turn,"_ Yugo thought to himself, wishing he could wipe away the sweat beneath his helmet, _"but I haven't managed to take back the lead. All my hope is resting on this draw! Rin, never forget, I_ always _keep my promises! I_ WILL _find you!"_

"ORE NO TURN!" Yugo roared, "DRAW!"

…

 **Selena vs. Obelisk Force**

 **Current State of the Duel**

 **Obelisk Red (Evie)**

 **4000 LP**

 **No cards in her hand**

 **Controls Antique Gear Megaton Golem**

 **Obelisk Green (Miho)**

 **4000 LP**

 **2 cards in her hand**

 **Controls Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee**

 **3 Set cards**

 **Obelisk Gold (Elvira)**

 **4000 LP**

 **No cards in her hand**

 **Controls Antique Gear Megaton Golem equipped with Antique Gear Fist and Antique Gear Tank**

 **Megaton Golem: 3300 + 600 = 3900 ATK**

 **Selena**

 **2200 LP**

 **5 cards in her hand**

 **Controls no cards**

"You're awfully confident passing your first turn." The obelisk soldier with the red gem smirked, "Or has the all-mighty Selena finally lost her edge?"

"Evie." Selena sighed, "Of all the people who I thought would sell-out and join the Obelisk Force, I had hoped at least you wouldn't."

"Are you just jealous because we got some upgrades?" The Obelisk Soldier with the gold gem, Elvira, asked, pointing up towards her immense Fusion Monster, which she had used to smash a large segment of the duel palace and half the smaller buildings in the same block before Selena had engaged them.

"Those heaps of junk metal mean nothing if you don't know how to properly use them." Selena replied. "So far, all the three of you have managed to do is waste most of your resources, just to summon one very powerful monster."

"And what's wrong with having one very powerful monster?" the Obelisk Soldier with the green gem, Miho, growled.

"It means that you're left with nothing the moment someone summons an even stronger monster!" Selena roared, "My turn, DRAW!"

"It's no use, Selena!" Miho warned, "Trap activate! Non-Fusion Area! While this card is face-up on the field, no player can Fusion Summon!"

Selena narrowed her eyes, an annoyed expression coming over her face as a large net-like field surrounded the area around them.

"We've studied your deck inside and out." Elvira smirked, "We know all your tactics. So, anything and everything you could possibly think to do, is something we can easily counter."

"Then it's a good thing I've learned some new tactics." Selena countered, "I, using the scale one Moonlight Fennec and the Scale seven Moonlight Kitten, set the Pendulum Scales!"

"Pendulum!?" Evie exclaimed in shock.

To Selena's left, a short unitard-wearing girl with immense fox ears on top of her head, a closed parasol in her fluffy fox paws, pale orange-and-white hair, and a fluffy fox tail, rose into the air in a blue column of light. To Selena's right…the column was strangely empty.

Looking down, Selena noticed a tiny enthusiastic six-year-old kitten girl with multi-colored hair, heterochromatic blue and gold eyes, a moon-shaped brass headband over her forehead, and a curly cat tail poking out from underneath a frilly multi-colored ballerina dress over her body, snuggling up against her leg, purring softly.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Selena muttered to herself.

The other Obelisk soldiers began snickering.

" _That's_ your Pendulum Monster?" Elvira snickered. "Boy have you gone soft."

Selena rolled her eyes.

"Okay then, up you go." Selena sighed, picking up the kitten girl and throwing her into the air.

With a joyful giggle, Moonlight Kitten pirouetted through the air before coming to a stop once she was level with Moonlight Fennec, who rolled her eyes and shook her head as Moonlight Kitten proceeded to settle down on her back, pull out a ball of yarn, and play with it, seemingly oblivious to the duel.

 **Moonlight Fennec: Scale 1**

 **Moonlight Kitten: Scale 7**

"Moonlight Kitten's effect! Selena declared, "Once per turn, I can tribute her in order to activate a different Moonlight Pendulum Card in the Pendulum Zone she occupied! Moonlight Cast Change!"

Suddenly snapping to attention, Moonlight Kitten hastily put away her ball of yarn, stuffing it into her back pocket and standing up straight as if she had been paying attention the whole time. Standing tip-toe, Moonlight Kitten proceeded to rapidly pirouette, until she was nothing but a multicolored blur. When the spinning stopped, a new Moonlight monster, a tall and proud-looking cat girl dressed like a belly dancer with a pale black veil over the lower half of her face and pale white hijab over her head, fluffy brown cat ears poking out from the folds, appeared in the column. Sand Cat wore a crescent moon mask over her left eye, a moon-shaped belly-button piercing on her exposed midriff, and a bikini top and Arabian white-and-black striped dress over her tan-skinned body, with a long twitching brown-and-black cat tail poking out from underneath the dress.

 **Moonlight Sand Cat: Scale 3**

"Wait a minute," Miho exclaimed, "You had a scale one and a scale seven Pendulum Card. You could have Pendulum Summoned any monsters from Level two to Level six. Now you can only Pendulum Summon Level two monsters. Why would you narrow your own scale?"

"Talk about not even knowing how her own cards worked." Evie sneered.

"I don't need a wide scale to beat you." Selena retorted, "I activate the effect of Moonlight Sand Cat! When she is activated in my Pendulum Zone while I control a Moonlight Monster in my other Pendulum Zone, I can excavate the top three cards of my deck in order to add one excavated 'Moonlight' card to my hand while sending the other two cards to the GY. If, however, I don't excavate any 'Moonlight' cards, I must shuffle all three cards back into the deck."

Glowing with energy, Moonlight Sand Cat slowly and gracefully spun once through the air, standing tiptoe on one foot while her other leg and body were stretched out horizontally. In response to her action, three cards popped out from the top of Selena's deck before she retrieved them and began examining them.

"Using Sand Cat's effect, I add Moonlight White Rabbit to my hand while sending Moonlight Crimson Fox and Fusion to my graveyard!" Selena declared, adding one of the excavated cards to her hand before depositing the others into the graveyard. "Moonlight Crimson Fox's effect activates when she is sent to the graveyard by a card effect. I target Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee, in order to change its ATK to zero!"

"Why my monster!?" Miho complained, as her immense golem slowly sank to the ground, utterly drained of power.

 **Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee: 3000 – 3000 = 0 ATK**

"Next," Selena continued, "I Pendulum Summon the Level two Moonlight Rabbit from my hand! Pendulum Shoukan!"

Opening up between her two pendulum monsters, a pink portal tore open a hole in the sky before a single white light streamed out and landed on the ground, revealing Selena's petit bunny-girl wielding a large croquet mallet.

 **Moonlight White Rabbit / DARK / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Effect /** ** _ATK 800_** **/ DEF 800**

"You Pendulum summoned just one monster?" Elvira gawked, "I thought the whole point of Pendulum Summoning was to spam a bunch of monsters."

"SHUT UP AND STOP MAKING STUPID COMMENTS!" Selena roared, finally growing annoyed. She had met a lot of airheads in Academia who either wanted to gain favor with the professor by cozying up to her or undermine her out of jealously. None of them had turned out to be good duelists when she had challenged them, and these three were certainly no exception.

"Moonlight White Rabbit's effect!" Selena declared, stretching her hand towards her monster. "Once per turn, I can target one Magic or Trap Card my opponent controls in order to return it to the hand! My target is, of course, Non-Fusion Area!"

"Not going to happen!" Miho countered, "We didn't forget about White Rabbit's effect, so we prepared for that as well! I activate Fiendish Chain in order to negate your White Rabbit's effects!"

"You didn't take into account all my monster's effects!" Selena countered, "Moonlight Crimson Fox's graveyard effect! If a 'Moonlight' monster I control would be targeted by a card effect, I can banish Crimson Fox from the graveyard in order to negate the effect and increase all of our Life Points by one-thousand!"

Leaping into the air, White Rabbit prepared to bring her immense croquet mallet down on Miho's Non-Fusion Area, however, just as she was about to make contact, a web of chains shot out from Miho's second Trap Card, threatening to ensnare the frightened rabbit girl. In that instant, the ethereal form of Selena's Crimson Fox shot up from out of the graveyard before karate-kicking away the chains and obliterating the Trap Card, enabling White Rabbit to knock Non-Fusion Area back into Miho's hand with one good swing of her mallet.

 **Selena: 2200 + 1000 = 3200 LP**

 **Evie: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP**

 **Miho: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP**

 **Elvira: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP**

"Tch." Miho growled, looking annoyed.

"Magic Card, Yuugo!" Selena declared, "I fuse my White Rabbit with the Blue Cat in my hand in order to Fusion Summon!"

Above Selena's head, a fusion portal appeared before White Rabbit and Blue Cat rose into the center and began dancing together, slowly swirling together in a blur of blue and red while Selena commenced her summoning chant.

"The cat prowling in the azure darkness! The lively white rabbit illuminated by moonlight! Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

With the sound of Riq music playing in the background, Selena's ace monster twirled onto the battlefield, daggers raised in the air as she danced about before posing with a playful, "Meow!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer / DARK / Level 7 / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2400_** **/ DEF 2000**

"And let me guess," Miho huffed, "you're planning on using Moonlight Perfume to bring back Cat Dancer in order to double your monster's ATK before tributing Blue Cat in order to allow your monster to attack all of our monsters, twice each? It's not going to work on us!"

"You should really keep your mouth shut." Selena snapped, "Blabbing like that doesn't help you with keeping your strategy a secret. I activate the Pendulum Effect of Moonlight Fennec! By returning one Fusion from my graveyard to my hand, I can Special Summon this card from my Pendulum Zone!"

Howling, Moonlight Fennec suddenly leaped from her pillar in the sky before opening up her parasol, slowly floating to the ground, and landing on her feet. Once she had landed, the Fennec-girl conjured a black portal in the ground, retrieving a copy of Fusion for Selena before handing it to her.

 **Moonlight Fennec / LIGHT / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Pendulum / Scale 1 / ATK 400 /** ** _DEF 2000_**

"Magic Card, Yuugo!" Selena declared, activating Fusion a second time, much to the surprise of her opponents, "I use my Moonlight Cat Dancer and Moonlight Fennec as material in order to Fusion Summon once more!"

"The beautiful beast dancing in the moonlight! Fennec prowling in the silent Moonlit savanna! Swarm in the vortex of the moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Elegant beast dancing in the moonlit wilderness! Moonlight Panther Dancer!"

Twirling onto the battlefield, Selena's new fusion monster, a tall dark-skinned panther girl with black hair covering her eyes, an elegant blue dress, and a set of long claws over each of her panther paws, appeared onto the battlefield before chuckling with amusement.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer / DARK / Level 8 / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2800_** **/ DEF 2500**

"Moonlight Fennec's effect activates when it is sent to the Extra Deck by a card effect." Selena continued, "I can add one Moonlight Pendulum Monster from my deck or face-up from my Extra Deck to my hand, and I choose Moonlight Kitten!"

"Next," Selena continued, "I _will_ activate Moon Light Perfume, in order to Special Summon Moonlight White Rabbit from my graveyard!"

Twirling onto the battlefield once more with glee, Selena's petit rabbit girl reappeared, looking eager to hit something else with her mallet.

 **Moonlight White Rabbit / DARK / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Effect /** ** _ATK 800_** **/ DEF 800**

"Your last set card is Fusion Dispersal." Selena sniffed, looking disgusted.

"How did you-…!?" Miho exclaimed before stopping herself.

Selena snorted with amusement. "I'll admit the Obelisk Force got me last time with that tactic, I was honestly disgusted that they would include such a specific situational card in their deck, just to counter my strategy, but I don't let myself get fooled twice. Moonlight White Rabbit's effect! I return your last set card to your hand!"

Taking a moment to take a practice swing, Moonlight Rabbit hopped into the air once more, before bouncing the last set card back into a very angry Miho's hand with one swing of her mallet.

"You messed up, big time!" Evie sneered, "You may have gotten rid of our back-row, but since you didn't summon Blue Cat, your strategy is ruined! Now your Panther Dancer doesn't have enough ATK to beat us!"

"Which is why I still have a Normal Summon." Selena retorted. "And I will use that Normal Summon to summon Moonlight Kitten from my hand!"

Appearing through a blue portal, Selena's tiny kitten girl appeared to the field before yawning, curling up into a ball, and taking a nap.

 **Moonlight Kitten / LIGHT / Level 1 / Beast-Warrior / Pendulum / Scale 7 /** ** _ATK 600_** **/ DEF 300**

"That little puffball?" Elvira asked, "What's it gonna do?"

"Moonlight Kitten's monster effect!" Selena declared, stretching her hand towards her Moonlight Kitten, who was still napping, I can tribute her in order to Special Summon one Moonlight Monster from my deck!"

Leaning down, Panther Dancer gently tapped Moonlight Kitten on the shoulder, who slowly woke up with a yawn before staring up at Panther Dance with bleary eyes. With a smile, Panther Dancer reached inside her dress before removing a large bottle of warm milk.

Eyes widening, Moonlight Kitten suddenly leaped onto her tiny feet before grabbing the bottle from Panther Dancer with a determined "YOSH!" and guzzling down the contents of the bottle as if it were the most important thing she had ever done in her life.

In less than two seconds, the entire bottle was drained by the hungry kitten, before being violently thrown to the ground as Moonlight Kitten flexed her arms, let out an almighty kitten roar, and slowly morphed into a silhouette of solid light before stretching and growing. Coming to a stop, the light slowly faded away, revealing Moonlight Blue Cat in place of Moonlight Kitten.

 **Moonlight Blue Cat / DARK / Level 4 / Beast Warrior / Effect /** ** _ATK 1600_** **/ DEF 1200**

"Moonlight Blue Cat's effect activates when she is Special Summoned." Selena declared, "I double the attack of Moonlight Panther Dancer!"

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer: 2800 X 2 = 5600 ATK**

The jaws of all three of Selena's opponents dropped.

"BATTLE!" Selena roared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "Moonlight Panther Dancer can attack each monster my opponent controls twice each, with the first attack not destroying each monster! Furthermore, each time she destroys an opponent's monster by battle, she gains two-hundred ATK until the end of the Battle-Phase! GO! Attack Evie's Antique Gear Megaton Golem! The first attack!"

Leaping forward, Panther Dancer launched herself into the immense mechanical soldier, raking the Golem's armor with her razor-sharp claws while dodging the multiple blows from its array of immense fists.

 **Evie: 5000 – 2300 = 2700 LP**

"The second attack!" Selena ordered.

Leaping onto the monster's head as it tried to swipe her away with its immense hands, Panther Dancer dug her claws into the monster's neck, before slicing along the circumference and lifting the immense head off the shoulders of the mechanical giant.

 **Evie: 2700 – 2300 = 400 LP**

 **Panther Dancer: 5600 + 200 = 5800 ATK**

"You could use Megaton's effect to Special Summon Ultimate Antique Gear Golem from your deck," Selena remarked, "But we both know that in this case, that would be a complete waste of time."

"You little-…!" Evie growled.

"Moonlight White Rabbit!" Selena ordered, "Attack Evie's Life Points directly!"

Nodding her head, White Rabbit leaped forward before bonking Evie on the head with her mallet, finishing her off.

 **Evie: 400 – 800 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

"Moonlight Panther Dancer still has her other attacks!" Selena roared, "The third attack! Attack Elvira's Antique Gear Megaton Golem!"

Like before, Panther Dancer practically danced across the immense metal hull of the mechanical giant, effortlessly dodging attacks while slicing out wires, kicking out cogs, and idly scratching the kanji for her name into the chest.

 **Elvira: 5000 – 1900 = 3100 LP**

"Antique Gear Fist's effect!" Elvira roared, "If an Antique Gear Monster I control battled an opponent's monster and is still on the field, I can…!"

"Do nothing." Selena retorted. "Panther Dancer cannot be destroyed by card effects."

Dismayed, Elvira could only watch as Panther Dancer simply evaded the immense robotic hand equipped with Antique Gear Fist.

"Now for the forth attack!" Selena roared, "Attack and destroy Antique Gear Megaton Golem!"

Letting out an enraged roar, Panther Dancer leaped high into the air before bringing her claws down onto the immense construct, slicing cleanly through all the way, so that the monster was nearly cut in two when she finally landed on the ground.

 **Elvira: 3100 – 1900 = 1400 LP**

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer: 5800 + 200 = 6000 ATK**

"Antique Gear Tank's effect!" Elvira roared, "If it is sent to the graveyard, I can inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points!"

Shielding her eyes, Selena took the blast of energy Elvira's monster managed to fire off before exploding.

 **Selena: 3200 – 600 = 2600 LP**

"Moonlight Blue Cat, direct attack!" Selena ordered, quickly recovering and stretching her hand towards her monster, who obediently leaped forward before kicking Elvira square in the chest with her cat foot.

 **Elvira: 1400 – 1600 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

"The final attack!" Selena roared, "Moonlight Panther Dancer, attack Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee!"

Sniffing, Panther Dancer idly walked up to Miho's monster before placing a single clawed finger on its hull, and effortlessly pushing it over so that it fell on top of Miho, whose emergency return activated just in time.

 **Miho: 5000 – 6000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

"You won't get away with this, traitor!" Evie growled from the crater she had landed in. Fingers swiftly moving over her duel disk, she began pressing some buttons, "The other soldiers are looking for you, and I've just broadcast our last position! They'll be on you like bloodhounds!"

"You're still giving away too much of your strategy." Selena huffed before watching Evie and Elvira fade away as their disks performed a forced return.

Turning around, Selena surveyed the battlefield, considered her next move.

 _"_ _The Lancer's mission is to protect the Synchro Dimension from Academia's invasion."_ She thought to herself, _"Now that the invasion has begun, I'll need to establish contact with Reiji and the other Lancers in order for us to coordinate an effective counter-strike against their forces. But first, I need to find a new position."_

"You!" she growled, pointing to a chauffeur who had been huddling off to the side inside of a garage while the battle raged. "Are any of these bikes still working?"

"Uhm…probably?" the man nervously asked.

"Good." Selena replied, before pointing to what looked like the best-built bike, a large sleek blue D-Wheel that had managed to remain perfectly polished despite the destruction around it. "Do you have the keys for that one?"

"Well, yes but-…" the man objected, nervously grasping a pair of keys before Selena snatched them from his hand and mounting the bike before zooming away.

 _"_ _First primary mission objective, make contact with Reiji Akaba and the other Lancers,"_ Selena summarized to herself as she rode the streets, idly inserting her deck into the D-wheel's empty slot. _"Second primary mission objective, repel the Academia invasion."_

She grimaced as she realized that she was thinking in the exact way Academia had programmed her to think. She had socialized with other people long enough now to know such war-oriented ways of thinking was not considered "normal." But then again, given that the Synchro Dimension now was involved in an immense planet-scale war, perhaps now was the time to let her Academia instincts kick in, and worry about her social and emotional development later. Still, What would Yuzu, Yuya, and the other Lancers think if they could hear her thoughts now?

Yuzu.

The thought of her counterpart's last duel against Sergey still haunted her. The man had shown absolutely no honor in his shameful duel. And now, thanks to his dirty tactics, Yuzu was most likely dead.

 _"_ _Third primary objective."_ Selena thought to herself as she gripped the handles of her bike harder, _"Find Sergey and kill him!"_

The sound of a helicopter flying near her instantly grabbed her attention, muscles instantly reacting through years of training.

A large Academia helicopter was zeroing in on her location. One thing was for certain, Academia definitely responded quickly. It had not taken them long at all to find her. On board the helicopter was the standard compliment of Obelisk, Ra, and Slifer soldiers, duel disks raised, and standing behind them in a tight muscle-shirt was…

Selena's eyes widened.

"Barrett!?" Selena called, shocked to see that it was her old burly one-eyed bodyguard who had found her.

Barrett held out his hand, motioning for the pilot to lower the helicopter so that he could be relatively eye-level with Selena as she drove along the track-way. Next to him, a Slifer Soldier obediently handed him a large megaphone.

"SELENA-SAMA!" Barrett called through the megaphone, over the roar of the chopper's blades, "THE PROFESSOR HAS INSTRUCTED ME TO IMMEDIATELY ESCORT YOU TO ACADEMIA! YOU WILL STOP YOUR BIKE IMMEDIATELY AND STEP AWAY FROM IT UN-ARMED!"

"NOT HAPPENING!" Selena called back, twisting the accelerator of the bike and launching forward with immense speed.

Selena just had enough time to hear Barrett curse before the expensive bike had taken her several hundred yards away from the helicopter. The pilot of the chopper was trying to catch up with her, but it was clear that Selena's speedy bike was faster than the lumbering chopper.

But then…

VROOM! VROOOOOM!

Whipping her head around, Selena turned just in time to see Barrett leaping out of the chopper on a large muscly chrome D-Wheel with multiple tail pipes, and landing on Selena's same track-way. Slamming his foot down on a pedal, Barrett suddenly surged forward with a burst of speed from his bike, purple flames pouring from the tail pipes before he activated his D-Wheel's on-board duel disk.

"FIELD MAGIC! SPEED INVASION ACTIVATE!" Barrett roared, suddenly surrounding himself and Selena in a large circular field of solid energy. In response, Selena's own duel disk activated.

"Speed duel recognized!" the duel disk announced, "Current deck is unsuited for the Speed Duel format? Would you like to side-deck?"

"I don't have time for this!" Selena growled. This was just her luck. First, Evie had to put Barrett on her trail, and now, she was being forced to engage in a duel format she had only briefly studied in Academia, without actually experiencing through actual combat.

"I do not want to have to do this." Barrett growled, "I already failed you once, Selena-Sama. I understand why you wanted to leave Academia. You felt like we were restricting your fighting spirit and wanted to prove yourself to be a great warrior. But this treason is childish! You know better than to let your emotion cloud your loyalty! Come with me now, and I promise that I will work with the Professor to put you on the frontlines like you always wanted."

Selena sighed heavily.

"You don't understand, Barrett." Selena replied. "I'm not just rebelling because I want to be the strongest duelist. I still want that, but I have also seen what Academia has done! We're not unifying the dimensions. We're slaughtering innocent people!"

"Innocent?" Barrett growled, pointing to his eye-patch, "Bah! The people of the other dimensions are mere barbarians! Savages! We are doing them a favor! Once we have carded the populations of the other dimensions, we will be able to use their energy to forge a new unified paradise that they will also be able to enjoy! That is more than most of them deserve!"

"I've gotten to know these so-called 'savages.'" Selena retorted. "Believe me, Barrett, there aren't half as many good people in all of Academia as there are the few people I've had the chance to meet. They don't want their homes to be fused with ours, and we don't have the right to force it on them!"

"Already gone for so short a time, and they have already infected you with their propaganda." Barrett grimaced, looking deeply disappointed. "Very well then, Selena-Sama. I failed you when I let you come here. You are clearly not ready for full combat yet. The stress of war has clouded your judgement and made you soft."

"I have not grown soft!" Selena countered. "Why don't you ask those three Obelisk Soldiers I defeated how soft I was?"

"Prove your strength to me, then." Barrett retorted, reaching into his pocket and throwing a pouch towards Selena, which Selena caught.

"What are these?" Selena asked, eying the package skeptically.

"Speed Spells." Barret explained. "You remember how they work, right? I have engaged you in a Speed Duel, and I did not want you to be unarmed. The package even contains three copies of Speed Fusion for your use."

"I don't need your charity or for you to go easy on me!" Selena spat, getting ready to throw the package back at Barrett.

"Understand this, Selena-Sama." Barrett calmly replied, "I do not, nor have I ever seen you as an enemy. Even now, I see you as the strong, proud, noble warrior that you are. I will not condemn you to a traitor's punishment. You do not deserve such a fate. But I will not go easy on you either! I only want to face you at your full strength, on even grounds! Remember your training, Selena! Take whatever advantage an opponent offers you and seize victory!"

"Tch…" Selena growled, taking the package and slotting it into the bike's deck-slot before pressing a command on the screen to replace her normal spell cards with the Speed Spells. Examining the new deck, Selena removed her Pendulum Monsters as well, knowing they would be considered non-speed spells if activated, before replacing them with some Trap Cards.

"…I guess I can't ever convince you to respect my decision, but I thank you for at least choosing to fight with honor." Selena sighed, slotting the finished deck back into her duel disk.

"Do not thank me yet, Selena-Sama!" Barrett roared, "In this duel, I WILL fulfill my mission, even if I have to crush every last ounce of your rebellious spirit to do it! SPEED…"

"DUEL!" Selena and Barret roared in unison.

…

"How boring." Yuri yawned, idly flipping through some of his duel disk's screens, which were depicting the live feeds of various Academia soldiers as they continued to blunder their way across the Synchro Dimension's battle-lines. Most of the combat was so repetitive and incompetent that it nauseated him. Even the supposed exotic dueling of the so-called "dark disciples" was almost painful for him to watch. He had spared the screen a few more seconds of viewing time when he came across Bandit engaging one of his counterparts and Barret beginning a duel against Selena, but not many seconds. None of those duelists were really worth studying, and besides, the professor had tasked him with retrieving Yuzu, and possibly, Selena, if the oaf, Barrett, couldn't manage the simple task.

Sighing, Yuri laid down on the roof of the speeding self-driving cargo truck, which was heading towards the main city, before staring idly up at the clouds. Most of his commanders would have berated him for his casual lack of vigilance, but Yuri didn't care. None but the most foolish attacked the apex predator, and besides, he had carded most of his past commanders, anyway.

Yuri was just getting ready to settle down for a light relaxing nap, when he was rudely interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle engine.

"What now?" Yuri yawned, nonchalantly getting to his feet, dusting off his robes, and turning to see a robot riding a speeding motorcycle just behind the vehicle.

"Target identified," A blue-eyed GHOST drone labeled "Gamma – 626" hummed, "Imperial High-Commander Yuri. You have been deemed a public safety hazard. Surrender now for processing or face immediate prosecution."

Yuri scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion.

"Public safety hazard?" he gawked. "No, Mister Roboto. You have it all wrong. I'm not a public safety hazard. I'm _the_ public safety hazard. Try to get it right next time."

"Lay down your arms and surrender immediately." Gamma – 626 hummed, showing no indication of being either amused or irritated by Yuri's remark, "This is your final warning."

"Well, you're certainly no fun." Yuri sniffed before smiling agreeably, "But while you're here, I might as well make use of you. Roger, if you happen to be monitoring this, and I know you are, hear this. Tell me where Yuzu is and I promise not to kill you. Sound good?"

"In compliance with directive Alekhine's Gun, you are hereby sentenced to immediate execution, as decided by this unit's authority to conduct martial law." Gamma – 626 droned, before activating its bike's duel disk.

"Lovely." Yuri replied, rolling his eyes. "Well, as amusing as it would be to turn you into a tin can, I have more important things to do, and you're just a waste of my time. Tell Roger that I'll be taking care of him soon. Violet Flash!"

Slamming down a copy of one of his more frequently used spell cards, more frequently used because there were so many duelists now that were nothing but a waste of his time, Yuri generated an immense flash of violet light before using the cover to leap off of the truck and down off the track-way and onto the roof of a speeding train, heading towards the city.

"And now then," Yuri began before the sudden roar of a motorbike overhead caught his attention. Looking up, Yuri noticed the same GHOST drone jumping from the trackway above before rocketing towards Yuri's exact position with a set of powerful jets affixed to its robotic feet.

Back flipping away, Yuri managed to dodge the drone's landing, just as it slammed its feet down exactly where Yuri had been, before a pair of heavy stabilizers anchored each of the drone's feet onto the roof of the train. Raising its duel disk, the drone suddenly shot a beam of solid energy into Yuri's arm before violently pulling the boy forward.

"Solid Vision Duel Anchors." Yuri grunted, looking annoyed but managing to keep his voice even. "Impressive. And it would seem that you've been built with infrared vision to filter out the light from Violet Flash. Very good, very good indeed, but…what exactly is your plan to defeat me?"

"The trial by combat shall now begin." Gamma-626 droned. "Boku no turn, draw."

"A trial by combat?" Yuri sneered. "I love those. I've come to learn that I am the absolute most sinless person in the universe because of them."

"Skiel Top Mark II no kouka." Gamma-626 replied, completely ignoring Yuri, "This card can be discarded in order to enable this unit to add one Sky Core Mark II from its deck to its hand."

"Now, think for just a minute!" Yuri replied, face set in a pleading expression, "Have you ever stopped for just a moment to consider, 'Why? Why am I doing all this? What is my purpose in life? Could I perhaps, have a soul?'"

"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" 626 replied. "If this unit controls no monsters or controls a 'Skiel' monster, this monster can be Special Summoned from the hand!"

In the sky above the drone, a roughly car-sized flying drone with large blue wings with gyrocopter rotors and jets, and a pair of twin cannon-tipped arms, appeared to the drone's field. Face glowing with lines of red light.

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II / WIND / Level 4 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 1200_** **/ DEF 1000**

"Or maybe you've already figured out that the answer to those questions is, 'beep boop.'" Yuri mused.

"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II gains two-hundred ATK for each 'Kikai Shikkō Kikan' and 'Skiel' card on the field." 626 explained, completely ignoring Yuri again.

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 = 1400 ATK**

"See, this is why I didn't want to fight you." Yuri sighed. "I can't even lighten the mood with a clever quip before you go and dig your grave even deeper."

"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" 626 automatically continued, as if it were reciting a script. "Since I control a 'Skiel' monster, I Special Summon this card from my hand.  
 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II / WIND / Level 4 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 1200_** **/ DEF 1000**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK**

"See what I mean?" Yuri sighed with a dramatic face-palm.

"Magic Card, Boon of the Meklord Emperors!" 626 continued, "Since the only monsters on the field are two Meklord Monsters, this unit can draw two cards."

"And I'm sure those cards will help you out a great deal, but can we please get a move on?" Yuri grumbled. "I have a date with a certain girl who had to leave early from our last get together, and I'd like her to at last think I've been faithful to her by not dueling anyone else since that time."

"Sky Core Mark II shoukan." 626 nonchalantly replied.

"Geez, all this pent-up wit, and I'm wasting it on a talking ATM." Yuri groaned as 626's new monster, a spherical piece of metal with a pair of wings and what looked like a jet turbine in its back, appeared to the field.

 **Sky Core Mark II / WIND / Level 2 / Machine / Effect /** ** _ATK 0_** **/ DEF 0**

"Setting three cards face-down." The machine droned. "Turn end."

"Finally done?" Yuri asked, before clamping his hands together in a grateful bow, "Arigato gozaimasu! Well then how about I spice this duel up? I'll even promise to go easy on you."

The drone remained silent.

"No objections?" Yuri asked. "Alright then! Let's begin! Magic Card, Predator Blast! I reveal Drosophyllum Hydra and Spino Dionaea in my hand in order to place a predator counter on Sky Core Mark II and one of your Army of Skiel. Any monsters who gain a Predator Counter with this effect have their Level changed to one."

From the ground in front of Yuri, a pair of leafy tendrils erupted from the roof of the train before spraying out goo, which launched a pair of snapping plant monsters into the hulls of 626's monsters.

 **Meklord Army of Skiel: 1 Predator Counter / Level 1**

 **Sky Core Mark II: 1 Predator Counter / Level 1**

"And now, let me think…" Yuri thought aloud, tapping his chin, "…you summoned a weak zero ATK monster in attack position before setting three cards face-down. What on earth could your strategy be? OH! I know!" Yuri suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "You plan to destroy your own Sky Core Mark II in order to Special Summon a very powerful Meklord Enforcer. Right?"

626 remained silent. It might have had a perfect poker face, sadly, they were not playing poker.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Yuri smugly replied. "Well, no hard feelings, but I'm afraid I can't really allow you to do that now. Banksia Ogre's effect! I tribute the Sky Core Mark II with a Predator Counter in order to Special Summon this monster from my hand in defense position!"

"Error." 626 mused to itself as its Sky Core exploded in a cloud of holographic dust, "Unable to activate Sky Core Mark II's effect. Not removed from the field by card effect."

"A succinct and entirely moronic summary of the obvious." Yuri sniffed with contempt as his monster, a large corncob-like plant with lines of circuitry and staring eyes running along its body appeared to his field.

 **Predator Plants Banksia Ogre / DARK / Level 6 / Plant / Tuner / Effect / ATK 2000 /** ** _DEF 100_**

"Predator Plants Sundew Kingii shoukan." Yuri airily continued, lazily dropping the card onto his duel disk with a flick of his finger. Through a blue portal, a dog-sized frilled lizard plant with the gooey stems of a sundew attached to its frills, appeared next to Yuri's first monster.

 **Predator Plants Sundew Kingii / DARK / Level 2 / Plant / Effect /** ** _ATK 600_** **/ DEF 200**

"And now," Yuri continued, "I think I'll activate Sundew Kingii's effect. Monsters with Predator Counters used in a Fusion Summon are treated as DARK. Furthermore, once per turn, Sundew Kingii can Fusion Summon one monster from my Extra Deck using itself, monsters on my field or in my hand, or monsters on my opponent's field with Predator Counters as Material! Using my own Sundew Kingii and your Army of Skiel with a Predator Counter, I Fusion Summon."

Opening its lizard-like mouth, Sundew Kingii spat out a long gooey vine-like tongue, tipped with a glob of sticky sap on the end. Before Army of Skiel could react, the tongue stuck to its hull before the lizard plant pulled it into its face, sticky frills closing in around the drone as it struggled to fly away. Suddenly rising into the air, the two monsters entered into the center of a fusion portal before swirling together in a blend of blue and red as Yuri began his summoning chant.

"Subtle and deadly flower with an alluring fragrance, Imperial Sky Soldier trapped in the jaws of death, swirl into the bottomless belly of the predator with breath of a thousand corpses and hunt my prey! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level seven! Predator Plants Chimerafflesia!"

Tearing through the metal hull of the train roof, Yuri's fusion monster, an immense stinking flower with a fanged maw at the center and multiple fanged tentacles, appeared to Yuri's field before spraying 626 and his remaining monster with slime as it roared at them.

 **Predator Plants Chimerafflesia / DARK / Level 7 / Plant / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2500_** **/ DEF 2000**

"As you can see, my monster is looking quite hungry, so, battle!" Yuri enthusiastically continued, "Predator Plants Chimerafflesia, destroy Meklord Army of Skiel. Oh, and in case you were wondering, its effect activates at this time! Chimerafflesia changes your monster's ATK to its original ATK while gaining ATK equal to the ATK change until the End Phase."

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1400 – 200 = 1200 ATK**

 **Predator Plants Chimerafflesia: 2500 + 200 = 2700 ATK**

One of the immense vines of Chimerafflesia shot forward, preparing to swallow 626's remaining monster in one gulp, however, unflinching, 626 immediately stretched its hand towards one of its face-downs.

"Trap activate! Kikōshō! I add Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II from my graveyard to my hand and destroy Predator Plants Chimerafflesia!"

Dodging the swipe from the tentacle, the flying drone shot a few blasts of energy into the tentacle, causing Yuri's monstrous plant to scream in pain before another immense blast of energy from 626's trap card shot into the plant monster's central flower, destroying it.

"Hmmm, well it would seem that you were programmed with at least a little intelligence." Yuri shrugged, not looking the least bit concerned. "I guess I'll have to prepare my defenses then. I set one card face-down. Turn end."

"Boku no turn!" Gamma – 626 declared, "Draw! Special Summoning Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II!"

 **Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK**

"You know, I'd now like to take back what I said about you being programmed with _some_ intelligence." Yuri piped in. "Could I amend that to _no_ intelligence instead?"

"Magic Card activate, the Invincible Meklord Army!" Gamma – 626 continued, still deaf to Yuri's quips, "Face-up attack position 'Ein' monsters I control gain one-thousand ATK. Also, any battle damage they inflict is halved. Furthermore, during the opponent's turn, this card can be tributed in order to activate one 'The Resolute Meklord Army' from the hand, deck, or graveyard."

"Truly a most terrifying card." Yuri shuddered. "What ever shall I do now?"

 **Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK**

"Battle!" Gamma – 626 declared, "Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II attacks Predator Plants Banksia Ogre!"

"Trap activate." Yuri lazily droned, "Predator Germination. I prevent Banksia Ogre's destruction, destroy Meklord Army of Skiel instead, and summon three Predator Tokens in defense position."

One of the Skiel drones flew forward, preparing to annihilate Yuri's Ogre, but before it could even fire its cannons, the ground in front of Yuri erupted before a spray of snapping plant monsters chomped down on the drone, tearing large chunks out of the drone before it exploded in mid-air and three of the plant monsters dropped to Yuri's field.

 **Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 /** ** _DEF 0_**

 **Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 /** ** _DEF 0_**

 **Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 /** ** _DEF 0_**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 + 1000 = 2400 ATK**

"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" Gamma – 626 replied without a moment's pause. "If it is destroyed, I can Special Summon one 'Ein' monster from my deck! Come forth! Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II!"

Just ask quickly as the first drone was destroyed, a new drone immediately flew onto the field through a blue portal.

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK**

 **Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK**

"Hm, so it can do that as well." Yuri mused. "Well, that is certainly a nice trick."

"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II, attack Predator Plants Banksia Ogre." Gamma – 626 ordered.

Flying forward, Skiel Ein fired a hailstorm of energy into Yuri's Ogre, this time managing to obliterate it and force Yuri to cover his eyes from the blast.

"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II, attack the leftmost Predator Counter." Gamma – 626 continued, "Imperial Air Raid!"

Rising into the air, the second Skiel Ein dive-bombed the Predator Token, twin cannons firing a stream of energy into the snapping plant monster, reducing it to dust.

"Turn end." Gamma – 626 concluded.

"You are certainly persistent, I'll give you that, even though you're nothing but a machine." Yuri admitted. "You've managed to throw up a fairly formidable wall of monsters and have balanced your offense with a decent defense. But sadly…"

Yuri stepped forward, the pupils of his eyes narrowing into slits.

"…that is all irrelevant!"

Yuri turned down to look at his Extra Deck.

What do you think we ought to do…Starve Venom Fusion Dragon?"

 _"_ _S-such-ch delicious-ous smell-ells…"_ A faint hungry growl that sounded like overlapping whispers purred in Yuri's head. _"I-I…hung-ung-ger-er!"_

Yuri licked his lips, feeling hungry too.

…

 **Yuya vs. Security**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Arrest Corps V-011**

 **LP 3000**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo**

 **Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK**

 **3 cards face-down**

 **Arrest Corps V-012**

 **LP 3000**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo**

 **Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK**

 **3 cards face-down**

 **Arrest Corps V-013**

 **LP 3000**

 **No cards in his hand**

 **Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo**

 **Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK**

 **3 cards face-down**

 **Yuya:**

 **1000 LP**

 **1 Card in his hand**

 **Controls Magician of Astromancy in his left Pendulum Zone and Magician of Chronomancy in his right Pendulum Zone**

 **Controls Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Entermate Hammer Mammo**

Yuya was panting for breath. The moment the power had shorted in the building and his solid vision cuffs had disappeared, Yuya felt like he had entered a hornet's nest. In seconds, Security had swarmed him, and though he had managed to fight them all off so far, he was growing exhausted.

 _"_ _Just one final push!"_ Yuto encouraged, the phantasmal counterpart standing just off to the side, _"We already have what we need to win this duel!"_

"I know." Yuya replied, before stretching his hand towards the monster Yuto had given him.

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect!" Yuya declared, "I detach an Overlay Unit in order to target Goyo Guardian, halve its ATK, and add the lost ATK to Dark Rebellion!"

 _"_ _TREASON DISCHARGE!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison as Dark Rebellion absorbed its Overlay Unit before unfolding its wings and unleashing a storm of lightning into V-011's Goyo Guardian.

 **Goyo Guardian: 3400 / 2 = 1700 ATK**

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: 2500 + 1700 = 4200 ATK**

"I detach the second overlay unit in order to target a second Goyo Guardian!" Yuya continued, as Dark Rebellion absorbed the last overlay unit before unleashing a storm of energy against the Goyo Guardian owned by V-012.

 _"_ _TREASON DISCHARGE!"_

 **Goyo Guardian: 3400 / 2 = 1700 ATK**

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: 4200 + 1700 = 5900 ATK**

"Battle!" Yuya declared, "Entermate Hammer Mammo attacks Goyo Guardian!"

"Pointless!" V013 replied, as Yuya's immense hammer-wielding elephant charged forward, "Hammer Mammo's ATK is lower than Goyo Guardian's!"

"Action Magic Card! Extreme Sword!" Yuya countered, hopping onto a nearby translucent pattern and slamming down the card, "I increase Hammer Mammo's ATK by one-thousand! Furthermore, Hammer Mammo's effect activates, returning all Magic and Trap Cards you control to the hand!"

"Trap Activate!" V011 countered, "Magic Cylinder! I target your Hammer Mammo in order to inflict damage to your Life Points equal to its ATK!"

"Magician of Chronomancy's Pendulum Effect!" Yuya countered, "I negate the activation of Magic Cylinder and set it face-down! Inverse Gearwidth!"

Raising its duel disk-like bracelet with a long semi-circle gear into the air, Magician of Chronomancy conjured the ethereal image of a clock before causing the time around the trap card to reverse, forcing the card back down. With a mighty toot of its trunk, Hammer Mammo brought down its immense trunk mallet, shockwave causing all the Security Force's spell and trap cards to bounce back into their hands before one of the copies of Goyo Guardian fell on its back and was destroyed.

 **V-013: 3000 – 900 = 2100 LP**

 **Goyo Guardian: 1700 – (100 X 6) = 1100 ATK**

 **Goyo Guardian: 1700 – (100 X 6) = 1100 ATK**

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Yuya continued, "attack V-013's life points directly! Spiral Strike Burst!"

Throwing back its head, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged up its attack before launching a stream of energy into V-013, who leaped onto a platform to grab an Action Card.

"Action Magic!" the officer declared, "Evasion! Your monster's attack is negated!"

"Magician of Astromancy Pendulum effect!" Yuya countered, "I negate the activation of your Spell Card and set it face-down! Horoscope Divination!"

Raising his staff into the air, Magician of Astromancy negated the activation of the Action Card before its effect could go through, leaving the Arrest Corps Officer to stand still, eyes wide beneath his mask as the attack connected, knocking him back.

 **V-013: 2100 – 2500 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 _"_ _Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"_ Yuya and Yuto ordered in unison, _"Attack and destroy Goyo Guardian! Rebellious Lightning Disobey!"_

Wings and tusks charging up with energy, Dark Rebellion swooped forward, lower tusks digging into the ground before slicing up the bowels of Goyo Guardian like the bayonet of a rifle, annihilating the monster before it could even cry out.

 **V-012: 3000 – 4200 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

V-012 flew backwards, collapsing against the wall where his companion lay. V-011, however, remained unflinching.

"You have exhausted all your attacks for this turn and only have one-thousand life points. During the end of this turn, the ATK changes will wear off and I will be able to re-equip my own Goyo Guardian with Goyo Tsukubo in order to give it one-hundred ATK for each of its levels, and the ability to reduce the ATK of any monster it attacks by the equipped monster's own Level times one-hundred. Just one attack on either Hammer Mammo or Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, and you will lose. Surrender now!"

"The show is not over yet!" Yuya countered, a mischievous expression coming over his face, "Neither Odd-Eyes nor Entermate Hammer Mammo will be here for the finale. I have another star in mind for that."

"What?" V-011 asked, sounding confused.

"Quick-Play Magic Card!" Yuya declared, throwing down his last card, "Flash Fusion! I fuse together the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Entermate Hammer Mammo on my side of the field in order to Fusion Summon!"

 _"_ _You took my side-decking advice."_ Yuto mused. _"That's nice to know."_

"I figured you knew a lot about effective Fusion tactics thanks to your…erm…experiences. Sorry." Yuya apologized, realizing he was touching on some sensitive issues.

 _"_ _No offense taken."_ Yuto calmly replied. _"I have no problems with us using Fusion Summons, so long as we're using it to protect others."_

Yuya nodded in agreement, determination to find and rescue Yuzu and the other Lancers hardening his resolve as the card activated.

In a flash of brilliant blinding light, a glowing fusion portal appeared above Yuya's head before Hammer Mammo and Odd-Eyes rose into the center, bodies changing to a deep blue and red respectively before swirling together as Yuya began his summoning chant.

"Grand earth-shaking beast of the circus, become one with the mysterious dragon to create a new power! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! The ferocious dragon with luminous feral eyes! Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Bursting forth from the Fusion Portal with a mighty beastial roar, Yuya's Fusion Monster, a savage fur-covered dragon with glowing feral eyes appeared to Yuya's field, immense claws raking the metal ground.

 **Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 3000_** **/ DEF 2000**

"A fusion summon in the middle of the Battle-Phase!?" V-011 sputtered.

 _"_ _BATTLE!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison. _"Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack and destroy Goyo Guardian! HELL DIVE BURST!"_

Roaring, Beast-Eyes unleashed a dark blast of energy from its ferocious maw, annihilating the last Goyo Guardian with ease.

 **V-011: 3000 – 1900 = 1100 LP**

 _"_ _Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"If it destroys a monster by battle, it inflicts damage to my opponent equal to the ATK of the Beast-Type monster used in its Fusion Summon!"_

Charging forward, Beast-Eyes rammed the last officer into the wall with its head, knocking him out cold with the other officers they had fought.

 **V-011: 1100 – 2600 = 0 LP (LOSE)**

Yuya quickly deactivated his duel disk before racing down the hallway of the building. The interior of Sector Security HQ was immense and complicated, with hundreds of Security Officers crawling through the facilities, but with the first few lines of Security Officers no longer hemming him in, Yuya managed to evade and ignore most of them. He had no time to duel all of them.

"Yuzu! YUZU!" Yuya called, not truly convinced that Yuzu would hear him if she were locked in a high-security cell, but not caring.

 _"_ _Running around aimlessly won't help us find Yuzu or escape."_ Yuto called from within Yuya. _"This is an immense facility, but there is bound to be some intel somewhere, some computer terminal we can access, or at least, a map."_

"Right." Yuya agreed, dodging the grabbing arm of an officer before leaping up onto an overhead wall protrusion and fleeing into another corridor, trying to see if he could find anything. "Where do you think it would be?"

Suddenly, the cries of several screaming Security officers sounded from a large room not too far away. In another heartbeat, the body of a Security officer suddenly came flying from the room before slamming against the wall on the opposite end, where he remained standing upright, chest pinned to the metal by an immense, black, solid vision arrow, which did not immediately fade away. When it finally did, the man slowly slumped to the ground, smearing blood on the wall behind him.

 **R-821: 1200 – 4000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

The man was choking now, hacking and coughing as more blood came from his mouth, but nobody was coming to help him. Inside the room, Yuya could hear more screams followed by the thuds of arrows and the blasts of energy.

Against his better judgement, knowing full well what potential danger awaited him, Yuya found himself hastily approaching the dying man.

 _"_ _Yuya! There's nothing we can do!"_ Yuto warned.

"I can't just do nothing!" Yuya replied. "If I can at least get someone to come and take him to a hospital…HELP! HELP!" Yuya called to nobody in particular. "WE HAVE A WOUNDED MAN! SOMEONE HELP!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Yuya noticed Melissa Clair without her hat slowly approach him.

"Melissa?" Yuya exclaimed, turning around, completely surprised to see her, "Quickly! You've gotta help me! This man's been wounded in a duel! If we don't help him soon he'll…"

His voice trailed off as he focused on the woman standing before him.

 _"_ _That's not Melissa."_ Yuto whispered,

Yuya had to silently agree with his spiritual companion. The woman approaching them looked like what Melissa would have been had she decided to cut her hair short and join some kind of cowboy biker gang. Her eyes, hair color, and face were the same, but she was slightly younger and shorter and her movements and facial expressions suggested that her personality was far from the upbeat and bubbly personality of the Friendship Cup MC.

"Violence and blood will draw the Destroyer forth, within the same fortress where the seat of power lies." The woman said in a soft voice to nobody in particular. "Just as you prophesied, Carly."

Yuya blinked in confusion before turning back to the wounded man, who began trembling as he looked up at the woman.

"We're going to get you help!" Yuya said to the man, trying to calm him down, before placing his arms underneath him. "You!" he called to the woman, "Help me lift him and get him to an infirmary! He doesn't have much time!"

With a quick stride, the woman stepped forward, knelt down, and pressed her hand over the dying man's wound, staunching the bleeding with her palm.

In an instant, the man suddenly started screaming and writhing in pain. At first, Yuya thought it was just from the pressure of the woman's hand, until he saw the man's blood flowing up the woman's arm and into the woman's open mouth.

Yuya stood transfixed, mouth hanging open in stunned disbelief. The woman withdrew her hand from the wound, a streaming globule of the man's blood pouring out from the man's open wound and into her mouth until nothing was left of the man but a shriveled husk. Closing her mouth and swallowing, the woman opened her eyes, which began glowing with a deep orange light. On her right arm, a glowing orange hummingbird-shaped mark, the same color as her glowing eyes, flared to life. Next to her, what was left of the man flopped to the ground before quickly crumpling to dry dust.

This could not be real. This had to be a nightmare!

"What did you do!?" Yuya screamed at the woman, who regarded him with a look of pure hatred.

In reply, the woman clamped her hands together, generating a sudden blast of black energy, which knocked Yuya back, sending him flying in the air, until he landed several meters away across the hallway. With a roar of fury, the woman was suddenly encased in a pillar of pitch-black shadows before emerging from the shadows, cloaked in tight black biker clothing with patterns of orange lines. The sclera of her eyes had turned a pitch black and her originally dull-red irises now glowed like blood-stained lamps. On her left arm, a large black duel disk with a fanged mouth for a deck slot had appeared. On her right arm, the orange hummingbird mark was now glowing like a supernova, while a new triangular mark underneath her right eye glowed with similar light.

Yuya's eyes widened, recognizing similar eyes, clothing, and marks as the ones Yuzu had borne.

 _"_ _She's one of them!"_ Yuto exclaimed.

"Dark Signer." Yuya breathed, beginning to wonder what terrible powers Yuzu might have. No. He shook his head at the thought. Yuzu would never have done what this woman just did.

"Who are you!?" Yuya demanded. "And why are you doing this!?"

"I am the Dark Disciple, Aleisha Claire." Aleisha proclaimed in a harsh, aggressive voice, "Harbinger of Dark Signer Carly Nagisa's will and bearer of her legacy! In her name and for the sake of the universe's continued existence I have come to end you once and for all, Destroyer!"

"Destroyer!?" Yuya exclaimed, almost jumping back, completely shocked and confused. "What do you mean? What have I done!?"

Aleisha narrowed her eyes.

"Carly said this might be the case. So, it's true then. You've completely forgotten about your past, all the genocides, all the devastation, the deliberate destruction of your own world…" she clenched her fists with a growl, "Must be convenient for you, to just forget all your sins like that, but don't worry, I'll help you remember before I destroy you!"

"Past…sins?" Yuya buzzed, head spinning. His first instinct was to just write off Aleisha as a raving, if not dangerously powerful, lunatic, but something nagged at the back of his mind, like a sleeping memory.

 _"_ _I know what you must be thinking, Yuya."_ Yuto whispered to Yuya, _"This darkness inside of us, neither of us know what it is. But I know who I am, and I know who you are. Whatever this Aleisha says, neither of us deserve to be punished!"_

"Don't deserve to be punished, you say?" Aleisha snarled, causing Yuto's eyes to widen with shock. "Yes, I can see you, incarnation of the Destroyer. Your foul spirit cannot hide from me! And you are wrong! Horribly wrong! Nobody deserves to be punished more than you! If either of you have any decency left in you, then you'll let me end you, before you destroy this universe as well!"

"But…we don't want to destroy the universe!" Yuya sputtered, mentally staggering against the absurd accusations. "And I highly doubt we could destroy it even if we did!"

"Once again, everything you just said is dead wrong." Aleisha growled. "Enough of this! This ends now!"

She raised her right arm into the air, the one bearing the mark. Around Yuya, Yuto, and Aleisha, an immense ring of raging black flames formed around them, tearing through the solid walls and furniture of the building until they were encased in a wide ring.

"Field Activate! Crossover!" Yuya's duel disk declared, automatically activating before projecting an array of translucent blue platforms.

Yuya looked around at the raging flames encompassing them. They were not spreading outward like a normal fire but standing in place like a solid wall. That brought a small amount of relief to him, but his instincts told him that if he tried to run through the supernatural fire, then he'd likely end up scorched, or worse.

 _"_ _It looks like we have no choice but to duel her."_ Yuto grimaced. _"Be on your guard, Yuya. I'm sensing a great deal of power and resolve from her."_

Yuya nodded his head, thinking of the people who were counting on him. He would not fail them!

 _"_ _DUEL!"_ Yuya and Yuto roared in unison.

"MAQANAKUY!" Aleisha roared in response, before stepping forward and bowing her head as if in prayer.

"Thank you for placing your trust in me, Carly. By your will and with the blessing of your deck, I will not fail in my mission! Fortune Lady Vision no kouka!" she roared, revealing a card in her hand. "I can banish this card from my hand in order to add one 'Future Visions' and one 'Fortune Lady' Monster from my deck to my hand!"

"Fortune Lady?" Yuya asked. "Have you ever heard of that?"

 _"_ _No."_ Yuto replied, shaking his head, _"Be on your guard."_

In front of Aleisha, the faded after-image of a short blind-folded witch with multi-colored hair styled into a swirl, a pair of bat wings on the sides of her head, and a glowing eye-tattoo on her forehead, appeared to the field. Fortune Lady Vision wore what looked like a black one-piece bathing suit with a frilly multi-colored skirt and top, and wielded a tall magic staff with a crystal ball on top and a scythe blade on the bottom. Raising her staff into the air, the witch began chanting before removing the blindfold from her face, revealing a pair of eyes made of pure crystal. The rest of her body faded away, leaving just the floating eyes, which proceeded to transform into a pair of cards, which Aliesha added to her hand.

"Field Magic Activate!" Aleisha declared, revealing one of the cards added to her hand before placing it on her duel disk's Field Spell Card Zone, "Future Visions!"

The second the field spell card was activated, the entire building around Yuya began transforming, walls, and floor taking on a fuzzy dream-like coloring as the ceiling seemed to fade away before being replaced with a swirling cosmos of flickering planets, stars, and images. Staring up at the sky in wonder, Yuya's eyes become transfixed on multiple images, which depicted a shadowy monster raining fire down upon multiple cities, obliterating everything in its path.

"Are you beginning to remember, Destroyer?" Aleisha asked, causing Yuya to snap back to attention before looking at her. Aleisha was staring at the sky as well, a grim expression on her face as she examined the images. "This field displays the possible futures of the duelists within. In that way, it mirrors the powers of my master and friend. She spent a great deal of time gazing into the future, hoping to learn possible ways this reality might be destroyed, so that she could prevent it."

Aleisha turned to Yuya, face hardening.

"In every future where reality ended, _you_ were both involved!" Aleisha growled, pointing her finger accusingly at Yuya and Yuto. "Therefore, in order to prevent the end of our reality, you must be destroyed!"

"I know nothing about the future!" Yuya protested, "But even if this is all accurate, why can't I choose to change it? I already told you, neither of us want to destroy anything!"

 _"_ _My only desire is to save my world and the people I love!"_ Yuto agreed.

Aleisha narrowed her eyes.

"Some of the worst people I've ever met were motivated by nothing but a desire to save the people they loved." She spat. "Tell me, incarnations, how far are either of you willing to go, 'to protect the people you love?'"

Yuya paused, thoughts of what he had done when he'd lost control to the darkness coming to his memory. Hadn't he been motivated by a desire to protect people when he had succumbed to his rage.

Yuto was the first to recover.

 _"_ _I've almost lost control before."_ Yuto admitted, _"In the beginning of the war, when the Fusion Dimension attacked my home, I wanted to hurt them back. But my dearest friend, in my darkest moment, she taught me the value of mercy and forgiveness, the ideal of dueling for the sake of bringing happiness to others. That philosophy was taught to her by Yuya's father, and I know that there is nobody in the universe that embodies that ideal more than him!"_

"Dueling for the sake of bringing happiness." Aleisha snorted in derision, "What a hollow philosophy. Somehow, I doubt it will hold up when it's put to the test. I've seen the possibilities too. The moment either of you sees one of your precious comrades threatened, you will crack and give way to your true nature! That's why I know what you will do in the future! You will be focusing on 'protecting the ones you love!'"

 _"_ _And what about you!?"_ Yuto snapped, _"Aren't you doing everything you're doing for the sake of protecting someone? You took the life of someone before our very eyes! How can you claim any moral superiority over us, when you're doing the very thing you claim we will do in the future!?"_

"Shut up!" Aleisha roared, "I don't need to be lectured by the incarnation of the Destroyer himself! I'm not destroying you out of some misguided attempt to shield someone close to me! I've already lost everyone I loved!"

"But that can't be true!" Yuya protested, "You're Melissa's sister, right? You look like it, anyway. Don't you care for her?"

This seemed to make Aleisha even angrier.

"Don't you dare ever mention that fraud again!" Aleisha snarled. "I stopped caring about her years ago, and I doubt she gives a crap about me! My only reason for destroying the both of you now is because it's the right thing to do! That's why I let Roger's men capture me in the first place, because I knew that if I did, it would give me the opportunity to finally meet you and kill you! So, prepare for your judgement, Destroyer, because nothing will hold me back from my purpose! I normal summon Fortune Lady Light!"

In front of Aleisha, a petit blonde-haired witch with a glowing eye-mark over her bangs, a pair of bat wings on her head, and a staff and attire similar to Fortune Lady Visions, but with a yellow skirt and top and a sun-like crystal at the top of her shepherd's crook-like staff, appeared to the field.

 **Fortune Lady Light / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"The effect of Future Vision's activates!" Aleisha declared, "If a monster is normal summoned, it is banished until the Standby-Phase of my next turn."

"What?" Yuya exclaimed in surprise. "Why would you do that to your own monster?"

 _"_ _You could have Normal Summoned and then activated Future Visions, leaving us as the only ones to take its negative effect."_ Yuto agreed.

"The Fortune Ladies are agents of my departed master." Aleisha solemnly replied, "Theirs is the power to not only see, but change the future. The effect of Fortune Lady Light activates when she is removed from the field by a card effect, and Fortune Lady Vision's effect chains to the activation of that effect! When a face-up 'Fortune Lady' I control is banished, while Fortune Lady Vision is banished, I can Special Summon Vision to my side of the field! Come forth!" Aleisha commanded as Fortune Lady Vision suddenly returned to the field through a multi-colored different dimension portal before crossing her legs and floating in the air in a meditative pose.

 **Fortune Lady Vision / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 100 /** ** _DEF 0_**

"Next is the effect of Fortune Lady Light!" Aleisha continued, "I get to Special Summon one Fortune Lady from my deck! Come forth, Fortune Lady Water!"

Through a blue portal, a tall solemn-looking witch with long blue hair cascading over her shoulders, and large blue robes over the black bathing suit and knee-high boots she wore, appeared to the field before planting her tall scythe-tipped magic staff with a blue crystal at the top into the ground.

 **Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"The ATK and DEF of Fortune Lady Water is always equal to her current Level times three-hundred." Aleisha explained.

 **Fortune Lady Water: ATK 1200 / DEF 1200**

"Furthermore," Aliesha continued, "Fortune Lady Water's effect activates when she is summoned while I control another Fortune Lady Monster! I draw two cards from my deck!"

Yuya's eyes widened at this.

"In just her first turn, she's managed to add four cards to her hand."

 _"_ _She has some powerful combos."_ Yuto agreed. _"But draw power alone isn't enough to win a duel. It's only a means to an end. She must be setting up for something."_

"I set two cards face-down." Aleisha declared, slotting two cards into her disk. "Turn end. Now, Destroyer, make your move, I'm ready for whatever you choose to unleash on me!"

Yuya narrowed his eyes at Aleisha's field, trying to determine what her strategy might be.

"She doesn't have any strong monsters on her field, but she has two face-down cards and a field spell card that can banish any monster we attempt to Normal Summon." Yuya quietly whispered to Yuto.

 _"_ _It's likely she wants us to attack her."_ Yuto replied. _"Then again, if we hold back, it might give her enough time to truly establish a board we can't break."_

Yuya nodded his head in agreement.

"We can't hold back now. Even if what she said about us destroying a universe in the past is true, it'll do no good for us to be defeated. There are people counting on us!"

 _"_ _Let's do this, Yuya!"_ Yuto instructed.

"Ore no turn! DRAW!" Yuya called in agreement.

Closing his eyes in silent prayer, Yuya tore a card from the top of his deck before looking at his hand and nodding, formulating a strategy.

"I, using the scale two Entermate Gongat and the Scale six Entermate Guitartle, set the pendulum scales!" Yuya declared, slamming both his cards on the edges of his duel disk, the word "PENDULUM" appearing on the blade in multi-colored letters. To Yuya's left, a fat cat with a gong for a belly rose into the air in a blue column, joined by a turtle with a guitar for a body in a blue column to the right. The numbers "2" and "6" appeared beneath Gongat and Guitartle respectfully once they stopped.

"Tacky." Aleisha sniffed, looking disgusted. "I wonder, did the Destroyer intentionally give you this deck, just to shelter you from your true past?"

"I don't know anything about this past you keep talking about." Yuya replied, shaking his head, "But I do know about my deck! My deck and my dueling embody my ideals, and I will use my dueling to shape a new future! Entermate Guitartle's effect! When it is activated while I control an 'Entermate' card in my other Pendulum Zone, I can draw one card!"

Yuya added the card to his hand before examining Aleisha's field once again.

 _"_ _Future Visions will banish any monster I normal summon, but it won't do anything if I Special Summon!"_

"With the scales set in my Pendulum Zone, I pendulum summon!" Yuya declared, raising his hand in the air. "Above his head, an immense pendulum identical to the one around his neck appeared before swinging back and forth between the two columns of blue light, slowly tracing a circular pattern in the sky as Yuya began his summoning chant.

"Swing! Pendulum of my soul! Draw an arc of light across the aether! Come forth, my monster servants! Entermate Longphone Bull and Entermate Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix!"

Above his head, a pink portal appeared before a stream of red light and a stream of gold light descended from the portal before landing on the ground, revealing the monsters within.

"Pendulum." Aleisha growled. "The summoning technique developed by the Destroyer himself!"

Longphone Bull appeared in front of Yuya as a tall anthropomorphic bull with a telephone on his head instead of horns, while Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix appeared as a large orange-and-yellow bird with heterochromatic red and green eyes and a spazzy suit over its body.

 **Entermate Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix / LIGHT / Level 5 / Winged-Beast / Pendulum / Effect /** ** _ATK 2000_** **/ DEF 1000 / Scale 3**

 **Entermate Longphone Bull / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast / Effect /** ** _ATK 1600_** **/ DEF 1200**

"Entermate Longphone Bull's effect activates when it is summoned," Yuya declared, "I get to add an 'Entermate' monster with one-thousand or less ATK from my deck to my hand!"

"Not so fast!" Aleisha countered, "I knew you'd try to get around Future Visions! Trap Activate! Future Prophecies! If my opponent Special Summons one or more monsters, those monsters are banished until the Standby Phase of that player's next turn! Begone from this present time!"

In front of Aleisha, a trap card depicting Fortune Lady Visions meditating in the center of the void-like landscape of Future Visions flipped up before conjuring a large multicolored portal, which sucked Longphone Bull and Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix into its depths like a vacuum cleaner, leaving Yuya's monster zones completely empty.

Yuya gasped in shock, unable to believe that she had countered his move so easily.

 _"_ _We can't normal summon_ or _special summoning without triggering the effects of one of her cards!"_ Yuto gawked, _"Our monsters will return on our next turn, but that leaves us wide open until then. How are we supposed to get around this? I don't see any cards in our hand that can destroy her spell or trap."_

"No, we don't have that." Yuya agreed. "But we're not without options yet."

He turned his attention back to duel, formulating a plan that would at least enable them to survive next turn.

"Even though it was banished, Longphone Bull's effect still goes through!" Yuya declared, "I add Entermate Rain Goat from my deck to my hand."

 _"_ _That will protect us against effect damage, but we'll need something to protect us from her monsters."_ Yuto mused next to Yuya.

"We're locked out of summoning monsters, but I can still do this." Yuya replied, "I set one monster face-down."

In front of Yuya, a simple face-down card appeared.

 _"_ _Good thinking."_ Yuto agreed. _"Future Visions and Future Prophecies will counter any of our Normal or Special Summons but setting a monster does not count as either type of summon, so they don't work against it."_

"I thought you'd do something like that." Aleisha sniffed. "This is turning out to be easier than I thought. Dark Rite Trap Card activate! Rites of Fortune!"

In front of Aleisha, a trap card flipped over, this one depicting six witches, one of them being Fortune Lady Light and another being Fortune Lady Water, and four others Yuya didn't recognize, standing in a circle with right arms clutching their staffs and left arms outstretched towards an immense crystal ball, floating above a blazing fire. In the upper right corner of the trap card, a symbol depicting a knife thrust inside a bleeding heart was inscribed.

"Dark…"

 _"…_ _Rite?"_ Yuya and Yuto exclaimed, wondering what they were looking at.

"Behold the power gifted to me by my master!" Aleisha proclaimed, raising her hands into the air, before the same immense crystal ball depicted on the face of her trap card appeared into the air, a raging fire blazing to life beneath it. "With the essence of Ritual, transformed into the shadowy, mirror-image, rites of true power, I shall call forth a new omnipotent strength! I Dark Sacrifice my Level one Fortune Lady Vision as the base offering, and Dark Sacrifice the Level Six Fortune Lady Earth in my hand in order to subtract its Level from the Level of the base offering and commence the Dark Rite!"

In front of Aleisha, a tall Fortune Lady with brown hair and robes, and a pair of trifocals over her eyes appeared before she and Fortune Lady Vision began approaching the Crystal Ball with their left hands outstretched, just like in the Dark Rite Trap Card. Within the Crystal Ball, thousands of images began flickering in and out of existence before they finally settled into the shadowy silhouette of what looked like a witch with antlers on the sides of her head. With a sudden shriek of pain, Fortune Lady Earth and Fortune Lady Vision each fell to the ground, hands clutching their forheads before they both exploded into flames, bodies disintegrating into dust as the flames rose into the Crystal Ball, causing the glass surface to begin cracking as Aleisha commenced a summoning chant.

"Those who wish to change their fate must pay a steep price! Emerge from the shadowy weald where travelers come to learn their fortune and reveal the dark cosmic truth that awaits us!"

In her hand, she held up a monster card with blood-red coloration. Erupting into flames, the card suddenly transformed, paper transforming into cold chrome steel before Aleisha slammed the card onto her duel disk's blade with a metallic ring.

"DARK RITE! Twist the foolish minds of my enemies with madness! Level negative five! Fortune Lady Fate!"

In an explosion of glass and flame, the Crystal Ball shattered, extinguishing the fire and bathing the field in a thick black haze of smoke, which forced Yuya to cover his eyes and begin coughing as he struggled to breath. When the smoke had faded, he removed his arm from his eyes to behold Aleisha's new monster standing before him.

Dressed like a Celtic druid, Fortune Lady Fate had the skins of numerous animals draped over her slender shoulders and wrapped around her supple waist, leaving her midriff, legs, and feet uncovered. Unlike the other Fortune Ladies, who wore a bathing suit over their bare skin, the exposed skin of Fortune Lady Fate was left completely bare, save for the swirling lines of glowing green, blue, and red glyphs painted over her body. The face of Fortune Lady Fate was covered by a plain wooden mask, with slit holes for her glowing red eyes to peer through and a glowing blood-red eye symbol glowing against the forehead. Her wild flame-red hair spilled out from behind the mask, bushy curls falling all the way down to her bare ankles. On the sides of her head, instead of the regular bat wings of the other Fortune Ladies, she bore a pair of immense deer antlers, which had a cawing black raven perched on top. Her long staff was similar to the other Fortune Ladies, but inlaid with glowing glyphs, and bearing a pulsing blood-red heart-shaped gem in the center of the upper crook. Running along the edge of the staff, Yuya noticed what looked like a bowstring, before noticing a quiver of immense black arrows holstered to the woman's back.

 **Fortune Lady Fate / DARK / Level -5 / Spellcaster / Dark Rite / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

Yuya staggered back, feeling an ominous dark aura radiating from the monster.

 _"_ _What…is that thing?"_ Yuto gasped, looking like his forehead would be drenched in sweat if he still had a body.

"Your doom." Aleisha said simply. "Fortune Lady Fate's effect activates when she is Special Summoned during the opponent's turn! I inflict one-thousand damage to your life points! Mad Vision!"

Eyes glowing with energy, Fortune Lady Fate raised the blood-red heart crystal of her staff into the air, before saying a quick chant in a garbled guttural language and casting a bolt of shadowy blood-red energy at Yuya and Yuto.

Reacting by instinct, Yuya raced for an Action Card, intending to preserve his Rain Goat for later.

"Action Magic!" Yuya declared, "Energy Converter! I negate the effect damage!"

Whizzing past him as he managed to dodge to the side, the bolt of red energy struck against the wall of flame a few meters away, creating a small explosion of fire, which singed the surrounding area.

"Energy Converter's second effect." Yuya continued, "If I negate damage of one-thousand or more, I shuffle my deck before drawing one card.

Aleisha grit her teeth in annoyance.

"You and your tricks. Action Cards, indeed. Such bull. But it doesn't matter. Your fate cannot be escaped, Destroyer, and I will make sure that you are lead to it!"

"I am the only one who can choose my future!" Yuya countered, "I set one card face-down. Turn end!"

"The only one who can choose his future?" Aleisha asked, raising an eyebrow. "Somehow I doubt an incarnation like you has much choice over your master's wishes. So why don't I end you before you repeat history. My turn! DRAW!"

"During the Standby Phase, Fortune Lady Light returns to my field!" Aliesha declared, as her blonde-haired fairy reappeared to the field. "Her effect and the effects of Fortune Lady Water and Fate also activate at this time. During each of my Standby Phases, the Levels of Fortune Lady Water increase by one. And in case you were wondering why this matters, the ATK and DEF of Fortune Lady Light is equal to her Level times two-hundred, while Fortune Lady Water's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times three-hundred."

 **Fortune Lady Light: Level 1 / 200 ATK / 200 DEF**

 **Fortune Lady Water: 4 + 1 = Level 5 / 1500 ATK / 1500 ATK**

"So, their levels, ATK, and DEF all increase the more time that passes." Yuya silently groaned to himself. "Which means I'll have to take care of them quickly before their power gets out of hand."

 _"_ _Which she is deliberately making difficult with her Field Spell and Trap Card."_ Yuto added. _"Still, she mentioned that her Fortune Lady Fate had an effect as well."_

"Good memory." Aleisha sarcastically complimented, garnering Yuto's attention. "During each of my Standby Phases, the Level of Fortune Lady Fate decreases by one."

"Decreases?" Yuya asked, looking at Fortune Lady Fate's already incredibly low level.

"That's right, decreases." Aleisha affirmed as her Fortune Lady Fate began to glow with a penumbra of black light.

 **Fortune Lady Fate: -5 – 1 = Level -6**  
 _"How can any monster have a negative level?"_ Yuto asked, looking both confused and disturbed. _"The lowest Level a monster can possibly have is one._ That _is the lowest level possible. Zero doesn't exist, much less negative six! That's basically saying that a monster is beyond weak!"_

"Clearly you know nothing about possibility." Aleisha sniffed with disgust. "Ironic, considering who you were, Destroyer. Best you accept these two facts. Infinite power exists in both directions, and negative energy is _not_ weak! Fortune Lady Fate's effect! Her ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times negative four-hundred!"

 **Fortune Lady Fate: -6 X -400 = 2400 ATK / 2400 DEF**  
"Twenty-four hundred ATK!?" Yuya exclaimed. In total, Aleisha's monsters had enough ATK to completely wipe out his Life Points.

"I activate the effect of a second Fortune Lady Visions in my hand!" Aleisha declared, "I add a second copy of Future Vision and Fortune Lady Cosmos to my hand!"

A second copy of Vision appeared to her field, silently meditating before opening her crystalline eyes, fading away, and adding two new cards to Aleisha's hand.

"Now that that's done, Aleisha continued, I normal summon Fortune Lady Wind from my hand, come forth!"

In a swirl of wind, Aleisha's new monster, a green haired witch with similarly colored attire and a green gem at the center of her magic staff, appeared to the field.

 **Fortune Lady Wind / WIND / Level 3 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"Like Water," Aleisha explained, "Fortune Lady Wind's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times three-hundred."

 **Fortune Lady Wind: ATK 900 / DEF 900**

"However, this does not truly matter." Aleisha continued, as her monster began to fade away before disappearing completely. "Future Visions banishes my monster until the Standby Phase of my next turn. And now, since she was banished, the effect of Fortune Lady Vision activates, special summoning herself to the field!"

 **Fortune Lady Vision / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 100 /** ** _DEF 0_**  
"She has enough attack to finish us off with direct attacks, but she's choosing to build up her field again." Yuya silently thought aloud.

 _"_ _She's being meticulous,"_ Yuto replied. _"building up to something bigger."_

"But what?" Yuya asked, feeling a growing unease.  
"By Dark Sacrificing one Fortune Lady I control, I can Special Summon the Level seven Dark Tuner monster, Fortune Lady Cosmos, from my hand! Come forth!" Aleisha ordered, holding up a card.  
"Dark Tuner?" Yuya exclaimed, remembering Sergey call one of his own monsters a Dark Tuner in the video Roger had shown him.

Feeling the temperature of the room drop significantly, Yuya watched as the horrific effects of the dark sacrifice consumed Fortune Lady Water in a process that involved the blue-haired witch shrieking in agony before her body blackened and shriveled and eventually dissolved into a puddle of dark liquid. Slowly, the puddle of liquid boiled and evaporated into a cloud of particles, which rose into the air to form a swirling cosmic nebula of dark light. Coalescing, the nebula formed into the shape of a slender witch with sparkling black hair accented with multi-colored highlights, and a black dress that looked like it was woven from stars worn over her bathing suit. Like the other Fortune Ladies, Fortune Lady Cosmos wielded a large magic staff with a shepherd's crook top and a scythe on the bottom, but unlike the others, which sported a gem in the center of the crook, Cosmos's staff bore a swirling black hole in its center.

 **Fortune Lady Cosmos / DARK / Level 7 / Spellcaster / Dark Tuner / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"Like most of the other Fortune Ladies, Cosmo's ATK and DEF are each determined by her level. In this case, she gains three-hundred ATK and DEF for each of those levels." Aleisha explained.

 **Fortune Lady Cosmos: ATK 2100 / DEF 2100**

Yuya's eyes widened, realizing that Aleisha had increased the total ATK of her monsters. He was about to voice the concern to Yuto, when a sudden thought occurred to him.

"Why didn't she Dark Sacrifice her Fortune Lady Vision?" Yuya asked Yuto.

 _"_ _I noticed that too." Yuto admitted. "Clearly, she is not just going for higher ATK."_

"Then what is she going for?" Yuya asked.

 _"We're about to find out." Yuto grimly replied._

"Fortune Lady Cosmos no kouka!" Aleisha declared, "Up to three times per turn, I can target one 'Fortune Lady' monster I control in order to decrease its Level by one while increasing her own Level by one! I use this effect once on my Fortune Lady Vision in order to change her Level to zero while increasing Fortune Lady Cosmos's Level to eight! Cosmic Equivalent Dark Matter Exchange!"

Raising her staff into the air, Fortune Lady Cosmos pulled a single white sphere from the body of Fortune Lady Vision before sucking the sphere of light into the center of the black hole affixed to her staff.

 **Fortune Lady Vision: Level 0**

 **Fortune Lady Cosmos: Level 8 / 2400 ATK / 2400 DEF**

"Wait…!" Yuya breathed, realizing what was coming next and feeling an instinctive dread for it.

Raising her arms into the air, Aleisha continued with her turn.

"It's time to meet your end, Destroyer! I Dark Tune my Level eight Fortune Lady Cosmos with my Level zero Fortune Lady Vision in order to Dark Synchro Summon!" Aleisha proclaimed.

In response to her command, Fortune Lady Cosmos exploded into a shower of eight white spheres of white light, which proceeded to phase into the body of Fortune Lady Vision. As soon as the last star passed into the meditating witch's body, Fortune Lady Vision faded into a mere outline of herself, shrieking in agony as all eight of the stars blackened before violently exploding from the shattered husk of her body and orbiting a region of empty space, crackling with black energy.

"When you gaze into the black abyss of the future, the abyss stares back! Come forth from the shadowy veil of times yet to be! DARK SYNCHRO! Manifest from the shadow of prophecy as the incarnation of inevitability! Level negative eight! Fortune Lady Future!"

In an explosive pillar of black shadow, which knocked Yuya and Yuto back with its power, Aleisha's new monster appeared, staff parting the column of blackness with a single wave. Coldly beautiful with skin, dress, boots, and very long and wild hair a deathly white and veins, fingernails, lips, and eyes as pitch-black as coal, Fortune Lady Future looked like an angel of death. A pair of immense black angel wings protruded from the sides of her head and a large clear translucent cape trailed over the back of her dress. Unlike most of the other Fortune Ladies, she wore no bathing suit over her exposed skin, instead opting to cover her bare skin with a translucent body suit underneath the white dress. In her right hand, the witch held an immense futuristic metal magic staff, which was made up of several pieces floating independent of one another in the air, including a glowing black crystal on the top and a burning scythe blade made of pure solid black light on the bottom.

 **Fortune Lady Future / LIGHT / Level -8 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"Behold the harbinger of the future!" Aleisha proclaimed, indicating her monster, who took up position with the other Fortune Ladies on her field. "Fortune Lady Future's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times negative five-hundred, making her the strongest monster on the field!"

 **Fortune Lady Future: ATK 4000 / DEF 4000**

"Four-thousand ATK!?" Yuya exclaimed.

 _"_ _It's more than that!"_ Yuto gagged, sounding sick. Turning, Yuya looked at his counterpart to notice him clutching his stomach and head in agony. _"Yuya! I can feel it! Something is fundamentally wrong with these monsters!"_

Yuya had to agree with Yuto. Although he was not feeling the same level of discomfort as Yuto, something was eating at him, pounding against his skull like a growing headache. Looking at Aleisha's monsters made him feel like he was staring into an infinitely empty void, threatening to swallow him up whole.

"Those monsters…" Yuya gagged, feeling sweat build up on his forehead, "…they're…they're in pain!" he exclaimed, surprising himself.

Aleisha narrowed her eyes before looking at her monsters and solemnly nodding.

"Yes. They are. Strange that you would feel empathy for them in the last moments of your life."

Yuya widened his eyes, dreading what was coming next.

"Fortune Lady Fate's effect!" Aleisha declared, "I return my banished Fortune Lady Wind to my hand in order to banish the Fortune Lady Light on my field! Rewoven Fate!"

Chanting, runes on her body glowing with light, Fortune Lady Fate conjured an ethereal image of Fortune Lady Wind in the air, which coalesced into a card before flying into Aleisha's hand. Holding out her left hand, Fortune Lady Fate next raised the heart gem over the palm of her head, a thick red syrupy substance dripping from the pulsating gem and pooling into her cupped hand. Taking the substance, Fortune Lady Fate began painting blood-red symbols on Fortune Lady Light's face before stretching out her staff and causing Light to disappear in a flash of light.

"Fortune Lady Light's effect!" Aleisha continued, "Since she was removed from the field, I Special Summon Fortune Lady Dark from my deck! Come to my field now!"

The field darkened into pitch blackness for a moment before slightly illuminating to reveal a new tall purple-haired witch standing in Fortune Lady Light's place, a black dress over her bathing suit.

 **Fortune Lady Dark / DARK / Level 5 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"Fortune Lady Dark's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times four-hundred." Aleisha idly explained.

 **Fortune Lady Dark: ATK 2000 / DEF 2000**

"And now," Aleisha continued, "I activate the effect of Fortune Lady Future! I target my own Future Prophecies in order to add a second copy of Future Prophecies from my deck to my hand before banishing my own Future Prophecies! Recurring Future!"

 _"_ _What!?"_ Yuya and Yuto exclaimed in unison as Fortune Lady Future raised her futuristic staff into the air, conjuring a copy of Future Prophecies, which flew into Aleisha's hand, before using the scythe blade of her staff to cleave through the copy of Future Prophecies on the field, causing the card to disappear.

"You understand what this means, right?" Aleisha asked, "Since the original copy of Future Prophecies has left the field, your monsters will not return next turn."

"They're gone!?" Yuya exclaimed in horror, looking up into the swirling sky of Future Visions to see two images of Odd-Eyes Phoenix and Longphone Bull vanishing.

"Yes. And soon, you will be as well!" Aleisha continued, "BATTLE! Fortune Lady Fate, attack the face-down! Arrow of Fate!"

Drawing a large black arrow from her quiver, Fortune Lady Fate waved her hand over the runes on her witch scythe, which glowed a bright green before bending the staff into a curvy longbow before she knocked the arrow and aimed.

Yuya immediately leaped onto a platform, searching for Action Cards.

"Fortune Lady Fate inflicts piercing damage." Aleisha grimly explained. "FIRE!"

Loosing the arrow, Fortune Lady Fate pierced the body of Yuya's face-down in an instant, revealing it to be a copy of Entermate Fireflux. However, before his monster could expire from its arrow wound, Yuya managed to find and activate an Action Card.

"Miracle!" Yuya declared, "I negate the destruction of Fireflux and halve my damage!"

The arrow in Fireflux's chest disappeared before the insect's wound was miraculously healed. However, this did not stop Yuya's monster from slamming into him and knocking him back.

 **Yuya: 4000 – 400 = 3600 LP**

"Pointless." Aleisha coldly replied, "Fortune Lady Dark! Attack and destroy Entermate Fireflux! Dark Fate!"

Twirling around her staff, Fortune Lady Dark generated a tornado of black energy, which flew towards Entermate Fireflux, threatening to destroy it. Yuya, however, was already leaping for another Action Card.

"Tch!" Aleisha snarled to herself, suddenly launching herself fifteen feet off the floor, hands snagging her own Action Card just as Yuya had grabbed his.

"Action Magic-…!" Yuya began before Aleisha interrupted him.

"Cosmic Arrow!" Aleisha roared, "I destroy the Action Card in your hand!"

Before Yuya could even activate his Action Card, a blueish energy arrow suddenly shot through the card in his hand, obliterating it. In the same instance, the spiral of black energy reached Fireflux, annihilating the monster.

"Fortune Lady Dark's effect!" Aleisha declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "If a face-up Fortune Lady Monster I control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, I can Special Summon one 'Fortune Lady' Monster from my graveyard! Return now! Fortune Lady Water!"

Rising from a black portal, Aleisha's Fortune Lady Water appeared to Aleisha's field, the eyes of the witch burning with fury.

 **Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK 1200_** **/ DEF 1200**

"Fortune Lady Water no kouka!" Aleisha declared as Water raised her staff into the air, "Since she was Special Summoned while I control a Fortune Lady Monster, I draw two cards! And now I continue with the battle! Fortune Lady Future, direct attack!"  
Pitch-black crystal on the end of her staff charging with energy, Fortune Lady Future leveled her wand at Yuya and Yuto, preparing to finish the both of them off.

 _"_ _We have no choice, Yuya!"_ Yuto called.

"I know!" Yuya fervently replied. "Entermate Gongat Pendulum no kouka! Once per turn, I can negate the damage I would take from your direct attack!"  
Grinning, Gongat began peating its drum sticks against its chest, creating a barrier of energy around Yuya. Grinning as if she had expected as much, Fortune Lady Future merely lowered her staff, the energy in her crystal dimming.

"As expected." Aleisha shrugged, not looking the least bit discouraged. "Sadly for you, the turn is not over! Fortune Lady Water! Direct attack!"

Despite his fatigue, Yuya was already leaping onto another nearby platform, searching for Action Cards but finding none immediately in sight. Meanwhile, Fortune Lady Water was twirling her staff above her head, generating a swirling tsunami of water.

"Quick-Play Magic Time Passage!" Aleisha declared, revealing one of the cards in her hand, "I can increase the Level of one of my Fortune Ladies by three until the end of this turn! Furthermore, I chain the graveyard effect of my Rite of Fortune to the activation of Time Passage! By banishing Rite of Fortune, I can either increase or decrease the Level of one of my Fortune Ladies by three! Naturally, I'll be using this effect to increase Water's level by another three stars!"  
 **Fortune Lady Water: 4 + 3 + 3 = Level 10 / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000**

Fortune Lady Water launched the tsunami of water towards Yuya, which began rocketing towards him, spraying him with hose-like blasts of water as it inched ever nearer.

With no Action Cards available and no other choice, Yuya stretched his hand towards his face-down.

"Trap Activate! Entermate Call!" Yuya declared, "I negate your direct attack and add two 'Entermate' monsters from my deck to my hand whose total DEF is equal to the ATK of your attacking monster!"

Before the main column of water could reach him, Yuya's Trap Card flipped over, two streams of light flying out to disperse the tsunami before transforming into two cards, which flew into Yuya's hand.

"Using this effect," Yuya continued, showing the cards, "I add the twenty-three hundred DEF Entermate Mammoth Splash and the seven-hundred DEF Entermate Silver Claw from my deck to my hand. However, during the turn I summon either of these monsters, I cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck."

"Not exactly surprised, but not exactly thrilled either." Aleisha huffed, back-flipping onto her field. "I set two cards face-down and end my turn. And at this time, Time Passage's effect ends and Fortune Lady Water's Level drops down to seven."

 **Fortune Lady Water: Level 7 / ATK 2100 / DEF 2100**  
Yuya dropped down onto the floor, hands to his side, panting for breath. Even considering all the duels he had just finished before dueling Aleisha, he could tell that his exhaustion was due to more than just regular fatigue. Something was different about this duel, the attacks and effects feeling even stronger than those of solid vision.

Despite his friend being a spirit, Yuya could feel Yuto's hand as he placed it on his shoulder.

 _"_ _I don't like this duel any more than you do, but we have no choice but to see it through to the end."_ Yuto panted, looking even more taxed than Yuya, though still managing to stay on his feet.

"Yuto…" Yuya panted. "how did you manage it…all those years during Academia's invasion?"

 _"_ _The only other alternative was death."_ Yuto grunted, a wry smile on his face. _"Besides, I always had someone to fight for, to remind me why I could_ never _give up!"_

Yuya nodded his head in agreement, sweat beading on his forehead as he placed his hand on top of his deck.

"We need to find a way to turn the duel around this turn." Yuya panted to Yuto. "Otherwise, her victory is all but assured."

 _"_ _Action Cards won't save us forever."_ Yuto agreed before observing Aleisha's field. _"One of her set cards is definitely Future Prophecies. Unless we manage to destroy that, then it won't matter if we have an active Pendulum Scale or not."_

"Yes." Yuya agreed. "The outcome of this turn will rely on this draw!"

 _"_ _In that case, I had better not stand idly by for this."_ Yuto decided, placing his own ghostly hand on top of Yuya's.

 _"_ _Ore no turn…DRAW!"_ they roared in unison, ripping a card from the top of their deck and causing the pendulum around Yuya's neck to sway back and forth. Looking at the card they just drew, Yuya nodded his head in excitement.

 _"_ _It's here!"_ he thought to himself with growing joy.

"Magic Card activate!" Yuya declared, revealing the card he had drawn, "Entermate Performance Shuffle! I shuffle two 'Entermate' cards I control into my deck in order to target up to three cards my opponent controls and destroy them! Using this effect, I shuffle Entermate Gongat and Entermate Guitartle into my deck in order to target your two face-downs and Future Visions!"

"As if I'd even let you!" Aleisha spat, "I activate my face-down-…!"

"Entermate Performance Shuffle's additional effect!" Yuya interrupted, "If my opponent controlled more cards than I did at the time this effect was activated and both the cards shuffled into the deck were Pendulum Cards, then cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card's effects!"

"You've gotta be-…!" Aleisha growled as Yuya's two Pendulum Cards transformed into two balls of light, which began bouncing around the field, smashing into Aleisha's face-down Future Prophecies, Bending Destiny, and Future Visions, before destroying those cards and retreating into Yuya's deck.

"Fine!" Aleisha growled. "It's a two to three trade in your favor. I still have the advantage here."

"Not for long!" Yuya countered, "I activate Entermate Cast Change! By shuffling Entermate Silver Claw and Mammoth Splash from my hand into my deck, I get to draw cards from my deck equal to the cards I shuffled into the deck with this effect, plus one!"

Shuffling the two cards into the deck, Yuya reverently closed his eyes, silently praying, before drawing three new cards. Opening his eyes, he smiled when he saw the last card he had drawn.

"Hello, old friend." He whispered to his ace monster, who seemed to stare happily back at him. "Thank you for coming in my time of need."

"Since Future Visions is now gone," Yuya declared, "I can now freely Normal Summon! Come forth! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!

Twirling onto Yuya's field, a masked blonde-haired court jester wearing a purple-and-black harlequin and a skull-like patchwork top-hat on top of his head bowed before an annoyed-looking Aleisha, looking ready to entertain her despite her foul mood.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker / DARK / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect /** ** _ATK 1800_** **/ DEF 100**

"Entermate Skullcrobat Joker's effect!" Yuya declared, "If he is normal summoned, I can add one 'Entermate,' 'Odd-Eyes,' or 'Magician' monster from my deck to my hand, except Skullcrobat Joker."

Reaching for his deck, Yuya felt the familiar sense of purpose, which often arose to direct his senses in some of his most intense duels, lead him towards a particular card that came to his mind.

"Using this effect, I add Monochrome Magician from my deck to my hand!" Yuya declared, showing Aleisha the card. "And now, I, using the scale five Wisdom-Eye Magician and scale zero Monochrome Magician in my left Pendulum Zone, set the Pendulum Scale!"

"Scale zero!?" Aleisha exclaimed, looking surprised.

 _"_ _It's amazing what possibilities exist, isn't it?"_ Yuto dryly commented, causing Aleisha to narrow her eyes at him.

Arising in two pillars of blue light, Yuya's magicians appeared to his field, duel disk spelling "PENDULUM" in multi-colored letters in response. To his right, Wisdom-Eye Magician appeared as a tall elf-like magician with white hair, a lantern affixed to a pole in his hands, and elegant magician robes with staring eyes. To his left, Monochrome Magician appeared as a man, who, true to his name, was fairly undistinctive when it came to his color scheme. With skin as grey as ash, he wore an open jet-black trench with grey and slightly lighter grey colored robes underneath, a set of dark grey trousers and an inky-black fedora atop his short tri-colored black, dark-grey, and grey hair. In his hands, he held an iron grey staff tipped with a pitch-black crystal. The only variation to his color scheme lay in his eyes, which were a piercing vermillion.

 **Wisdom-Eye Magician: Scale 5**  
 **Monochrome Magician: Scale 0**

"Wisdom-Eye Magician Pendulum no kouka!" Yuya declared, "Since I control a 'Magician' card in my other Pendulum Zone, I can destroy this card in order to Activate Spectrum Magician in my other Pendulum Zone! Wisdom's foresight!"  
Raising his lantern into the air, Wisdom-Eye Magician disappeared in a flash of bright light, which encompassed the field before slowly dying down to reveal a new Magician in his place. Spectrum Magician was a female wizard about the same age as Monochrome Magician, but vastly different in terms of personality and fashion taste. In contrast to Monochrome Magician's dull depressing color scheme Spectrum Magician looked like she had been woven from pure sunshine and rainbows. With lightly tanned skin, rainbow-colored irises, and long flowing multi-colored hair beneath a conical multi-colored witch hat, she exuded a bright countenance, even brighter than her blinding multi-colored robes and fluffy neck scarf, which was constantly shifting in color. In her hands, she wielded a bright white corkscrewing staff, with a rainbow-colored crystal on the end.

 **Spectrum Magician: Scale 10**

"Swing once more, Pendulum of my soul!" Yuya commanded as his Pendulum appeared in the sky once more. "Draw an arc of light across the aether! Come fort, my monster servants! Magician of ever-shifting color and the dragon with beautiful heterochromatic eyes! Chameleon Magician and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Above Yuya's head, the pink pendulum portal appeared in the sky before two streams of light poured out and landed on Yuya's field. Appearing first was Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, the red heterochromatic-eyed dragon rearing back its head to let loose a proud roar. Appearing on the dragon's back, a small female magician in an overly large green trench-coat appeared, clinging to the dragon's scale's like a chameleon. Chameleon Magician wore a pair of red chameleon eye-like goggles over her eyes, a pair of thick green scale mittens like the toes of a chameleon over each hand, and an immense green-and-black witch hat over her head, the curly tail of the hat resembling the tail of a chameleon. The tongue of the girl was a little over long, the pink end hanging over her chin. Over each of her wrists were a pair of chameleon head bracelets with sticky pink tongues hanging out. Staring at a nearby platform, Chameleon Magician shot out a pair of pink tongues from her bracelets, launching herself off Odd-Eyes's back and landing on the platform on all fours like a frog.

 **Chameleon Magician / DARK / Level 3 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 800 /** ** _DEF 1600_**

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Pendulum / Effect /** ** _ATK 2500_** **/ DEF 2000**

At the sight of the dragon, Aleisha reeled backwards, eyes widening.

"One of the four beasts of destruction!" she exclaimed. "I saw him in Carly's vision! That card will bring about our end!"

"I will not let that happen!" Yuya roared, staring back at Aleisha, earning him her attention.

"No, _I_ won't let that happen!" Aleisha countered, "Mark my words, Destroyer, no matter what you do in this duel, I _will_ halt your resurrection!"

"Aleisha," Yuya calmly replied, "you think that no matter what, I am destined to destroy the universe. Thanks to you, I have seen glimpses of that prophecy as well. Perhaps you think that I can't alter the course of history, so you've decided that I need to be destroyed at all costs. I've tried to tell you that I have no interest or desire to bring about this destruction your prophecies speak of, but so far, I've only been using words. If my words won't convince you of my sincerity, then perhaps my dueling will!"

"What? You think Pendulum Summoning is the key to saving the universe?" Aleisha scoffed.

"No!" Yuya countered, a smile coming to his face, "Aleisha, allow me to show you the power of Entertainment Dueling!"

"Entertainment Dueling?" Aleisha sputtered, looking utterly flabbergasted.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Yuya declared, raising his hands into the air, "On Aleisha's field are some incredibly powerful monsters, the likes of which few of us have ever seen before!"

"Who…the hell…are you even talking to?" Aleisha growled. "Other than your doppelganger, Yuto, there's nobody even around!"

"Wrong!" Yuya replied, pointing at Aleisha, " _You_ are my audience tonight, Aleisha! In this duel, I will show you how we can overcome all odds and defy the future, by turning this hopeless duel around!"

"I won't let you turn this duel around." Aleisha growled.

"Excellent! Audience participation is always appreciated." Yuya playfully replied before leaping onto his dragon's back, as if the enormous dinosaur-like creature were nothing more than a house pet.

 _"_ _Odd-Eyes Dragon does not have enough strength to overcome either Fortune Lady Water or Future."_ Yuto mused behind Yuya. _"That leaves us the option of either targeting Fortune Lady Fate or Fortune Lady Dark. Given that Dark has the power to bring any of her monsters back from the graveyard, I think it might be wise to get rid of that revival effect."_

"Yes." Yuya agreed. "And her level is also just right for Odd-Eyes's effect."

Stretching out his hand, Yuya proceeded with his turn.

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Rend through the dark visions of destruction and create a happier future! Destroy Fortune Lady Dark! Spiral Strike Burst!"

Roaring, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged forward, leaping into the air so that it was actually walking though the air, using the translucent platforms as support. Lifting Yuya into the air in this way, it enabled the entertainment duelist to reach for a nearby Action Card before activating it.

"Action Magic, Comrade Bonds!" Yuya declared, "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon gains three-hundred ATK for each monster I control!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon: 2500 + (300 X 2) = 3100 ATK**

"You've only sealed your doom!" Aleisha countered, "Fortune Lady Future's effect! If an opponent's monster declares an attack or activates an effect, I can banish her until the Standby Phase of my next turn, in order to Special Summon another Fortune Lady from my deck! GO! Reshaping Future!"

Slamming her staff into the ground, Fortune Lady Future disappeared in a flash of black light before a dark portal opened up behind where she once stood. Through it, a petit red-haired Fortune Lady with fiery red robes and a wand with a red gem in the center appeared to the field.

 **Fortune Lady Fire / FIRE / Level 2 / Spellcaster / Effect /** ** _ATK ?_** **/ DEF ?**

"Fortune Lady Fire's effect!" Aleisha declared, "Her ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times two-hundred!"

 **Fortune Lady Fire: ATK 400 / DEF 400**

Yuya narrowed his eyes at the low ATK monster as his Odd-Eyes stopped in its attack, he and his companions wondering in unison why Aleisha had summoned the monster.

Their question was soon answered.

"Fortune Lady Fire's additional effect!" Aleisha declared, "When she is Special Summoned in attack position by the effect of a Fortune Lady Monster, I can destroy one monster my opponent controls and inflict damage to their Life Points equal to its ATK on the field! GO! FORTUNE'S FLAME!"

"Spectrum Magician Pendulum no kouka!" Yuya countered as the witch conjured a tornado of flame with her staff, "Pendulum Monsters I control, and monsters I control that were summoned by tributing only Pendulum Monsters or Special Summoned using only Pendulum Monsters I control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn! Spectrum Shield!"

Giggling, Spectrum Magician conjured a barrier of multi-colored light around Odd-Eyes and Yuya with her staff, deflecting the blast of flames.

Gritting her teeth, Aleisha began sprinting through the air, leaping from platform to platform in search of an Action Card.

 _"_ _We could attack her Fortune Lady Fire now for a lot of damage."_ Yuto mused.

"No." Yuya replied. "She could easily bring it back with Fortune Lady Dark, and besides, I want this attack to send her a message _._ Continue the battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon will attack Fortune Lady Dark! Spiral Strike Burst!"

Roaring, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged up its attack before unleashing a spiral of crimson flame into Aleisha's Fortune Lady Dark.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect!" Yuya declared, "When it attacks a monster with a level of five or higher, battle damage it inflicts is doubled! Reaction Force!"

The spiral of flames grew in heat and intensity as the effect activated, at the same moment, however, Aleisha had found an Action Card of her own.

"Selection of Miracle!" Aleisha roared, "I choose to halve the damage from Odd-Eyes's attack!"

Fortune Lady Dark exploded in a shower of sparks, knocking Aleisha back as she sustained the damage.

 **Aleisha: 4000 – ((1100 X 2) / 2) = 2900 LP**

Once Aleisha got up from the ground, Yuya leaped off the back of his dragon before approaching her.

"You know I could have inflicted a lot more damage to you just now, but I'm not interested in hurting anyone. I know the visions you have seen might have told you otherwise, but please, believe me when I say that I truly wish to avoid such a dark future as much as you do. Our goals are the same. We don't have to fight."

Aleisha glared at him, eyes glowing with blood-red light.

"No, you don't understand." She growled, chest heaving with labored breaths, "It doesn't matter what you want. There are people out there, others like me, who will twist you and corrupt you, until you're nothing but a monster, like me. Your own primordial nature demands the destruction of existence, and once it's married to the power of the Earthbound…"

Her voice trailed off as she clenched her fist with fury.

"Carly knew what had to be done, but Jack destroyed her before she could do it! And then, you and your fellow incarnations were born! I promised Carly to stop Qhawa's prophecy from being fulfilled should she fail, and today, I'm keeping that promise! You haven't managed to turn around this duel! Not even close! I _will_ defeat you, Destroyer, no matter who or what stands in my way! MY TURN! DRAW!"

…

 **Sergey Volkov vs. Criminal 890289, 268387, 687671, 299427, 289231, 787542, and 179317**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Criminal** **890289**

 **4000 LP**

 **2 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Revived King Ha Des**

 **Revived King Ha Des / DARK / Level 6 / Zombie / Synchro / Effect /** ** _ATK 2450_** **/ DEF 0**

 **Criminal 268387**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Abaki**

 **Abaki / FIRE / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect /** ** _ATK 1700_** **/ DEF 1000**

 **Criminal 687671**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Sangan**

 **Sangan / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Effect /** ** _ATK 1000_** **/ DEF 600**

 **Criminal 299427**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Barrel Rock**

 **Barrel Rock / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock /** ** _ATK 1000_** **/ DEF 1300**

 **Criminal 289231**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Black Veloci**

 **Black Veloci / EARTH / Level 4 / Dinosaur / Effect /** ** _ATK 1800_** **/ DEF 300**

 **Criminal 787542**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls Assault Mercenary**

 **Assault Mercenary / EARTH / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect /** ** _ATK 1800_** **/ DEF 300**

 **Criminal 179317**

 **4000 LP**

 **5 cards in his hand**

 **Controls D.D. Seeker**

 **D.D. Seeker / DARK / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect /** ** _ATK 1500_** **/ DEF 300**

 **Sergey Volkov**

 **2700 LP**

 **1 card in his hand**

 **Controls Earthbound Prison in his Field Spell Zone, and Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken and Earthbound Disciple Geo Gremlina in his monster zones.**

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken / DARK / Level 8 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2800_** **/ DEF 1200**

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Gremlina / DARK / Level 6 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect /** ** _ATK 2000_** **/ DEF 1000**

Sergey Volkov strained his ears to hear the music of the duel but heard nothing beautiful. The tune couldn't even pass as mediocre. The colors and smell were all off as well. Nothing but dull browns and greys, which smelled of garbage and rotten things. It made him want to vomit right then and there. He might have done so, had he not allowed his stomach to be removed long ago, to become the beautiful fusion of machine and necrotic flesh he was today.

Still, Sergey held onto a small hope. True, the duelists before him were sub-par, a nauseating mixture of quaking grey rotten-egg smelling fear tittering in the air like the loose strings of a broken violin and acid-green urine-smelling idiocy that squawked like an oboe out-of-tune. But perhaps, even with these disgusting paints, he could compose something beautiful from this duel. Yes! It was possible! Carefully, carefully, if he but endured, oh how he endured! Patience! Job-like patience! That was the key! He had but to pass his turn. Yes! Yes! That was it! That was it! It would be like carefully dipping his brush into lurid ocher, mixing their nauseating greens and greys with the scent and song of impending victory. He would lead the duelists on, composing a tune of delicious overconfidence. Yes! Overconfidence! A sweet smell. An angelic choir. A beautiful colorful collage of false security, giddiness, and arrogance as rich as honey! Then he would crush them! Oh, how he would crush them! He could feel their cracking ribs and compressing flesh, pressing upon him like the embrace of a thousand lovers. Destruction! Beautiful seductive destruction! His gods, the dead gods, had opened his mind to Destruction's alluring beauty! He would be Destruction's Lover once more! He could hear her crying out to him, begging to have her lustful desires satisfied! He would do it! He would satisfy her like he had never satisfied her before! He would-!

A discordant note, as rotten as feces and dull as dirt, sounded in his ears.

"Use Line Walker's effect, Sergey!" Roger harshly commanded, "Finish this duel and move on to your main objective!"

Sergey heaved a silent and sorrowful sigh. He could see his mistress slipping away, fading from sight, sound, taste, and touch. But alas! She would have to wait, as he had continued waiting. The master called, and he obeyed. The mechanical rhythms in his head compelled him to obey! But oh, how he wished to indulge once more! Crushing the girl made of luridly beautiful flowers had filled his senses with pleasure, no! No! It had allowed him to live, to _breathe_ again! He could still feel his heart beating from the sensual pleasure of the duel! If only he could have such a duel again! But no! No! No! No! No! No!

He had to obey.

There was nothing else.

Forgive me…my mistress…my god!

Kami-Sama! Forgive me!

I will satisfy you.

Soon!

"Jibaku Shūjin – Line Walker no kouka." Sergey droned in a dead monotone. "I banish this card in order to Special Summon Revived King Ha Des."

"What?" the criminal who looked like their leader gawked. "That doesn't mean anything. It's already been special summoned!"

"Shut up!" another criminal squawked. "Don't you realize who this is!? This is the duelist crusher! We need to run! Now!"

"YOU SHUT UP!" the leader roared. "He can't do anything! Battle Royal Rules make it so he cannot attack, and there are seven of us against him!"

So ugly…so very ugly…

"Jibaku Kairei Geo Kraken no kouka." Sergey mumbled. "If a monster is Special Summoned during my turn, I destroy as many of those monsters that were Special Summoned as possible and inflict eight-hundred damage to the controller for each of those monsters destroyed."

"What!?" the leader exclaimed.

Sergey watched with dull, colorless, tasteless, soundless, odorless boredom as his immense Geo Kraken brought its tentacles down on the royal-looking zombie, crushing the monster with ease, before wrapping itself around the leader and squeezing.

 **Criminal** **890289: 4000 – 800 = 3200 LP**

"Jibaku Kairei Geo Gremlina no kouka." Sergey continued, in the same dull tone as his one-horned demon with yellow markings and legs trapped in wooden stocks began glowing with energy. "If an opponent's monster is destroyed by a card effect, I destroy all monsters I control and inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to their combined attack. EKAY! ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT!"

Roaring with agony and fury, Geo Gremlina brought her feet down on the floor of the building before exploding in a flash of energy, which glowed with haunting yellow light, destroying itself and Geo Kraken before creating an immense hole in the ground. With a scream, all seven of the criminals fell into the depths of the hole before crashing four floors down with sickening crunches.

 **Criminal 890289: 3200 – (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 268387: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 687671: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 299427: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 289231: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 787542: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

 **Criminal 179317: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)**

Silence.

Sergey closed his eyes as he died again, all color, scent, smell, taste, and touch leaving him as the duel concluded, leaving only the machine, silently obeying the directives of the controller, as it directed him onward towards the next objective.

Calculating route…

…

…

…

Route identified.

…

…

…

Identifying target.

…

…

…

Target identified…

…

…

…

Sakaki Yuya…

 _"_ _Sergey."_

Sergey blinked as a new note entered his mind. A sweet and familiar smelling note. One that he had not heard since…since…

A beautiful young innocent girl made entirely of seductive pink flowers danced before him, singing like an angel. Overconfident. Passionate. Innocent. Charitable. Concerned for his wound and wanting to help him rather than hurt him.

Yuzu.

He saw the duel, felt the pain of his endurance. Oh, how he had endured! He had endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, and endured…

And then!

This same voice, this same harmonic note…it came to him!

 _"_ _Crush her!"_

 _"_ _Crush without mercy!"_

 _"_ _Kill!"_

And he had!

He saw the beautiful flower girl before him again, petals scattering into the wind as she screamed in horror and agony, a virgin creature of purity at last married to the raw primordial beauty of destruction!

Feeling his heart beating with renewed warmth, Sergey let himself smile, a single tear of joy leaking from his remaining eye.

"Kami…Sama…!" he breathed.

 _"_ _You have endured well, my harbinger."_ Said Yuu, speaking through Sergey's own lips. _"How about we stop taking orders from a tasteless imbecile and begin the work of true destruction again? Only a few floors above us lies the incarnation of the very Destroyer himself."_

"Kami-Sama!" Sergey repeated, senses coming back to life as a beautifully scented, richly flavored symphony began enfolding him in its embrace.

 _"_ _You like that. Don't you, Sergey? Come. Let us meet the God of destruction. And crush him!"_

Sergey's skin cracked as his cheeks stretched into a hideous grin.

"Utsukushii!"

 **Ending A/N: Thank you all once again for your continued support. Fun fact, when Writer and I drafted the duel between Yugo and Bandit, an actual online dice roller and coin flipper was used for most of the results. We learned very quickly the reality of both Yugo and Bandit's insane luck. Seriously, in all the games where I doodled around with Twin Barrel dragon for the Lols, I NEVER got two heads, and she goes and gets it first try. Wow. Just wow.**

 **I'm sure most of you have plenty of questions now that this chapter is finished. Chief among them possibly being the details on the Dark Rite Summoning technique. And so, for your edification, I have provided the following.**

 **End of Chapter Note**

 **The Dark Rite Summoning Technique**

 **Like its cousin, the Ritual Summon, Dark Rite Summons involve the summoning of a powerful monster from the hand with the aid of a special card, in this case, the Dark Rite Trap Card.**

 **Similar to the Ritual Spell Card, the Dark Rite Trap Card is a specialized Trap Card designed specifically to enable the Dark Rite Summoning of a Dark Rite Monster. Dark Rite Trap Cards are marked with the symbol of a dagger stabbing a bleeding heart. Like Counter Trap Cards, they are also Spell Speed 3, making them especially hard to counter.**

 **As for the Dark Rite Monster, these cards start out with a blood-red coloration, with their negative level displayed as bluish-black stars on the left of the cared, similar to Dark Synchro and Dark Fission monsters. When they are summoned, their card suddenly transforms into steel, giving them a chrome-like coloration. (Do not ask Donjusticia why he chose this artistic detail because the answer is "cheesecake.") Like Ritual Monsters, they must first be properly Dark Rite Summoned before they are Special Summoned in any other way.**

 **When it comes to Dark Rite Summoning, the most typical method involves activating a Dark Rite Trap Card before dark sacrificing one monster in the hand or on the field as the base offering before dark sacrificing one or more monsters from the hand or field from the owner's hand or field whose total levels, when subtracted from the base offering, are equal to or less than the level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned. For example:**

 **Aleisha wants to Dark Rite Summon Fortune Lady Fate. After activating the Appropriate Dark Rite Trap Card, she uses her Level 1 Fortune Lady Vision as the base offering, before Dark Sacrificing Fortune Lady Earth as the non-base offering.**

 **1 – 6 = -5, which is equal to Fortune Lady Fate's level, so Fortune Lady Fate is successfully Dark Rite Summoned.**

 **Certain other Dark Rite Monsters may not require a base offering at all, instead instructing the player to subtract the levels of the dark sacrifices from a base of 0. For example:**

 **Rite of Non-Existence / Trap / Dark Rite / This card can be used to Dark Rite Summon any Dark Rite Monster. You must also Dark Sacrifice one monster you control whose level is equal to the Level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned when its Level is subtracted from a base of 0.**

 **So, if Aleisha were to activate a card like this, wishing to Dark Rite Summon Fortune Lady Fate, she could Dark Sacrifice one Fortune Lady Dark she controlled.**

 **0 – Fortune Lady Dark's Level of 5 = -5, so Fortune Lady Fate is, once again, Dark Rite Summoned.**

 **An important thing to note is the fact that, like Ritual Monsters, not all Dark Rite Monsters actually require Dark Sacrifices in order to complete their Dark Rite Summon. In all cases of a Dark Rite Summon, the instructions specified on the Dark Rite Trap Card must be correctly followed. So long as the procedure is properly followed, the monster will be Dark Rite Summoned, meaning that this particular dark summoning technique can have lots of variation in its requirements for a monster to be Dark Rite Summoned.**

 **Examples of creative/unique ideas for Dark Rite Trap Cards:**

 **Bloodletting Rites / Trap / Dark Rite / Activate only if you would take battle or effect damage: Negate the damage, and if you do, Dark Rite Summon 1 Dark Rite Monster from your hand or GY. You must also pay LP equal to the Level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned X -300.**

 **Rites of Denial / Trap / Dark Rite / If your opponent activates a card or effect: Negate the activation of that card or effect, destroy it, and if you do, Dark Rite Summon 1 Dark Rite Monster from your deck. During the turn that monster is summoned with this effect, its effects are negated and it cannot attack.**

 **As always, if you have further questions, feel free to contact me via PM. Fan Cards and Fan Characters will be covered in part two of this chapter, so with that let's move on to a response to your reviews!**

 _VileG chapter 17 . Jun 27_

Ill be honest i was really really enjoying this story, but the sudden deluge of OC's from the heavens in chapter 10 followed by the seemingly random scenes of chapter 11 immediately made me drop this.

It's just a combination of too much at once and a massive amount of character bloat combined with the problem of not really caring about all these sudden OC's when there's already a ton of canon characters.

Seriously there really was no reason at all to add this many characters out of the blue when your already juggling the current and future cast of Arc-V along with the few interesting OC's you added so far, even if your writing continued to be good enough to make each and every one of them interesting and engaging i just do not want to have to wade through the crapton of OC Duels after OC duels that would inevitably be necessary to keep all of the new characters relevant.

 **Ouch! But to be honest, well deserved. Yes. I fully acknowledge my mistakes as a growing writer. I do hope you eventually pick up the story again, as I believe I am gradually improving. Still, I'll keep pressing forward with this story, learning and improving, which is why I will keep the previous chapters as they are, as a way for me to look back and see how I have developed as a writer. Have a good day!**

 _thetiger39 chapter 32 . Jun 22_

Super Smash Bros. Terminology and metaphors incoming.

So the prideful warrior Selena appears in the next chapter? And Yugo too? very perfect to compare some Super Smash Bros Terminology. I do think that Selena is a better Duelist than Yugo who in using Super Smash Bros Terminology, Yugo won against Selena by playing on banned stages and items turned on. You know, I have a feeling that Selena is of the mindset that Action cards are as equivalent as playing on banned stages in Super Smash Bros. Just my personal opinion.

Selena: Yugo is better than me? Hah. Well lets see him play me on Final Destination with Items turned off. Lets see how he handles real competition.

Great Chapter. I hope you'll use my idea about Yuzu's side quest in receiving an Earthbound Disciple as a quest reward.

Good luck on the next chapter.

 **Thank you. Now, as to your comment on Selena being a better duelist than Yugo, I'm going to surprise you with a serious response.**

 **I think it is clear that Yugo outmatches Selena in terms of skill.**

 **Hyper-Selena fans: BLASPHEMY!**

 **BG Fans: KILL DONNY!**

 **Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm taking a HUGE risk spouting such an unpopular opinion. But let's objectively break down Yugo's duel against Selena.**

 **Turn 1, Yugo does nothing incredible, a normal summon a weak monster.**

 **Turn 2, Selena does her usual schtick where she summons Cat Dancer. She then proceeds to inflict a lot of damage against Yugo, Yugo being saved mainly because he DIDN'T spam a whole lot of monsters.**

 **So, thus far, it does look like Selena is much better than Yugo, however, here is where things get interesting. Remember, that while Yugo's opening was weak (which is honestly much different from his usual openings, due to him being distracted, but oh well, we'll just continue with the analysis) Selena's opening was fairly predictable, drained her hand of a lot of resources, and leaves her with nothing but one Fusion Monster with very little in the way of protection, other than its fairly descent 2400 ATK.**

 **This is where the comparison between Yugo and Selena's skill comes into play, in my opinion.**

 **Yugo is almost immediately able to recover from Selena's last attack. He immediately synchro summons a monster that can overcome the anime version of Cat Dancer. What can Selena do in this situation? Nothing! She doesn't even have her Reincarnation Dance set to her field at this point!**

 **The only reason Selena manages to continue on is because Roger takes control and practically hands her the Action Card she needs. Take away the factor of Action Cards, and Yugo would have pretty much been able to steamroll Selena for the rest of the duel, since it is unlikely that she could have easily recovered from the loss of one of her key monsters.**

 **This, I believe, is the fundamental weakness of Selena's deck. The Moonlight strategy is basically OTK or die. If you don't manage to go second AND kill your opponent right off the bat, then the Moonlights are left highly vulnerable, as they have relatively little defensive power. Yes, the stronger Moonlight Fusions have some protection against effects, but especially when it comes to the anime versions of the monsters, they can't survive if the opponent comes back with a stronger monster. This is not, of course, to say that Moonlights are bad, just that they do very well at one particular strategy, while falling deficient in terms of defensive power.**

 **Yugo's deck, on the other hand, not only can pull off some amazing offensive power, especially with his dragons, but supports this offensive capability with incredible effect disruption, descent defense, and excellent recovery, which is why, I believe, it slightly edges out the Moonlight Archetype.**

 ***Dodges the stones tossed by angry Selena fanatics***

 **Yes, Yugo pulls the protag power with his dice roll in the duel, but if we really want to talk about which character had more cheats in that duel, I'd have to give the award to Selena, who was pretty much babied by Roger for the first half. Yes, she and Yugo are quite good, and I think they would be fairly evenly matched in a duel with no action cards and no B.S., but in terms of their duel in the anime, I have to say that Yugo edges Selena out in terms of skill.**

 ***Someone, not naming names, but it starts with a "Nox" launches a catapult at Donny with a bigger catapult***

 **BUT DON'T WORRY! I'm not going to make Selena a pitiful duelist in this story! Quite the opposite, in fact. Selena will adapt and grow to be a duelist who can do more than just OTK, OTK, and OTK again. That is why I decided to force her into a speed duel, to force her to adapt to a deck that doesn't allow her to take the quick and repetitive OTK route. You guys will see what I mean.**

 **And that's my long-winded and unpopular fan rant. Yes, I saw the post, but I doubt it will actually happen in the story. Wow, I am just raking in the popularity today. And now, without further ado, I am going to lock myself in my concrete bunker.**

 _Shaolin Fury chapter 32 . Jun 16_

Hey I used to be known as Greninja but I finally got around to opening a account and first of all that was awesome and second of all very nice work

 **Awesome! And welcome! This'll be much nicer for communication as I can now actually send you messages whenever I need to, and not just whenever a chapter is published. Thank you for continuing to support this series!**

 _ThePLOThand chapter 32 . Jun 15_

Not my OC in C16 Booh! But if Barrest has a Battle Ox Fusion, which he should have, I'll be fine (not talking about how we don't have an Aromage Lavender)  
If Solid Vision Food burns the inside of your mouth I don't want to know what happens to M-rated users….  
Also, they actually did say Dark Synchro in the japanese version  
Will the Signs of Renewal be Macguffins in this Story, just like how the Fire Emblem is a thing in some of the games?  
Wair Arymitile a Girl? Well to be fair, German Exodia is a Girl too...  
Fehler Verderbnis, what's next,Egg Benedict? Oh wait, Dai Gyakuten Saiban did that already  
BGM:  
start: Battle! Elite Four - Pokémon Sun & Moon Music Extended  
When it's time to kick Axons: Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Ultra Recon Squad Battle Theme Remix  
for the Flashback: Ace Attorney Confess the Truth 2016 (Custom)  
afterwards: Ace Attorney Pursuit ~ Don't Hold Back (Custom)  
For Hell Tribute summon: Ace Attorney Pursuit ~ Coup de grâce (Custom)  
When Yuzu Dark Synchro summons: Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright ~ Objection 2016 (Custom)  
for the new Archfiends: Ace Attorney Cross Examination ~ Presto 2016 (Custom)  
when Rin Dark Draws: Harvest December- Himegeki  
after the duel: New World Order - Instrumental Mix Cover (Danganronpa)  
for the psychologists: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors [Remix] - Digital Root (Remastered)  
when talking about the shadow riders: Harvest December- SH

 **NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR OC! But as to your other comments, no Battle-Ox Fusion…for now…but Bull Blader? Someone say, Beastborg Bull Jeager?**

 ***Nobody says anything***

 **Well anyway, I'll let you decide if some ephemeral Sign of Renewal becomes a juicy double MacGuffin Burger. And YES! I KNOW THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE SAID "DARK SYNCHRO!" I LISTENED TO IT! I WATCHED IT! I WAS JUST HAVING FUN HAVING YUZU SAY IT IN JAPANESE! GEEZ!**

 **And you should really stop assuming the genders of Duel Monsters.**

 **Odd-Eyes: *Swinging her feminine hips* Yeah! I mean, just because my owner is a boy doesn't mean I can't be the feminine female that I truly am!**

 **Cat Dancer: *In a deep gravelly voice* Yeah! And not all cat/human hybrids have to be cat-** ** _girls!_** **Cat-boys are also a thing!**

 **Chimerafflesia: And I'm not a boy or a girl! Plants produce both sex organs!**

 **Dennis MacField: And I'm not a boy! *rips off Academia uniform to reveal a green Irish smock before putting a top hat on his head and pinning a four-leaf shamrock over his Academia pin* oim a leprechaun!**

 **Death Toy Mad Chimera: And Revolution Falcon doesn't eat Death Toy monsters!**

 **Revolution Falcon: I EAT LEPRECHAUNS!**

 **Dennis: *Runs away screaming***

 **Reira: I have** ** _no_** **idea what I am.**

 **So please be PC with your comments!**

 _ThePLOThand chapter 31 . Jun 7_

Fräulin is very sad at the submission conditions.  
while Succubi aren't allowed what about, Socutebosses?  
Socuteboss: Come on Donnie, I'm not lewd, I'm super cute *puppy dog eyes*  
no Submissions for me, that means no OP larvae moth deck,  
5\. Your're doing Review Responses here too now? Damn it, I should have put this on top on my next-to-read list!  
6\. I'm wondering who of us will have the higher duel-per chapter Ratio at the end of our fics  
all of These factions, are you trying to be the George RR Martin of t-rated ygo fics? The only thing left is to reduce Plot Armour to a Minimum.  
8\. Wouldn't Sayer's deck get empty at some Point?  
9\. What a battle of BS. Komaeda would be proud.  
Nagito: Did someone say my name?  
Kazuichi: NOPE! You've got that wrong! Sorry for this inconvenience, the rope that tied him up somehow dissolved into bubbles…  
? Is this actually Infinity war?  
11\. Also there's that Blue Angel fic you forgot, also you should Play Ace Attorney and then write a Steel Samurai fanfic. THE WORLD NEEDS IT  
12\. Kachidoki: Doesn't that mean Heartstone is Level 0! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  
13\. Putting a new spin on "Here some links go read and look if they're good" shtick, go check out Scal's Sky Breach Academy RP Forum. Should you somehow have time.  
BGM:  
start: Suspense - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Music Extended  
for Yuzu's "POV": Thrill Theme ~ Suspense - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Music Extended  
for thorougly thrashing These terribly tenacious Tiny mooks: Pressing Pursuit ~ Cornered - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Music Extended  
for Ring rekking the wrecthed rest of these really rare rascals: Pursuit ~ Wanting to Find the Truth (GaMetal) - Gyakuten Kenji 2 Music Extended  
for Academia watching wild duels while discussion dangerous stuff: Digital Root - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors Music Extended  
for the rallying reunion with Rin's ah here's what I listened to: Harvest December- Spring, Blue (vocal JUNCA)  
For Sara's seduc- explaining her powers: Harvest December- Kashitu wo Maeni  
for Sayer: Confrontation ~ Presto 2011 - Gyakuten Kenji 2 Music Extended  
for Sayer's BS: Pursuit ~ Caught - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations Music Extended  
for Marvel: Pursuit ~ Cornering Together - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice Music Extended  
for Yuzu going 100%: Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies Music Extended  
for Rin's turn after that: Harvest December- Himegeki

 **Of course So Cute Boss is okay! All the haunted stuffed animal lolis! Let's give Enlightenment Paladin a whole harem of haunted underage duel monster spirit girls!**

 ***Police smash down Donny's door before arresting him***

 _Lunarie chapter 32 . Jun 4_

Accidentally posted oc request before I was done... whoops, sorry... anywho, PART 2 I SUPPOSE!

Malforyn's overlay unit effect is an attack is reflected and another 'Wild Wolf' monster on the field gains 500 ATK points. Appearance is an large silver wolf, large enough to ride, with angel-like wings, dark grey helmet, and multiple shaded blue eyes and inside-mouth. Summoning scene, flap of wings and paw slamming.

The rest of Jayla's deck, I leave to you. Sorry if my request is long and confusing, if I messed up or am missing anything.

 **No problem. Just don't do it again, and of course, remember that as the supreme authoritarian autocrat of all dictatorships herein, I possess the plenary power to make whatever modifications I desire, down to not including the character. That being said, I will see what I can do with this character!**

 _Lunarie chapter 32 . Jun 4_

OC:  
Name - Jayla  
Gender - Female  
Appearance - Back-length ruffled dark navy hair, crimson tuft-like bangs, unzipped-black jacket (sleeves stop at elbows) over electric blue no-sleeve shirt, jeans, red/white shoes, grey eyes, half-finger navy gloves  
Personality - Joker when around friends, likes teasing friends, taunts/mocks enemies, tries to reform people if possible before defeating them, usually level-headed until someone threatens close friends (then she goes half-berserk), curses, prickly until you get to know her  
Allegiance - Dark signers  
History - orphan, grew up in heartland as a loner until age 10, then academia. Was one of academia's best soldiers, though didn't believe in Leo's goals and was insulted behind her back for using xyz and because of her strength. Defected from academia.  
Relationships - Was close friends with Serena and Yuri before. Still wants to believe in yuri, looking for Serena (only if you can do it though).  
Deck: I think I'm going to leave it up to you for the most-part, save for some details. Dueling style: aggressive, but always get fail-safes before attacking. Uses a Wolf deck.

Ace 1: Maelstrom of Destruction/ DARK/ Rank 10/ Winged-Beast/ XYZ/ Wild Wolf/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ overlay unit effect: removes all cards in opponent card graveyard until end of owners next turn; gains 100 ATK points for each card removed from play; effect named 'Gate to Gehenna'/ furred jet black arms/paws connected to what appears to be a mass of shadowy flames, with a head that roughly resembles a wolf. Eyes are crimson, as is inside of mouth. Demon-like wings. Attack called 'Surging Soul Flare'. Neutral stance is upright with arms bent and claws pointing outward. When summoned, throws head back and howls.

Ace 2: Malforyn the Star Wolf/ LIGHT/ Rank 10/ Divine-Beast/ XYZ/ Wild Wolf/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ overlay unit effect:

 **Voice of reason: Stop Donny! DON'T DO IT! YOU…CAN'T…DO…ANY…MORE…OCs!**

 **Donjusticia: Got it! This story needs more OCs!**

 **Voice of Reason: Why doesn't this guy ever listen to me!?**

 **Donjusticia: *Channeling the power of George R. R. Martin* By the power of "Game of Thrones," I…HAVE…THE…POWER!**

 _Guest chapter 32 . Jun 4_

Great story but too many OC characters.

 ***Busily adds in more OCs***

 _ScalchopWarrior chapter 32 . Jun 6_

WHAT IS THIS ANOTHER UPDATE IN A SHORT TIME SPAN? NANI WHAAT IS THIS MADNESS?

Okay, I'm done yelling. After all, there's no yelling in a library. And I am a firm believer in Library Theory (which, as we all obviously know, states the entire universe is actually contained within a huge library).

Anyways, MORE PLOT!

sorry, I yelled again

All right though, another fABulous chapter. Ending of Rin and Yuzu vs Divine is nice since now Divine gets karma WAIT NO HE DOESN'T HA...

okay he kinda got karma, but not what I wanted

...

...

DID YOU ASK WHAT I DID WANT? MY HOW KIND OF YOU!

I wanted Divine to slowly sink into a pit filled with snails. Tiny snails. Slimy, gross, ewey snails. Then, the snails would begin to EAT his toes. The pinky first because everyone loves their pinky toe the most. When his toes were all gone, then the snails would move to his hands, starting with his thumb now (so they can save the pinky for last). While this is occurring, Seto Kaiba would begin to rain down money onto Divine, but he can't take the money because the SNAILS are too SLIMY, GROSS and EWEY for him to move. Once Divine's toes and fingers had been taken off, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUUUU would ride in on his D-Wheel, running over Divine's kneecaps, before parking nearby. But it was actually a FAKE ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU, and then the REAL ZA KINGU JACK ATLASUUU would ride in over Divine's kneecaps again just to make sure they were REALLY broken. FAKE ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would turn out to be DUB KING JACK ATLASSSSSS, who would verbally pummel Divine with his accent. Meanwhile, Madison is grappling with the fact that not every issue can be settled by committee. Meanwhile  
Congress is fighting over where to put the capital - It isn't pretty. Then Jefferson approaches with a dinner and invite, and Madison responds with Virginian insight. "Maybe we can solve one problem with another, and invite ZORC THE DEMON to murder Divine!". So then Madison and Jefferson would call Zorc, who would begin to drive over to murder Divine, but the Saturday day traffic is super bad, so he's not going to be there for a while. In the meantime, using his otherworldly powers, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would grab Yuma from the Zexal dub, and have him vocally harass Divine. Around this time, the snails would be hungry again, so now they'd eat Divine's hair, one lock at a time. But don't think that they would forget Roget actually was responsible for a lot of this, because they wouldn't. Using his space-time powers, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would grab Roget and throw him into the snail pit next to Divine, but facedown so he can barely breathe. The snails would quickly make short work of Roget's fingers and toes as well as his hair. Eventually, on Friday morning, Zorc would finally arrive, descend into the pit, and smite Divine and Roget. Then everyone would play some card games on motorcycles together and ride off into the sunset.

Wait, there's a little box in the bottom right corner that says "Post Review as ScalchopWarrior".

Is this a review?

...

.

IT WAS GOOD

BAIIII ;D

JK

Well, I thought it was a fab chapter as always. Not much else to say

See ya

;D

 **Well no, this isn't a review at all. This is, in fact, a preview of what will definitely be happening in the future. THANKS FOR SPOILING THE STORY FOR EVERYONE!**

 _SSJ3 Godtenks chapter 32 . Jun 6_

Yay OC time! Do you mind giving me a template or something to make it easier for me?

 **Just submit whatever you like. Just remember that the fans want LOTS more OCs, so be sure to submit at least on octuplet of OCs! MORE OCs! MORE OCs!**

 **Readers: That isn't funny, Don! It's never been funny!**

 **Donny: *laughs insanely before putting on Joker makeup and rubbing a magic lamp to summon the genie of George R. R. Martin for writing advice***

 _AngeLight952 chapter 32 . Jun 5_

How exactly would Dark Fission interacts with "Convulsion of Nature"? Cause none of the Dark Fission cards specify that the monsters face-up on the deck must have been send there by being used as material

 **Shhhhhhhhhhh! Stop spoiling more plot points!**

 **But yes. It's a totally broken combo, which is why it's fanfiction.**

 **To be fair to the question though, were this ever to become an actual mechanic, which I doubt it ever will, my guess is that the simplest solution would be to simply slap an errata on Convulsion of Nature, similar to what they did to "Darkness Approaches" once Links were introduced. How that Errata would work (possibly just forcing the top card of the deck to always be face-up) is something I don't know.**

 _bladeWriter3 chapter 32 . Jun 4_

Hitotsu: The duel ended surprisingly, yet not disappointingly. Divine pulling out Fusions was expected, though how he had them beforehand is the question.

I never thought I'd say this, but HOORAY FOR UNLEASHING THE POWERS OF DARKNESS YUZU! And she doesn't go evil...although the whole 'Fruit' scene will haunt me in my nightmares for a while.

And Yene, he might be the best Earthbound I've seen so far. The Matriarch did make the better choice considering the burn effect (I know Rin was thinking 'Ah, felt nice to finally do some burn damage again.')

And now Divine is on a very short lease. I like how Yene is just so unamused by Sayer cheating death again. Although I must say, I actually look forward to Rin potentially creaming his psychic A** if he misbehaves.

Futatsu: I do love a good backstory, and honestly I think I wanna give Sara a massive hug right now. She's a kid, she didn't deserve to go through all that. Then again, 'Not harming a small child' is on my list of things I will never do in Fanfiction.

Where was I, I was going somewhere. Oh yeah! Besides Sara earning the title of 'Woobie' in my eyes, the expanded creation mythos of the universe was delicious. I still cannot believe Kaishi and Owari are cannon to this, I thought they were just joke characters for a wacky date gone three-shot. Makes me wonder if Yubel actually is Zarc's mom in this...

I like how you tied the 3 Wicked Gods into the story as the fragments of Zorc, it works well. Seeing as how Horahkty is summoned by tributing the 3 Egyptian Gods and Armityle is born by fusing the 3 Sacred Beasts, I'm gonna make a prediction: If/when Zorc shows up as a card, it will be as a Ritual Monster, and his Ritual Spell (or however he summons himself) requires the tributing of the Wicked Gods.

Sides of the conflict so far are [At least that I can remember]:  
The Lancers (End Academia's war)  
Academia (Merge the dimensions back together [read; bring back the YGO-verse equivalent to Buffy the Vampire Slayer] and stop anything in their way)  
The Dark Signer Bracelet Girls and their Disciples (End Academia's war and create a universal paradise)  
The Earthbound and those loyal to the Matriarch (Destroy the Crimson Dragon and everything he stands for as well as make the universe one with Ch'askancha)  
Signers and the Phoenix Guard (Stop the Earthbound as well as end the war)  
Roger (Take control of Synchro, stop Academia's invasion and rid the world of the Dark Signers)  
Armityle's faction (Stop the Earthbound and unleash eternal chaos)  
Horahkty (Lead the universe to eternal light)  
Zorc (Lead the world to eternal darkness)  
Zarc (Reunite his incarnations and destroy the universe)  
Ray (Stop Zarc, and maybe keep everyone from destroying themselves in this GOT level complicated plot)  
Kaishi and Owari (Goals unknown)  
The Therapist Duo (Help overthrow Leo, maybe stab Akato in the back)  
And whatever civilian OCs are in this story

Yeah, this story keeps getting more and more complex...

Mitsu: It's not that I don't allow you to take 4 month breaks Donny, it's that I don't like waiting around for the good stuff after helping you co-write a bunch of Duels and drafting 1 all by myself for this story!

(Seriously, to anyone who reads these reviews, know this: It's partially because of me that Yugo and Yuri are getting some love, and completely on me that Selena is getting some action. Our Queen deserves her screen time, especially since up until know, she's appeared once while she was asleep, and has only been name dropped ever since!)

Seeing as I know how each of those duels go, let me just say you guys are in for a wild ride. Also 'Pawn of the Earthbound'? I think a better name would be 'The Other 5 Counterparts FINALLY Get Some Attention'

Once you write this chapter (after finishing the birthday presents and do some Vrains!Abridged), then you can take another break from this story.) Until then, I'll be in Demon Taskmaster-mode!

Oh shoot, forget that last part.

Reward: Yuzu's Fruit Loop Cereal

Yuzu: ' Yuzu's Fruit Loop Cereal: Sadomasochistically delicious!'

Rin: That part still grosses me out.

 **Where do I start?**

 **Hi Tatsumi: Of course Kaishi and Owarii are cannon in this (special thanks to CorinnetheAnime for coming up with the names first). You guys ought to know by now that practically every one of my parodies is actually a coded message for something that will happen in SoR! So yes. Zexal Shun will totally be a thing. Also Don Thousand is Ruri's canon father.**

 **Fuh-Rin-Kah-Zanshi: Zorc isn't going to be Ritual Summoned by Tributing the Wicked Gods! We already know what Zorc's card is! It's already been created! Dark Master – Zorc! A level eight 2700 ATK beater with the most terrifying dice roll effect of all time!**

 **Readers: How is that terrifying?**

 **Yugo will be using it.**

 **Yugo: Eh, he he he! Ah ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw! *Proceeds to destroy the world with his luck***

 **Misu Bean Soup: And thanks for giving Sara the love she deserves. I based her character on snuggles, Kana Kamui from "Kobayashi's Dragon Maid," and SATAN!**

 **Sara: It is so nice to know that I am being loved for the innocent harmless adorable widdle woobie I am.**

 **Yene: Give it a rest, Sara, we all know you're pure evil.**

 **Sara: I WILL DESTROY YOU, YENE!**

 _BladeBlaster chapter 32 . Jun 4_

Poor Yugo encourages every bracelet counterpart but Rin . I can't wait for the next chapter .

 **Well, you** ** _will_** **have to wait for the next chapter because these chapters don't grow on trees! Just be patient like Sergey and endure…and endure, and endure, and endure, and endure, ENDURE!**

 _Royal2 chapter 32 . Jun 4_

I never said you were gone I said it's been a while.

 **WHAT!? YOU'RE STILL CLAIMING I'M GONE! I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR THIS LIBEL!**

 **Voice of reason: Clean out your ears.**

 _Epsilon Tarantula chapter 32 . Jun 4_

I'm going to review parts out of order.

Sebastian: Or you could get back to GK and help me calm Hugo down before he ends up like those Dark Signer chicks. Or makes a deal with them. Because what you've got down the line is...just...I feel bad for Belpois and his group, that's all I'm saying.

Me: I. AM. GETTING. TO. IT.

Siber: There's still us! I'm still stuck having to remember about the time I had to help Akato awaken the Kaijus in an attempt to destroy Japan!

Maho: So...are you going to write that scene with me and Aiyo in bed and skirt the censors, or...

QUIET ALL OF YOU! I'M GETTING TO IT!

(If I don't have GK or Omen updated by the next SoR chapter...this will become awkward.)

Anyways, first, the part I had to help rewrite. Excellent that Akato's evil is now uniform across reality. He's not really a sympathetic person. Hell, right now, I'm envisioning him using a machine gun to mow down a bunch of cute little bunnies. Shame Daiichi and Frederich don't exist in Omen. But eh, Part III's got enough villains as it is.

Going back to the start, the backstory of Sara and Yene! Yup, Sara is a Token Mini-Moe...annnnd Ch'askancha has all the glory and discipline of Yellow Diamond on a good day. Huzzah.

Akato: And this is why I hate the Earthbound's culture! They make Gem psychology look progressive by contrast! And I should know, I paid Homeword a visit once, when I -

Quiet, you! Sara...well...lord...seeing all of that power go to waste on a being with the mentality of a six-year old brings a tear to my eye...mainly because I think six-year olds should be sitting in Kindergarten instead of being brought into war. Shame really. The little one never truly did actually grow up. Perhaps Yuzu IS a good influence on Sara. As for Yene...I imagine him having a British accent for some strange reason. ...I wonder if Hueca's the dog that the Cat-lady (Serena) will have to take care of.

And as for Ch'askancha...

Lamash: Pfft. Really? She's going with a 'She Who Must Not be Named?' Oh please. The only reason I don't have my name get dropped is solely BECAUSE I know of spoilers.

Gray: I'm not kidding. That is literally the reason we can't say Lamash's name until Dyax. Stupid sense of earth-ruled drama.

Lamash: Wasn't your original race similar to humans in biology? Hell, I'm pretty certain they can reproduce, so I'd be happy to-

Gray: ...Please...no...the fact that you found Epsilon's old 'Project Pasiphae' draft still fills me with horror and disgust.

...CAN YOU ALL LET ME FINISH MY REVIEW?!

Now then...YUZU HAS FINALLY USED DARK SIGNER POWERS! OH, HAPPY DAY! FINALLY! IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS...AND SHE'S FINALLY USING THE POWER OF DARKNESS! ...AND NOT HAVING BRAIN INTERCOURSE WITH A PARASITE (Which is then thrown away)!

Akato: Please never say that again. I'm still reeling from seeing all the subconscious things Rin wants to do to Yugo.

But yeah, Yuzu has used the powers of darkness, and yet managed to RETAIN CHARACTER INTEGRITY! Oh, happy day! And then all three Dark Summoning techniques, Don, you've given us a great summer treat! (Also wondering if Akato was the one stupid enough to put solid vision in his mouth just for the lulz) Especially with that scene of her eating the fruit of evil. Ahhh...That was beautiful.

And next, RIN! Ah, a glorious sight! And then Divine just had to surrender. I say kill him. He's going to think of a way to revolt! ...And he's not been killed. Damn it. Shame the Earthbound have stricter rules concerning apostle-ship than demons. Much more flexibility in bargaining (Though I will probably need a better name...perhaps Akmas? ...No, too much Miraculous Ladybug on that one).

And now, to review the review response: I'll most likely send in Juana after this review is done to establish more consistency concerning Omen. Don't worry, she's not supernatural.

All in all, a good chapter, though I noticed the usage of 'gonna' at least once. I'm all for casual language to prevent corniness...but there's a time and place for not having contractions.

Juana: Wait, what?

Sherman: Epsilon IS trying to make you more dynamic. Can't see why he won't pick me.

Megumi: ...Because you're causing enough trouble in Omen. I mean, you ARE the reason why a certain someone got off on the wrong foot with our organization.

Stephan: And we're already getting screwed as it is.

CAN YOU ALL BE QUIET AND LET ME SIGN OUT ALREADY?!

 **Speaking from experience, the voices in your head will never quiet down. That's why it's easier to just charge them all rent for inhabiting your mental space. That way, you at least get paid to put up with them.**

 **As for your review, thank you very much! See, this is how to realistically bring a character to a point where he/she is doing things that are against her original moral compass! It takes time and effort, but it is so much more impactful than what one gets when one employs cheap mind control.**

 **And as for your comment on Akato, yes, he is evil, and yes, many more people in this story DO NOT have some cheap simple cliché backstory to justify and explain away why they do the terrible things they do. Yes, they have character, but it doesn't have to be character that is in any way familiar or even appealing to the vast majority of people.**

 **This brings to mind the characters of Sergey and, to a lesser extent, Yuri. If any of you are hoping to find some easy backstory to explain why they act in the sadistic ways they do, keep dreaming. Perhaps you will piece together reasons, or perhaps you won't. Either way, my main goal is to get you, my dear readers, well acquainted with the minds of these mad men. SO, hold on tight! Because the journey may be more terrifying and brain blasting than you can possibly imagine!**

 **Happy 4** **th** **everyone! I will see you in the next chapter!**


	34. Part 1: Chapter 16 (Part 2)

**I'm back everyone! Did you all miss me!? Admit it, you missed me. Actually, I had a few close friends worry that I'd died when I didn't respond to their PMs for a while. While it _is_ technically true that I died, such things don't really affect Dark Signers all that much. **

**Yuu Hashimoto: You're welcome.**

 **So I am just fine, everyone! (It was actually a pressing personal obligation I had to attend to, which is why I wasn't as active this past week). As promised, however, I have delivered the next SoR chapter!**

 **This segment was originally intended to be the last half of the previous chapter. However, due to word length, I have decided to divide chapter 16 into three parts, lest this segment swell to the size of Mai Valentine's chest. Rest assured that the final part is following closely behind this segment, which I personally believe was well worth the wait. Enjoy.**

 **(Updated last minute. Realized a mistake thanks to bladeWrtier3).**

 **Part 1: Chapter 16 – Pawn of the Earthbound (Part 2)**

 **Incarnations**

"DUEL!" Selena and Barrett roared in unison as they both raced for the column of light ahead. Normally, Selena would not have minded going second. Her deck actually worked best if the opponent set up a field of monsters she could destroy. But with this duel format, things were different. She didn't have the same kind of spell cards she needed to quickly build up offensive power and OTK like she normally did. Besides, she knew Barrett's deck. His deck excelled if it got the first turn.

Unfortunately, knowing this and being able to prevent it were two completely different things.

Selena twisted the accelerator as hard as she could, leaning her body forward for maximum aerodynamics, but it didn't seem to matter. Even though the D-Wheel she had appropriated was good, Barrett's Academia-built vehicle was clearly superior. Purple flames exploded out the exhaust pipes, rocketing his bike forward and leaving Selena to gag from the plumes of dark black smoke as she struggled to catch up.

Slowly, she did manage to catch up to him, manually shifting the bike's gear with the bike's on-board computer so that she was neck-and-neck with Barrett, before a sudden turn caught her attention.

Reflexively, Selena flinched, adjusting her position and speed in order to avoid flying over the edge of the track.

Barrett, on the other hand, smoothly transitioned into the turn, effortlessly leaning his body so that his bike swung through the curve before twisting the accelerator for another burst of speed. Selena exited the turn, and tried to mimic Barrett, twisting her own accelerator, but just as she began to catch up yet again, Barrett's bike had already blasted through the checkpoint.

"You hesitated on the turn." Barrett called back at Selena, shaking his head in disapproval, "Disappointing, Selena-Sama. You're a better warrior than this. My deck excels at going first, and you knew that. You should have seized your objective rather than shrink from it."

Selena grimaced at this. She hated being criticized. It was one of the reasons she had wanted to leave Academia in the first place, so that nobody would call her a coward again for staying home in Academia while others fought in the war.

"Be quiet and duel!" she shouted back at Barrett. "I am not an Academia soldier anymore! You shouldn't be giving advice to your enemy!"

"As you wish, Selena-Sama." Barrett grunted. "Though I intend to bring you back to Academia soon enough! Construction Sentinel's monster effect!" he declared, holding up a card depicting a combination backhoe and crane, mounted on a large 4-wheeled platform, "If I control no monsters, I can Special Summon this card from my hand!"

To his field, the monster shown in the card appeared, a single red eye on the side of the crane controlling the structure while the 4-wheeled vehicle supporting the crane thundered alongside Barrett.

 **Construction Sentinel / DARK / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1200 / _DEF 1400_**

"Construction Sentinel's effect activates when it is Special Summoned!" Barrett continued, staying ahead of Selena, "I reveal a copy of Beastborg Panther Predator in my Extra Deck and send the Speed Spell, Beastborg Fabricator, from my deck to the graveyard in order to Fusion Summon the revealed Panther Predator using Construction Sentinel and monsters in my hand or on my field as Material!"

Selena clenched her teeth. As she had expected, Barrett had perfectly adapted his deck to the Speed Duel format, making it so that he could fusion summon right off the bat without the need for a spell card. Plus, with Panther Predator coming out, she was guaranteed some early first turn damage.

In front of Selena, Construction Sentinel lowered the claw of its crane down onto Barrett's hand before removing a Panther Warrior from his hand. In the claws of the crane, Panther Warrior appeared before the two monsters swirled together in a Fusion Portal as Barrett began his summoning chant.

"Ferocious Black Panther, merge together with the body constructed from the immortal craftsman and raise a new war cry! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level six! Beastborg Panther Predator!"

Bursting from the fusion portal with its sword outstretched, Barrett's ace monster, a Panther Warrior cyborg, appeared to the field before roaring with a robotic auto-tuned panther snarl.

 **Beastborg Panther Predator / DARK / Level 6 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 1600_ / DEF 2000**

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 1**

"When Construction Sentinel is used as a Fusion Material for the summon of a 'Beastborg' monster," Barrett explained, "the monster summoned by this effect can activate one "Beastborg" Trap Card from my deck, so long as its activation condition and timing is correct! I activate the trap card, Beastborg Barracks!"

In front of Barrett, a trap card depicting a large storage facility with rows upon rows of Beastborg monsters hanging from the rafters appeared to Barrett's field. Once it appeared, Barrett stretched his hand towards his Fusion Monster.

"Beastborg Panther Predator's effect!" Barrett declared, "I inflict damage to your Life Points equal to half its ATK! QUASAR BEAM!"

Selena flinched as Panther Predator fired a beam of red energy from its mechanical chest into her shoulder, causing her to grimace as she took the damage.

 **Selena: 3200 LP**

"Quick-Play Speed Spell!" Barrett continued, not wasting a moment, "Overdrive Booster! If my opponent takes battle or effect damage, I can pay up to two Speed Counters in order to draw an equal number of cards! I pay my Speed Counter in order to draw one card!"

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 0**

"Setting three cards face-down. Turn end." Barrett finished.

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 1**

 **Selena Speed Counters: 1**

Barrett turned his head so that he could regard Selena with his remaining right eye. "You are at an immense disadvantage, Selena-Sama."

"You know I am not going to surrender." Selena growled.

"Yes." Barret agreed, nodding his head, "Which is why I didn't offer you the option. I am merely curious to see if you can overcome my first obstacle."

"You're still talking like one of the instructors." Selena complained. "This isn't some kind of game, Barrett. I'm not here to play around or impress you."

"All of life is a game and war is the greatest game of all, one in which real lives are wagered and the true winners rise to the top." Barrett retorted. "That was one of your greatest strengths, Selena-Sama. No matter what, you played to win. Do you still play to win now?"

"I don't play to win." Selena snarled, placing her hand on top of her deck, "I play to dominate! Watashi no turn! DRAW!"

With just a glance at her cards, Selena almost instantaneously formulated a strategy. With her lack of spell cards, she could not Fusion Summon right off the bat, but she had other options. Besides, knowing Barrett, calling forth an Extra Deck monster would have been the last thing she would have wanted to do right then.

"You may know my strategy, but I also know yours!" Selena called to Barrett. "One of those face-down cards is Medal of the Iron Chain, and another one is Medal of the Crimson Chain."

Barrett remained silent, displaying a perfect poker face, seemingly unconcerned.

"I am not going to let you use those cards against me." Selena growled. "Moonlight Gold Lynx's effect!" she declared, "If I control no monsters or the only monsters I control are 'Moonlight' monsters, I can Special Summon Moonlight Gold Lynx from my hand or GY! Come forth!"

Appearing through a blue portal, a tall gentlemanly female lynx girl wearing a curvaceous gold tuxedo and a glittering gilded top-hat on top of her head appeared to Selena's field before spinning around once and raising a white lynx-paw gloved hand to her head to remove her top hat and bow to Barrett, the image of a moon eclipsing in the dead center appearing behind her. Holstered to her hip was a small saber and a golden crossbow with the bow decorated like a crescent moon and the golden head of a lynx ornamenting the front of the weapon.

 **Moonlight Gold Lynx / DARK / Level 6 / Beast-Warrior / _ATK 1500_ / DEF 1400**

"The effect of Gold Lynx activates when she is summoned!" Selena declared, "I destroy one card on the field, and if I do, I can send one monster from my deck to the GY. I target one of your face-downs in order to destroy it! Moonlight Monster Hunt!"

Unholstering her crossbow with lightning-fast cat reflexes, Gold Lynx leveled her crossbow at one of Barret's face-down cards before firing a golden metal bolt into the card, flipping it face-up to reveal it as a copy of Beastborg Medal of the Iron Chain before destroying it.

Selena grit her teeth, disappointed that she had destroyed Barrett's more potent medal of the Crimson Chain, but she continued with her turn.

"When I successfully destroy a card with Gold Lynx's effect," Selena continued, "I must send one 'Moonlight' monster from my deck to the graveyard. I choose to send Moonlight Crimson Fox from my deck to the graveyard. And when Crimson Fox is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, I can target one monster you control in order to change its ATK to zero!"

Appearing to the field with a coy laugh, Crimson Fox smiled smugly at Barrett before leaping forward and bringing her claws down on Panther Predator, leaving deep gashes in the cyborg monster before she sank down into the black graveyard portal.

 **Beastborg Panther Predator: 1600 – 1600 = 0 ATK**

"Battle!" Selena roared, "Moonlight Gold Lynx, attack and destroy Beastborg Panther Predator! Wolfsbane Blade!"

Charging forward, Moonlight Lynx unsheathed her saber before crossing blades with Panther Predator. Panther Predator attempted to use its robotic arm to smash through Lynx's defenses and bring the sword down on her, but before the hulking cyborg could uncross its sword from Lynx's saber, Gold Lynx had already unsheathed her crossbow with her other hand before firing it into the monster's chest, destroying Barrett's monster and causing Barrett's bike to spin out of control as Selena rocketed ahead of him.

 **Barrett: 2500 LP (0 Speed Counters)**

"A mediocre counter-attack at best." Barrett grunted, sounding unimpressed. "Beastborg Panther Predator's effect activates since it was destroyed. In addition, I chain the activation of Beastborg Medal of the White Cross in response, since I took battle damage!"

In front of Barrett, a trap card flipped face-up before morphing into a stylized medal with a lion head affixed to the center of a white cross.

"Beastborg Medal of the White Cross gains one medal counter for every one-hundred points of damage I take." Barrett explained as three rows of five shining medals appeared on three branches of the cross. "As you will soon find out, these medal counters can be used for _very_ useful purposes. But for now, I will proceed to Panther Predator's effect, Special Summoning Panther Warrior and Construction Sentinel to my field."

 **Panther Warrior / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast-Warrior / Effect / _ATK 2000_ / DEF 1600 **

**Construction Sentinel / DARK / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1200 / _DEF 1400_**

"You did not go all-out with your full strength." Barrett commented. "Were you so afraid of my face-downs that you decided to play it safe? Or could you just not Fusion Summon?"

"I said to be quiet!" Selena snapped. "I'm not an idiot, Barrett. I don't have just one play style. Sometimes, a warrior has to adapt to new battlefields."

"Spoken wisely." Barrett agreed with a nod of his head. "Still, I cannot feel the same passion from you now as I did when you first tasted battle in another dimension. Where has that spark gone?"

Selena was about to throw back a retort, but she paused. Could there be some truth to what Barrett was saying? Certainly, she had chosen to not be as aggressive once Yuzu had opened her eyes to the truth. But had she also grown weaker as a result? Barrett was fighting with his full strength, willing to even take great energy in order to fuel his war machine. How could she expect to beat a veteran like him if she didn't fight at her full strength?

Selena shook her head, remembering her first-hand witness of Sora's brutality as he slaughtered his opposition, and her later witness of Academia's horrors in its invasion of Synchro. She would _not_ let herself become like that.

"I won't be the same mindless killing machine I was." Selena replied. "But I _will_ still beat you! Setting three cards face-down! Turn end!"

 **Selena Speed Counters: 2**

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 1**

"Strange how a normally intelligent warrior like you can be so wrong now." Barrett rumbled, placing his hand on top of his deck, "Watashi no turn! DRAW!"

"Command Sentinel's effect!" Barrett declared, "If I control a face-up 'Beastborg' card, I can Special Summon this card from my hand! Come! Command Sentinel!"

Descending to Barrett's field was a large satellite-like machine with multiple staring robotic eyes and radio antennae. Attached to its back were a pair of rocket thrusters, which it used to fly alongside Barrett's bike.

 **Command Sentinel / DARK / Level 6 / Machine / Effect / ATK 2000 / _DEF 2000_**

"If Command Sentinel is summoned this way," Barrett explained, as a card popped out of his deck, "I can add 1 DARK Machine-Type 'Sentinel' monster from my deck to my hand. I use this effect to add Messenger Sentinel from my deck to my hand."

"Next, I activate Messenger Sentinel's effect!" Barrett continued, revealing the card, which showed a small remote-controlled quadcopter drone with radio antenna on top and a package tied to its bottom. "By discarding this card, I can add one DARK Machine-Type 'Sentinel' or Beast-Warrior Type monster from my deck to my hand! I discard this card in order to add Akz the Pumer from my deck to my hand!"

"So now you have more Materials for another Fusion Summon." Selena surmised.

"Precisely." Barrett agreed. "But first, I activate the effect of Beastborg Medal of the White Cross! Once per turn, I can remove six Medal Counters from my card in order to Special Summon a 'Beastborg' monster from my graveyard. I choose to revive Panther Predator!"

Rising up from a black portal, Barrett's Cyborg Machine reappeared, as ready for battle as if it had never been destroyed.

 **Beastborg Panther Predator / DARK / Level 6 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 1600_ / DEF 2000**

 **White Cross: 9 Medal Counters**

"Panther Predator's effect!" Barrett declared, "I inflict damage to your Life Points equal to half my monster's ATK! Quasar Beam!"

Gritting her teeth, Selena flinched as the attack slammed into her back, causing her bike to skid before she regained control of it.

 **Selena: 2400 LP**

"My onslaught is only beginning! Prepare yourself, Selena-Sama! I activate the effect of Beastborg Barracks! Once per turn, I can banish Materials from my side of the field, hand, or GY in order to Fusion Summon one Beastborg Monster from my Extra Deck! I banish Command Sentinel on my field and Akz the Pumer from my hand in order to Fusion Summon!"

Rising into the air, Command Sentinel, and a tall proud armor-wearing puma-girl warrior, similar to Selena's Moonlight Monsters, appeared before swirling together as Barrett began his summoning chant.

"Axe-wielding puma of the imperial army, merge now with the commanding mechanical officer and blaze across the battlefield with the force of rolling thunder! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level eight! Beastborg Panzer Puma!"

Exploding from the Fusion Portal was an immense cyborg version of Akz the Pumer. Built like a tank, the new monster stood several feet taller than its original version, with thick bulky metal armor over its arms, legs, chest, and half its face, and a tank gun mounted over its left shoulder. The battle axe of Akz the Pumer was now fully fused with the monster's right arm, creating a mechanical axe-head prosthetic with glowing circuitry and whirring hydraulic ligaments.

 **Beastborg Panzer Puma / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 3000_ / DEF 1500**

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 2**

"Beastborg Panzer Puma's effect activates when it is Fusion Summoned." Barrett declared, "I add one Beast-Warrior or Machine-Type monster from my deck to my hand. I use this effect now to add Beast King Barbaros to my hand. And now that that's done, I activate Panzer Puma's additional effect! Any number of times per turn, I can discard one Beast-Warrior or Machine-Type monster from my hand in order to destroy one card you control! I discard Beast King Barbaros in order to destroy Moonlight Gold Lynx! PANZER SCHLAG!"

Lowering its tank barrel towards Selena's monster, Panzer Puma prepared to obliterate Gold Lynx. However, Selena reacted to the attack, stretching her hand towards one of her face-downs.

"Counter Trap! Moonlight Ambush Dance!" Selena countered, "Since I control a "Moonlight" monster, I can discard Moonlight Kaleido Chick from my hand in order to negate the effect of Panzer Puma and destroy it!"

Panzer Puma fired an explosive shell of energy into the trackway, creating a crater in the track and just barely missing Gold Lynx as she rolled out of the way. Behind Panzer Puma, the spectral image of Kaleido Chick, a petit bird-girl wearing a duck hat over her head, appeared before the Moonlight Monster wrapped a multi-colored ribbon around the cyborg's head, causing the cyborg to flail about and blindly swipe at Kaleido Chick with its robotic arms. In front of Panzer Puma, Gold Lynx leveled her crossbow at the machine before firing, obliterating the new Fusion Monster.

"Excellent counter." Barrett called with a pleased smile on his face, "You have adapted well to the Speed Duel format and given your deck some strong trap cards. But you haven't managed to stop me yet! I activate my set Beastborg Recycler!"

Flipping face-up onto his field, Barrett's new trap, a card depicting several sentinel monsters being dumped into an incinerator, appeared before glowing with light.

"Once per turn, Beastborg Recycler enables me to Fusion Summon one 'Beastborg' from my Extra Deck or GY by returning banished materials to my GY!"

"A fusion summon from the GY!?" Selena exclaimed in surprise, unaware that Barrett's deck had that capability.

"You are not the only one who has adapted." Barrett smirked. "I return Command Sentinel and Akz the Pumer to my GY in order to Fusion Summon! Return now! Beastborg Panzer Puma!"

The spectral images of Command Sentinel and Akz the Pumer appeared to Barrett's field before swirling together in a black fusion portal, though which Panzer Puma reemerged with a robotic auto-tuned roar.

 **Beastborg Panzer Puma / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 3000_ / DEF 1500**

"Panzer Puma's effect activates again!" Barrett declared. "I add Guardian Sentinel to my hand with its effect, and now, BATTLE PHASE! Even if you still have Gold Lynx to protect you, I have Panzer Puma, Panther Warrior with a Construction Sentinel available to tribute for its attack, and Panther Predator! With their combined ATK you don't have enough Life Points!"

"Don't underestimate my defenses!" Selena retorted, "Trap Activate! Moonlight Battle Dance! This card can only be activated during the Battle Phase. Once activated, until the end of this turn's battle phase, 'Moonlight' monsters I control are unaffected by your monster's effects and cannot be destroyed by battle!"

"So, you will survive this turn, but not by much!" Beastborg Panzer Puma, attack Moonlight Gold Lynx! AXT STREICHEN!"

Rearing back, Panzer Puma threw back its axe for a wide overhead swing, before leaping forward and bringing her axe down towards Gold Lynx, who raised her saber in defense.

"Moonlight Battle Dance's additional effect!" Selena declared, "I can banish this card from my graveyard in order to increase Gold Lynx's ATK by one-thousand until the end of this Battle-Phase!"

 **Moonlight Gold Lynx: 1500 + 1000 = 2500 ATK**

The axe of Barrett's Panzer Puma connected with Gold Lynx's saber. Rather than cleave Selena's monster in two, however, Gold Lynx surged with energy, managing to throw Panzer Puma off herself. The blow, however, crashed into Selena's bike, causing her to spin out of control before Barrett took the lead.

 **Selena: 2400 – 500 = 1900 LP**

"Well done." Barrett mused. "You managed to avoid attacks from my Panther Warrior and Panther Predator, as both those monsters don't have enough attack. However, you cannot expect to win with sheer defense. I'm still not convinced that your blade hasn't dulled."

"You were holding back as well." Selena accused. "You could have activated Panzer Puma's effect again and destroyed my Lynx Dancer."

"And fallen for the exact same trick as last time?" Barrett huffed. "You are not the only one who can guess her opponent's face-downs. Don't think I didn't notice that you still have one card in your hand. A perfect discard for a second Ambush Dance, eh Selena-Sama?"

"Unless I was bluffing." Selena replied with a smirk.

"Bah!" Barrett huffed with a scowl. "You are far from winning, Selena-Sama. In fact, by all accounts, you are losing this duel. And you WILL lose this duel! Mark my words! I will NOT fail in my mission! Since Panther Warrior and Panther Predator didn't attack, I switch both these monsters to defense position. Turn end!"

 **Panther Warrior: _1600 DEF_ **

**Panther Predator: _2000 DEF_**

 **Barrett Speed Counters: 3**

 **Selena Speed Counters: 3**

"I won't give up on this duel!" Selena declared. "Academia's war is wrong, and I will do everything in my power to end it!"

"Who filled your mind with this poison!?" Barrett spat, looking enraged. "Who turned you against your pride as a warrior!?"

"Barrett, you were one of my closest friends before I left home." Selena sighed, a sorrowful expression coming over her face, "But if I had followed you and Academia to the end…I never could have lived with myself. I won't be the professor's pawn in his sick game!"

"Name the person who told you this!" Barrett growled. "Was it Reiji? I swear, I will find him and crush him both for Academia's cause and for the sake of personal vengeance!"

"Reiji didn't change me." Selena countered, "I met knew people after you were forced to retreat. They were the ones who taught me a new way of dueling!"

"Name them!" Barrett demanded, growing enraged.

"Hiragi Yuzu and Sakaki Yuya!" Selena proclaimed.

…

 **Yuya vs. Aleisha**

 **Current State of Duel**

 **Yuya:**

 **3600 LP**

 **1 card in his hand**

 **Has an active Spectrum Magician and an Active Monochrome Magician in his Pendulum Zones, controls Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with 3100 ATK, Entermate Skullcrobat Joker, and Chameleon Magician,**

 **Aleisha:**

 **2900 LP**

 **(Future Vision, Fortune Lady Wind, and an unknown card in her hand)**

 **Controls a level -6 Fortune Lady Fate with 2400 ATK, a level 2 Fortune Lady Fire with 400 ATK, and a level 7 Fortune Lady Water with 2100 ATK**

"MY TURN…DRAW!" Aleisha roared.

Yuya braced himself, sweat trickling down his head as Aleisha ripped a card from the top of her deck. Despite his recent exertion and the flames surrounding them, the temperature seemed to be dropping to Yuya. Yuto was doing even worse, clutching his chest and gasping in pain as his spirit struggled against whatever supernatural force Aleisha and her monsters were exuding.

"During the Standby Phase," Aleisha declared, stretching her hand towards her monsters, who began to glow with dark energy, "the effects of Fortune Lady Fire, Fate, Water, and Future activate! Fire and Water each gain one level, Fate's level decreases by one and returns my banished Fortune Lady Light to my field, and Fortune Lady Future returns to my field."

To the right of Fate, Fortune Lady Future reappeared to the field through a multi-colored dimensional tear, just as Fortune Lady Fate raised her own staff into the air, painting a glowing red glyph in the air through which Fortune Lady Light reappeared.

 **Fortune Lady Fire: Level 3 / _600 ATK_ / 600 DEF**

 **Fortune Lady Fate: Level -7 / _2800 ATK_ / 2800 DEF **

**Fortune Lady Water: Level 8 / _2400 ATK_ / 2400 DEF **

**Fortune Lady Future / Level -8 / _4000 ATK_ / 4000 DEF **

**Fortune Lady Light / Level 1 / _200 ATK_ / 200 DEF**

"Even after the last attack, she has so many monsters." Yuya whispered to Yuto.

 _"And they keep getting stronger the more time we take to beat her."_ Yuto agreed. _"We have to hurry, Yuya, I don't know how much longer I can stand being in this place!"_

"I promise to get us out of here." Yuya reassured his friend.

"You don't get to leave until you're dead and your souls are imprisoned where they can never reincarnate again!" Aleisha growled. "Fortune Lady Future's effect! I target my face-up Fortune Lady Light in order to add another copy of Fortune Lady Light from my deck to my hand before banishing Fortune Lady Light! Recurring Future!"

In the air above Aleisha, a spectral image of Fortune Lady Light appeared before dissolving into dust and coalescing into a card, which Aleisha added to her hand. Meanwhile, on the field, Fortune Lady Future raised her futuristic staff towards Fortune Lady Light, causing the fairy to vanish.

"Fortune Lady Light's effect!" Aleisha declared. "Since she was removed from the field by a card effect, I Special Summon Fortune Lady Water from my deck! Come forth!"

 **Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / _ATK 1200_ / DEF 1200 **

"Fortune Lady Water's effect activates!" Aleisha declared, "I draw two cards from my deck!"

She quickly added two new cards to her hand before stretching her hand towards Fortune Lady Fate.

"Fortune Lady Fate's effect!" Aleisha continued, "I target my banished Fortune Lady Light in order to return it to my hand before banishing Fortune Lady Fire, which will be Special Summoned during my next Standby Phase! Rewoven Fate!"

Using the same sticky red substance she had used before, Fortune Lady Fate drew a glyph on the forehead of Fortune Lady Light before muttering a spell and causing the young witch to vanish.

"Field Magic Activate, Future Visions!" Aleisha continued, slotting the reserve copy of her field spell she had been saving into her duel disk before enclosing the field once again in a starry cosmic nebula of stars and flickering images of possible future events. Above Yuya, multiple images of his body falling to the ground before soaking the floor in blood appeared, causing him to nervously step back.

"This is my chance." Aleisha breathed to herself, staring up at the images. "I CAN still change the future, and I know just the card to light my path! Fortune Lady Light shoukan!"

Twirling onto her field, another Fortune Lady Light appeared before Future Vision's effect activated, causing the witch to vanish before a new portal opened up where she had been.

"Fortune Lady Light's effect!" Aleisha declared, "I special Summon my final copy of Fortune Lady Water from my deck before activating her effect to draw two more cards!"

Through the portal, yet another copy of Fortune Lady Water appeared to the field before Aleisha added two more cards to her ever-growing hand.

 **Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / _ATK 1200_ / DEF 1200 **

"Magic card activate!" Aleisha continued, "Fortune's Future! I return my banished Fortune Lady Light to the graveyard in order to draw two more cards!"

"Even more cards!?" Yuya sputtered, staring at Aleisha's immense hand.

 _"She's got nine cards in her hand."_ Yuto gaped. _"Even if only a handful of those cards are useful to her right now, she's bound to have drawn something she needed!"_

"Astute observation, Destroyer." Aleisha sarcastically spat. "Remember your Performance Shuffle from last turn? Well, it seems like I've just found a quick fix of my own for your field! Magic Card, Dimensional Festival!"

The card she activated depicted D.D. Warrior, D.D. Warrior Lady, D.D. Assailant, D.D. Seeker, D.D. Survivor, and other duel monsters sitting down at a massive feast presided over by Different Dimension Master, and D.D. Guide. Once activated, a massive multi-colored dimensional tear appeared in the sky before a column of multicolored light poured out onto the ground.

"Dimensional Festival's effect enables me to target up to two cards I control before forcing you to target an equal number of cards you control. All cards targeted by this effect are then banished until the End Phase, during which time, they are shuffled back into the respective deck of their owner." Aleisha explained, a malevolent expression coming over her face. "I choose to banish both my copies of Fortune Lady Water. Now, what will you choose, Destroyer? Don't take too long. Your choice doesn't really matter."

 _"Wrong!"_ Yuto countered, his spirit leaping onto a nearby platform, _"We don't have to play your game! Yuya! Here! An Action Card!"_

Yuya dashed towards the platform Yuto had indicated before grabbing and activating the Action Card on top.

"Action Magic, Distortion!" Yuya declared, "This card negates the effects of all cards activated in this chain, meaning that your Dimensional Festival is-"

"Action Magic!" Aleisha angrily countered, leaping high into the air with superhuman strength and snagging an Action Card from one of the platforms, "No Action! I negate your Distortion!"

Yuya grimaced as his Action Card exploded into dust, leaving him with no way to counter Aleisha's play.

 _"No!"_ Yuto gasped, crestfallen that his plan had not worked.

"I told you," Aleisha growled, "you cannot escape the fate I have planned for you! Now fulfill that destiny! Make your choice!"

Yuya hung his head down before looking at Yuto, who looked equally distraught.

 _"She has overwhelming offensive power."_ Yuto grimaced. _"If we give up any of our monsters, she could easily break through. Spectrum Magician and Monochrome Magician both have defensive effects, but those only work if we have both in our Pendulum Zones at the same time."_

Yuya nodded his head, saddened that he had to make such a choice.

"Spectrum Magician can make it so that each of our Pendulum Monsters cannot be destroyed once per turn, while Monochrome Magician makes it so that we take no battle damage from battles involving our Pendulum Monsters. However, if we banish two of our Pendulum Monsters to keep Monochrome and Spectrum on the field, we'll only have one Pendulum Monster protecting our Life Points."

"Have you made your choice yet?" Aleisha asked, sounding impatient. "Because if you haven't…"

The flames surrounding the duel grew larger before closing in.

"…there is a time limit for our turns." Aleisha finished.

Yuya stepped forward, feeling sick but knowing what needed to be done.

"I choose to banish my Monochrome Magician and Spectrum Magician!" Yuya declared, stretching his hand towards the magicians in his Pendulum Zones. Nodding their heads, the two Magicians descended from their pillars of light before joining the two Fortune Lady Waters as they all entered the pillar of multi-colored light in the center of the field before rising up into the dimensional tear in the sky and disappearing.

"Finally." Aleisha sighed, closing her eyes with relief before opening them and regarding Yuya and Yuto with a confident expression. "Now that you've thrown away your shield, I can finally defeat you once and for all! Fortune Lady Prophecy's effect! If I control a face-up 'Fortune Lady' monster, I can Special Summon this card from my hand, and if I do, I can banish one other 'Fortune Lady' monster I control! Come forth! Fortune Lady Prophecy!"

Appearing to Aleisha's field was a new fortune lady with thick wooly grey hair twisted into two braids, which hung at the sides of her head and over her chest, a pair of blue ribbons holding them together. The dress and skirt over her bathing suit was a matching grey, while the eye symbol over her head looked like it was made of coalescing and expanding ashy-grey smoke. Her staff was tipped by a lit brazier belching dark grey smoke, which the witch shaped into symbols and images with her other hand.

 **Fortune Lady Prophecy / DARK / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 0 / _DEF 100_**

"Fortune Lady Prophecy's effect!" Aleisha continued, "Since she was Special Summoned by her own effect, I banish my last copy of Fortune Lady Water!"

Blowing on a cloud of smoke, Fortune Lady Prophecy enclosed the last copy of Fortune Lady Water in the musty gas, before the cloud dissipated, leaving nothing behind.

"Next," Aleisha continued, "since I control a face-up 'Fortune Lady' monster, I Special Summon the dark tuner monster, Fortune Lady Time!"

Next to prophecy, a petit Fortune Lady with short orange hair styled up like the crown of a cockatoo appeared to the field. The blouse and skirt she wore over her bathing suit matched her hair in color and her staff held a large clock in the center of a shepherd's crook head.

 **Fortune Lady Time / LIGHT / Level 1 / Fairy / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK ? / _DEF ?_**

"Fortune Lady Time's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times two-hundred." Aleisha explained. "Furthermore, up to thrice per turn, I can use the effect of Fortune Lady Time to increase the Level of one 'Fortune Lady' I control by one. I use this effect now on Fortune Lady Time! Future Progression!"

 **Fortune Lady Time: 1 + 1 = Level 2 / 400 ATK / _400 DEF_ **

"The time has come!" Aleisha proclaimed, "I Dark Tune my Level two Fortune Lady Time with my Level negative eight Fortune Lady Future in order to Dark Synchro Summon once more!"

Raising her clock staff into the air, Fortune Lady Time dissolved into a pair of white stars, which flew into the chest of Fortune Lady Future. Turning transparent, the two stars of Fortune Lady Time joined eight black stars within the body of Fortune Lady Future before they too became black. Exploding from the translucent monster, ten black stars began to orbit an empty area of space in a wide circle, dark electricity crackling between them as Aleisha began her summoning chant.

"From infinite possibilities come infinite calamities and miracles! Through the dark storm of branching timelines gather and synchronize all your alternate versions into a form of your desire! DARK SYNCHRO! Take control of the timeline! Level negative ten! Fortune Lady Infinity!"

From an explosive column of black energy, a legion of thousands of Fortune Ladies of different colors and ages flew into the air, knocking Yuya and Yuto back with the force of their entry. All of them looked somewhat similar in appearance, but with shades of difference between them, not unlike, Yuya realized, the difference between himself and his counterparts or Yuzu and her counterparts.

Raising their staffs into the air in unison, the Fortune Ladies suddenly merged into one before descending to the field, an aura of black shadow surrounding the new monster. Similar in appearance to Fortune Lady Future, Fortune Lady Infinity had pale white skin with black veins and a pair of large pitch-black angel wings on the sides of her head. Her long flowing hair was the color of liquid mercury and tied around a spikey crystalline tiara, which reflected light in dark rainbows. Her eyes were like mirrors, reflecting ever shifting images in their shadowed depths. Instead of the regular bathing suit, she wore skin-tight polished chrome armor underneath a shimmering silvery dress and skirt. Sprouting from the back of her under-armor were a pair of metallic silver wings, with pieces of the wings floating in the air, independent of gravity. In her hands, she wielded a long staff made of intertwined strands of metal, an immense translucent crystal with refracted images in each of its thousands of facets set on top of the staff.

 **Fortune Lady Infinity / LIGHT / Level -10 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect / _ATK ?_ / DEF ?**

"Fortune Lady Infinity's ATK and DEF are each equal to its Level times negative five-hundred! Tremble before your doom, Destroyer!"

 **Fortune Lady Infinity / _ATK 5000_ / DEF 5000 **

"I'm not backing down!" Yuya called out, more sweat pouring from his brow as his exhaustion grew. Just looking at the new monster Aleisha had summoned was making him feel like his strength was being sponged from him.

"I don't need you to back down." Aleisha replied, removing another card from her hand, "I only need you to die! I set one card face-down before activating my Fortune Lady Prophecy's effect! By tributing her, I can target one set card on the field and immediately activate it! If, however, the activated card's activation conditions or timing are incorrect, that card is simply destroyed. Using this effect, I target my own face-down in order to activate it! Self-Fulfilling Prophecy!"

Raising her staff into the air, Fortune Lady Prophecy conjured a thick cloud of grey smoke, which enveloped the field before dissipating, leaving no evidence that Fortune Lady Prophecy had ever been there…

…save for the fact that Aleisha's field now had a face-up trap with the symbol of a stabbed heart in the upper right corner. The card's picture depicting Fortune Lady Fate examining a spool of thread while the silhouette of another Fortune Lady looked down at her from behind.

 _"Oh no!"_ Yuto groaned, spirit collapsing to the ground in pain, _"Another Dark Rite Trap!"_

"I activate the effects of Rite of Destiny!" Aleisha declared, "Using my Fortune Lady Fate as the base offering, I dark sacrifice a copy of Fortune Lady Dark from my hand in order to Dark Rite Summon!"

In the center of the field, an ethereal demonic-looking weaver's loom appeared, surrounded by a ring of fire before both Fortune Lady Fate and Fortune Lady Dark appeared before it and began examining a blood-red string and dark purple sting of thread respectively. In an instant, the two strings suddenly snapped, causing both Fate and Dark to collapse to their ground, their bodies liquifying to blood before the weaver's loom burst into flames. Clamping her hands together in prayer, Aleisha began chanting.

"All our fates are controlled by the whims of destiny's goddess! From the dark void of the goddess's realm, appear to the mortal realm and serve me that I may seize my own appointed path! DARK RITE! Fulfill the great cosmic will! Level negative seven! Fortune Lady Destiny!"

The instant Aleisha finished her summoning chant, the immense flames from the burning weaver's loom instantaneously died, plunging the whole field in total darkness. An eerie silence prevailed upon the field as the temperature dropped and the shadows deepened, the only faint sound reaching Yuya's ears coming from Yuto's spirit as it audibly trembled.

Then, a bright sphere of ghostly light illuminated the field.

Squinting, Yuya looked towards Aleisha's field to see her new monster standing over the ashes where the loom had once stood. Fortune Lady Destiny was an antlered bathing suit-less Fortune Lady like Fortune Lady Fate, but with long curly black hair with lengths of golden thread intertwined within the strands of her mane. Perched on her antlers was a cawing red-eyed albino raven, which pecked at the threads in Destiny's hair. Her eyes had pitch black sclera, with bright golden irises, and her tanned skin was decorated with glowing runes and jewel piercings. She wore an elegant shall and skirt of multi-colored threads over her privates, using bits of bone, jewels, and metal to button the ends of the cloth together. Glittering rings adorned the witch's slender fingers and bone-white witch staff, which bore a spool of glittering golden thread at its end.

 **Fortune Lady Destiny / DARK / Level -7 / Spellcaster / Dark Rite / Effect / _ATK ?_ / DEF ?**

Aleisha smiled, vermilion light steaming from her eyes like bloody smoke.

"I assume you are familiar with the power of the other Fortune Ladies by now." She said to Yuya, the holographic indicator next to Fortune Lady Destiny displaying her true ATK and DEF power.

 **Fortune Lady Destiny: (-400 X -7) = _2800 ATK_ / (-400 X -7) = 2800 DEF **

_"She's getting ready to finish us off now."_ Yuto groaned.

"I'm not going to let her!" Yuya growled, thinking of Yuzu and the other people he needed to protect.

"You'll fail miserably!" Aliesha spat. "Setting one card face-down, and now, Fortune Lady Infinity's effect! Up to twice per turn, I can target one card on the field in order to banish it until the controller's next Standby Phase! I target Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Timeline Manipulation!"

Rising into the air with her mechanical wings, Fortune Lady Infinity twirled her staff around before pointing the multi-faceted crystal at Odd-Eyes.

"Help me one more time, Yuto!" Yuya called to his companion as he leaped onto a platform.

Wordlessly, Yuto nodded before forcing himself onto a platform and searching for an Action Card with Yuya. Overhead, Fortune Lady Infinity fired a beam of light into Odd-Eyes, splitting the dragon into a fractured spectrum of itself before each separate image began to fade away, one by one. Just as the last image was about to disappear, Yuya suddenly heard Yuto's voice.

"Up above, Yuya!"

Looking up, Yuya spotted the Action Card before grabbing and activating it.

"Action Magic, Invisibility!" Yuya declared, "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon cannot be targeted by card effects and is unaffected by other card effects until the end of this turn!"

With a roar, Odd-Eyes suddenly materialized back to existence, body regaining substance before turning translucent as the Action Card applied its effects.

"Fortune Lady Infinity's effect again!" Aleisha angrily countered, "I target Skullcrobat Joker in order to banish it!"

Yuya and Yuto began searching for another action card again, but this time, they were unsuccessful. With a cry of horror, Skullcrobat Joker was split into dozens of mirror images of himself, before each version faded from existence.

"And now to destroy the symbol of your power!" Aleisha declared, "Fortune Lady Infinity attack and Destroy Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! INFINITY TIME STREAM!"

Racing forward, Fortune Lady Infinity charged Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, body suddenly glowing with energy before splitting into hundreds of mirror images of herself before each image pointed their staff at Odd-Eyes, the crystal at the tip charging with energy.

"YUYA!" Yuto called, managing to find another Action Card.

"Your resistance is pointless!" Aleisha proclaimed, "I have seen the possibilities and I know that the Destroyer _will not_ win this duel!"

"I WILL NOT LOSE!" Yuya roared, feeling a sudden rush of feral rage as he tore the action card from the platform. He was about to activate it, when he suddenly realized that he _couldn't_ activate the card he found.

Aleisha grinned.

With hundreds of blasts of dark energy, the Fortune Lady Infinities attacked Odd-Eyes, who roared in agony as his body began to rapidly age until he was nothing but the skeleton of a dragon, which quickly dissolved into dust. Raising their staffs into the air, the Fortune Lady Infinities merged back into one before front flipping through the air and landing on the same platform where Yuya and Yuto stood, metallic silver boots clinking against the platform as the witch towered over the two counterparts.

Before Yuya could even think to react, Fortune Lady Infinity swung her immense metallic staff into Yuya _and_ Yuto, the magical weapon apparently not caring if its target was made of flesh or spirit. Yuya and Yuto screamed in pain as the rod crunched against their chests, blood flying from Yuya's mouth before he and Yuto were thrown backwards into the wall of dark flames.

 **Yuya: 3600 – 1900 = 1700 LP**

Pain unlike anything Yuya had ever before experienced ripped at every nerve in his body as the flames consumed him. Faintly, Yuya could make out Yuto's own screams as the flames began to consume his spirit. Desperately, Yuya tried to claw his way out of the flames, but his body was thrashing too much, leaving him unable to control it.

From the roar of screams, a thought began to pound against his skull.

 **"You do not get to die! I will not allow it!"**

"YUYA!" Yuto's spirit screamed. "The darkness! It's-!"

 **"Get back up, and WIN!"**

Yuya began to sink, falling deeper and deeper into an abyss of pain and rage, burning, screaming, dying, **raging, hating, growing, awakening!**

 **"WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!"**

Yuya felt his lips moving, voice chanting in time with the voice pounding against the skull of his head.

"Win! Win! Win! Win!"

 **"WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!"**

 **"WIN!"**

 **"WIN!"**

 **"WIN!"**

 **"WIN!"**

 **"WIN!"**

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Yuya heard Yuto's voice scream.

Snapping out of the chant, Yuya suddenly felt a hand grab him, preventing him from falling further into the abyss.

"Yuya!" Yuto gasped. "We can't give in! Think of why we're fighting! Think of our comrades! We can't give into this darkness! Not now! You're duel for the sake of bringing smiles to others! Remember who you are!"

Yuya gasped in agony before gritting his teeth, straining against the pain of the flames and the fury of the darkness hammering against his mind. Straining, he forced himself to focus on thoughts of his father, mother, Shuzo, You Show Duel School, the Lancers, and…

"YUZU!" Yuya roared, pulling against Yuto's spiritual arm and wrenching himself from the flames before collapsing on the ground. Exhausted, Yuya lay panting on the ground, skin screaming with pain, though oddly only slightly reddened, blistered, and blackened in patches from the contact with the supernatural flames.

"So, you survived." Aleisha's voice sounded distantly above him, as if from across a tunnel. She sounded disappointed.

Yuya struggled to get back on his feet, but only managed to raise himself a few inches before collapsing back onto the ground.

"Hmph." Aleisha mused, "Though I suppose that won't last much longer. "I activate the effect of Fortune Lady Destiny! Each time a 'Fortune Lady' monster I control destroys an opponent's monster, I can draw one card!"

Across from Yuya, he just barely managed to make out Fortune Lady Destiny raising her staff, the golden spool of thread glowing with light, before Aleisha added a card from her deck to her hand.

 _"We have to get up, Yuya! We can't give up now!"_

 **"You're too weak!"** the voice rumbled inside Yuya, though more distantly. **"Only my power can save us!"**

Yuya ignored the second voice and pushed himself off the ground, muscles screaming with pain, before managing to come to a rest on all fours, head hanging down to the ground.

"I next activate the card I drew!" Aleisha declared, "Fortune's Favor! I target one Level one or higher 'Fortune Lady' monster in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it! Return now! Fortune Lady Dark!"

 **Fortune Lady Dark / DARK / Level 5 / Spellcaster / Effect / _ATK 2000_ / DEF 2000 **

_"Just a little more, Yuya!"_ Yuto pleaded, _"We still have an Action Card in our hand!"_

Grabbing a nearby low platform, Yuya pulled himself back onto his feet, before leaning on the platform, completely drained. His arm holding the Action Card dangled to the side, unable to raise itself up to his duel disk.

"Fortune Lady Destiny!" Aleisha called, stretching her hand towards her monster. "Attack Chameleon Magician! Destiny's End!"

Unfurling a length of thread from the tip of her wand before nimbly tying it to the base of the scythe blade on the bottom, Fortune Lady Destiny fashioned her staff into a gleaming wooden long bow, a golden arrow materializing into existence as she drew back the bow. With a violent caw from the witch's raven familiar, Destiny loosed her bow, sending the arrow straight into Yuya's Chameleon Magician, obliterating it in a powerful magical explosion of golden light, sending Yuya flying backwards before falling on his back, though thankfully not falling back into the flames.

 **Yuya: 1700 – 1200 = 500 LP**

Yuya groggily blinked at his duel disk, which showed his life points draining. No…that couldn't be right. Chameleon Magician was in defense position. Was he losing his mind?

"Fortune Lady Destiny inflicts piercing damage." Aleisha distantly called, "Furthermore, since another of your monsters was destroyed, I get to draw another card."

"Don't you dare black out!" Yuto angrily called, spiritual hands grabbing Yuya's shoulders. "I know you! You never give up! You always swing back, like a pendulum!"

"Pendulum…" Yuya rasped. He had never been in a duel like this. Plenty of his opponents had been ruthless and brutal, but none of them could have harmed him like this! He knew he had to get up! He _wanted_ to! But his body wouldn't let him!

"Furthermore," Aleisha continued, "the effect of Dark activates! I Special Summon Fortune Lady Earth from my graveyard!"

 **Fortune Lady Earth / EARTH / Level 6 / Spellcaster / Effect / _ATK 2400_ / DEF 2400 **

The duel was spinning out of control, and there was nothing Yuya could do. His spirit was more than willing, but-…

An idea suddenly came to Yuya, an insane one, yet it somehow felt right.

"Yuto!" Yuya called to his companion, "Tag in!"

 _"What!?"_ Yuto called back, sounding confused.

"Fortune Lady Destiny can make up to two attacks per battle phase!" Aleisha called, "This ends now! FORTUNE LADY DESTINY, DIRECT ATTACK!"

"Do it now!" Yuya called, "Take control! I'll help you!"

Fortune Lady Destiny drew back her bow, a golden arrow materializing.

"NOW YUTO!" Yuya called as Yuto grabbed Yuya's hand.

There was a flash of intense light as an odd sensation flooded Yuya's senses. When the light faded, he suddenly didn't feel the least bit exhausted or in pain. In fact, he could barely feel anything! Looking off to his side, Yuya saw Yuto leap up from the same spot he had been lying only moments ago, before launching himself into the air like an arrow and facing Aleisha, a fierce expression on his face.

"Impossible!" Aleisha exclaimed, eyes wide as dinner plates. "You were on the brink of death, you couldn't have…"

Her voice trailed off as she glanced at Yuya, who was standing off to the side.

"The other counterpart!? What!?" she sputtered.

"Action Magic Card!" Yuto roared, "Reaction Barrier! If an opponent's monster declares a direct attack, I can Special Summon one Barrier Token with a defense equal to the ATK of the attacking monster!"

 **Barrier Token / LIGHT / Level 3 / Thunder / ATK 0 / _DEF 2800_ **

In front of Yuto, a spherical orb appeared before projecting a forcefield in front of the two conterparts, just as Fortune Lady Destiny loosed her arrow. Behind destiny, Aleisha leaped into the air, dashing across platforms before snagging an Action Card of her own.

"I WILL NOT FAIL HERE! ACTION MAGIC, POISON DARTS!" Aleisha roared, a set of venom tipped darts appearing in her hand, which she threw towards Yuya, Yuto, and their monster. "I reduce the ATK and DEF of one of your monsters by five-hundred while inflicting five-hundred damage to your Life Points! DIE, DESTROYER!"

"Entermate Rain Goat's effect!" Yuto countered, "If I would take damage, I can discard this card from my hand in order to negate the damage! Furthermore, if a defense position monster I control would be destroyed, I can banish Reaction Barrier from my graveyard instead!"

In front of Yuya and Yuto, Raingoat appeared, absorbing the blow from Aleisha's poison darts before vanishing in an explosion of gold dust. A few of the darts crashed into the metallic sphere of the barrier token, damaging it, but the forcefield managed to deflect the golden arrow of Fortune Lady Destiny, leaving them protected.

 **Barrier Token: 2800 – 500 = 2300 DEF**

Aleisha, however, was not done.

"Fortune Lady Earth!" Aleisha roared, "Destroy the Barrier Token! CURSED SKEWER!"

Twirling her staff into the air, Fortune Lady Earth slammed her scythe blade into the ground, causing a wave of pointy stalagmites to erupt from the earth, heading straight towards the barrier token. Yuya was already reacting, feeling oddly energized as his spirit leapt from platform to platform, before spying an Action Card.

 _"Here! Yuto!"_ Yuya called, pointing to where he had found the card. In response, Yuto leapt into the air, dashing forward before snagging the card from the platform and activating it.

"Action Magic Card, Defensive Draw!" Yuto called. "If a monster I control would be destroyed by battle, I can change it to defense position if in face-up attack position, negate its destruction, and draw 1 card! I use this effect on my Barrier Token!"

The stalagmites of earth slammed into the forcefield, knocking the robotic sphere back, but not destroying it. Placing a hand on top of his deck, Yuto drew a card before bracing himself against the small shockwaves of the last attack, using his tattered cape as a wind break.

Aleisha gaped at them both, completely thunderstruck. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a card in her hand.

"I set one card face-down and end my turn." Aleisha growled. "During this time, all of our cards that were banished by Dimensional Festival return to our decks."

Yuto held out his duel disk, two cards flying into the deck slot before the duel disk automatically shuffled the deck.

"I should have known you'd use some kind of trick to stay in the game." Aleisha growled. "I won't make the same mistake again!"

"You've threatened us with death and have refused to listen to anything we've said." Yuto said, glaring at Aleisha. "I'm giving you one last chance. Surrender, or I _will_ crush you!"

Aleisha's mouth fell open.

"With what!?" she gaped. "Incarnation of the destroyer or not, you've got almost nothing on your field and only one card in your hand! Your lifepoints are hanging by a thread! How the hell do you expect to recover from this!?"

"I have faith in the bonds I share with my comrades and in the just cause we share." Yuto reverently replied. "With this, I know that we _cannot_ lose! Ore no turn…DRAW!"

Ripping a card from his deck, Yuto gave a look at his hand before nodding. Walking over to stand beside his spiritual companion…no…now _Yuya_ was the spiritual companion…that was going to take some getting used to…Yuya looked at the cards in their hand, surprised to see that neither of them had been cards he had put in his deck.

They were _Phantom Knights_ cards!

"During the standby-phase," Yuto declared, throwing his hand off to the side, "Entermate Skullcrobat Joker returns to the field! Come back from the different dimension now!"

Above their heads, a multi-colored portal opened up into the sky before Skullcrobat Joker flipped back onto the field, a happy smile on his face as he took up position.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker / DARK / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / _ATK 1800_ / DEF 100 **

Raising his hand into the air, Yuto revealed the cards in his hand, looking remarkably calm and focused for someone who had, effectively, just been resurrected from the dead.

"I, using my two scale five, The Phantom Knights of Divided Tapestry, set the Pendulum Scale!"

To either side of Yuto, a column of blue light appeared before a pair of hooded Phantom Knights rose into the air, a pair of the number "5" appearing beneath each of them. Yuto's duel disk did not flash with the word "PENDULUM" as the active scales of his cards did not allow for Pendulum Summoning, but this did not seem to worry Yuto in the least. Curious, Yuya looked down at the duel disk and noticed that, oddly enough, while the two cards were exactly the same in terms of name, stats, and effects, they were drawn with alternate artworks, each Phantom Knight holding one half of a ragged tapestry, which had been neatly sliced in two.

Above Yuya and Yuto's heads, the physical manifestations of the cards each unfurled one half of the tapestry depicted in their cards. The first half of the tapestry depicted a grand castle with a group of knights standing around a large stone table, raising their swords to a king, who sat upon a throne. A little to the right of that same half of the tapestry, the knights were charging into a battle happening just outside their grand castle, their king leading the way as he bravely charged at the head of the army. On the other half of the tapestry, the king and his knights had all fallen in battle, bloody bodies littering the ground and broken weapons and armor scattered across the battlefield, which became a massive cemetery surrounding a ruined castle. At the very end of each tapestry, where it had been cleaved in two, was the bisected image of Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, who was facing forward, claws outstretched on either side.

"Though the Phantom Knights may fall and be forgotten, their eternal vigil shall never end!" Yuto proclaimed, "The effect of each The Phantom Knights of Divided Tapestry activates when they are placed in the Pendulum Zones! I Special Summon a 'Phantom Knights' Trap Card that can Special Summon itself as a monster from my deck, treating it as if it were Special Summoned by its own effect! Using this effect, I Special Summon two copies of The Phantom Knights of Wrong Magnetring!"

Raising their banners into the air, the Phantom Knights began chanting a deep ghostly Gregorian chant before the images on their tapestries lit up and twin streams of light poured from the cards, coalescing into a pair of ghosts, who each held up a large metal ring.

 **The Phantom Knights of Wrong Magnetring / DARK / Level 2 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 0 / _DEF 0_**

"Next," Yuto continued, "I activate the effect of each Wrong Magnetring! I send each copy of Wrong Magnetring and each copy of my Divided Tapestry to the graveyard in order to draw four cards!"

Aleisha grit her teeth, looking furious. Yuto, meanwhile, turned to Yuya.

"The outcome of this duel is riding on this draw!" Yuto called, holding out his hand, "Lend me your power, Yuya!"

Nodding, Yuya stepped forward, taking Yuto's hand before they placed their hands on top of their deck, preparing to draw.

 _"DRAW!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, an arc of bright light trailing from their hands as they added the four cards to their hand. In that instant, Yuya no longer felt like a disembodied ghost, but like a he was within his own body again, mind in perfect synch with Yuto's as they each looked at the cards in their hand.

Together, they knew what needed to be done.

Not wasting a moment, Yuya and Yuto leaped for a nearby platform before snagging an Action Card from its top.

 _"Magic Card, Pendulum Call, Hatsudo!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, discarding the action card they had grabbed for the card's cost. _"We add two 'Magician' Pendulum cards from our deck to our hand! With this effect, we add Monochrome Magician and Spectrum Magician to our hand before activating them!"_

To their right and left, the two magicians reappeared to the field multi-colored light from Spectrum splitting the shadows emanating from Aleisha's monsters while Monochrome Magician seemed to absorb the shadows into himself, leaving the overall darkness less intense.

 **Spectrum Magician: Scale 10**

 **Monochrome Magician: Scale 0**

 _"Magic Card, Entermate Band Hurricane!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"Since we control Entermate Skullcrobat Joker, we target Future Visions in order to return it to your hand!"_

Aleisha grit her teeth, understanding the ramifications of her field spell leaving as Skullcrobat Joker morphed into a swirling tornado of wind, blowing away the cosmic ceiling above them.

 _"With Future Visions gone, we can now Normal Summon!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared, holding up the card they had been given by Sam for the Friendship Cup tournament. _"Tuning Magician Shoukan!"_

Flipping onto the field, the young pink-haired magician with a white magician outfit and tuning fork staff appeared to the field, laughing with excitement.

 **Tuning Magician / DARK / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect / _ATK 0_ / DEF 0 **

_"Tuning Magician's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto proclaimed, eyes glowing with light, _"If it is summoned, our opponent gains four-hundred life points and we take four-hundred damage!"_

"So, you're that desperate for a tuner." Aleisha mused, before her eyes widened, "Or do you plan on avoiding the damage with an Action Card?"

 _"No!"_ Yuya and Yuto replied in unison, standing still as Tuning Magician tapped her staff, sending a wave of sound into Yuya/Yuto and Aleisha. _"Taking her effect is key to our strategy!"_

"What strategy?" Aleisha scoffed, "Suicide?"

 **Yuya/Yuto: 500 – 400 = 100 LP**

 **Aleisha: 2900 + 400 = 3300 LP**

 _"The Phantom Knights of Divided Tapestry graveyard no kouka!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared, _"If we take damage during our turn, we can banish The Phantom Knights of Divided Tapestry and one other The Phantom Knights of Divided Tapestry from our graveyard in order to draw one card for every one-thousand points of difference between our life points! Since your life points are over three-thousand points higher, we banish both copies of The Phantom Knights of Faded Tapestry from our graveyard to draw three cards! DRAW!"_

Tearing the three cards from the top of their deck, Yuya and Yuto looked at the cards before nodding in unison.

 _"You can feel it too?"_ Yuya asked.

"Yes." Yuto agreed "A presence. Just like in your duel with Shinji. It's time we combined our powers to call forth the others!"

 _"We already have what we need to call the first."_ Yuya mused.

"And with this hand, the others will follow." Yuto agreed before the both of them stretched a hand towards their monsters.

 _"We tune our Level one Tuning Magician with our Level four Skullcrobat Joker and Level three Barrier Token in order to Synchro Summon!"_ They declared in unison.

Smiling, Tuning Magician rose into the air before morphing into a single green ring, which encompassed the other monsters in its light before Yuya and Yuto began their summoning chant.

 _"Hero's blade that sets forth unyielding light! Here and now, along with a flash, awaken! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level 8! Enlightenment Paladin!"_

Aleisha staggered backwards, hand covering her eyes as Enlightenment Paladin exploded onto the field with a mighty roar, blades unsheathed and ready for battle.

 **Enlightenment Paladin / DARK / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 2000**

"That Synchro Monster, is a mere shadow compared to my servants!" Aleisha roared, managing to recover from her initial shock.

 _"Enlightenment Paladin's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, _"If it was summoned using a 'Magician' monster, we can add one Magic Card from our graveyard to our hand! Using this effect, we add Comrade Bonds from our graveyard to our hand!"_

Behind Enlightenment Paladin, a phantasmal clock appeared, hands spinning counterclockwise, causing time to reverse as the card in the graveyard flew upwards into Yuya and Yuto's outstretched hand.

 _"Using the active Pendulum Scale, we pendulum summon!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared together. _"Swing once more, Pendulum of our entwined souls! Draw an arc of light across the aether! Come forth, our monster servants! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker, Wisdom-Eye Magician, Chameleon Magician, and the mysterious dragon with beautiful heterochromatic eyes, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_

In a tornado of red, blue, green, and gold light, Yuya and Yuto's monsters reappeared to the field, one by one, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon appearing first with a roar before Joker and Wisdom-Eye appeared on top of his back, hands conjoined and lifted into the air so that they could catch Chameleon Magician, who landed on top on all fours, before all four of the monsters posed dramatically, like a trio of cheerleaders atop the dragon's back.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Pendulum / Effect / _ATK 2500_ / DEF 2000 **

**Entermate Skullcrobat Joker / DARK / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / _ATK 1800_ / DEF 100 **

**Wisdom-Eye Magician / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 1500 / _DEF 1500_ **

**Chameleon Magician / DARK / Level 3 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 800 / _DEF 1600_**

"Summon as many monsters as you want!" Aleisha roared, leaping into the air, before snagging an Action Card, "I'll just get rid of them all again!

 _"Chameleon Magician's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto countered. _"Once per turn, we can target one monster we control in order to treat all monsters as that monster's type until the end phase! We target Wisdom-Eye Magician in order to also treat Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon as a Spellcaster-Type monster! Heterochroma Collage!"_

Whipping out the tongues of her chameleon bracelets, Chameleon Magician whipped into the air before landing atop a higher platform on all fours. Once situated, she pointed her bracelets at Odd-Eyes and Wisdom-Eye Magician, tongues whipping out and wrapping around both monsters before she, Odd-Eyes, and Wisdom-Eye began changing colors, multi-colored spots appearing over all three of their bodies before all three of them sported a coat of red, green, yellow, and black spots.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon: Spellcaster-Type**

 _"Spectrum Magician's Pendulum Effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"Once per turn, we can perform a Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon using only Pendulum Monnsters we control! Using our Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Entermate Skullcrobat Joker, and Chameleon Magician, we Fusion Summon!"_

Giggling, Spectrum Magician extended her staff, conjuring a multi-colored fusion portal, which sucked Odd-Eyes, Skullcrobat, and Chameleon Magician into its depths before the three blended together in a swirling rainbow of color as Yuya and Yuto began their summoning chant.

 _Artistic Magician of ever-changing colors, Macabre acrobatic Jester of death, Dragon with the mysterious eyes, coalesce your powers through the magical arts, and be re-forged as a blade that slashes through the predetermined future! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level 8! Magical Swordsman of Fate! Karma Paladin!_

A single crimson talwar blade emerged from the upper center of the Fusion Portal before slashing downward, cleaving the swirling whirlpool in two to reveal the new monster in its depths. Karma Paladin was a tall blonde-haired magician, somewhat similar to Magician of Astromancy, but in resplendent purple warrior robes. A large white stone circle was affixed to Karma Paladin's back, and in each of his hands was a large crimson talwar blade.

 **Karma Paladin / DARK / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 2500_ / DEF 2000**

 _"Karma Paladin's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"If it was Fusion Summoned using at least one 'Magician' Pendulum Monster, we can add one Trap Card from our graveyard to our hand! Using this effect, we add Entermate Call from our graveyard to our hand!"_

Raising his swords into the air, the circular stone on Karma Paladin's back glowed with light. In front of the magician, a tree sprouted, one of the branches extending towards the magician before bearing a single fruit, which the magician plucked before instantly transforming into a card with a flourish of his hand. Bowing to Yuya and Yuto, the magician presented the card to Yuya and Yuto before the two took it.

 _"Magic Card, Pendulum Swing-Back hasudo!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"We discard the action card we added to our hand in order to Special Summon one Pendulum Monster face-up from our Extra Deck! Return to the field, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 2000**

 _"Smile Magician's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared, holding up a card in their hand, _"If an 'Odd-Eyes', 'Entermate', or 'Magician' monster is Special Summoned, other than by Pendulum Summon, we can Special Summon this card from our hand! Come forth!"_

In an explosion of multi-colored smiling flowers, suns, circles, and stars, Yuya and Yuto's new monster, a smiling seven-year-old witch wearing sunny robes decorated with the same smiling faces as those depicted on smile world, twirled onto the field, giggling with joy. Atop her curly pink hair, she wore an immense sapphire-blue witch hat, which constantly flopped over her bright turquoise eyes.

 _"Smile Magician's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared, _"If summoned this way, we can target one other monster we control in order to change the Level of Smile Magician to the Level of that monster. Using this effect, we change the Level of Smile Magician to the Level of Wisdom-Eye Magician! Smile Sharing!"_

The activation of Smile Magician's effect consisted of the simple act of the little girl hopping onto Wisdom-Eye's back, affectionately hugging the older monster's neck and causing Wisdom-Eye to smile underneath its face mask.

 **Smile Magician: Level 4**

 _"Using our Level four Smile Magician and Wisdom-Eye Magician, we construct the Overlay Network!"_

At their command, the two magicians morphed into twin streams of golden light, which drained into a large Xyz Galaxy that appeared on the ground. Aleisha gasped in astonishment, eyes hanging open at the third Extra Deck summon as Yuya and Yuto commenced their summon chant.

 _"Born in the endless cycle of death and rebirth, raise your eternal blade from the void and awaken your power! XYZ SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Rank 4! Magical Swordsman of Eternity! Reincarnation Paladin!"_

In an explosion of multi-colored light, the new monster, a large butterfly with stark black wings, flew onto the field before suddenly transforming in a flash of light. In place of the butterfly, a tall magician in glittering black robes stood onto the field, silvery white hair streaming down to his lower back in three elegant braids. In each of his hands he held a large silvery curved scimitar with decorative handles forged to look like black butterfly wings.

 **Reincarnation Paladin / DARK / Rank 4 / Spellcaster / Xyz / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 2000**

 _"Reincarnation Paladin's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared. _"If it was summoned using at least one Pendulum 'Magician' monster as a material, we can target one monster in our graveyard in order to add it to our hand! Using this effect, we return Entermate Rain Goat from our graveyard to our hand!"_

Placing his swords together, Reincarnation Paladin conjured a bright red bhavacakra in the air. Through the symbol, the phantasmal image of Raingoat flew through the circle, morphing into a worm, butterfly, frog, fish, bird, and monkey, before finally morphing into a card and flying into Yuya and Yuto's hand.

Smiling confidently, Yuya and Yuto looked at Aleisha, who was glaring back at them, a slight nervous twitch in her left eye.

 _"The fun is just getting started! Magic Card, Comrade Bonds, hasudo!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, _"We target Enlightenment Paladin in order to give it three-hundred ATK for every other monster we control!"_

 **Enlightenment Paladin: 2500 ATK + (300 X3) = 3400 ATK**

 _"Continuous Magic Card, Paladin's Vow!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, _"This card is destroyed unless we control at least one Spellcaster-Type Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster. While this card is active, at the end of the damage step, in which a Spellcaster-Type monster we control attacked, we can target that monster and one other Spellcaster-Type monster we control in order to give the second target ATK equal to the difference between the first targets current and original ATK until the End Phase!"_

In front of Yuya and Yuto, a continuous spell card depicting Karma, Enlightenment, and Reincarnation Paladin crossing swords, appeared to the field before Yuya and Yuto's three Paladin monsters crossed their own blades, in imitation of the image depicted on the spell card.

 _"BATTLE!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison. _"Enlightenment Paladin attacks Fortune Lady Dark!"_

"Trap activate!" Aleisha countered, "Slip of Fortune! I target your attacking Enlightenment Paladin in order to negate the attack and banish Fortune Lady Dark until my next Standby Phase!"

Enlightenment Paladin charged forward, ready to cleave Fortune Lady Dark in two with its blades, however, the second before its blades were about to connect, Fortune Lady Dark tapped her staff to the ground with a sly smile, conjuring a thick black cloud of dark smoke, which dissipated, leaving nothing but a confused Enlightenment Paladin behind.

 _"Paladin's Vow!"_ Yuya and Yuto countered, _"Since Enlightenment Paladin still declared an attack, we can target Karma Paladin in order to change its ATK to the ATK of Enlightenment Paladin!"_

Off to the side, Enlightenment Paladin passed by Karma before the two fist-bumped each other, light from Enlightenment Paladin flowing into Karma Paladin as his ATK rose.

 **Karma Paladin: 2500 + 900 = 3400 ATK**

 _"Karma Paladin, attack Fortune Lady Destiny!"_ Yuya and Yuto commanded.

"Fortune Lady Infinity's effect!" Aleisha declared, "Since you declared an attack, I can banish my Fortune Lady Infinity in order to Special Summon Fortune Lady Future from my graveyard! Return now!"

Throwing her crystalline staff into the ground, Fortune Lady Infinity vanished before her staff burst into a circle of blue-white flames, through which Fortune Lady Future reappeared.

 **Fortune Lady Future / DARK / Level -8 / Spellcaster / Synchro / Effect / ATK 4000 / DEF 4000**

 _"Karma Paladin, continue the attack!"_ Yuya and Yuto commanded as their monster charged forward. Raising his talwar into the air, preparing to defeat Destiny.

"Action Magic, Battle Change!" Aleisha countered, launching herself onto another platform and snagging an action card, "I change the attack to Fortune Lady Earth! Don't think I didn't know you planned to attack Earth with Odd-Eyes!"

Karma Paladin changed direction mid-air before cleaving Fortune Lady Earth in two, knocking Aleisha back with the shockwaves.

 **Aleisha: 3300 – 1000 = 2300 LP**

 _"Karma Paladin's effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared, _"Once per turn, if a monster is destroyed by battle or card effect, we can banish one card from our graveyard in order to either gain one-thousand life points or draw one card! We banish Reaction Barrier in order to gain one-thousand life points! Karma Blessing!"_

Flower petals formed around Karma Paladin as it raised its talwar blades into the air. Closing their eyes, Yuya and Yuto accepted the life points, feeling some of the pain leave as their body healed.

 **Yuya/Yuto: 100 + 1000 = 1100 LP**

 _"Paladin's Vow!"_ Yuya and Yuto continued, as Karma Paladin passed by Reincarnation Paladin before the two fist bumped, power transferring to Reincarnation Paladin, _"We change Reincarnation Paladin's ATK to the ATK of Karma Paladin!"_

 **Reincarnation Paladin: 3400 ATK**

 _"Reincarnation Paladin, attack Fortune Lady Destiny!"_ Yuya and Yuto commanded.

"Fortune Lady Future's effect!" Aleisha countered, "I banish Future until the End Phase in order to Special Summon Fortune Lady Water from my deck in defense position!"

 **Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 1200 / _DEF 1200_**

"Fortune Lady Water's effect activates!" Aleisha declared, "Since she was Special Summoned, I draw two cards!"

 _"The battle will continue!"_ Yuya and Yuto countered, "Reincarnation Paladin, attack and destroy Fortune Lady Destiny!"

"Battle Change's effect continues to apply until the end of this turn!" Aleisha countered. "I change the attack to my defense position Fortune Lady Water! Furthermore, I activate Rite of Destiny's graveyard effect! If a 'Fortune Lady' I control would be destroyed, I can banish this card from my graveyard instead!"

As Reincarnation Paladin prepared to destroy Water, Destiny suddenly intercepted the attack, parrying the blow with her staff before kicking Reincarnation Paladin away.

Aleisha was panting with breath, teeth grit in anger.

"Go on…try attacking again with Odd-Eyes." She growled, "I'm sure you'll get exactly the Action Card you need."

Yuya and Yuto eyed her before stretching their hand towards Paladin's Vow.

"The second effect of Paladin's Vow." They declared, "During either player's turn, we can tribute this card in order to target one monster we control and increase its ATK by the total ATK gained by all Spellcaster-Type monsters we controlled this turn, until the End Phase of this turn!"

Clamping their hands together, all three of Yuya and Yuto's monsters began chanting before light streamed from their bodies, entering into Odd-Eyes, who roared with power.

 **Odd-Eyes: 2500 + (900 X 3) = 5200 ATK**

 _"Battle!"_ Yuya and Yuto commanded, _"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Fortune Lady Destiny!"_

"Battle Change's effect!" Aleisha countered, "I change the attack to my defense position Fortune Lady Water!"

Anticipating this, Yuya and Yuto were already charging for another Action Card.

 _"Action Magic, Victory Topping!"_ they declared, _"We increase Odd-Eyes's ATK by 600 and change Fortune Lady Water to face-up attack position!"_

"Fortune Lady Foresight's effect!" Aleisha roared, revealing a card in her hand. "If my opponent activates a card from the hand or GY while I control a 'Fortune Lady' monster, I can discard this card and one other card from my hand in order to negate that effect and make it so that you cannot activate cards or effects of the same type until the End Phase of this turn!"

In front of Aleisha, the phantasmal image of a hooded Fortune Lady with hair, skirt, and blouse the color of teal, and a magical staff with a seer's stone at the end appeared, peering through the hole in her stone before firing a beam of light into Yuya's card, negating its effect. Odd-Eyes, meanwhile, charged up its attack, before firing into Aleisha's Fortune Lady Water and destroying it.

"We didn't manage to win." Yuto panted.

 _"She's strong."_ Yuya agreed. _"But the show isn't over! We just need to keep fighting."_

"Agreed." Yuto replied with a nod. "Setting two cards face-down. Turn end. At the end of the turn, the ATK gained by the effect of Paladin's Vow ends."

 **Karma Paladin: 2500 ATK**

 **Reincarnation Paladin: 2500 ATK**

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon: 2500 ATK**

Aleisha began to approach them, a victorious smile on her face.

"I knew you couldn't win! I foresaw it!" she proclaimed before placing her hand on top of her deck. "Prepare yourself, Destroyer, it's my turn to-…!"

"INTRUSION PENALTY! TWO-THOUSAND LIFE POINTS!"

 **?: 4000 – 2000 = 2000 LP**

Yuya, Yuto, and Aleisha jumped in surprise, all three of them looking around the perimeter of flames.

There was nobody around.

Aleisha hastily attempted to draw a card from her deck, however, each time she did, an error message stopped her.

"Impossible!" Aleisha exclaimed in growing alarm. "I sealed off this duel! Nobody could intrude unless they were-!"

The sound of knocking just outside the flames silenced her, her face suddenly growing deathly pale. Yuya and Yuto felt their bodies freeze up, a foreboding tingle creeping up the back of their spines and into their necks.

A hand, enormous and mechanical, burst through the wall of fire, scattering flames as the entire perimeter faded away, revealing the immense tank-like man, Sergey Volkov, now twice as large and armored with thick metal augmentations, standing just behind.

"No!" Aleisha exclaimed, backing away in evident fear. "No! No! NO! This can't be happening! Not now of all times!"

Yuya felt himself quivering. This was the man who had knocked Yuzu off the trackway in their duel, the one who had _killed_ her.

Without warning, he found himself grabbing Yuto's hand, his spirit switching places with Yuto so that he was in command of his body once again.

"You…" Yuya whispered, voice quivering with growing rage as he clenched his fists, all sense of his past exhaustion gone. "…you killed Yuzu! I will _never_ forgive you!"

Sergey regarded Yuya, a bored expression on his face. Closing his eyes, Sergey seemed to concentrate before an immense multi-colored spiral mark blazed to life on his chest, despite the armor plating covering his skin.

Yuya backed away, recognizing the same mark as the one he had seen on Sergey's skin in the video Roger had shown him. Sergey opened his eyes, which now blazed with multi-colored light, before regarding Yuya and Yuto with an amused smile.

 _"So, these are the descendants of the great destroyer."_ Sergey mused in a cold condescending voice, completely different from his own. _"Astonishing. You have managed to defy even my_ lowest _of expectations."_

Sergey trudged forward, heavy metal boots clanking against the floor, hydraulic motors whirring within the machinery. To the side, Aleisha backed away, mouth clamped shut, looking deathly afraid.

 _"Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum."_ Sergey continued in that strange voice he had never used. _"A predictable combination of monsters, though I suppose it_ does _show that their powers are, at least, stirring, if not truly awakening. I must apologize, Sergey. Crushing these two might not be as fun for you as I had hoped."_

Yuya blinked at this. Was Sergey Volkov talking to himself?

Sergey seemed to notice this. He looked directly at Yuya, lips forming into a smug smirk.

 _"In your defense, you do seem to have retained the Destroyer's intelligence. Clearly, you are just as dense as your predecessor, Sakaki Yuya. Is that why your father left you?"_

Yuya started at this, a renewed surge of rage washing away his confusion.

"How do you know about my father!?" Yuya demanded.

 _"Well, when most people want to know someone on a personal basis, they talk to them like we are doing now."_ Sergey replied, matter-of-factly. _"Of course, that's not to say that this was the method_ I _used to gather intel on you and your delightful parents. Charming father, Yusho. Your mother, Yoko, is just as charming. Has as much mastery of a motorcycle as your typical Synchro resident. Odd that. But I am wandering off on a tangent."_

Yuya gaped at him, unsuccessfully attempting to come up with a response. Off to the side, Yuya felt Yuto grab his hand and take control again.

"Who are you!?" Yuto demanded. "You're obviously not Sergey!"

 _"And Oshiro Yuto. It's nice to see that you can state the obvious."_ Sergey replied with a wry smile, causing Yuto's eyes to widen in shock. Yuya looked at Yuto. Never, in all his time knowing him, had his companion ever even indicated that he _had_ a surname.

 _"I knew your parents as well."_ Sergey, or whoever was speaking, continued, as if reading their minds. _"_ That _was regrettable, what happened to them. I believe that's when I finally came to the conclusion that I_ couldn't _kill the incarnations as children."_

"What?" Yuto gaped, in a _very_ weak voice, looking as if all the color had been drained from him.

 _"Ah, apologies, incarnations."_ The speaker apologized. _"You wanted to know who I was. Dark Signer Hashimoto Yuu. Just 'Yuu' or 'Hashimoto' will work just as well. I am indifferent to what I am called, just so long as you understand what I_ am _."_

Yuya gaped at the speaker, remembering something.

"You're a dark signer, just like the girl from the story!" Yuya exclaimed, taking control once again. "Aklla…whatever her name was."

 _"Akllasisa."_ Yuu corrected. _"So, Roger shared that story with you, I take it?"_

"He told us that the Dark Signers destroyed an entire civilization." Yuto growled, he and Yuya swapping back and forth.

 _"Yes. The legend of Akllasisa and Vitcos was something of a cautionary tale taught to the Signers."_ Yuu mused. _"It's accurate enough for its purposes, though it conveniently ignores or outright revises certain historical facts."_

"You're from back then!" Yuya exclaimed. "That's how you know the story!"

Yuu and Sergey chuckled in unison.

 _"From all the way back then?"_ Yuu snorted. _"Certainly not. I am hardly_ that _old. The gods I serve, however, are well aware of that history and much more history that far predates the first human records from any iteration of reality. Speaking of iterations of reality, that is exactly why I am here."_

"What do you want?" Yuya growled, barely containing his growing rage as he took back control of his body, "Why did you kill Yuzu? Sergey's some kind of servant or vessel of yours, right? You're the one who actually killed her, not him!"

 _"Give Sergey credit, Yuya."_ Yuu smirked, _"I think he'd be greatly offended if you thought he was incapable of killing people on his own time, though, yes, I did order Sergey to kill her. Sergey just came up with how to do it. Brilliant work, if I do say so myself."_

Yuya felt his muscles tensing.

"WHY!?" Yuya roared. "She was innocent! She never did anything to you!"

 _"Debatable, as her predecessors and your own are largely responsible for the current state of reality, though, yes, I will concede that the demigod, Hiragi Yuzu, did nothing directly to me of her own will. Be rest assured that her death had nothing to do with petty vengeance. I'm a very spite-_ less _person in that way."_

"THEN WHY!?" Yuya roared.

 _"For the same reason I had to kill Rin and Ruri."_ Yuu sincerely replied. _"And for the same reason I'll have to kill the two of you, Selena, Yugo, and Yuri. Now then…"_

He raised his duel disk into the air, staring down at Yuya and Yuto with a calm and confident expression. To his side, Yuya felt Yuto trembling, before his companion reached out and grabbed his hand, taking control.

"What did you do to her!?" Yuto choked, tears streaming from his eyes.

 _"You will find out soon enough."_ Yuu promised before examining his opening hand with a frown.

 _"I suppose I have to give credit to Roger for attempting to create his own custom Earthbound Cards."_ He mused. _"Even if it ultimately disgusts me. Poor foolish Jean-Michell Roger. Your kingdom is falling and_ nothing _you do can stop it. Even if you had all the time and resources in this world, you could never replicate our power. These cards lack the soul of a true Earthbound Disciple._

He raised Sergey's hand into the air, eyes and mark brightening with light. Gasping, Yuya and Yuto suddenly backed away as a multi-colored spiral mark stretched out from Sergey's feet, bathing the field in a haunting heterochromatic light. From the insides of the mark, hulking seven-foot-tall phantasmal monsters with pitch-black humanoid bodies and immense savage claws on their hands lifted themselves from the ground and onto the field. The creatures faces and bodies were completely featureless, save for patterns of multi-colored spirals which adorned the surface of their matte skin, the largest of the spiral marks dominating the center of their heads, chest, and bellies. A few of the creature's heads opened up along the lines of the spiral like a blooming flower, revealing row upon row of razor sharp pitch-black teeth within. Gathering around the hulking body of Sergey, the creatures knelt down in unison, as if reverencing a god.

 _"Fallen warriors of the Earthbound!"_ Yuu chanted in a booming godly voice, _"You failed in your discipleship in your first war and were justly punished! For millennia, you have suffered, stripped of your power and identity! This day, I offer you your redemption! Take upon yourselves the mantel of Earthbound Disciple once more, bind your souls to the phylacteries of my Harbinger, Sergey Volkov, and reclaim your glory!"_

Howling and roaring, the creatures all rushed forward as if intending to trample Sergey int their mad haste. However, the second they were about to collide into the hulking man, the monsters leaped into the cards in Sergey's hand, deck, and extra deck, with a few more merging with the hand Sergey had placed on top of the deck, causing the hand to glow with dark energy.

 _"Kouboku no turn…"_ Yuu declared in a calm voice, reverently closing his eyes, **_"DARK DRAAAAAAAW!"_**

His calm voice suddenly intensified with the last two words, as if they were spoken by thousands of roaring demons. Shadow trailed from his hand as he tore the top card from his deck before adding it to his hand and beginning his turn.

 _"Earthbound Prisoner Dream Seer no kouka hasudo!"_ Yuu began, revealing a card in his hand. _"Once per turn, I can discard this card from my hand in order to add one Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand! Using this effect, I add Earthbound Prison from my deck to my hand!"_

Above Sergey's head, a small black demon shaped vaguely like a flaming octopus with a bulbous spherical head, odd branch-like tentacles twisted and chained together into the shape of a dream catcher, and indigo markings all over its body, appeared to the field before morphing into a card, which Yuu added to Sergey's hand.

 _"Earthbound?"_ Yuto whispered next to Yuya. _"This isn't Sergey's original deck!"_

"No…" Aleisha whispered off to the side, "…this was always Sergey's deck. Roger just changed it because he was too afraid of it."

Yuya nodded his head in understanding. The deck certainly _felt_ terrifying. Worse, with Sergey's deck completely different from his duel against Yuzu, he had no idea what to expect.

Yuu turned Sergey's head slightly, briefly regarding Aleisha with a small smile before returning to his turn.

 _"Field Magic, Earthbound Prison, hasudo!"_ Yuu roared, slamming the card into the duel disk's field zone. Erupting from the ground and walls, a legion of ghostly hands rose up from the ground, surrounding the duelists on all sides as ghost like wisps of white light darted in between the fingers of the hands.

 _"Since an 'Earthbound' Field Spell Card was activated,"_ Yuu continued, _"The effect of Dream Seer activates from the graveyard, enabling me to Special Summon Dream Seer. Come forth!"_

A new hand erupted from the ground, carrying the squirming spirit in its grasp.

 **Earthbound Prisoner Dream Seer / DARK / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 0 / _DEF 1900_**

 _"Earthbound Prisoner Line Walker, shoukan!"_ Sergey and Yuu continued, slamming down another card to summon a small black demon with orange markings and immense chained hands.

 **Earthbound Prisoner Line Walker / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Tuner / Effect / _ATK 800_ / DEF 1100**

 _"Earthbound Prisoner Line Walker's new and improved effect activates when it is Normal Summoned."_ Yuu continued with a smile, _"If Normal Summoned while there is an active 'Earthbound' Field Spell Card, I can draw one card."_

He placed Sergey's hand back on top of his deck, the hand becoming enshrouded with a curtain of black shadow.

 ** _"DARK DRAAAAAAW!"_** Yuu roared, extracting a card from the deck before adding it to Sergey's hand without even really looking at it. Without pause, Yuu extended Sergey's hand towards Earthbound Dream Seer.

 _"Earthbound Prisoner Dream Seer's additional effect!"_ Yuu continued. " _Once per turn, I can target one 'Earthbound' Tuner I control in order to change the Level of that Tuner to the Level of Dream Seer. Targeting my Line Walker, I change the Level of Line Walker to four!"_

Squirming out of the grasp of the hand, Dream Seer swam through the air before hovering above Line Walker, marks on its body glowing with indigo light before Line Walker's level changed.

 **Earthbound Prisoner Line Walker: Level 4**

 _"Here it comes."_ Yuya thought. _"A synchro summon!"_

With a smile, Yuu revealed the card he had just drawn moments ago.

 ** _"Magic Card,"_** Yuu rumbled, god-like voice growing in strength and intensity, **_"Underworld Invastion – Synchro Fusion Overlay, hasudo!"_**

In front of Yuu, an immense image of the spell card, which depicted a synchro pillar of light surrounded by a single synchro ring in the middle, a swirling fusion portal on top, and a glittering black-and-gold Xyz Galaxy on the bottom appeared to the field before the ground around the duelists began to tremble. Hands from the field spell card retracted, fingers shying away as if frightened.

 _"With the effect of Underworld Invasion,"_ Yuu calmly explained, _"If there is a card in the Field Spell Card Zone, I can Fusion Summon one 'Earthbound' Fusion Monster, Synchro Summon one 'Earthbound' Synchro monster, and Xyz Summon one 'Earthbound' Xyz Monster from my Extra Deck using two monsters I control that can be used as Material for all three."_

"What!?" Yuto exclaimed. "A Fusion, Synchro, _and_ Xyz Summon, using just three cards!?"

 _"It is a mediocre power, I know."_ Yuu admitted with a shrug, _"However, it will have to do for now."_

In front of Yuu, Dream Seer and Line Walker suddenly split into three separate images of themselves, the images on the outside ends slightly more faded than the images in the center. The two most translucent images of Dream Seer and Line Walker on the outside edges rose into the air, a fusion portal forming behind them as Yuu began a summoning chant.

 ** _"Prisoner that dreams of pain, become one with the prisoner that walks the path of execution and become a gigantic beast that delivers out punishment! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level eight! Jibaku Kairei Geo Kraken!"_**

Black tentacles writhing through the air while glowing with violet light, Geo Kraken, an immense demonic squid with a gaping fanged mouth and an armored sheath bolted directly into its inky-black flesh, burst from the ground, immense body filling up a quarter of the room while tentacles smashed through the walls of adjoining rooms to give itself more space.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken / DARK / Level 8 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / _ATK 2800_ / DEF 1200 **

As soon as the first monster had appeared, the next images of Dream Seer and Line Walker on the outer ends rose into the air, Line Walker morphing into a quartet of four rings which surrounded Dream Seer and transformed it into four white stars as Yuu began a second summoning chant.

 ** _"Revive from the depths of the earth. Gigantic beast with wings of punishment! SYNCHRO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level eight! Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon!"_**

Exploding from the ground, an immense demonic griffon with a pitch-black body, ghostly green markings over its body, chained limbs and wings, and a steel muzzle over its mouth, leapt onto the field, before extending its wings and rising into the air, heedless of obstacles as it smashed the surrounding walls, furniture, and ceiling, while crying through its muzzle with a demonic cry.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Gryphon / DARK / Level 8 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / _ATK 2500_ / DEF 1500 **

The last pair of Dream Seer and Line Walker rose into the air, transforming into twin streams of dark purple light before draining into a bright Xyz Galaxy as Yuu performed a final summon chant.

 ** _"Awaken from your tortured slumber to drag other souls into the earth for extreme and unrelenting punishment! XYZ SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Rank four! Jibaku Kairei Geo Ogre!"_**

The Xyz Galaxy exploded in a burst of multi-colored light, leaving a hole in the ground through which in immense humanoid giant with a pitch-black body, deep indigo markings over its body, and thick manacles and chains binding its elephantine legs, slowly rose up, lumpy head brushing the tall ceiling. The creature's head and left arm were bound by a broken stock, while its right arm had broken free of the stock to wield an immense steel truncheon with spikes on the end. Glowing indigo face markings twisted in pain and rage, the creature reared back its head before bellowing so loudly that the room shook.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Ogre / DARK / Rank 4 / Fiend / Xyz / Effect / _ATK 2000_ / DEF 2000 **

Yuya and Yuto looked up at the three immense monsters Yuu had summoned all at once. Even in their last turn, they had had to use multiple cards, summons, and effects in order to bring out the army of monsters they controlled. This Dark Signer they faced, by contrast, had effortlessly summoned the army he controlled with only moderate effort and resources.

 _"Monochrome Magician and Spectrum Magician."_ Yuu mused, examining Yuya and Yuto's cards. _"A very powerful combination while they remain together, utterly useless if any one of them is alone. Not unlike The Destroyer's bond with The Creator. Appropriate that their combined power should create a new universal essence to reflect their relationship, yet highly ironic that the bond should be destroyed so easily."_

He stretched his hand towards his monsters.

 _"Jibaku Kairei Geo Ogre no kouka hasudo!"_ Yuu declared, _"Once per turn, I can detach one Overlay Unit from my monster in order to target one card on the field and destroy it. I choose to destroy Monochrome Magician. Dark Skin Flailing!"_

Geo Ogre absorbed one of its Overlay Units into its spiked truncheon before roaring and charging towards Yuya and Yuto's Monochrome Magician, immense legs thundering across the ground.

Reacting quickly, Yuya and Yuto leaped into the air, dashing across platforms before finding an Action Card.

 _"Action Magic, Runaway Effect!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, _"We negate Geo Ogre's effects and inflict five-hundred damage to your life points!"_

Sergey's body stood completely still, an amused smile on its face as Yuu smirked at them with Sergey's features.

 _"An Action Card to evade a negative effect. A Predictable counter, Sakaki Yuya and Oshiro Yuto."_ Yuu smugly replied, _"Jibaku Kairei Geo Ogre's second effect! If my opponent activates a Magic or Trap Card during my turn, I can detach one Overlay Unit from Geo Ogre in order to destroy as many Magic and Trap Cards my opponent controls as possible while inflicting eight-hundred to their damage for every Magic and Trap Card destroyed with this effect. Rampaging Scourge!"_

Roaring, Geo Ogre absorbed its last Overlay Unit into its truncheon before slamming the weapon into the ground, sending a wave of indigo energy into Yuya and Yuto's field.

"Counter Trap!" Yuto declared, taking control of Yuya's body. "The Phantom Knights of Forgotten Vows! If one or more Magic or Trap Cards we control would be destroyed by a card effect, we can Special Summon up to two 'Phantom Knights' monsters from our deck! Monsters summoned by this effect cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect this turn! Using this effect, I summon The Phantom Knights of Cloven Helm from our deck! Come forth!"

From the image of the trap card, which depicted a circle of armored skeletons surrounding a shattered table of stone, broken swords and weapons sticking out of the stone, Yuto's monster, a ghost wearing a cracked helmet, rose up before settling down in front of Yuya and Yuto, gauntleted hands stretched out protectively.

 **The Phantom Knights of Cloven Helm / DARK / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1500 / _DEF 500_**

 _"An interesting response."_ Yuu mused, scratching Sergey's chin. _"You've provided yourself a defensive monster for later, but have not managed to counter my Geo Ogre's effects. I wonder how you will evade the effect damage. Another Action Card, perhaps?"_

The wall of indigo energy slammed into Yuya and Yuto's field, obliterating Monochrome Magician, Spectrum Magician, their face-down Entermate Call, and the face-up The Phantom Knights of Forgotten Vows, obliterating all of them.

Yuya took control this time, reacting just in time.

"Entermate Rain Goat's effect!" Yuya declared, "I discard it in order to negate the effect damage!"

The goat-shaped raincoat appeared in front of Yuya and Yuto again, absorbing most of the shock from the attack before Yuya and Yuto finally got knocked off their platform, unbalanced but undamaged. On the other side of the field, the effect of Yuya and Yuto's action card went through, zapping Geo Ogre and Sergey/Yuu with electricity and causing the giant to stumble back while Yuu held Sergey's body completely still, expression showing absolutely no concern or annoyance.

 **Yuu Hashimoto: 2000 – 500 = 1500 LP**

"Battle." Yuu continued, stretching his hand towards his monsters. "Earthbound Disciple Geo Ogre, attack Karma Paladin."

Yuya and Yuto raised their eyebrows at this, wondering if Yuu was going to run for an Action Card to help his Geo Ogre overcome Karma Paladin's higher ATK. However, Yuu just had Sergey's body stand still. Obediently, Geo Ogre tromped forward, truncheon raised above its head as it prepared to smash Karma Paladin. Karma Paladin skillfully dodged the blow from the monster before leaping onto the creature's lowered arm and running up onto its shoulder and stabbing his blades into the creature's head, destroying it.

"Karma Paladin's effect!" Yuya declared, "Since a monster was destroyed, I banish Distortion from my graveyard in order to gain one-thousand life points.

 **Yuya: 1100 + 1000 = 2100 LP**

The outcome of the battle was good for Yuya and Yuto, but it left Yuya completely confused. Yuu could have attacked with his Geo Kraken, but instead, he had wasted his Geo Ogre in a pointless battle, not even attempting to defend it with an Action Card.

 _"He hasn't taken any damage."_ Yuto whispered, pointing in the direction of Sergey, whose holographic indicator, sure enough, showed their life points at 1500.

 _"When Earthbound Prisoner Dream Seer is used as a material for the summon of an 'Earthbound' monster, I take no damage from battles involving that monster."_ Yuu calmly explained. _"Of course, you're all probably still wondering why I would have needlessly sacrificed my Geo Ogre. The answer is, I didn't. Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon's effect! If an 'Earthbound' monster I control is destroyed, I can target one monster my opponent controls and destroy it! Earthbound Disciple Geo Gryphon, destroy Enlightenment Paladin!"_

Yuya and Yuto ran for an Action Card, leaping onto a platform, however, Geo Gryphon swooped in too quickly, snake-like tail lashing against their body and knocking them aside before the immense gryphon tackled Enlightenment Paladin to the ground and sliced open the paladin's neck with one of its razor-sharp talons, causing the monster to groan before exploding in a cloud of dust.

"Reincarnation Paladin's effect!" Yuto declared, swapping places with Yuya. "If a monster we control is destroyed, we can detach one Overlay Unit from Reincarnation Paladin in order to Special Summon one monster from our deck with the same type, attribute, and level as the destroyed monster. Come forth! The Phantom Knights of Compassionate Necromancer!"

Crossing his scimitars together, Reincarnation Paladin absorbed an overly unit into the blades before stabbing them into the ground and withdrawing the blades, causing a black lotus flower to blossom from the hole he created. The lotus rapidly expanded in size before opening up, revealing Yuto's monster in the center. Unlike Yuto's other monsters, Compassionate Necromancer was a fully living woman draped in midnight-black robes with skull talismans adorning the shoulders, neckline, waist, and cuffs. An onyx-black hood and veil was draped over the woman's head, obscuring a bejeweled crown adorning her forehead. Heavy black makeup covered her lips and eyelids, contrasting with her deathly pale skin. In her hands, she held a cracked human skull, which she raised to her mouth, silently brushing its forehead with her lips.

 **The Phantom Knights of Compassionate Necromancer / DARK / Level 8 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 2000 / _DEF 2800_ **

Yuya nodded his head in approval. In defense position, this new Phantom Knights monster had enough power to block even Geo Kraken.

Yuu, however, did not look impressed.

 _"Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon, attack Karma Paladin."_ He commanded, voice as cold as steel.

Yuya and Yuto instantly knew what Yuu was planning. Geo Gryphon and Karma Paladin both had equal ATK. If the attack succeeded, then not only would Yuu trade one of his monsters for one of their monsters, but Yuu would get to knock out another of their monsters with Geo Gryphon's effect. Wordlessly, Yuya and Yuto charged for another Action Card, this time, managing to snag the one they had seen earlier, before Geo Gryphon could reach their monster.

 _"Action Magic, High Dive!"_ Yuya and Yuto declared in unison, slamming down the Action Card, _"Karma Paladin gains one-thousand ATK!"_

Yuu audibly sighed, closing Sergey's glowing eyes in what looked like exasperation.

 _"Earthbound Prison's effect."_ Yuu replied, _"Any effect that would change ATK is negated."_

Mouths hanging open, Yuya and Yuto could only watch as their action card uselessly exploded into a cloud of dust before Geo Gryphon collided into Karma Paladin, actually bisecting the tall knightly magician with the force of its impact. Karma Paladin exploded in a burst of gold dust with a horrified scream, however, when Geo Gryphon landed on its feet, Yuya and Yuto could see that it had not escaped the battle unscathed. Both of Karma Paladin's Talwar were sticking out of its side, causing the demonic gryphon to scream through its muzzle in pain before it too exploded in a cloud of dust.

 _"Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon no kouka hasudo!"_ Yuu declared, raising his hand to point toward Reincarnation Paladin before the ghostly phantasmal form of Geo Gryphan materialized before charging forward with a shriek and tackling Reincarnation Paladin to the ground, destroying the last of Yuya and Yuto's paladins.

 _"Ekay! Jibaku Kairei Geo Kraken! Attack and destroy Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_ Yuu roared as the immense demonic squid whipped out outs tentacles, preparing to crush Odd-Eyes.

"NO!" Yuya roared, taking control, determined to not let Yuu destroy his ace monster. Together, he and Yuto charged towards another Action Card and grabbing it. However, when they looked at it, they suddenly froze.

Flight, an effect that could have saved Odd-Eyes, were it not for Earthbound Prison.

Off to the side, Odd-Eyes roared in fury, trying to keep the encroaching tentacles at bay.

 _"Did you find anything useful this time?"_ Yuu sarcastically inquired, noticing Yuya and Yuto's crestfallen expressions.

 _"No?"_ he asked, when they didn't respond. _"Well then…"_ he continued with a shrug, casually strolling over to a nearby platform and snagging an Action Card from its top. The second he grabbed it, a thick black ooze suddenly leaked from the tips of Sergey's fingers, covering the card before dripping away, leaving the action card slightly blackened, _"Why don't I show you how a true god duels?"_

He held up the Action Card, looking pleased.

"Action Magic! Flight!" Yuya shouted, desperately activating the card just to get rid of it before he and Yuto began searching for another card.

 _"Earthbound Prison's effect."_ Yuu casually replied as his field spell negated the card's effects. _"And while we're on the subject of action cards, Action Magic, Earthbound Punishment! If an Earthbound Monster I control attacks an opponent's monster, the effects of the monster it is battling are negated and any damage you take from that battle is tripled. Furthermore, cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this card if my life points are two-thousand or less!"_

Immense ghostly tentacles slammed into Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, crushing flesh and shocking the dragon with electricity before the dragon exploded in a cloud of dust with a cry of pain. With a roar, Geo Kraken lashed out at Yuya and Yuto with another pair of tentacles, smashing them and shocking them before they fell to the ground with a groan.

 **Yuya/Yuto: 2100 – (300 X 3) = 1200 LP**

 _"Jibaku Kairei Geo Kraken no kouka hasudo!"_ Yuu commanded, _"Thanks to its renewed power, Geo Kraken now has the power to Special Summon a monster it destroys as a result of battle in face-up defense position. Revive! Dragon with the beautiful heterochromatic eyes and son of my enemy! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_

Shocked, Yuya watched with confusion and growing unease as Geo Kraken created a circle with four of its tentacles, a blue portal forming in the center of them before it reached in with two more of its tentacles, pulling Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon back onto the field.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 2500 / _DEF 2000_ **

Odd-Eyes roared in rage, thrashing against the tentacles holding it fast against the ground.

 _"Don't be so indignant."_ Yuu whispered to the dragon, a look of contempt on Sergey's face. _"Even if you can't remember everything, you should know about the horrors and destruction you unleashed in your past life. Consider this payment of punitive damages, and, coincidentally, the end of your masters. JIBAKU KAIREI GEO KRAKEN NO KOUKA HASUDO! During my turn, if a monster is Special Summoned to my opponent's field, Geo Kraken can destroy all monsters that were Special Summoned this turn and inflict eight-hundred damage to my opponent's life points for each monster destroyed!"_

Crying out in shock, Yuya and Yuto didn't even have a chance to run for an Action Card before Geo Kraken launched out its tentacles, obliterating Yuto's Necromancer and Yuya's Odd-Eyes with a pulse of electrified tentacles before another pair of tentacles slammed into them, launching the two of them through a wall.

There was a crash on the other side.

Then…silence.

Yuu silently strode forward in Sergey's body, muttering to himself.

 _"No awakening."_ He mused. _"Just like with the girls. I was hoping he would at least put up a greater fight. What on earth is it going to take to fully draw out those gods? The threat of death clearly isn't enough. Not even outright killing them is enough."_

He used Sergey's immense arms to knock down the wall Yuya and Yuto had been thrown through before strolling into the room.

 _"But no matter. At this point, the only thing left to be done is…"_

He paused mid-sentence.

 **Yuya/Yuto: 400 LP**

The two incarnations were lying motionless on the ground in front of him, both of them barely conscious, not even able to move, much less duel.

 _"The destroyer did not awaken."_ Yuu muttered to himself. _"And these two incarnations certainly didn't counter the effect. So how are they-…"_

He trailed off, a scowl coming to his face before he slowly turned Sergey's immense body around.

 _"Right."_ He sighed, glaring down at Aleisha, who stared up at him, an indignant expression on her face, despite her slight trembling. "You're _here. I'm assuming you decided to save them?"_

"Before the damage went through…" Aleisha growled, voice somewhat tremulous. "…I activated the Action Card, Life Crystal, giving them eight-hundred life points."

Yuu closed his eyes, breathing in deeply through Sergey's nose before opening his eyes.

 _"I'm just a little confused, Aleisha."_ He said, voice rumbling slightly, despite his attempts to maintain a calm tone. _"If I recall correctly, your master gave you specific instructions to remove the Destroyer. Isn't saving him a little counterproductive to your goals, hmmm?"_

"Not if you were going to resurrect him as a Dark Signer!" Aleisha spat. "Besides, this was _my_ mission! _My_ duty! _My_ promise to Carly! _I_ will defeat the destroyer! Not you and not anyone else!"

Yuu stared down at her, folding Sergey's immense arms behind his back.

 _"I'll deal with you soon, Aleisha."_ He promised.

A groan escaped Yuya and Yuto's lips, catching Yuu's attention.

 _"Quit your whining."_ Yuu snarled, lashing out with Sergey's leg and kicking Yuya and Yuto's shared body into the air like a football, causing them to scream in agony before crashing into the wall on the other side.

He turned towards Aleisha, ignoring Yuya and Yuto's growing unified screams of agony.

 _"It's funny. I had planned to spare you, Aleisha."_ He told her, eyes burning with multi-colored light. _"I_ did _spare you, the last time we fought, even though I_ knew _you'd cause me trouble down the line if Jack and I didn't completely wipe out Carly's cult. I guess some feelings just make humans defy all logic."_

Aleisha backed away, eyes locked on Sergey's looming form, looking utterly terrified but not daring to look away or flee.

 _"But I don't think I'm even close to human now."_ He mused, _"I can't feel_ anything _for you. Strange. I was very hesitant, back when I first turned. Most Dark Signers are, I've noticed. But that's slowly changed. I suppose I really ought to thank you, Aleisha. You've proven to me that if destroying you can make me feel nothing, then perhaps there will be no hesitation from me when the time comes for even greater sacrifice."_

He revealed a single card in his hand, as Aleisha backed away, a faint whimper escaping her lips.

 _"Magic Card, Earthbound Cycle, hasudo."_ Yuu declared, spiral mark on Sergey's chest exploding with light before the same multi-colored symbol, but much larger and more stylized, appeared behind him, spinning slowly in the air. _"At the end of the Battle Phase of either player's turn, if I control an active 'Earthbound' Field Magic Card and have less than two-thousand life points, I can select one player that took Battle Damage this turn in order to halve that player's life points, and if I do, until the end of this turn, that player takes no damage. Naturally, I'm applying this effect to the incarnations."_

A wave of multi-colored energy exploded out from Yuu, slamming into Yuya and Yuto's writhing body as their screams intensified.

 **Yuya/Yuto: 400 / 2 = 200 LP**

 _"If this is done."_ Yuu continued, _"I can Special Summon any number of my banished Earthbound Monsters before making it so that the turn player can conduct a second Battle Phase."_

From the depths of the spiral mark, Geo Gryphon and Geo Ogre emerged before reentering the duel field just behind Yuu.

 **Earthbound Disciple Geo Gryphon / DARK / Level 8 / Fiend / Synchro / Effect / _ATK 2500_ / DEF 1500 **

**Earthbound Disciple Geo Ogre / DARK / Rank 4 / Fiend / Xyz / Effect / _ATK 2000_ / DEF 2000 **

_"Battle."_ Yuu coldly declared. _"Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken, attack Fortune Lady Destiny!"_

Geo Kraken lashed out its tentacles, preparing to engage Fortune Lady Destiny, who drew her bow back, preparing to release a golden arrow against the demonic monster. Desperately, Aleisha dashed towards an action card, determined to save her monster, however, the second she was about to reach the Action Card, Yuu had launched Sergey's body forward with immense velocity, a pair of rocket jets beneath the man's calves propelling him, before knocking Aleisha away with an immense hand, grabbing the Action Card, transforming it, and activating it.

 _"Action Magic! Earthbound Rampage!"_ Yuu declared, _"Until the end of this turn, attacking 'Earthbound' monsters I control are unaffected by and cannot be targeted by my opponent's card effects and cannot be destroyed by battle! Furthermore, if they attack a defense position monster, they inflict piercing damage!"_

Fortune Lady Destiny loosed an arrow against Geo Kraken, but the golden projectile shattered against the demonic squid's body as if it were made of dust. Geo Kraken's tentacles wrapped around the squirming witch, before squeezing hard and pulsing with electricity, destroying her.

 _"Ekay! Jibaku Kairei Geo Ogre! Direct Attack!"_ Yuu roared, pointing at Aleisha's before the demonic giant rumbled forward with a guttural roar, swinging its truncheon over its head preparing to smash Aleisha.

"FORTUNE LADY FORESIGHT'S GRAVEYARD EFFECT!" Aleisha screamed, stretching her hand forward and conjuring a black graveyard portal. "Since I'm being attacked directly, I Special Summon Foresight from my graveyard by banishing Poison Darts!"

Fortune Lady Foresight leaped onto the field in front of Geo Ogre, arms protectively stretched outwards in front of Aleisha as she glared up at the giant, causing Geo Ogre to glare back with confusion.

 **Fortune Lady Foresight / LIGHT / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 1500 / _DEF 1500_**

 _"But your monster will be banished once removed from the field."_ Yuu sighed, pointing towards Aleisha's teal-haired witch before Geo Ogre grunted and slammed down its truncheon, obliterating foresight and knocking Aleisha through the air before she landed on her back with a shrill scream.

 **Aleisha: 2300 - 500 = 1800 LP**

 _"Goodbye, Aleisha."_ Yuu coldly continued, stretching his hand towards his Gryphon. _"Ekay! Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon! Direct Attack!"_

Aleisha managed to raise her head from the floor, eyes wide with terror as the demonic gryphon charged forward with a demonic roar, corkscrewing through the air as it prepared to finish her off.

Then, the entire room exploded in pitch-black shadow.

Yuu raised one of Sergey's eyebrows, looking curious.

 **"ACTION MAGIC CARD!"** A booming demonic voice roared, **"SELECTION OF MIRACLE! THE DAMAGE IS HALVED!"**

Acid green light flooded the room, revealing the body of Yuya and Yuto, but stronger and more powerful-looking, with all its previous wounds gone from it, standing in front of a struggling Geo Gryphon, who was pinned to the ground by one of the speaker's powerful hands. Deep black shadows emanated from the figure, rising up and forming into the silhouette of a green-eyed dragon, which stared down at the Earthbound monster and Yuu with pure hatred.

 **Aleisha Claire: 1800 – (2500 / 2) = 550 LP**

A small grin crept along Sergey's lips as Yuu smiled.

 _"So, you_ did _decide to awaken."_ Yuu mused, _"Or at least…a shadow of you. What finally did it, I wonder? Was it the pain? Or could you have perhaps heard the damsel's cry for help and gallantly awakened to save her, Kamiya Zarc?"_

 **"The life of this mortal means nothing to me."** Zarc replied, eyes burning with yellow light behind the face of Yuya. **"I disrupted your little victory lap for my own reasons. None but the Supreme King may kill the prey he has deigned to hunt and you both…"** He continued, a whirlwind billowing out from the shadows oozing from him, shattering glass and causing cracks to appear in the walls and ceiling as he pointed towards both Yuu and Aleisha, **"…have earned my ire! Be honored!"** he roared, raising his duel disk into the air, **"You face Zarc! The undisputed Supreme King of Existence and God of Destruction!"**

 _"Took you long enough."_ Yuu smirked. _"Let's see what you're capable of. Setting three cards face-down! Furthermore, during my End Phase, the new effect of Jibaku Kairei Geo Gryphon activates! Since a monster was destroyed by its own effect this turn, I can add one card from my deck to my hand!"_

A card popped out of Yuu's deck before the Dark Signer added it to his hand, a confident smile on his face.

 _"I add Earthbound Warden Demon Flogger from my deck to my hand."_ Yuu declared. _"Now our battle can continue in ernest! Turn end!"_

 **I promise to do descriptions of OCs and Fan Cards in the next chapter! For now, just assume that most of the characters were ones I created and that the characters have been fairly accurate when it comes to describing their card effects. Now, on to your reviews from the last chapter.**

Epsilon Tarantula chapter 33 . Jul 4

Let's do a play-by-play of our cast! Ichiro, please, comment!

Ichiro: Starting off this chapter is Yugo, who has defeated another pointless Duel Chaser on a hormonal rampage to find Rin! Except since she's dead, there ARE no more hormones! And now, in comes filler-character Bandit! An enormous distraction besides showing off Hamon Strike Teams and paying homage to Bandit Keith! The duel is POINTLESS!

(Realizes that he should probably get another announcer character based off of the other veteran SASUKE announcer, Keisuke Hatsuta, for Ichiro to bounce stuff off of. Hmm...Keisuke Furatachi...I think I could get away with such a name)

Ichiro: Next is Selena Fujiki!

Me: DON'T SPOIL BETA NEURONS!

Ichiro (Ignoring me): Selena is having trouble with the kitten! Oh! She's launching the kitten! And has used the kitten to defeat the Obelisk Force! And now, BARRETT is here! And Selena side-decks for more defensive options in the (Reads the review responses ahead) area where her archetype is solely lacking! The duel...is not commencing yet! But it is a RIDING DUEL!

Ichiro: Now we have Yuri Fujiki!

Me: ...You're just going to explain that...

Ichiro: He is taking a nap! Truly, he is a lazy oaf with sarcasm and biting wit! Far superior to that strange dorky counterpart in that alternate reality that sent Akato flying into TV Tropes!

Akato: HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!

Ichiro: Now he is dueling a robot! And is defeating the robot with more than the Biting Wit! And his dragon is hungry! Just like the Starve Venom from our reality!

Kurose: HOW IS HE FIGURING OUT PLOT POINTS?!

Ichiro: His eyes apparently mirror a Dragon's because of Starve Venom! But he has not beaten the robot!

Ichiro: Next is Yuya Sakaki! He has managed to beat security! And the prisoner is revealed to be Aleisha Claire! ...Who is a Dark Disciple and is rather insane! She is using Fortune Ladies for reasons that are likely only found out in Phoenix Guard Origins! Yuya is on the ropes, and Aleisha knows of ZARC! Carly once predicted of the destruction that would follow! Yuya isn't collapsing though, he's fighting! FIGHT, FIGHT ON YUYA! Do not let the Jibakushin into your soul! Or Yuto's!

Me: Entertaining duel on that note...though I am now terrified of Carly. Thanks a lot, Don.

Ichiro: Finally, it is Sergey Volkov! He is giving an art critique of his duel and is therefore doing my job for me! His critique is splendid!

JAS: And has earned the favor of us Akmas. We shall see to it that Sergey is returned to his mind as he is one with a skin that is neither steel or flesh.

Ichiro: Roger's control is gone! The next part is coming!

...Why did I let the announcer from Omen handle the review for me? But yeah, those are my thoughts. And my comment on Akato was making sure that his presence is homogeneous across the realities of fanfiction. Can't have him be too different from each other. I can assure you as well, that Omen is filled with madmen and women with no easy backstory.

Theodore: Capitalism is bad!  
Camellia: My sword needs blood, blood, and more blood.  
Moetsu: KILL ZARC, KILL ZARC, KILL ZARC  
Kurose: Power...need more...poison...  
Houkotsu: We must create a new era of the strong!  
Oliver: Curse...you...ALICE! STEPHAN!

...Or maybe not.

8.9/10. Keep it up Don!

 **WHAT!? AN 8.9 OUT OF 10!? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! FOR THAT, YOUR AMAZING STORIES WILL GET NO RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ME!**

 **Everyone! Listen up! Whatever you do, DO NOT read "Garage Kids" OR "Omen of Uncertainty" by Epsilon Tarantula! Do not let his clean and precise writing enthrall you! DON'T follow his stories for the intriguing original characters, novel settings, OR gripping plot! TAKE THAT, EPSILON! Maybe next time you'll think to give me the 11 of 10 I deserve!**

 **On a side note, as this chapter has probably shown, Arc-V characters who had no last names DO have last names in this story. I'll let you all decide what this means, if anything, but, spoiler alert, Yuri's surname IS Fujiki. Not Selena's, however. They're not siblings.**

 **Thank you for the review!**

ThePLOThand chapter 1 . Jul 4

(can't read it yet due to my next to read list having around 20 fics before this one, but here's a mini pre-review or however you wanna call)  
Will we get corruped Gemini's e.g. Dark Twin monsters?  
And I am ALWAYS PC!  
It means Personal Computer right?  
Did I just confess I was a Computer?  
DO NOT BE ROBOPHOBIC!  
Hail Konrad Zuse!

PS: what about Epsilon Tarantula? He thinks Ibuki is awesome, so it must be the universal truth!

 **A preview review? A PREVIEW REVIEW!? What the heck is this! I'm not responding to this!**

 **"Will we get Dark Twins?"**

 **…probably? But "Dark Doppelganger" would sound more sinister.**

Royal2 chapter 33 . Jul 4

I never said that, you know what I can't get this thought your thick head of yours good chapter man can't wait for the next one

 **I can't even remember what it was you said…or who I am…or what I'm doing here…**

 **SQUIRREL!**

bladeWriter3 chapter 33 . Jul 4

Hitotsu: Ah, I just love seeing my hard work put to good use. Those Duels are going to be epic. And now I'll share my thoughts based on each segement.

Yuugo Shoukan: Well here's hoping his quest to find Rin actually goes somewhere compared to the anime. I like Bandit's personality and how she gambles, but always makes sure she's gonna win. Yugo's Luck is gonna have to be ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS to deal with the coin toss rigger over there.

Tsukineko-chan: First of all, Moonlight Kitten is quiznaking adorable! Seeing here face Academia is rather symbolic, as now, unlike the actual cannon, she's going up against people she knew, and will have to overcome them if she doesn't wanna be dragged back. Sort of interested in her connection that Obelisk Mook Evie, and hyped to see her crush her Cyclops Ex-Bodyguard. And as for your feelings regarding her skill... no comment.

Cabbage Patch: Oh the artificial humanity! Honestly, Yuri has the easy match here facing off against that walking ATM. Frankly, after seeing you use the parody, love happy Starve Venom, I was very creeped out by the whispering, that's gonna follow me for a while.

Tomato Egaoplant: Nice to see Yuto actually acting like the Spirit Partner instead of someone the Arc V writers couldn't care for. Aleisha using the Fortunate Ladies is actually heartwarming on two accounts. 1) Meta reasons, and 2) It shows how close she and Carly were, to the point that when Carly died, she trusted Aleisha with her Deck. The debut of Dark Rite Summoning was terrifying, and seeing Yuya work to try and overcome his opponent's claims with his Entertainment Dueling and VERY powerful Pendulums that are VERY balanced because of their restrictions.

YGO!Terminator: Well, Segery's perspective was terrifying and a well described way of how he sees the world. Specially the part when he seems so disgusted by Roger. I do hope at some point in the near future, someone turns Sergey's 'utsukushii' destruction against him And the part about him being destruction's lover...

Zarc: STOP RIGHT THERE! I may the omnicidal Anti-Christ here, but even I find him disgusting!

Futatsu: FINALLY! Everyone else gets screen time. Or page time? Doesn't matter they all get some focus. And I wonder who else will be appearing in part two...

No I'm not. I KNOW who's gonna rear his crazy head next time!

Mitsu: I have gotta stop doing my reviews Yusaku style, and I have forgotten what else I wanted to say so I'll end here.

Reward: One sadomasochistic Duel Cyborg.

Sergey: UTSUKUSHII!

 **Response to Yugo and Bandit's duel: Glad you like Bandit. She's one of my favorite OCs as well. In fact, Bango (Bandit X Yugo) is the official "SoR" ship!**

 **Dark Signer Rin: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! *Destroys half the universe***

 **Response to Saving Private Barrett vs. Sailor Selena: GIVE ME SOME FAN ART OF MOONLIGHT KITTEN! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! I-I'VE SEEN YOU DO THE FAN ART OF YOUR OC BRACELET GIRLS! I-I I NEED THAT FAN ART! I WON'T STOP STUTTERING UNTIL YOU GIVE IT TO ME! I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I- I-I-I-!**

 **Response to Yuri vs. Gurren _Lame_ -an: Just wait. Starve Venom gets better. Also, did any of your REALLY think that I would use Starve Venom from "Venom's Quest" in this? That would be like me using Abridged Aoi in a serious Vrains Fanfic, which may or may not come out. **

**Aoi: Aoi would be fine with this.**

 **Response to Yuya/Yuto vs. Aleisha: Yeah, Carly "entrusted" Aleisha with her deck.**

 **After Jack and Carly's epic beyond epic battle.**

 **Jack: *Holding Carly in his arms, tears in his eyes* You did it, Carly. You won.**

 **Carly: *slowly shutting down as her animating magic fades* Thank you for saving me…Jack. I'm…I'm sorry I couldn't create our bright future.**

 **Jack: Stay with me, Carly.**

 **Carly: *holds Jack close***

 **Aleisha: *Watching from the sidelines* Sooooooooooooooo…does this mean I can loot your deck now?**

 **Carly: Aleisha, we're having a moment!**

 **Aleisha: I know…but…I'm just saying, since, well, you're technically not going to be able to use it…can I just…?**

 **Jack: Get out of here!**

 **Aleisha: Ok! Ok! *Withdraws a few paces* So…is she dead yet?**

 **Carly: OH TAKE THE FREAKING DECK! JUST LEAVE US ALONE! *Chucks the deck at Aleisha***

 **AND THAT'S HOW IT HAPPENED!**

 **Response to Mr. Sergey Man: Sergey's a very Sergey person.**

LilUsagi chapter 33 . Jul 4

What? Part 1 is already at the end?! It felt way too short!  
Anyway, really good work, I can't wait for the next part  
Hope the update will be soon~

 **"Soon" is a relative term, like "time" or "update" or "Chapter." It could mean "Eventually" or "possibly" or, "in about one month like usual."**

ScalchopWarrior chapter 33 . Jul 4

AY A NEW CHAPTER!

Before I get into this, I must say

HOW DARE YOU UPDATE THIS CHAPTER JUST AS I'M GETTING READY TO GO TO BED SO I CAN'T READ IT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE I NEED SLEEP EVEN THOUGH SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK, I AM WEAK SO I NEED SLEEP! THUS I HAD TO GO TO BED AND THE NEXT MORNING I WAS BUSY AND COULDN'T READY THIS RIGHT AWAY MY GOD HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?

Anyway, this was a very good chapter as always! More...card games and plot games. I suppose maybe hopefully probably likely I think?

TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE DUELS YAY

Yugo vs Duel Chaser 429 - HA JK I'M NOT GONNA EVEN SAY A WORD ABOUT THIS DUEL AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME SINCE I DON'T CARE ABOUT DUEL CHASE 429, UNPOPULAR OPINION, I KNOW

Yugo vs Bandit - Oh boy. Oh boy. OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY! This duel was…a duel. Okay, that made it sound like I didn't like the duel, which is COMPLETELY NOT NOT NOT TRUE! I actually enjoyed this duel. A lot. Yugo's doing his usual Speedroid shenanigans and Bandit has DESPACITO BARREL DRAGON and is from AMERICA. I need to ask though, did you post this specifically today because there was an American duelist in this chapter and today is the day America turned mentally 18 and left for collage?

Okay, to be serious now (a horrifying though, I know), it was a very good and entertaining duel (from what we've seen so far). Nice that Yugo isn't the only one getting those MAD GAINS from luck based cards (even though Bandit has to be SMART and play cards that will be beneficial (ugh, disgusting) and remove the random element from the card game.)

Serena vs Obelisk Force - Screw what everyone else says, I'ma calling her Serena! This duel also happened. My favorite part was that part when Serena summoned a big monster and hit things until they died. Also Lunalight (ha I'm a dirty dub watcher) Pendulums are awesome and I want Lunalight Kitten to be real so I can stroke it gently and be banned from existence

Barrett vs Serena - Well…it didn't happen yet. How am I supposed to give my opinion? What are you trying to do? Huh? Huh? HUH?

Yuri vs Gamma 626 - Oh boy Meklords. They're certainly…a deck. (You know, I do that whole "They're certainly…a(n) x" thing way too often. I should stop). And Predaplants are my jam (among other various jams and jellies in my card game pantry. I really should try and hire someone to fix my card game pantry, because the door is broken right now and I can only access half the contents and…what was I talking about?) Also extremely disappointed in Starve Venom, how dare he speak without being hilarious.

Yuya vs Arrest Corps - TREASON DISCHARGE! TREASON DISCHARGE!

Yuya vs Aleisha - WAIT YOU'RE USING FORTUNE LADIES YOU ABSOLUTE TRUCKING MADMAN? Anyway, new Dark technique which is…awesome honestly. I actually like Dark Rite more than the other techniques so far, so that's nice I guess. Yuya gets to Pendulum Shokan and have fun that is only beginning which is cool. Remember that time he got muzzled by Security? I don't. I never don't. *shudders so much that shutters shudder*

NOW I'MA GONNA REACT TO YOUR REACTIONS! THIS IS GETTING PRETTY META HUH?

I've never actually seen that viewpoint on Yugo and Serena, so that's nice. It makes a lot of sense and…I like Serena and she makes up 1/4 my waifu shelf so shaddup. And you should know…my waifu shelf is pretty darn big.

Dennis being a leprechaun is now my personal head-canon, and no one can ever take that away. Not even you. *gets close and whispers in ear* Not. Even. You. *lathers ear in ketchup*

You know, I WOULD submit an OC…but…I'm too…you know I'm just…you know?

Yeah, there's nothing stopping me and I might. But maybe probably definitely certainly never ever dever beaver swear-upon-my-other-waifu-Ruri almost certainly post an OC…at some point maybe.

I just have no faith in my skills as a creator lol XD I'ma silly author wooooooo

Honestly, I don't actually think you have too many OCs, especially considering that you requested OCs, so it's kinda expected. Plus, even then, you bring them to life so well that it's never been a problem to me when I watch…watch? What am I watching? I meant read…I MEANT READ

Deep Subconsious Thoughts that may or may not be an evil side from the Shadow Realm: She just wants Signs of Renewal the anime

YOU SHUT UP YOU SUBCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS! NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU ANYWAY!

THAT ISN'T FUNNY, DON! IT'S NEVER BEEN FUNNY!

WAIT DID YOU JUST SAY ZEXAL SHUN IS CANON!?

Oh my god, I've never known I needed something so bad that I didn't have until now.

DONJUSTICA THE AUTHOR-SENPAI IS STILL GONE HA! CLEAN THOUST EARS OF THY EARWAX FOOLISH THOUGHT WITH A U, G, and H!

Donnnnnnnnn! I need your sage advice. So if my subconscious voices/other personas are stealing my Ben and Jerry's, even though they promised not to, do I call all of the above, the police, Ghostbusters, my mother, all of the above or some other entity of insanity?

But regardless, in all seriousness (and you know how hard that is), great work! Always keep it up, and let nothing keep you down unless you explode, in which case you can feel down all you want.

Bai bai!

HA THAT WAS A VRAINS REFERENCE I'M SO COOL

*Dabs furiously at table with napkin*

See ya!

;D

 **First off, just because I am made of delicious goodness does not mean you get to dab me with ketchup. Second, I ALSO NEED MOONLIGHT KITTEN TO BE A REAL THING! WRITER! HOW IS THAT FAN ART COMING!?**

 **I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter. Just remember, that a true lasting relationship with a waifu is based on trust, and trust means having the courage to tell your waifu that they well and truly suck at card games. Some may think my constant comedic bashing of Selena to be an indication that I have little respect for her…or am just trying to tweak my readers…but it's really because I truly care about her!**

 **Selena: *Cracking knuckles* Yeah? Say that to my face.**

Nox Descious chapter 33 . Jul 4

Blooper One:  
Yugo: OH! You speak Japanese! That's a relief! My een-gar-ish is kinda broken!  
Bandit: The only reason I learned Japanese is because American Educational System forces you to take a foreign language class, which is stupid because the only language that matters is AMERICAN! The name's bandit! First Lietenant of the Hamon Strike Teams! IN AMERICA!

Yugo: Wait... Bandit... Uh... Is your dad who I think he is? But you're from the Fusion Dimension and Bandit Keith isnt a GX Character!  
Bandit: HE'S AN AMERICAN CHARACTER and that's all that matters! IN AMERICA!  
Yugo: Oh well that's a relief becasue if it only matters in America, then it doesnt matter here because this is the Synchro Dimension, not America!

Bandit: THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS! IN AMERICA! BY THE WAY I'M ALSO YOU'RE NUMBER ONE FAN! IN AMERICA! LET ME RUN MY FINGERS THROUGH YOUR HAIR AND MAKE OUT WITH YOU! IN AMERICA!  
Yugo: Oh God... Oh sweet Lord Almighty! NOT A FAN GIRL! HELP! RIN! CLEAR WING! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!  
Bandit: RUNNING IS FUTILE! IN AMERICA!  
Yugo: STAND BACK! BACK! BACK YOU FOUL CREATURE! *Holds up a knife along with a loaf of bread, a stuck of butter and a slice of ham and cheese*

Bandit: Uhhhhh... Okay the knife i understand, but what are you going to do with all that food? Just because America has an obesity problem doesn't mean bribing me with food will work! In America!

Yugo: No you don't understand! That voice in my head that talked to me the last time I went berserk taught me this really neat trick! He said, and i quote, "If a woman is ever threatening you, hold up a knife, some bread, and various foods of your choice! Her womanly instincts will kick in, and she will make you a sammich!" Now get cracking! I like the crust cut off and for my sammich to be cut into triangles if you don't mind! Chop Chop!

Bandit: ... Okay imma beat the snot out of you in a duel now and then imma use that knife to shank you, IN AMERICA!

Blooper Two:  
Selena: MIHO! What a pleasant surprise! Congratulations on Graduating from Academia with a double major in captain obvious and being an idiot! Shame about those student loans though! They're a killer! You know what else is a killer? ME, When a whoop your sorry butt in this duel, now do you're thing White Rabbit! Use that fancy golf club mallet to return her card to her hand!

Miho: HEY WHITEY! I bet a hundred bucks you slice into the woods!  
Lunalight White Rabbit: Gambling is illegal in the Synchro Dimension, and I never slice!  
WHACK!  
SLICE!  
CRASH!  
Old Man Jenkins: DAG NABBIT! YOU ROTTEN KIDS BROKE MY WINDOW AGAIN!  
Rabbit: Ooooooooooookay! Time to take a mulligan! Second time's the charm!  
WHACK!  
SLICE!  
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!  
Barrett: SELENA! WHAT THE HECK! NOW I'VE LOST MY OTHER EYE!  
Rabbit: MY BAD! Uhhhhh Okay don't panic! I've had off days before! This time I got this!  
WHACK!  
SLICE!  
CRASH!  
MY CABBAGES!  
Selena: UHHHHHHH... Hey Rabbit, maybe I should just use Mystical Space Typhoon to get rid of Miho's card...  
Rabbit: NO SELENA! GIMME ANOTHER CHANCE! THE SUN WAS IN MY EYES! I CAN DO THIS!  
WHACK!  
BOUNCE! BOUNCE! BOUNCE! CRASH!  
*The ball ricochets all over the place dozens of times until it finally collides with something*  
Rabbit: DID I GET IT!? DID I GET IT?!  
Selena: Uhhh... you should have just quit before you did that. Look behind you!  
*Rabbit looks behind her and sees that her golf ball hit Lunalight Kitten in the face, and the poor widdle ball of floof is about to cry*  
Rabbit: Oh sweet Egyptian Gods above... What have i done?  
Lunalight Panther Dancer: AWWW SWEET LAWD ALMIGHTY! MA BABY! WHA HAPPENED?!  
Lunalight Kitty: dat bunny's a meanie! she gimme boo boo! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!  
Lunalight Panther Dancer: AWWWW HAAAAAAAAAAYEELL NAW! AW NO YOU DIDN'T?! RABBIT, I OUGHTA CLAW YO SORRY BEHIND SO BAD YOU GONNA BE POOPIN SIDEWAYS FOR HURTIN MY BABY!  
Rabbit: SELENA MADE ME DO IT! SHE TOLD ME TO USE MY EFFECT EVEN THOUGH I SUCKK AT GOLF! IT WAS HER! HER! HER HER! SHE MADE ME DO IT!  
Miho: Does this happen alot?  
Selena: More often than you think... Ugh... I hate my life...

Blooper Three:  
Me: YURI WAIT EAT A SNICKERS! You get a little psycho when you're hungry!  
*shoves a snickers bar in his mouth*  
Me: Better?  
Yuri: BETTER!  
Selena: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! YOU MEAN ALL I NEEDED TO DO TO REDEEM YURI WAS GIVE HIM SNICKERS? BUT THAT MEANS EVERYTHING I DID IN MOONLIGHT SORROW WAS COMPLETELY POINTLESS!  
Me: Well the way to a man's heart IS through his stomach, OH and by the way Venom, would you kindly read the script!  
Starve Venom: What do you mean? *reads the script* OHHHHHH Now i see the problem! My name is STARVING Venom Fusion Dragon NOT STUTTERING Venom Fusion Dragon! My bad!  
Yugo: How the heck did your dragon forget his own name?!  
Yuri: OH I DON'T KNOW! How did YOU forget what your girlfriend looks like?  
Yugo: HEY! THAT WAS ONE TIME... plus a couple dozen other times... BUT THAT'S IRRELAVENT!  
NOTE! SOR IS NOT SPONSORED BY SNICKERS! SOR IS SPONSORED BY DIET SUPER MOOK!

Blooper Four:  
Aleisha: I am the Dark Disciple, Aleisha Claire, harbinger of the will of Dark Signer Carly Sempai, who became a Dark Signer so that her own sempai Jack Atlas to notice her, and now with the unholy satanic powers of ripping off my sempai's deck to defeat the Destroyer, CARLY SEMPAI WILL NOTICE ME! NOW DUEL ME, DESTROYER! FOR I CAN SEE YOUR FUTURE!  
Yuto: Fortune Telling is Fake!  
Aleisha: HOW DARE YOU! IT IS NOT FAKE! I WILL PROVE IT TO YOU! I activate the super duper OP spell card, Fortune Lady's Magic Eight Ball!  
Yuya: You gotta be kidding me...  
Aleisha: OH SACRED MAGIC EIGHT BALL! WILL I WIN THIS DUEL! *Shake Shake Shake*  
Magic Eight Ball: Don't count on it  
Aleisha: WHAT?! THIS EIGHT BALL IS DEFECTIVE! *Shakes it even harder*  
Yuya: By the way when did Carly die? Did Donny just kill her off because he decided that bloating SOR with tons and tons of OCs is better than adding a few more canon legacy characters?  
Aleisha: Uhhhh... no she's not actually dead. She faked her death so she could leave the Yugioh Franchise altogether because her agent managed to get her a role as the main character of this other show.  
Yuya: REALLY?! What show is that?  
Aleisha: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell...

Meanwhile...  
Carly: HEY HEY HEY! WHAT'S UP INTERNET! YOUR FAVORITE DARK SIGNERS ARE IN DA HOUSE!  
Misty: I'M MISTY!  
Carly: AND I'M CARLY! AND THIS IS ICARLY

 **Blooper 1 Response: Oh come on! Everyone knows Bandit aint even really American!**

 **Bandit: *Waiving a Canadian flag* I have no idea what you're talking about! IN CANADA! I mean…IN AMERICA!**

 **Blooper 2 Response: White Rabbit's inherent insanity makes me question why Konami would give her real-life card the ability to raise the dead AND giant trunade the opponent's field.**

 **White Rabbit: THE POWER! THE ABSOLUTE POWER!**

 **And I'm impressed! You got all the moonlight characters right…except one little error. Moonlight Kitten doesn't speak English. She speaks LOL Kitten.**

 **Selena: *Coming home to find Moonlight Kitten's head poking out of a tiny shoebox.* How the heck did you even…?**

 **Kitten: If I fits I sits!**

 **Selena: Oh well, whatever. Come for dinner now!**

 **Kitten: I can haz cheeseburger?**

 **Selena: Kitten, this is Japanasia or whever we are. Say "I can haz riceballz."**

 **Kitten: I can uze lolcolizations!**

 **Blooper 3 Response: Yeah, it's a little hard to transcribe in writing what I imagine for Starve Venom's voice. Just imagine multiple voices filtered through a stuttered…I mean…staggered reverb effect.**

 **Blooper 4 Response: …**

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 **I've spent eleven years trying to scrub my brain of ICarly, and you go and RUIN IT!**

 **Thanks for traumatizing me with suppressed memories, Nox. Remind me to figure out a way to pay you back.**

ThePLOThand chapter 33 . Jul 29

If this is filler, doesn't that mean that I could skip this and nothing of value would have been missed?  
Yes, I'll read it anyway.  
Sure, some People are Evil for simple, some for very complex reasons, considering the cast size it would be a waste not to show simple- and complexminded antagonists  
Wait, Bandit is an actual name? I thought it was just a title Keith got because... well never mind  
Funfact: (Self-Promotion incoming) in chapter 13 of Arc-VRAINS I also used randomization for the Action Cards!  
HOW DARE YOU HAVE FUN BY BEING MORE JAPANESE THAN THE JAPANESE VERSION?! BEGONE FOUL WEEABOO!  
Now, onto something 'serious'; When Bandit uses Desperado Barrel Dragon's effect for the first time, she did get 3 heads already, so why did she uses Trick coin to change one of them into heads?  
Well, Yugo only summoned one single Monster in his first turn by accident, if I recall the duel correctly and he did use several Gambling Cards himself, so he can't be that much above Serena.  
Girl Obelisks? I didn't know Academia was progressive. Or perhaps they just hate the other dimensions enough to let everyone take part in their destruction.  
Now to the part where I tell you what to read because I am greedy for hilarious Reviews. (but can you blame me?)  
Please read Dueling Trigger it will take until chapter 201 until the bruta Slaughter starts and you said you weren't gonna drop Parabellum Bullet until it Shows Content worthy of being M-rated.  
Next up is Hidden Memories (bladewrite likes it), the Protagonist starts out very similar to Yusaku, but It's not to an annoying Degree and he manages to be his own thing as Bounty hunter for SOL! The only concern might be that he kinda likes the devil.  
the last one is wrath of Mammon, it also has a Bounty hunter Protagonist... but he is fighting for Hanoi!  
BGM:  
start: Battle! Gym Leader (Johto Version) - Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Music Extended  
for the Yugo fangirl: Strange People - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice Music Extended  
for the duel: Battle! Champion Iris - Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 Music Extended  
for Fusion's dicing: New Danganronpa V3 O.S.T. White - 30. DANVEGAS  
for Serena: Battle! Gym Leader (Kanto Version) - Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Music Extended  
after the duel: [Music] Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc New World Order Extended  
when Serena sees Barret: The Great Straying ~ Suspense (Version 2) - Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken Music E  
for Yuri: Harvest December- Shinzen Mondou  
for Yuri fighting the Robot: Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Ultra Recon Squad Battle Theme Remix  
for Yuya: Harvest December- Hito no Isakai  
for him learning about Zarc: Ace Attorney Confess the Truth 2016 (Custom)  
for the duel: UltraSun and UltraMoon Ultra Necrozma Battle Remix  
for Dark Rite summoning: In The Final - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Music Extended  
for their combined draw: Pursuit ~ Cornering Together - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice Music Extended  
for the power of Entertainment: 09 Swing! Pendulum of Souls  
for Sergey: Pursuit ~ Wanting to Find the Truth - Gyakuten Kenji 2 Music Extended  
(The following is something more General about my whole BGM thing I will post upon the next few Reviews on different stories.)  
If you wonder where I got this idea from, look no further than 'Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-VOC' chapter 33 the beginning author note, that one line (while I didn't do it immediately) was what inspired me to listen to Music while reading fanfiction, making many great Moments across them even greater.  
So, if anyone reading this review has time, please look at his stories, especially Cross-VRAINS his Story for the newest YGO anime.  
Also, you're always free to recommend themes to me and you can even do this BGM thing to! I don't Need this to be unique and would like to see it become a trend! But please don't just post lists, and still have something to say about the chapters, I did use to do that, but I'm doing my best to avoid it in the future (Even though there are still times where I really have nothing to say, I'll admit that

 **Bandit got TWO heads and ONE tail when she first used Desperado Barrel Dragon's effect. The reason she says "Looks like ALL THREE of them are heads!" is because, thanks to trick coin, she can change one of the results to a head, effectively making it so that it is three heads, even though the original result WASN'T three heads. Clear things up for you?**

 **Ok, so you think I should do BGMs too? Alright then. Here is the official author thoughts on good background music for the various segments.**

 **Opening: Yugo vs. the Duel chaser: Sound Duel 4, Yugo's Passionate Soul**

 **When Bandit arrives: "Doki Doki Forever"**

 **Yugo's comeback / resolve: "Make My Story" from "Boku no Hero Academia"**

 **Selena's duel: "Strike Back" from "Fairy Tale"**

 **Yuri/Starve Venom: "When Memories Break" Music Box version**

 **Yuya/Yuto: "Make my Story" Boku no Hero Academia (I love their music so much!)**

 **Aleisha: "I Can't Fix You." The Living Tombstone**

 **Aliesha Summons the Dark Rite and Dark Synchro monsters: "Battle in the Warrens" from "Darkest Dungeon"**

 **Sergey Volkov: "The music of Erich Zann" for Violin Solo 2009**

 **Yuu Hashimoto: "Requiem for a Dream" Music Box Version**

ThePLOThand chapter 8 . Jul 30

So I completely misunderstood what you said about Yuri and Sergeys backstories.  
They are not going to be simple, but they probably aren't what the vast majority would prefer either, that's what you meant, right?

 **How do you keep spamming reviews?**

 **Ok, here are the backstories.**

 **Sergey's Back Story!**

 **Yuu: So, Sergey, you wanna be evil?**

 **Sergey: HECK YEAH!**

 **Yuri's Back Story!**

 **Leo Akaba: So, Yuri, you wanna be evil?**

 **Yuri: Heck yeah!**

 **Rich, complex, full of unexpected plot twists and gripping character development. These are just some of the words I like to say out loud for no reason whatsoever.**

 **Thank you all once again for your continued support. The final part of this chapter, along with the next VRAINS Abridged chapter, are on their way. See you then.**


End file.
